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George Onslow (composer)
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==Life== George Onslow was born in [[Clermont-Ferrand]] to an English father, [[Edward Onslow]], and a French mother, Marie Rosalie de Bourdeilles de Brantôme; his paternal grandfather was [[George Onslow, 1st Earl of Onslow]].<ref name="bickley">Bickley (n.d.)</ref> In Onslow's own brief autobiography (written in the third person) he comments that in his childhood, "music studies formed but a secondary part of his education" but names [[Jan Ladislav Dussek]] and [[Johann Baptist Cramer]] amongst his piano teachers.<ref name="niaux2004">Niaux (2004).</ref> It has been suggested that he received this tuition in London under the aegis of his grandfather the Earl.<ref name="bickley"/> However, other research indicates he may not have studied with Dussek until 1797–1798 in [[Hamburg]], where his family was living in exile after his father had become involved in counter-[[French Revolution|revolutionary]] activities in France. This research also indicates that there is no evidence to support the suggestions sometimes made that Onslow at any time visited [[Vienna]], or that he met, or studied, there with [[Ludwig van Beethoven]].<ref name="niaux2004"/> [[Image:Château de Chalendrat.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Château de Chalendrat]] Onslow states in his autobiography that his attitude to music was transformed by his experience of hearing the overture to [[Étienne Méhul]]'s opera ''[[Stratonice (opera)|Stratonice]]'' in Paris in 1801. In Onslow's own later words: "On hearing this piece, I experienced so lively an emotion in the depths of my soul that I sensed myself at once penetrated by feelings previously unknown to me; even today this moment is present in my thought. After this, I saw music with other eyes; the veil which had hidden its beauties from me was rent; it became the source of my most intimate joy, and the faithful companion of my life."<ref name="fetis90">Fétis (1841), p. 90.</ref> This led him to compose his first [[string quintet]]s (Op. 1 nos. 1–3) and [[string quartet]]s (Op. 4 nos. 1–3), although he had not at this stage received any composition tuition. These were published at his own expense; Onslow was always wealthy and did not need critical or financial support. The critic [[François-Joseph Fétis]] noted that, despite his absence of training, Onslow "had all the leisure necessary to overcome these obstacles".<ref name="bickley"/> Onslow learnt to play the [[violoncello|cello]], and would play the [[chamber music]] of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], [[Franz Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] and Beethoven with other local amateurs.<ref name="fetis90"/> However, aware of the need to develop his technical musical skills, in 1808 he began to study composition with [[Anton Reicha]] in Paris. At this time he also married a French heiress, Charlotte Françoise Delphine de Fontanges, by whom he was to have three children.<ref name="bickley"/> [[File:Chateau de Bellerive, Perignat.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|right|Château de Bellerives, Pérignat (demolished 1990), on an old postcard]] Onslow based himself near Clermont-Ferrand, initially at his father's Château de Chalendrat at [[Mirefleurs]] (where at the age of six he had planted many of the trees),<ref>d'Ortigue (1833), p. 151.</ref> later at Château de Bellerives at Perignat, [[La Roche-Noire]]. He typically visited Paris during the winter (concert) season, when his works were often performed by musicians including the violinists [[Pierre Baillot]] and [[Théophile Tilmant]], and the brothers [[Charles Dancla|Dancla]], who gave quartet concerts.<ref name="niaux2013">Niaux (2013).</ref> In 1824 and 1827 his first two operas, ''L'Alcalde de la vega'' and ''Le colporteur'', were premiered at the [[Théâtre Feydeau]] in Paris under the auspices of the [[Opéra-Comique]]. ''Le colporteur'' was also produced in Germany, and even (in a very mangled version, in 1831), in London.<ref name="bickley"/> In 1825 in Paris he met the 16-year-old [[Felix Mendelssohn]], who enjoyed a performance of one of Onslow's quartets but was surprised that he was not aware of Beethoven's opera ''[[Fidelio]]''.