Online Encyclopedia

WILLIAM VINCENT WALLACE (1814-1865)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 279 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM VINCENT WALLACE (1814-1865)  ,
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British composer, was born at
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Waterford, Ireland, his
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father, of Scottish
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family, being a regimental bandmaster . Vincent Wallace learnt as a boy to
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play several
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instruments, and became a leading violinist in
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Dublin . But in 1835 he married and went off to
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Australia, sheep farming . A concert in
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Sydney revived his musical passion; and having separated from his wife, he began a roving career, which had many romantic episodes, in Australia, the South Seas, India and South
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America . He returned to
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London in 1845 and made various appearances as a pianist; and in November of that
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year his opera Maritana was per-formed at 'Drury Lane with
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great success . This was followed by Matilda of Hungary (1847), Lurline (186o), The
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Amber
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Witch (1861), Love's Triumph (1862) and The
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Desert Flower (1863) . He also published a number of compositions for the piano, &c . Vincent Wallace was a cultivated man and an accomplished musician, whose Maritana still holds he stage, and whose
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work as an
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English operatic composer, at a period by no means encouraging to English
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music, has a distinct
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historical va'ue . Like Balfe, he was born an Irishman, and his reputation as one of the few composers known beyond the British Isl at that time is naturally coupled with Balfe's . But he was a finer artist and a more
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original musician . In later years he became almost blind; and he died in poor circumstances on the 12th of
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October 1865, leaving a widow and two children .

End of Article: WILLIAM VINCENT WALLACE (1814-1865)
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JAMES WILLIAM WALLACK (c. 1794-1864)

Additional information and Comments

Balfe, Wallace and a German Born composer Benedict, who also wrote operas in English at that time - The Lily of Killarney - have become known, somewhat colloquillally as The IRISH RING.
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