The Lass Of Richmond Hill
James Hook
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Browse piano sheets by James Hook on Zen Virtual Piano. James Hook was born in Norwich, the son of James Hook, a razor-grinder and cutler. He showed a gift for composing before he was seven and was sent to study with Garland, the cathedral organist. By ten he played regularly, benefit concerts among them, and made money by teaching, composing, copying music and tuning keyboards. Alongside the concerts, the tuning and the teaching sketch a musician earning a living from several kinds of work, long before any famous song. From 1769 to 1773 he was organist and composer at Marylebone Gardens, and from 1774 to 1820 he held the same roles at Vauxhall Gardens. At Vauxhall he excelled as an organist, and Parke recalled that he played an organ concerto every night. Many of his operas and other works were produced at the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres, and he frequently collaborated with family members. Nightly organ concerts at Vauxhall alongside stage works for Drury Lane and Covent Garden suggest a busy musician working in more than one London setting at once. Over two thousand songs came from Hook, whose other output covers an instruction book, Guida di Musica, an oratorio, dramatic pieces, catches and glees, and music for the organ and pianoforte. The best known of the songs is The Lass of Richmond Hill, composed about 1787 and sung by Incledon probably the following year. His contemporaries charged him with adapting other musicians' ideas unscrupulously, and he probably took up much that would otherwise have been forgotten sooner. With over two thousand songs behind one famous tune, the charge of borrowed ideas becomes part of how his output is weighed. His long service at Vauxhall, almost half a century of it, ended unexpectedly in 1820, and Boulogne is where he died seven years later. An unexpected exit after almost half a century at one post leaves the end of the Vauxhall years feeling abrupt, as if the final chapter had been cut short.
Browse piano sheets by James Hook on Zen Virtual Piano.
James Hook was born in Norwich, the son of James Hook, a razor-grinder and cutler. He showed a gift for composing before he was seven and was sent to study with Garland, the cathedral organist. By ten he played regularly, benefit concerts among them, and made money by teaching, composing, copying music and tuning keyboards. Alongside the concerts, the tuning and the teaching sketch a musician earning a living from several kinds of work, long before any famous song.
From 1769 to 1773 he was organist and composer at Marylebone Gardens, and from 1774 to 1820 he held the same roles at Vauxhall Gardens. At Vauxhall he excelled as an organist, and Parke recalled that he played an organ concerto every night. Many of his operas and other works were produced at the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres, and he frequently collaborated with family members. Nightly organ concerts at Vauxhall alongside stage works for Drury Lane and Covent Garden suggest a busy musician working in more than one London setting at once.
Over two thousand songs came from Hook, whose other output covers an instruction book, Guida di Musica, an oratorio, dramatic pieces, catches and glees, and music for the organ and pianoforte. The best known of the songs is The Lass of Richmond Hill, composed about 1787 and sung by Incledon probably the following year. His contemporaries charged him with adapting other musicians' ideas unscrupulously, and he probably took up much that would otherwise have been forgotten sooner. With over two thousand songs behind one famous tune, the charge of borrowed ideas becomes part of how his output is weighed.
His long service at Vauxhall, almost half a century of it, ended unexpectedly in 1820, and Boulogne is where he died seven years later. An unexpected exit after almost half a century at one post leaves the end of the Vauxhall years feeling abrupt, as if the final chapter had been cut short.
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James Hook was a composer and organist born in Norwich who was organist and composer at Marylebone Gardens from 1769 to 1773 and at Vauxhall Gardens from 1774 to 1820.
Of the more than two thousand songs he composed, the best known is The Lass of Richmond Hill, composed about 1787.
Among his works are an instruction book, Guida di Musica, an oratorio, dramatic pieces, catches and glees, and music for the organ and pianoforte.
Hook left Vauxhall unexpectedly in 1820 after almost half a century there, and he died in Boulogne seven years later.