<ref>Todd (2003), pp. 142–143.</ref> Onslow was an early enthusiast of the music of [[Hector Berlioz]], whose ''Eight scenes from Faust'' (1829) and overture ''[[Les francs-juges]]'' (1830) he praised.<ref>Cairns (1999), p. 324, 427.</ref> In 1829, after Onslow had commenced his quintet op. 38 (his fifteenth), he was very seriously wounded in a hunting accident, which left him partially deaf in one ear; completing the quintet in the aftermath, he named the final movements "Fever", "Convalescence" and "Recovery". The work was subtitled "De la Balle" ("The Bullet").<ref name="bickley"/><ref name="niaux2013"/><ref>Onslow (1835).</ref> Throughout the 1820s, Onslow's reputation continued to grow both in France and abroad as a series of trios, quartets and quintets were published. Onslow's publishers in Paris were [[Ignaz Pleyel|Ignaz]] and [[Camille Pleyel]]. In 1818 his works began to be published in Germany by [[Breitkopf und Härtel]] and in Austria by [[Edition Peters|C. F. Peters]]; the same year saw the first writings about his works by German music critics.<ref>Hagels (2009), pp. 3–5.</ref> Other German publishers, including Hoffmeister, Steiner and [[N. Simrock|Simrock]], followed in later years.<ref>Hagels (2009), pp. 7–9.</ref> In the 1830s, Onslow's quartets were in the repertoire of the [[Müller Brothers|Müller Quartet]], which played them at the [[Meiningen]] court of Duke [[Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen|Bernhard II]], and of the [[Prague]]-based quartet of Friedrich Pixis the younger.<ref>Stowell (2003), p. 45, 55.</ref> In 1831 Onslow was elected the second Honorary Fellow of the [[Royal Philharmonic Society|Philharmonic Society of London]] ([[Felix Mendelssohn]] had been the first).<ref name="bickley"/> He wrote for the Society his Second Symphony, Op. 42, and continued to maintain close relations with leading London musicians including [[John Ella]] and [[George Frederick Anderson]]. In 1834, [[Frédéric Chopin]] and [[Franz Liszt]] played Onslow's Grand Sonata for four hands Op. 22 at their debut joint performance in Paris.<ref>Hall-Swedley (2011), p. 32.</ref> From 1835 to 1838 Onslow was the President of the ''{{Lang|fr|Athenée musical}}'' in Paris, an association founded in 1829 "to propagate the study and the spirit of music", with the intention of bringing together both amateurs and professionals.<ref>Niaux (2003), pp. 121–2.</ref> The year 1837 saw the premiere in Paris of Onslow's third (and last) opera ''[[Le duc de Guise]]''. In 1839 Onslow founded the "{{Lang|fr|Société Philharmonique de Clermont}}" in which the émigré Polish violinist [[Alexandre Tarnowski]] was very active. Performances were given of Onslow's own chamber music, and also of his opera ''Guise'', including passages which had been cut from the Paris performances. At the instigation of Tarnowski, Onslow also hosted in Clermont-Ferrand the Polish-Jewish xylophonist and rival of [[Josef Gusikov]], [[Sankson Jakubowski]].<ref>Jam (2005).</ref> In 1842 Onslow's wealth increased on the death of his father-in-law, who owned extensive property. In the same year his French musical prestige was consolidated when he succeeded [[Luigi Cherubini]] as a member of the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]].<ref name="bickley"/> Invited to the [[Aachen]] music festival in 1846, in the following year, on what may have been his last journey outside France, Onslow conducted his Fourth Symphony in [[Cologne]], at the {{lang|de|[[Lower Rhenish Music Festival|Niederrheinisches Musikfest]]}}.<ref name="niaux2013"/> During his last years he wrote a number of pieces for large chamber ensemble with piano, including quintets, a sextet (Op. 77b) and a septet (Op. 79); he also wrote a nonet (op. 77a) for strings and woodwind.<ref>[http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/onslow-nonet.htm "George Onslow Nonet"] on Silvertrust Editions website, accessed 15 September 2014.</ref> Onslow died unexpectedly (although after a period of declining health) in Clermont-Ferrand in 1853, after taking a morning walk.<ref name="bickley"/> Onslow was made a Knight of the [[Legion of Honour]] in 1837.
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