MAY, Edward Collett, born October 29, 1806, at Greenwich, where his father was a shipbuilder. His first teacher was his brother Henry, an amateur musician and composer of considerable ability. When about fifteen years of age, Thomas Adams, then organist of St. Paul's, Deptford, and an intimate friend of the May family, struck by the promise and intelligence of Edward, offered to take him as a pupil. This offer was, of course, willingly accepted, and for several years he received regular instruction in composition and organ-playing from that admirable musician and then peerless executant. Subsequently he became a pupil of Cipriani Potter for the pianoforte, and of Crivelli for singing. In 1837 he was appointed organist of Greenwich Hospital, an office he held till the abolition of the institution in 1869. May's entry on the particular work to which his talents have now for so many years been so successfully devoted, grew out of his accidental attendance at one of many lectures on popular instruction in vocal music, given by the writer of this notice about the year 1841. From that time to the present (1879) he has devoted himself enthusiastically and exclusively to such teaching; and it may be safely asserted, that to no individual, of any age or country, have so many persons of all ages and of both sexes been indebted for their musical skill. At one institution alone, the National Society's Central School, more than a thousand teachers and many more children have been instructed by him. At Exeter Hall, the Apollonicon Rooms, and subsequently St. Martin's Hall, several thousand adults passed through his classes; while, for many years past, he has been the sole musical instructor at the Training Schools, Battersea, St. Mark's, Whitelands, Home and Colonial, and Hockerill; institutions from which upwards of 250 teachers are annually sent forth to elementary schools. After many years connection with the Institution, Mr. May has recently—wholly without solicitation on his part—been appointed Professor of Vocal Music in Queen's College, London. The words of Béranger, applied to Wilhem, may with equal propriety be applied to May,—not merely has he devoted the best years of his life and all his energies to public musical instruction, but sacrificed every other aim or object to it—'même sa gloire.' [App. p.715 "add date of death, Jan. 2, 1887"]
His daughter, Florence May, is known in London as a pianoforte player of considerable cultivation and power.
[ J. H. ]
MAY-QUEEN, THE, a Pastoral; words by Mr. Chorley, music by W. Sterndale Bennett, written for a festival at Leeds, and produced there Sept. 8, 1858. The overture was composed before the year 1844, and was originally entitled 'Marie du Bois.' [App. p.715 "it was first performed June 24, 1845, at Bennett's own concert."]
[ G. ]
MAYER, Charles, celebrated pianist, born March 21, 1799, at Königsberg. His father, a good clarinet player, went soon after his birth to St. Petersburg, and four years after to Moscow, where he settled with his family. He first learned from his mother, a good pianoforte teacher, and later became a pupil of Field. After the burning of Moscow in 1812 the family fled to St. Petersburg, where the mother became pianoforte teacher, and where the lessons with Field were resumed. The pupil played so exactly like his master that connoisseurs were unable to tell which was at the piano if a screen was interposed. In 1814 Mayer accompanied his father to Paris, where he was well received. He first played his concert-variations on 'God save the king' in Amsterdam. In 1819 he returned to St. Petersburg, where he worked hard and successfully at teaching, and formed as many as 800 pupils. In 1845 he travelled to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Vienna, but this was his last tour. In 1850 he settled in Dresden, where he taught, gave concerts, and composed up to his death, which took place on July 2, 1862. His pieces reach the astonishing number of 900. Mayer's playing was distinguished by great purity of style, and expression, and his compositions are eminently suited to the instrument. They include a concerto with orchestra in D, op. 70; a concerto symphonique, op. 89; and variations and fantasias on opera airs. His 'Polka Bohémienne' in A, was at one time immensely popular. [App. p.715 "a Mazurka by him in F♯ major was for some time considered to be by Chopin, and as such was included in the first issue of Klindworth's edition. It has been removed from later issues."]
[ F. G. ]
MAYER, or MAYR, Johann Simon, esteemed opera composer in the beginning of this century, born June 14, 1763, at Mendorf in Bavaria; early showed talent for music, which he first learned from his father the village schoolmaster and organist. When about 10 he entered the Jesuit seminary at Ingolstadt, but did not neglect his music, either then or when after the banishment of the Jesuits he studied law in Ingolstadt. Having made the acquaintance of a nobleman, Thomas de Bessus of the Grisons, he lived in the house as music master, and was afterwards sent by his patron to Bergamo, to study with Lenzi, maestro di capella there. Mayr found however that his master knew little more than himself, and was on the point of returning to Germany, when Count Pesenti, a canon of Bergamo, provided him with the means of going to F. Bertoni in Venice. Here again his expectations were deceived, but he picked up some practical hints and a few rules from Bertoni, and hard work and the study of good books did the rest. He had already published some songs in Ratisbon; and in Bergamo and Venice he composed masses and vespers. After the success of his oratorio 'Jacob a Labano fugiens,' composed in 1791 for the Conservatorio dei Mendicanti, and performed before a distinguished audience, he was commissioned to compose three more oratorios for Venice ('David,' 'Tobiae matrimonium' and 'Sisara'). For Forli he wrote 'Jephte' and a Passion. Thrown on his own resources by the sudden death of his patron, he was urged by Piccinni to try the stage, and his first opera 'Saffo, ossia i riti d' Apollo Leucadio' was so well received at the Fenice in Venice (1794) that he was immediately overwhelmed with commissions, and between that date and 1814 composed no less than 70 operas. Indeed it was not till Rossini's success that his fame declined. Many of his melodies were sung about the streets, such as the pretty cavatina 'O quanto
