Bishop Sir Henry Rowley

Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley, born in 1786, was a composer of great merit and reputation. He became "composer in ordinary" to Covent Garden theatre, where he brought out The Virgin of the Sun, The Miller and his Men, Guy Mannering. The Slave, Maid Marian, and Clari, introducing the well-known song Home, Sweet Home. He also undertook to improve Mozart and Rossini for the English stage. In 1824 he went to Drury Lane. His Aladdin, intended to eclipse Weber's Oberon, proved a dismal failure, and with The Fortunate Isles given at Covent Garden in honour of the Queen's wedding in 1840 his operatic efforts came to an end. He was a director of the Philharmonic concerts, received knighthood in 1842, and in 1848 succeeded Crotch in the chair of music at Oxford. He died a poor man in 1855. Bishop takes high rank along with Purcell, Arne, and other representatives of the English school as a tuneful writer of songs and glees, among which it suffices to mention Bid me discourse, Should he upbraid, My pretty Jane, Mynheer Van Dunck, The wind whistles cold, The Chough and the Crow.