Samuel Slack (1757–1822), sometimes known as ''The Tideswell Vocalist'', was a noted

bass singer A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E b ...

, a native of the

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorl ...

and protégé of

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Spencer; ; 7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806), was an English aristocrat, socialite, political organiser, author, and activist. Born into the Spencer family, married into the Cavendish family, she w ...

. Slack was a natural bass, and though of unpolished manners (in one account "an uncouth example of common manhood") he was able, thanks to the Duchess's patronage, to study under

Reginald Spofforth Reginald Spofforth (1769 ( baptised 12 September) – 8 September 1827) was an English musician. He was born in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, but moved to London around 1790. He was active as an organist, conductor and music teacher, but he is ...

. At the height of his career he was the most popular bass singer in England, and he is said to have performed before

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

. His tomb in

Tideswell Tideswell is a village and civil parish in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It lies east of Buxton on the B6049, in a wide valley on a limestone plateau, at an altitude of above sea level, and is within the District of Derbyshire Da ...

churchyard, initially erected by public subscription, was restored in 1891.

Sources

* "Notes of the Month", ''

The Antiquary ''The Antiquary'' (1816), the third of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, centres on the character of an antiquary: an amateur historian, archaeologist and collector of items of dubious antiquity. He is the eponymous character and for all pr ...

'', vol. 24 (1891), p. 237. *

M. J. B. Baddeley Mountford John Byrde Baddeley (1843–1906) was a distinguished English guidebook writer of the late 19th and early 20th century. His guides appeared in the 'Thorough Guide' series, edited by Baddeley and his colleague, Charles Slegg Ward, and ...

, ''The Peak District of Derbyshire and the Neighbourhood''(7th ed., 1899), p. 116.

External links

BygoneDerbyshire.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slack, Samuel 1757 births 1822 deaths English basses