Concerning the march and its author, we beg to refer the reader to our Review for the present month.
JUNE, 1833.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ADRIAN BATTEN, JOHN WELDON, THOMAS TUDWAY, MUS. D., WILLIAM BLAKE, D.D., AND CHARLES KING, M.B.
WE now proceed towards the conclusion of our notices of the most distinguished composers of English cathedral music, down to the end of the last century, which branch of musical biography will be completed in our next Number.
ADRIAN BATTEN was organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral during the reigns of Charles I. and II. He is called by Sir John Hawkins, not in very courteous terms, a ‘singing man,’ and certainly appears on the books as a vicar-choral of the church, for then the duty at the organ was executed by one of that body; and the organist still draws most of his emoluments from his share in the property belonging to the vicars-choral. The name of this composer is even now well known in all our choirs, from his short full anthem, ‘Deliver us, O Lord,’ which has continued in use up to the present day. Batten was, says Burney, ‘merely a good harmonist of the old school, without adding any thing to the common stock of ideas in melody or modulation with which the art was furnished long before he was born. Nor did he correct any of the errors in accent with which former times abounded.’ It is, however, just to remark, that his anthem, ‘Hear my prayer,’ for five voices, is, in point of construction and effect, equal to most of the compositions of his time. He undoubtedly exhibited no great talent, and owes the transmission of his name more to the convenient brevity of the above-mentioned anthem, than to his musical genius.