John Marsh was an English music composer, born in Dorking

Dorking

Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. A lawyer by training, he is known to have written at least 350 compositions, including at least 39 symphonies. While today known primarily for his music, he also had strong interest in other fields, including astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 and philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, and wrote books about astronomy, music, religion, and geometry

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

.

Marsh lived in Dorking, Gosport, Romsey, Salisbury and Canterbury before settling in Chichester in 1787 until his death in 1828. As a concert organizer, he was responsible for the music making in the towns and cities where he worked, especially in Chichester, where he led the subscription concerts for some 35 years.

Marsh was perhaps the most prolific English composer of his time. His own catalog of compositions records over 350 works, of which he lists 39 symphonies. Of these, only the nine that Marsh had printed are extant, together with three one-movement finales.

Marsh was a man of varied interests, and his 37 volumes of journals are among the most valuable sources of information on life and music in 18th-century England. They represent one of the most important musical and social documents of the period. It remained unpublished until the first volume was published in 1998. In one passage, Marsh describes the great Handel Commemoration

Handel Commemoration

The Handel festival or ‘Commemoration’ took place in Westminster Abbey in 1784, to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel in 1759....

 of 1784 in London.

Marsh's son was poet and cleric Edward Garrard Marsh

Edward Garrard Marsh

Edward Garrard Marsh was an English poet and Anglican clergyman.He was son of the composer John Marsh. He was a good friend of William Hayley, and associated with him and William Blake....

.

Extant Works

• The Salisbury Symphonies
  • Symphony No. 8 [9] in G Major (1778)

  I. Allegro

  II. Andante

  III. Allegro

  • A Conversation Symphony for Two Orchestras [No. 10] in E-flat Major (1778)

  I. Allegro maestoso

  II. Andante

  III. Allegretto

  • Symphony No. 2 [12] in B-flat Major (1780)

  I. Allegro

  II. Largo 8 in a bar

  III. Allegro spirituoso

  • Symphony No. 1 [13] in B-flat Major (1781)

  I. Allegro

  II. Andante

  III. Chasse: Allegro

• The Canterbury Symphonies
  • Symphony No. 5 [16] in E-flat Major (1783)

  I. Largo staccatto

  II. Allegro moderato

  III. Minuetto; Allegro spirituoso

  • Symphony No. 3 [17] in D Major (1784)

  I. Allegro

  II. Andante

  III. Presto

• The Chichester Symphonies
  • Symphony No. 4 [19] in F Major (1788)

  I. Allegro

  II. Larghetto

  III. Minuetto

  IV. Allegro

  • Symphony No. 7 [24] in E-flat Major (La Chasse) (1790)

  I. Andante (The hunter’s call in the morning)

  II. Allegretto (Setting out from home; the fox discover’d)

  III. Allegro (Chasse)

  • Symphony No. 6 [27] in D Major (1796)

  I. Largo maestoso; Allegro spiritoso

  II. Andante

  III. Minuetto: Allegro

  IV. Allegro scherzando

• The Finales
  • Finale No. 3 in E-flat Major (1799)

  Andante; Allegro

  • Finale No. 1 in D Major (1800)

  Pomposo

  • Finale No. 2 in B-flat Major (1801)

  Maestoso; Trio

  Allegro

External links

• MusicWeb International biography

There are 2 c.d's of John Marsh's symphonies:One of the c.d.'s is Chandos 10458(64 minutes,2008).It contains 5 of his symphonies: Number 2(LaChasse-1780),Number 6(1796),Number 7(LaChasse-1790),Number 8(1778)and Conversation Symphony for 2 Orchestras(1778).It's played by the London Mozart and conducted by Matthias Bamert.The other c.d.is by The Chichester Concert conducted by Ian-Graham Jones(64 minutes,1989).It also contains 5 symphonies(Number 1,3,4,6 and A Conversation Symphony for 2 Orchestras.It was given a favorable review in Gramophone Magazine in 1989.