Michael Christian Festing
Encyclopedia
Michael Christian Festing (29 November 1705 – 24 July 1752) was an English violin
ist and composer
. His reputation lies mostly on his work as a violin virtuoso
.
in Schleswig-Holstein
, Germany
. Michael's brother, John Festing, was a flautist
and oboist
who amassed a sizable fortune through teaching music. His brother is most likely the musician depicted in William Hogarth
's painting The Enraged Musician (1741, now in the Tate Britain
, London).
Festing first studied violin with Richard Jones
and then later became a pupil of Francesco Geminiani
. He made his professional debut on 6 March 1723 performing a concert at Hickford's Room, London. Not too long after that, Festing met a young Thomas Arne at the gallery of the Italian Opera
to which Festing had access although Arne, still a boy, officially did not. Music historian Charles Burney
wrote that Arne had crept into the gallery dressed as a liveryman in order to gain access to the fine collection of musical scores contained there. Upon befriending Festing, Arne became his pupil, studying violin for the first time and music composition. Festing, who was only four and a half years older, also broadened the young Arne's knowledge by taking him to numerous concerts, operas, and other performances. The teenagers were both present on 12 November 1725 to hear Thomas Roseingrave
win the competition for the post of organist
of St George's, Hanover Square. It is largely due to Festing's influence that Thomas's father allowed him to pursue a career in music instead of becoming a lawyer.
In the mid 1720s Festing began to compose music, mostly for the violin at the beginning but later works for orchestra, art songs, and a small amount of both sacred music and theatre music followed. The earliest mention of music composed by him is from a 1726 concert advertisement. That same year he helped found the Academy of Ancient Music
, along with such composers as William Croft
and Giovanni Bononcini, and participated in that group until he left over the Bononcini–Lotti affair in 1731. Festing remained active in concerts throughout London, notably replacing James Moore
as a member of the King's Musick on the 4 November 1726. His position at court led to the performance of three sets of his minuet
s for the birthdays of King George II
and Queen Caroline
, each "perform'd at the Ball at Court" in 1734 and 1735. Festing also performed several solo concerts in London, notably at the York Buildings, Villiers Street in 1729.
In 1730 Festing published his first composition, Twelve Solos for a Violin and Thorough Bass op.1, which was dedicated to the Earl of Plymouth
. In 1993 a manuscript of three of his opus 4 violin solos was discovered, which musicologists believe belonged to one of Festing's pupils and dates from the early 1730s. Festing became the director of the orchestra at the Italian opera house in 1737. The following year, along with Edward Purcell
(eldest son of Henry Purcell
), Thomas Arne, William Boyce, Johann Christoph Pepusch
, and George Frideric Handel
, he founded the Fund for the Support of Decay'd Musicians and their Families, later known as the Royal Society of Musicians
; of which for many years he acted as honorary secretary.
In 1742 Festing was appointed musical director of the Ranelagh Gardens
when they were first opened. While there he composed music for the entertainments in the pleasure garden and lead the band there until his death in London in 1752. He had two sons and two daughters, and his son Michael (b 1725) married Maurice Greene
's daughter, Katherine.
s, minuet
s, concerto
s, chamber music
, works of solo instrument, cantata
s, vocal songs, catches
, and ode
s. His music is often characterized by sudden and unusual modulations. His frequent use of key changes up or down a whole step and other dramatic modulations have caused several musicologist to compare his music to the Spanish harmonies of Domenico Scarlatti
.
As a composer, Festing began his career writing in the Baroque style and then later transitioned into the galant style
that came to be associated with the early Classical period of music
. His earliest works were entirely instrumental pieces and employed typical baroque elements such as ground basses, canons at the octave and fugal treatments. Although more ambitious and adventurous than his mentor, Francesco Geminiani
, close parallels are often made between Festing's early works and those of Geminiani. Two such comparisons are the similarity between the virtuoso improvisatory passages and the use of elaborate and detailed ornamentation of the solo parts in their works. Also of note is both composer's use of bowing, phrasing and ornamental marks in the bass lines of their writing, particularly in trio sonatas.
When Festing was appointed musical director of the Ranelagh Gardens in 1742, his work shifted more towards vocal works, although he did continue to produce several concertos and sonatas during this time. He had previously only written a handful of vocal compositions for performance at the Apollo Academy during the 1730s. At Ranelagh he became particularly known for his odes and cantatas which were unique in that they used extended aria forms, inventive orchestration, and dramatic gestures that were more English in character than in the Italian tradition. Of notable interest is his Ode on St Cecilia's Day which reflects the influence of Handel's oratorio Alexander's Feast (Handel)Alexander's Feast, and his Ode on the Return of … the Duke of Cumberland which used a full Baroque orchestra including kettledrums, trumpets, oboes and horns. Festing also a number of vocal songs and cantatas at Ranelagh, the latter of which resemble those of John Stanley
.
