A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pepusch, John
PEPUSCH, John Christopher, Mus. Doc., son of the minister of a Protestant congregation in Berlin, and born there in 1667. He studied the theory of music under Gottlieb Klingenberg, organist at Stettin, and the practice of it under Grosse, a Saxon organist. Although his father's means did not admit of his receiving instruction for more than one year, he had made such excellent use of his time that at 14 years of age he obtained an appointment at the Prussian Court. Devoting himself to the study of the ancient Greek writers he became a deeply skilled theorist. He retained his appointment until he was 30 years old, when, being an eyewitness of an act of savage ferocity on the part of the king (the decapitation, without trial, of an officer who had uttered some words at which the barbarous despot took offence), he determined on quitting his native land for some country where human life was not in danger of destruction by the unbridled will of an individual. He first went to Holland, where he remained for upwards of a year. He came to England about 1700 and was engaged in the orchestra at Drury Lane. In 1707 he adapted the music of the opera. 'Thomyris, Queen of Scythia,' besides composing the recitatives and some additional songs, and probably did the same for others of the Anglo-Italian operas produced about that period. And at the same time, with the assistance of Abraham de Moivre, the celebrated mathematician, he zealously pursued his study of the music of the ancients. In 1710 he took an active part in the establishment of the Academy of Ancient Music [see that name], in which he took a deep interest throughout his life. In 1712 he was engaged by the Duke of Chandos as organist and composer to his chapel at Canons, for which he produced several services and anthems. About the same time he published 'Six English Cantatas,' the words by John Hughes, which were received with great favour, and one of which, 'Alexis,' with cello obbligato, continued to be sung in public until the first half of the present century had nearly passed away. He subsequently published a similar set, the words by various authors. On July 9, 1713, he took the degree of Mus. Doc. at Oxford, his exercise (performed July 13) being a dramatic ode on the Peace of Utrecht: the words were printed on both sides of a folio leaf. About the same time he revived the practice of solmisation by hexachords, which had been abandoned for upwards of a century. Soon afterwards he became music director at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, and continued so for many years. During his engagement there he composed the music for 'Venus and Adonis,' masque, 1715; 'Apollo and Daphne,' and 'The Death of Dido,' masques, 1716; and 'The Union of the Three Sister Arts,' masque for St. Cecilia's Day, 1723; besides arranging the tunes and composing overtures for 'The Beggar's Opera,' 1727, and 'The Wedding,' another ballad opera, 1734. He also arranged the tunes for Gay's interdicted opera 'Polly,' 1729. In 1724 he was induced to join in Dr. Berkeley's scheme of a college in the Bermudas, and actually embarked, but the ship being wrecked, the undertaking was abandoned, and he returned to England. He shortly afterwards married Margarita de l'Epine, the eminent singer, who brought him a fortune of £10,000. In 1730 there was published anonymously 'A Treatise on Harmony, containing the chief Rules for composing in two, three and four parts.' As the rules contained in the book were those which Pepusch was in the habit of imparting to his pupils, and as they were published without the necessary musical examples, he felt compelled to adopt the work, and accordingly in 1731 published a 'Second Edition' with the requisite additions, but still without his name. It was conjectured that the first edition was put forth by Viscount Paisley, afterwards Earl of Abercorn, who had been a pupil of Pepusch's; but on this point nothing is known. In 1737 he obtained the appointment of organist of the Charter House, where he passed the remainder of his days, devoting himself to his studies, the care of the Academy of Ancient Music, and the instruction of a Few favourite pupils. His wife is commonly said to have died in 1740, but an entry in a MS. diary kept by Benjamin (afterwards Dr.) Cooke, then a pupil of Pepusch, proves her death to have taken place in or about August 1746. Cooke writes, under date 'Sunday, Aug. 10, 1746,'—'I was at the (Surrey) Chapel in the morning, but in the afternoon went to Vauxhall with the Doctor, Mrs. Pepusch being dead.' Pepusch lost his only child, a son, a youth of great promise, some short time before. He wrote a paper on the ancient Genera, which was read before the Royal Society, and published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1746, and for which he was elected F.R.S. He died July 20, 1752, and was buried in the chapel of the Charter House, where a tablet was placed to his memory in 1757. Besides the compositions before named he produced odes to the memory of the Duke of Devonshire, 1707 (sung by Margarita de l'Epine and Mrs. Tofts) and for the Princess of Wales's birthday, March 1, 1715–16; airs, sonatas, and concertos for various combinations of string and wind instruments, and some Latin motets. He also edited Corelli's Sonatas in score. In 1751 he dictated 'A Short Account of the Twelve Modes of Composition and their Progression in every Octave,' never published. He bequeathed his library to John Travers and Ephraim Kelner, on whose deaths it was dispersed. A portrait of him is in the Music School, Oxford. Another portrait, by Hudson, has been engraved. Although Pepusch was somewhat pedantic, he was profoundly skilled in musical science, and the musicians he formed (of whom it is only necessary to mention Travers, Boyce, and Cooke) sufficiently attest his skill as a teacher.
[ W. H. H. ]