Joseph Augustine Wade (c.1801 – 15 July 1845) was an Irish composer, conductor and lyricist. Wade was popular in his lifetime, and he was quoted in the 1919 ''
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'', often simply called ''Bartlett's'', is an American reference work that is the longest-lived and most widely distributed collection of quotations. The book was first issued in 1855 and is currently in its 19th ...
''.
Life and career
Wade was born in
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
and may have worked as a
surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...
before moving to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1821.
[Lisa Parker: "Wade, Joseph Augustine", in: ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. H. White & B. Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), vol. 2, p. 1036] For a short period he was conductor at the King's Theatre. He had some success with his oratorio ''The Prophecy'' (1824) and the comic opera ''The Two Houses of Grenada'' (1826).
Wade was known for his arrangement of ''Peter Gray'' as well as for popular songs that included ''I've Wandered in Dreams'', ''Love was Once a Little Boy'', ''A Woodland Life'', and his most famous, ''Meet me by Moonlight''.
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...
referred to Wade, having his eponymous hero in ''Samuel Sensitive'' sing a phrase of Wade's ''Meet me by Moonlight''.
[Walt Whitman, Emory Holloway (ed.), ''The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman: Much of which Has Been But Recently Discovered'' (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1921).]
His son Joseph Augustine Wade jr. was also a composer.
Selected works
Stage
* ''Two Houses of Granada'', comic opera (1826)
* ''The Convent Belles'', comic opera (1833)
* ''The Yeoman's Daughter'', musical play (1834)
* ''The Pupil of Da Vinci'', burletta (1839)
Vocal
* ''Come Buy me Cherries'' (c.1820)
* ''The Hermit of Killarney'', Irish ballad (c.1820)
* ''The Prophecy'', oratorio (1824)
* ''Hours There Were'', ballad (1825)
* ''Where Stays my Lover's Barque'', ballad for 3 voices (c.1825)
* ''Farewell Sweet Whispering Echo'', glee (c.1826)
* ''Say Will Summer Roses Bloom'', duet (c.1828)
* ''Meet me by Moonlight'', ballad (c.1830)
* ''Shula Agra'', Irish ballad (c.1830)
* ''The Faithless One'' (c.1830)
* ''Polish Melodies'' (1831)
* ''I have Fruit, I have Flow'rs'', cavatina (c.1840)
Piano
* ''A Grand Duet for Two Performers on the Piano Forte'' (1827)
Writings
* ''The Hand-Book to the Piano Forte'' (London, 1844)
References
External links
*
* Works by J.A. Wade a
IMSLP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, J. Augustus
1800s births
1845 deaths
19th-century Irish classical composers
19th-century Irish male musicians
Irish conductors (music)
Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom
Irish opera composers
Irish male opera composers
Musicians from Dublin (city)