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. His reputation lies mostly on his work as a violin virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
.
Biography
Michael Christian Festing was born in London to parents John and Elizabeth Festing. Some evidence suggests that his family had ties to Gros Festin, near StralsundStralsund
- Main sights :* The Brick Gothic historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.* The heart of the old town is the Old Market Square , with the Gothic Town Hall . Behind the town hall stands the imposing Nikolaikirche , built in 1270-1360...
in Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Michael's brother, John Festing, was a flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
and oboist
Oboist
An oboist is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the cor anglais, oboe d'amore, shawm and oboe musette....
who amassed a sizable fortune through teaching music. His brother is most likely the musician depicted in William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
's painting The Enraged Musician (1741, now in the Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
, London).
Festing first studied violin with Richard Jones
Richard Jones (composer)
Richard Jones was an English composer and violinist.Jones's first publication appeared in 1720, a solo cantata While in a Lovely Rurall Seat. He was associated with the Drury Lane Theater Orchestra in London possibly as early as 1723; according to John Hawkins , in 1730 he succeeded Stefano...
and then later became a pupil of Francesco Geminiani
Francesco Geminiani
thumb|230px|Francesco Geminiani.Francesco Saverio Geminiani was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist.-Biography:...
. He made his professional debut on 6 March 1723 performing a concert at Hickford's Room, London. Not too long after that, Festing met a young Thomas Arne at the gallery of the Italian Opera
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
to which Festing had access although Arne, still a boy, officially did not. Music historian Charles Burney
Charles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
wrote that Arne had crept into the gallery dressed as a liveryman in order to gain access to the fine collection of musical scores contained there. Upon befriending Festing, Arne became his pupil, studying violin for the first time and music composition. Festing, who was only four and a half years older, also broadened the young Arne's knowledge by taking him to numerous concerts, operas, and other performances. The teenagers were both present on 12 November 1725 to hear Thomas Roseingrave
Thomas Roseingrave
Thomas Roseingrave was an Irish musician and organist.-Early years:He was born at Winchester but spent his early years in Dublin, studying music with his father, Daniel Roseingrave. In 1707 he entered Trinity College but failed to complete his degree...
win the competition for the post of organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
of St George's, Hanover Square. It is largely due to Festing's influence that Thomas's father allowed him to pursue a career in music instead of becoming a lawyer.
In the mid 1720s Festing began to compose music, mostly for the violin at the beginning but later works for orchestra, art songs, and a small amount of both sacred music and theatre music followed. The earliest mention of music composed by him is from a 1726 concert advertisement. That same year he helped found the Academy of Ancient Music
Academy of Ancient Music
The Academy of Ancient Music is a period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after a previous organisation of the same name of the 18th century. The musicians play on either original instruments or modern copies of...
, along with such composers as William Croft
William Croft
William Croft was an English composer and organist.Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal, under the instruction of John Blow, and remained there until 1698. Two years after this departure, he became organist of St. Anne's Church, Soho...
and Giovanni Bononcini, and participated in that group until he left over the Bononcini–Lotti affair in 1731. Festing remained active in concerts throughout London, notably replacing James Moore
James Moore
James Moore and Jim Moore are the names of:*Butch Moore , born James Augustine Moore, Irish showband icon during the 1960s*Cowboy Jimmy Moore James Moore and Jim Moore are the names of:*Butch Moore (1938–2001), born James Augustine Moore, Irish showband icon during the 1960s*Cowboy Jimmy Moore...
as a member of the King's Musick on the 4 November 1726. His position at court led to the performance of three sets of his minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
s for the birthdays of King George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
and Queen Caroline
Caroline of Ansbach
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was the queen consort of King George II of Great Britain.Her father, John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was the ruler of a small German state...
, each "perform'd at the Ball at Court" in 1734 and 1735. Festing also performed several solo concerts in London, notably at the York Buildings, Villiers Street in 1729.
In 1730 Festing published his first composition, Twelve Solos for a Violin and Thorough Bass op.1, which was dedicated to the Earl of Plymouth
Earl of Plymouth
Earl of Plymouth is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation was in 1675 for Charles FitzCharles, illegitimate son of King Charles II by his mistress Catherine Pegge...
