A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bache, Francis
BACHE, Francis Edward, born at Birmingham Sept. 14, 1833; died there Aug. 24, 1858, in his twenty-fifth year. As a child he showed very great fondness and aptitude for music, studied the violin with Alfred Mellon (then conductor of the Birmingham theatre), and in 1846 was allowed to play in the festival orchestra when Mendelssohn conducted 'Elijah.'
In the autumn of 1849 he left school at Birmingham to study under Sterndale Bennett in London. His first overture was performed at the Adelphi Theatre in Nov. 1850, and about a year later his 'Three Impromptus' (his first piano piece) came out. He remained studying with Bennett, and during the latter part of the time writing for Addison, Hollier, and Lucas, from 1849 to 53. In Oct. 53 he went to Leipsic, studied with Hauptmann and Plaidy, and took occasional organ lessons from Schneider at Dresden. He returned to London (after a short visit to the opera, 'William Tell,' etc., at Paris) early in 1855. At the end of 55 he was driven by severe illness to Algiers, but returned to Leipsic for the summer and autumn of 56; then went to Rome for the winter, calling on old Czerny in Vienna, who was much pleased with him, and wrote to that effect to Kistner. He reached England very ill in June 57, passed that winter in Torquay, and returned to Birmingham, which he never again left, in April 58.
Bache's published compositions are numerous, and include four mazurkas, op. 13; five characteristic pieces, op. 15; Souvenirs d' Italie, op. 19, for piano solo; andante and rondo polonaise, for piano and orchestra; trio for piano and strings, op. 25; romance for piano and violin; six songs, op. 16; barcarola Veneziana. Also a concerto in E for piano and orchestra, and two operas, 'Rübezahl' and 'Which is Which,' all unpublished. With all their merit, however, none of these can be accepted by those who knew him as adequate specimens of his ability, which was unquestionably very great. His youth, his impressionable enthusiastic character, and continual ill-health must all be considered in forming a judgment of one who, had he lived, would in all probability have proved a lasting ornament to the English school.[ G. ]