From the Archives: George Thomas Smart, 250 years since the birth of one of England’s most famous musicians
(London 10 May, 1776 – London 23 February 1876): organist, conductor and composer.
Oil painting of George Smart by an unknown artist; donated to the RSM by Charles Hodgson (1798-1873, RSM Member A314) in 1873 or earlier.
The music publisher George Smart (in business at the corner of Conduit Street, near Savile Row (ca 1773-December 1774), and corner of Argyle Street, 331 Oxford Street, (1774-1805)), was a founding member, in collaboration with Edward Miller, of the New Musical Fund. The two had apparently been disgruntled about not being able to join the RSM as their working lives did not conform to the rules allowing membership at this period; Smart because he was a publisher rather than a performer, and Miller because he did not work in London.
The New Musical Fund was founded on 16 April 1786 and, like the RSM, had a sturdy membership of both professional and honorary subscribers, held an annual fundraising concert, and disbursed financial assistance to their members in need of assistance. It was at one of those earliest concerts, 6 March 1794, when aged eighteen, that George Smart, son of the music publisher, gave his first public performance, playing a concerto for the piano by Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812).
Sir George’s many teachers, including Edmund Ayrton, Thomas Dupuis, Samuel Arnold and Johann Baptist Cramer, were all active members of the RSM. Like his father, Sir George did not join the RSM, and is noted as helping many and varied charities, including the New Musical Fund (of which he was a member), the Choral Benevolent Fund, and the Royal Society of Female Musicians (from 1840).
His coordination and participation in the Royal Musical Festival of 1834, from which several charities including the RSM took great financial benefit, is therefore interesting; likewise the crossover of musicians involved in the different charities is curious, for instance an advertisement on 13 April 1818 in The Morning Post, for a performance benefitting the New Musical Fund shows that François Cramer (RSM Member) led the orchestra for the New Musical Fund’s concert:
“NEW MUSICAL FUND, established April 16, 1786, for the relief of decayed Musicians, their Widows, and Orphans, under the Patronage of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent and their Royal Highnesses the Duke of York, Cumberland, Sussex, Cambridge, and Gloucester. ON THURSDAY, April 15, 1818, will be performed at the King's Theatre, in the Haymarket, a GRAND MISCELLANEOUS CONCERT of vocal and instrumental Music, for the benefit of this Institution.
The Orchestra will be erected on the stage on the same grand scale as last year. Leader of the Band, Mr. F. Cramer; Conductor, Sir George Smart; Principal vocal performers, Madame Mainvielle Fodor, Mrs. Salmon, Miss Stephens, Miss Corri, Miss Goodall, and Les Demoiselles De Lihu; Signor Garcia, Signor Crivelli, Signor Ambrogetti, and Mr. Braham. In the course of the Concert will be performed a Concerto on the French horn, by the celebrate Signor Puzzi, and a Concerto on the forte piano, by Miss Buchwald (a pupil of Mr. Kollman), being her first public performance.
Further particulars will be announced in due time. The Chorusses will be assisted by the Gentlemen Choristers of the Ancient Concert, &c, and the young Gentlemen of his Majesty's Chapel Royal, Saint Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the celebrated Female Chorus Singers from Lancashire. The Instrumental Band will be selected from the Opera, the Concert of Ancient Music, and the members of this Society.
Tickets for the pit and boxes10s. 6d. and for the gallery 5s. - The doors will be opened at seven, and the Concert will commence at eight o'clock precisely. Subscriptions are received, and tickets delivered at Messrs. Hammersley and Co.'s, Bankers, 75, Pall-mall; at the Secretary's, Mr. J. King, Little Chapel-street, Soho; the Treasurer's, Mr. Smart, 52, Poland-street; at the Opera Office; and at all the Principal Music Shops. If any Subscriber should not receive his tickets in time, he is requested to write to the Secretary, and they will be immediately forwarded. Books of the Performance, with a list of the Subscribers, may be had at the Opera House, price 1s. only”.
Further literature:
Carnelley, John, George Smart and Nineteenth-Century London Concert Life (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2015).