Archive Item of the Month – November 2021

Charles Edward Horn (London, 21 June, 1786 – Boston, U.S.A., 21 October 1849), singer and composer 

After starting his musical career playing cello and double bass in London theatre orchestras Horn studied singing with Thomas Welsh (ca 1780-1848). Welsh had been a child chorister at Wells Cathedral, sang at the Bath concerts and appeared in London between 1792-1795. When Welsh’s voice broke he continued his musical studies with Johann Baptist Cramer (1771-1858), Karl Friedrich Baumgarten (ca 1740-1824) and Charles Frederick Horn (1762-1830), the father of C.E. Horn. Apparently Welsh had a powerful bass voice, was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and wrote much stage music although is known for creating himself a niche as a noted singing teacher. His pupils included some famous English singers of the period namely the tenor John Sinclair (1791-1857), the soprano Catherine Stephens (1794-1882), the soprano Jane Shirreff (1811-1883), C.E. Horn and Mary Ann Wilson (1802-1867).  

Horn is painted in the character of Seraskier from Stephen Storace’s The Siege of Belgrade, a head and shoulders portrait of him wearing decorative tunic and robe, with tassel at the front and a turban with feathers, facing slightly to his left.  The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817.  In Horn’s memoir of himself, in an entry in the autumn of 1815, he wrote “Therefore it was arranged I should appear first in a character I should have more chance in, and this was The Seraskier in Storace’s opera The Siege of Belgrade (see Kassler, p.58). 
 
The entry for Horn in A Dictionary of Musicians, from the earliest ages to the present time … (London, Sainsbury and Co, 1824) noted:  
            “He then appeared at the English Opera-house as the Seraskier, in The Siege of Belgrade, in which part he was eminently successful, having greatly improved his voice by long practice, and the assistance of T. Welch.  From that time to the present, he has been ranked among the principal singers of the metropolis.” (vol.I, p.376)
 
Miss Wilson, as she was at the time of the dictionary, was: 
            “a pupil of Thomas Welsh, and made her début as a theatrical singer in the season of 1821 … She is at present residing in Italy, for musical improvement.” (vol.II, p.542) 
 
Not long after the publication of the dictionary Miss Wilson and her teacher Thomas Welsh were married, on 9 June 1827, and their only child, Mary Ann Welsh, was later to marry the cellist Carlo Alfredo Piatti (1822-1901) in 1856. 

Portrait of Charles Edward Horn by Isaac Pocock (1782-1835); 1817? 
Donated by Mrs Thomas Welsh [Mary Anne Wilson] in 1864. 

Further literature: 

Michael Kassler, ed., Charles Edward Horn’s Memoirs of his Father and Himself (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate / The Society for Theatre Research, 2003).