. In 1993 a manuscript of three of his opus 4 violin solos was discovered, which musicologists believe belonged to one of Festing's pupils and dates from the early 1730s. Festing became the director of the orchestra at the Italian opera house in 1737. The following year, along with Edward Purcell
Edward Purcell (musician)
Edward Purcell was born in Westminster, London, the only surviving son of the English Baroque master, Henry Purcell. When his mother Frances died in February 1706, she stated in her will, and apparently in accordance with her husband's wishes, that she had given him a good education.Holman, Peter,...
(eldest son of Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
), Thomas Arne, William Boyce, Johann Christoph Pepusch
Johann Christoph Pepusch
Johann Christoph Pepusch , also known as John Christopher Pepusch and Dr Pepusch, was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England....
, and George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, he founded the Fund for the Support of Decay'd Musicians and their Families, later known as the Royal Society of Musicians
Royal Society of Musicians
The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain is a charity in the United Kingdom that supports musicians. It is the oldest music-related charity in Great Britain, founded in 1738 as the "Fund for Decay'd Musicians" by a declaration of trust signed by 228 musicians, including Edward Purcell ,...
; of which for many years he acted as honorary secretary.
In 1742 Festing was appointed musical director of the Ranelagh Gardens
Ranelagh Gardens
Ranelagh Gardens were public pleasure gardens located in Chelsea, then just outside London, England in the 18th century.-History:The Ranelagh Gardens were so called because they occupied the site of Ranelagh House, built in 1688-89 by the first Earl of Ranelagh, Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital ,...
when they were first opened. While there he composed music for the entertainments in the pleasure garden and lead the band there until his death in London in 1752. He had two sons and two daughters, and his son Michael (b 1725) married Maurice Greene
Maurice Greene (composer)
Maurice Greene was an English composer and organist.- Biography :Born in London, the son of a clergyman, Greene became a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King...
's daughter, Katherine.
Compositions
Festing was a moderately prolific composer producing a number of sonataSonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
s, minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
s, concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s, chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, works of solo instrument, cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s, vocal songs, catches
Catch (music)
In music, a catch or trick canon is a type of round - a musical composition in which two or more voices repeatedly sing the same melody or sometimes slightly different melodies, beginning at different times. In a catch, the lines of lyrics interact so that a word or phrase is produced that does...
, and ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
s. His music is often characterized by sudden and unusual modulations. His frequent use of key changes up or down a whole step and other dramatic modulations have caused several musicologist to compare his music to the Spanish harmonies of Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
.
As a composer, Festing began his career writing in the Baroque style and then later transitioned into the galant style
Galante music
A new style of classical music, fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s, was called Galante music. It consciously simplified contrapuntal texture and intense composing techniques that realized a pattern on the page and substituted a clear leading voice with a transparent accompaniment....
that came to be associated with the early Classical period of music
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
. His earliest works were entirely instrumental pieces and employed typical baroque elements such as ground basses, canons at the octave and fugal treatments. Although more ambitious and adventurous than his mentor, Francesco Geminiani
Francesco Geminiani
thumb|230px|Francesco Geminiani.Francesco Saverio Geminiani was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist.-Biography:...
, close parallels are often made between Festing's early works and those of Geminiani. Two such comparisons are the similarity between the virtuoso improvisatory passages and the use of elaborate and detailed ornamentation of the solo parts in their works. Also of note is both composer's use of bowing, phrasing and ornamental marks in the bass lines of their writing, particularly in trio sonatas.
When Festing was appointed musical director of the Ranelagh Gardens in 1742, his work shifted more towards vocal works, although he did continue to produce several concertos and sonatas during this time. He had previously only written a handful of vocal compositions for performance at the Apollo Academy during the 1730s. At Ranelagh he became particularly known for his odes and cantatas which were unique in that they used extended aria forms, inventive orchestration, and dramatic gestures that were more English in character than in the Italian tradition. Of notable interest is his Ode on St Cecilia's Day which reflects the influence of Handel's oratorio Alexander's Feast (Handel)Alexander's Feast, and his Ode on the Return of … the Duke of Cumberland which used a full Baroque orchestra including kettledrums, trumpets, oboes and horns. Festing also a number of vocal songs and cantatas at Ranelagh, the latter of which resemble those of John Stanley
John Stanley (composer)
Charles John Stanley was an English composer and organist.-Biography:Stanley, who was blind from an early age, studied music with Maurice Greene and held a number of organist appointments in London, such as St Andrew's, Holborn from 1726...
.