Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/382

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Grove
370
Grove

grammes in London and elsewhere, including America. The most important of these interesting notices were published in a volume in 1884, and, after being amplified and carefully revised, were reissued as 'Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies' in 1896. At the palace, in co-operation with August Manns, Grove did much to make the music of Schubert one of his special favourites known. In the autumn of 1867 he, in company with Sir Arthur Sullivan [q. v. Suppl.], paid a memorable visit to Vienna, where they were successful in unearthing Schubert's 'Rosamunde' music, which had been neglected for more than forty years. A full account of this discovery is related by Grove in the Appendix to the English translation of Kreissle's 'Life of Schubert' (1869). At the end of 1873 he resigned the post of secretary to the Crystal Palace Company (though he still retained connection with the building which owed so much to him by being made a director), upon the acceptance of an offer from Messrs. Macmillan, the publishers, to an important position on their editorial staff. He edited 'Macmillan's Magazine' for some years, and wrote for Macmillan's series of 'History Primers' a primer of geography (1875), which has been translated into French and Italian.

The great work of his life a work which will carry his name down to posterity was the 'Dictionary of Music and Musicians.' The prospectus, dated 'March 1874,' stated that the work was not to exceed two volumes of some 600 pages; it ultimately attained to four volumes and an exhaustive index, totalling together 3,313 pages. The first volume appeared in 1878, and the fourth in 1889; an index volume was issued in 1890. Grove was not only the projector and editor of the 'Dictionary,' but, in addition to many other articles, he contributed three important monographs on Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schubert his favourite trio of composers which are models of biographical literature. He made two special journeys to Germany to obtain materials for his Mendelssohn article, and more than two to Vienna for his monographs on Beethoven and Schubert.

In 1883 he took a very active part in the movement, initiated by King Edward VII when prince of Wales, for the formation of the Royal College of Music at Kensington, and was appointed the first director of that institution. For eleven years he threw all his energies into the work of organising and getting into working order that great music school. He resigned the office of director at Christmas 1894, when he was succeeded by Professor Sir C. Hubert H. Parry.

Grove's interests in life were very varied. In his earliest days he had been instilled with a knowledge of the Bible, much of which he knew by heart. Fired by a remark made by James Fergusson (1808–1886) [q. v.], author of 'The Handbook of Architecture,' that there was no full concordance of the proper names in the Bible, Grove set to work, and with the aid of his wife made a complete index of every occurrence of every proper name in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha, with their equivalents in Hebrew, LXX, Greek and Vulgate Latin. This was in 1853–4. His next Bible study was a step in a similar direction. In 1854 he made the acquaintance of Arthur Penryn Stanley (afterwards dean of Westminster) [q. v.], who became his lifelong friend and who appointed Grove his literary executor. Stanley (then canon of Canterbury) was at the time engaged on the appendix to his 'Sinai and Palestine,' the first step in the topography of the Bible, with the result that it engendered a strong desire in Grove to visit the Holy Land. He paid two visits to Palestine in 1859 and 1861 the outcome of these journeys being the formation in 1865 of the Palestine Exploration Fund, of which Grove was virtually the founder and institutor. He became hon. secretary to the fund and laboured incessantly on its behalf. A further contribution to biblical literature was the editorial assistance he rendered to (Sir) William Smith (1813–1893) [q. v.] in the preparation of his 'Dictionary of the Bible.' In addition to writing about a thousand pages of the book, he rewrote some of the articles but retained the initials of the original writers. He also furnished the index to Clark's 'Bible Atlas' (1868), in which the places are recorded in English and Hebrew, followed by the texts in which the names of the places occur.

The mental and physical activity of Sir George Grove was quite remarkable. He translated Guizot's 'Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts' (1853), and contributed a sketch, 'Nabloos and the Samaritans,' to Sir Francis Galton's 'South Africa' (1853). He contributed prefaces to Otto Jahn's 'Life of Mozart,' Hensel's 'Mendelssohn Family,' W. S. Rockstro's 'Life of Handel,' 'A Short History of Cheap Music, as exemplified in the Records of the House of Novello, Ewer, & Co.,' 'The Early Letters of Schumann,' and to Mr. F. G. Edwards's 'History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio "Elijah."' He was also a frequent contributor to periodical literature.

Grove was the recipient, on 19 July 1880, of a gratifying testimonial—a thousand