Smith, John Christopher (real name, Johann ChristOph Schmidt)

Smith, John Christopher (real name, Johann Christoph Schmidt ), German-born English organist and composer; b. Ansbach, 1712; d. Bath, Oct. 3, 1795. His father, Johann Christoph Schmidt, went to London in 1716 as Handel’s treasurer and chief copyist; the son followed in 1720, and received a few lessons from Handel about 1725; after lessons from Pepusch, he studied with Thomas Roseingrave. He wrote his first opera, Ulysses, in 1733; after its failure, he gave up the theater. Following a sojourn abroad (1746–48), he became organist at the Foundling Hospital in London in 1754, where he directed the annual performance of Messiah (1759–68). He scored a success with his opera The Enchanter of Love and Magic (1760), but thereafter devoted himself to composing oratorios; with Stanley, he oversaw the Lenten performances of oratorios at Covent Garden (1760–74). He settled in Bath, where he was active as a teacher; upon his father’s death in 1763, he was bequeathed his father’s large Handel collection, which, after being granted a royal pension by King George III (1772), he bequeathed to the king; it is now housed in the Royal Music Library at the British Museum.

Works

(all first perf. in London unless otherwise given): DRAMATIC: Opera : Ulysses (April 16, 1733); Rosalinda (Jan. 4, 1740); The Seasons (1740; not perf.); Issipile (1743; not perf.); Il ciro riconosciuto (1745; not perf.); Dario (1746; not perf.); Artaserse (1748; unfinished); The Fairies (Feb. 3, 1755); The Tempest (Feb. 11, 1756); The Enchanter of Love and Magic (Dec. 13, 1760); Medea (1760–61; unfinished). Oratorios : David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan (1738; Feb. 22, 1740); Paradise Lost (1757–58; Feb. 29, 1760); Judith (1758; not perf.); Feast of Darius (1761–62; not perf.; based on the opera Dario); Rebecca (March 16, 1764); Nabal (March 16, 1764); Jehosaphat (1764; not perf.); Gideon (Feb. 10, 1769; based on the Feast of Darius and works by Handel); Redemption (1774; not perf.). Other Vocal : The Mourning Muse of Alexis, funeral ode (1729); Thamesis, Isis and Proteus, cantata; Daphne, cantata (1744); The Foundling Hymn (1763); Funeral Service for the Dowager Princess of Wales (1772); songs. harpsichord (all publ, in London): 6 suites, op.l (1732); 6 suites, op.2 (c. 1735); 6 Suites of Lessons, op.3 (c. 1755); 6 Lessons, op.4 (c. 1758); 22 Sonatas, op.5 (1763).

Biblgrophy

[W. Coxe], Anecdotes of George Frederick Handel and J.C.S. (London, 1799).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire