Here we discuss
two composers with exactly the same
name one of them born just six years
after the death of Handel, the other
still (1994) alive.
John Addison the
first (1765-1844) showed considerable
musical talent during his youth becoming
proficient on flute, bassoon and violin
but apparently he only made the decision
he only made the decision to become
a professional musician after his
marriage to a Miss Williams a singer
in 1793 (what he did for a living
up to the age of 28 is not clear).
The Addisons then performed together
he playing cello which he had presumably
added to his repertoire she singing
first at Vauxhall Gardens and then
on tour ending up in Dublin where
John directed an amateur orchestra
at a private theatre, for which he
had to arrange the music. He had also
taken up the double bass from scratch
an instrument which he was to play
with distinction thereafter. The Addisons
returned to London in 1796; Mrs Addison
appeared in Arne's Pasticcio Love
in a Village and created something
of an impression by singing at rehearsal
a song by her husband, modestly described
as one of Shield's. Soon afterwards
the couple went on their travels again,
to Bath, then back to Dublin where
John set up as a singing teacher,
and finally to Manchester where he
forsook music for a time to go into
the cotton trade, a venture which
was not successful. He did however
compose a little whilst in the North
of England: a pantomime for Manchester
and an opera for Chester. Returning
to London he helped Kelly manage his
music business and played the bass
for many seasons both at the Italian
Opera and the Antient and Vocal Concerts.
Compositions flowed
more freely from his pen after 1800.
Mostly they were for the theatre.
With Kelly he wrote the music for
The Sleeping Beauty, produced
at Drury Lane in 1805 and followed
this with Maids and Bachelors
(Covent Garden 1806), False Alarms
(Drury Lane, 1807: with John Braham
and M P King), The Russian Impostor
(Lyceum 1809), My Aunt (Lyceum
1815), Robinet the Bandit (Covent
Garden 1815), Two Words (Lyceum
1816), Free and Easy (Lyceum
1816) and My Uncle (Lyceum
1817). In these pieces he contributed
substantial amount of music, but the
English "opera" of that period was
essentially a "pasticcio", with two
or more composers contributing and
also Addison also provided a few songs
for a revival of Shield's Robin
Hood and for Henry Bishop and
Thomas Attwood's For England Ho!
both in 1813. In 1827 he brought out
a version of The Beggars Opera
which has attracted new editions for
well over two centuries. Sometimes
the opera contributed to was an English
adaptation of a continental one, with
added music by an English composerin
this direction Addison "arranged"
Boieldieu Rose d'Amour. He
provided Shakespearean incidental
music, notably for Twelfth Night
and The Merry Wives of Windsor;
"Fie on Sinful Fantasy" from
the latter which was once recorded
by the counter-tenor John Whitworth
interestingly sounds very like Arne
as does the gorgeously shapely "O
Mistress Mine" from Twelfth
Night recorded more recently by
Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Arne was Addison's
senior by over a half century. Addison
published many independent songs duets
and glees plus Songs of Almacks
(melodies by Bishop and Addison, accompaniments
and "symphonies" by Addison) in 1831
and an instructional work Singing
Practically Treated, in 1836.
Long before Mendelssohn's more famous
overtures he produced the "sacred
musical drama" Elijah Raising the
Widow's Son at Drury Lane's winter
oratorio season in 1815, but much
of the music was borrowed from operas
by Peter Van Winter.
John Addison the
first may be reckoned as an above
average journeyman musician, both
as a performer and as a composer and
one associate primarily with the theatre.
John Addison the second (no relation)
born at Cobham in Surrey on 16 March
1920 will always be remembered particularly
for his work for British films, even
though more recently he has been writing
for American films and as we shall
see he has been active in other musical
forms, too. He was educated at Wellington
College and studied at the RCM either
side of his military service in the
Second World War, his teachers being
Gordon Jacob for composition, Herbert
Fryer for piano, Leon Goossens for
oboe and Frederick Thurston for clarinet.
Whilst there he won the Sullivan prize;
he returned to the College between
1951 and 1958 as Professor of Composition.
By that time however he had entered
the world of films becoming Musical
Director for Boulting Brothers for
whom he wrote several scores. Since
1975 he has lived partly in Los Angeles
and partly in the French Alps where
he has indulged his enthusiasm for
winter sports.
Addison's non film
scores include many that may be reckoned
as chamber music. Even many of his
orchestral scores have chamber-like
forces and clear textures. Several
of them are for stings, like the 16
minute Partita, the 18 minute
long Trumpet Concerto of 1949 and
the Wellington Suite of 1961
for two horns and piano concertante
and an orchestra of strings, timpani
and percussion. Another concerto type
score was the Variations for
piano and orchestra of 1948. His best
known orchestral score remains the
ballet suite Carte Blanche;
in similar mood were the Three
Terpsichorean Studies (1948).
In lighter vein was the march (Addison
is famous for his marches) Carlton
Brown of the Foreign Office. His
idiom is generally speaking not dissimilar
to that of his teacher Gordon Jacob.
Like Jacob he has written much chamber
music featuring wind instruments,
many of the pieces playing for around
a quarter of an hour, like the woodwind
Sextet of 1949, the Trio for flute,
oboe and piano, another Trio for oboe,
clarinet and bassoon and the Serenade
for wind quintet and harp (1958).
Much shorter are the Divertimento
for brass quartet (two trumpets, horn
and trombone) written in 1951 and
popular with the Philip Jones Brass
Ensemble and the Five Inventions
for oboe and piano of 1959. Addison's
interest in unusual sonorities is
illustrated by his Conversation
Piece for two sopranos, harpsichord,
harp and organ. Three part songs for
four part male choir (The Grenadier,
Old Roger and Song of Bathsebe)
were published as were a number of
songs from his film score Tom Jones
(1963). One of his few excursions
into the theatre was his arrangement
of the 18th century "ballad opera"
Polly: a link with his 18th
century namesake.
Of his 60 plus scores
for films - not counting television
documentaries - we may instance Pool
of London (1950), The Red Beret
(1953), Cockleshell Heroes
(1956), Private's Progress
(1956), Three Men in a Boat
(1956), Barnacle Bill (1957),
Reach For The Sky (1956), I
Was Monty's Double (1958), School
for Scandal (1960), A Taste
of Honey (1961), The Loneliness
of the Long Distance Runner (1962),
The Loved One (1965), The
Honey Pot (1968), The Charge
of the Light Brigade (1968), Moll
Flanders (1965), Sleuth
(1972), The Seven Per Cent Solution
(1976), Joseph Andrews (1977),
A Bridge Too Far (1977) and
the American Agatha Christie adaptation
Thirteen At Dinner (1985):
a varied selection, although it is
probably that it is the war films
and their music which are best remembered.
Reach For The Sky, the Douglas
Bader film had I recall a particularly
attractive score, while The Charge
of the Light Brigade had its moments.
Most celebrated were the marches from
I Was Monty's Double and A
Bridge Too Far, both of which
have enjoyed a life of their own in
the concert hall. The heroic character
of the latter upstaged the anti-heroic
final scene of the film which was
sufficient to reflect the waste and
futility of war in general and the
Arnhem operation in particular. This
catchy march at least will carry Addison's
name well into the 21st century; we
must hope that some of his other orchestral
works, now thirty or even forty years
old or even more but rarely played
nowadays, may be revived.
P L Scowcroft
