Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Best, William Thomas
BEST, William Thomas, son of a solicitor at Carlisle, was born there Aug. 13, 1826. He was educated in his native city under a private tutor. It was intended that he should adopt the profession of a civil engineer, but he chose music as a profession before the completion of his term in the former pursuit. He became Organist of the Panopticon, Leicester Square, in 1853; Organist of the chapel of Lincoln's Inn; Organist of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; Organist of St. George's Hall, Liverpool, in 1855 (a position he still holds); and Organist of the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, in 1871. In 1840 English organs were unsuitable for the performance of Bach's great organ works, the functions of the separate or "obbligato" pedal not being then understood. Goss, Thurle, and other well-known men of the same day merely played the organ as "piano," with an occasional holding-bass or drone-bass on the pedals. Mr. Best, however, induced organ-builders to reconstruct their instruments in accordance with Bach's system, in which the bass of organ music should be assigned to the pedals, and not to the left hand. This requires a complete and separata organ for the feet, the same as the keyboards for the hands. Bach's theory of music is now universal in England. Mr. Best has published the following works on organ music:—"Modern School for the Organ," 1854, a collection of original studies; "Art of Organ-Playing," 1870; sonatas, preludes and fugues, concert pieces in all styles, 1850–82; "Arrangements from the Scores of the Great Masters," 5 vols., 1873; "The Organ Student," 2 vols.; and several of Handel's works, including "Choral Fugues," 1856, "Organ Concertos," 1858, and "Handel Album," 1880. He has also published some pianoforte music, and an overture for orchestra and triumphal march, composed for musical festivals. In 1880 he received a Civil List pension of £100 per annum.