Part 1 of 2
HIS love for Music operated upon him too powerfully, even while he was at Eton, for his own peace or that of his companions; for with a miserable cracked common-flute, he used to torment them night and day. When he left Eton he used to avail himself of the privilege of a servant, by borrowing a livery and going into the upper gallery of the opera, which was then appropriated to domestics.
At home he had contrived to secrete a spinet in his room, upon which, after muffling the strings with a handkerchief, he used to practise in the night while the rest of the family were asleep;* for had his father discovered how he spent his time, he would, probably, have thrown the instrument out of the window, if not the player.
This young votary of Apollo was at length obliged to serve a three years’ clerkship to the law;* but he contrived during his clerkship to acquire some instructions on the violin.
A spinet is properly speaking a small harpsichord of broadly triangular shape. The design was intended to make it cheaper, quieter, and better suited to domestic spaces. In a harpsichord, the strings stretch directly away from the player; in a virginals, they run left-to-right; in a spinet, they run left-to-right and also away at an angle of about 30°, hence the triangular shape and the name ‘bentside spinet’.
According to Greek mythology, Apollo was the musician among the gods, famous for his lyre. Apollo taught Orpheus to play so beautifully that he charmed his way through the Underworld. See Orpheus and Eurydice.
Précis
Composer Thomas Arne was destined by his father for a career in the law, but as a young boy Thomas taught himself music secretly, disguising himself as a servant to gain access to the Italian opera house in Covent Garden, learning the keyboard with a spinet smuggled into his bedroom, and studying the violin alongside his legal training. (58 / 60 words)
Part Two
SOON after he had quitted his legal master, his father accidentally calling at a gentleman’s house in the neighbourhood, upon business,* found him engaged with company; but sending in his name, he was invited up stairs, where there was a large company and a concert, in which, to his great astonishment, he caught his son in the very act of playing the first fiddle!*
No sooner was the young musician able to practise aloud in his father’s house, than he bewitched the whole family. In discovering that his sister had a very sweet-toned and touching voice,* he gave her such instructions as soon enabled her to sing for Lampe, in his opera of Amelia.*
And finding her so well received in that performance, he soon prepared a new character for her, by setting Addison’s opera of Rosamond, in which he employed his younger brother likewise in the character of the Page.* This musical drama was first performed March 7th, 1733, at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, ten nights successively, and with great applause.
Thomas Arne Sr was an upholsterer and innkeeper by trade, a very well-to-do merchant able to give his son the very best education. When some Canadian Mohawk princes visited London in 1709, in between audiences with Queen Anne and experiencing all that eighteenth century London had to offer they lodged with Mr Arne at his inn, The Crown and Cushion, in King Street, Covent Garden. See ‘Four Indian Kings In London’ at ‘American Heritage’.
Probably one of the soirées organised by Michael Festing (1705-1752), Thomas’s senior by less than five years, who had been a pupil of Richard Jones and Francesco Geminiani. Festing took Arne to musical events all over London, and taught him the violin. He later became a founder-member of the Academy of Ancient Music.
Susannah Arne subsequently became Mrs Theophilus Cibber, and was better known as Mrs Cibber in her own day. She was a soloist at the premiere of Handel’s “Messiah” in Dublin. See The Story of ‘Messiah’.
John Frederick Lampe (1703-1751) emigrated to Britain from Saxony in 1724, making a living as a bassoonist in London. He was a friend of Charles Wesley, and has left us several hymn-tunes. ‘Amelia’ was produced in 1732.
Richard Arne, who appeared with Susannah and Thomas in many of Thomas’s earlier works.
Précis
Thomas’s gift for music was finally uncovered when his father stumbled across his boy playing the violin for a chamber concert in a neighbour’s house. Once the secret was out, young Thomas was given licence to follow his passion, and a successful career followed, helped by his sister Susannah, whom Thomas had taught to sing. (55 / 60 words)