William Reeve (1757 – 22 June 1815) was an English theatre composer and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Biography

Reeve was born in London. He initially studied to be a law stationer but abandoned his studies in order to study the

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

with a Mr Richardson of St James's,

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. He became an organist in

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and ab ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

in 1781. In 1783 he returned to London to work for

Astley's Amphitheatre Astley's Amphitheatre was a performance venue in London opened by Philip Astley in 1773, considered the first modern circus ring. It was burned and rebuilt several times, and went through many owners and managers. Despite no trace of the thea ...

where he composed all-sung burlettas. He also composed stage works of various kinds for John Palmer's short-lived Royalty Theatre. All of his works were entirely sung as none of these non-patent houses were permitted to perform works with any spoken drama. Some of Reeve's pieces were revived at the patent theatres after the Royalty closed in 1788. Most notably, his ballet-pantomime ''Don Juan'' (1787) was incredibly popular and both

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

and

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

adopted it for their repertories. In 1787 Reeve was elected to the

Royal Society of Musicians The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain is a Charitable organization, charity in the United Kingdom that supports musicians. It is the oldest music-related charity in Great Britain, founded in 1738 as the ''Fund for Decay'd Musicians'' by a ...

and eventually served as the governor of the organization in both 1794 and 1804. Reeve occasionally worked as an actor at the Haymarket company during the late 1780s and early 1790s. He also appeared in productions at Covent Garden for two seasons (1789–91), playing minor roles for £2 a week. In the autumn of 1791, Covent Garden's house composer, William Shield, left abruptly and Reeve took over the position for £4 a week. While there he completed Shield's score for the ballet-pantomime, ''Oscar and Malvina'' (1791) in addition to composing some of his own theater works. After Shield's return in 1792 Reeve became organist of St Martin Ludgate but continued as a freelance composer for London's patent and minor theatres. He also provided much rather facile music for the topical spectacles and pantomimes at

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a London performing arts venue, located in Rosebery Avenue, Islington. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site. Sadler's Wells grew out of a late 17th-century pleasure garden and was opened as a theatre buil ...

. During

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

of 1794 he was engaged at the Lyceum Theatre for four nights a week, producing ''Mirth's Museum'', a variety entertainment. He served a second term as Covent Garden's house composer during 1797–8 and began collaborating with other composers. In 1802 he wrote the music for Thomas John Dibdin's comic opera, '' Family Quarrels''. From 1803 until his death Reeve also served as co-proprietor, director of music, and shareholder of Sadler's Wells Aquatic Theatre, where he set about 80

librettos A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...

, many written by co-proprietor

Charles Dibdin the younger Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin (17 October 1768 – 15 January 1833), or Charles Pitt or Charles Dibdin the younger, as he was professionally known, was an English dramatist, composer, writer and theatre proprietor. He was perhaps best known f ...

. Because of the success at Drury Lane of Reeve's comic opera ''The Caravan'' (1803), which featured an on-stage water tank into which ''Carlos the wonder dog'' leaped to rescue a drowning child, Sadler's Wells installed an irregularly shaped 8000-gallon tank, three feet deep, beneath the stage. Reeve wrote music for the new specialty, ‘aquadrama’: all-sung musicals featuring

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

waterfalls A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

, nautical battles, ocean fiends and other watery terrors. Reeve wrote largely to support and highlight the talents of specific performers, such as the clown

Joseph Grimaldi Joseph Grimaldi (18 December 1778 – 31 May 1837)Moody, Jane"Grimaldi, Joseph" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 13 February 2012 was an English actor, comedian and dancer, who became the most ...

at Sadler's Wells, and to provide easy listening. He could rapidly compose

strophic Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, ...

comic

songs A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usuall ...

in the popular Scottish style and compile scores based on genuine

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

and

folksongs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has bee ...

. Reviewers found his music entertaining. Some of his other popular later works included a

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

, ''The Purse'' (1794), a

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

, ''Merry Sherwood'' (1795) (especially the drinking song ''I am a friar of orders grey'') and a

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

, ''The Cabinet'' (1802). At the time of his death in London, Reeve owned seven of Sadler's Wells's 40 shares, which he bequeathed to his daughter, Charlotte. His family pursued theatrical careers as well: his wife Mrs. Reeve sang at Astley's and in ''Mirth's Museum'', his daughter Charlotte was an actress, and his son George composed for Sadler's Wells and played the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

. A portrait of Reeve engraved by J. Hopwood (after E. Smith) appears in the libretto to ''The Cabinet''.

Selected stage works

* ''The Purse'' (1794) * ''British Fortitude'' (1794) * ''The Apparition'' (1794) * ''The Charity Boy'' (1796) * ''Bantry Bay'' (1797) * ''The Raft'' (1798) * ''Harlequin's Return'' (1798) * ''Ramah Droog'' (1798) * ''The Embarkation'' (1799) * ''The Turnpike Gate'' (1799) * ''Paul and Virginia'' (1800) * ''The Blind Girl'' (1801) * ''The Chains of the Heart'' (1801) * ''Jamie and Anna'' (c.1801) * ''The Cabinet'' (1802) * ''Family Quarrels'' (1802) * ''The Caravan'' (1803) * ''Out of Place'' (1805) * ''Thirty Thousand, or Who's the Richest?'' (1804) * ''Kais'' (1808) * ''The White Witch'' (1808) * ''The Magic Minstrel'' (1808) * ''Oscar and Malvina, or The Hall of Fingal'' (1810) * ''The Red Reaver'' (1811) * ''The Council of Ten'' (1811) * ''Rokeby Castle'' (1813) * ''Who's to have her?'' (1813) * ''Narensky, or The Road to Yaroslaf'' (1814) * ''The Farmer's Wife'' (1814) * ''The Corsair'' (1814) * ''Brother and Sister'' (1815)

Sources

* Linda Troost: "William Reeve", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 20, 2008)
(subscription access)
*''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992),

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reeve, William English classical composers English organists English male organists English opera composers English male opera composers 1757 births 1815 deaths Members of the Royal Society of Musicians