Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearsall, Robert Lucas
PEARSALL, ROBERT LUCAS (de) (1795–1856), musical composer, was born at Clifton on 14 March 1795. His father, Richard Pearsall, had held a commission in the army; his maternal grandmother, Philippa Still, was a descendant of John Still, bishop of Bath and Wells. His mother was Elizabeth Lucas, from whom he inherited his musical taste. At her desire he was educated (by private tutors) for the bar, to which he was called in 1821. He went on the western circuit for four years. During that period he was a constant contributor to ‘Blackwood's’ and other magazines.
His musical talent was precocious, and at thirteen he wrote a cantata, ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor,’ which was privately printed. In 1825 he went abroad to recruit his health, and, settling at Mainz, where he remained four years, he studied music under Josef Panny, an Austrian, who directed a private music-school there. In 1829 he returned for a year to England, staying at his seat, Willsbridge House in Gloucestershire. Soon removing to Carlsruhe, for the purpose of educating his children, he continued composing. Among other works he wrote an overture to ‘Macbeth,’ with witches' chorus, which, after a spell of popularity in Germany, was published at Mainz in 1839. At Munich Pearsall subsequently studied the strict style of church music under Caspar Ett (1788–1847), an organist and teacher of repute. From Munich he went to Vienna, where he formed a lasting friendship with Kiesewetter, and he visited Nuremberg, where he investigated the ‘Kiss of the Virgin,’ a mode of torture which he described in ‘Archæologia.’
In 1836 he returned once more to England, and became in the following year one of the first members of the Bristol Madrigal Society, a body which during the early years of its existence frequently performed his compositions. It was probably due to the encouragement offered him by this society that Pearsall devoted himself to the composition of madrigals, with which his name is chiefly identified. An essay by him on the madrigalian style was published in Germany.
In 1837 he sold his property of Willsbridge, and returned to the continent. In 1842 he purchased the beautiful castle of Wartensee, on the lake of Constance. With Schnyder von Wartensee, a former owner of the castle, Pearsall had previously studied; and, after a brief visit (his last) to England in 1847, he restored the ruined parts of his castle, where he passed the remainder of his life. At Wartensee Pearsall kept open house, and was frequently visited by men eminent in music, literature, and archæology. There, too, he wrote the greatest number and the best of his musical compositions. He died suddenly, of apoplexy, on 5 Aug. 1856, and was buried in a vault in the chapel of Wartensee. Before his death he was received by his friend the bishop of St. Gall into the Roman church, and added the prefix ‘de’ to his surname. He left a widow, a son, and two daughters, one of whom, Elizabeth Still, married Charles Wyndham Stanhope, seventh earl of Harrington, in 1839.
Pearsall's works include many settings of psalms (68th, 1847; 77th and 57th, 1849); a requiem, which he considered his chef d'œuvre; forty-seven part-songs, madrigals, including ‘The Hardy Norseman,’ ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ in ten parts, ‘Great God of Love,’ ‘Lay a Garland on her Hearse.’ The last two, for eight voices, and his arrangement of ‘In dulci jubilo’ (four voices) deserve a place among the finest specimens of English part-writing. Pearsall's madrigals combine ‘artistically the quaintness of the old style with modern grace and elegance’ (Grove, Dict. of Music, ii. 659a, s.v. ‘Part-song’). Besides his numerous compositions, Pearsall co-operated in editing the old St. Gall hymn-book, which was published under the title ‘Katholisches Gesangbuch zum Gebrauch bei dem öffentlichen Gottesdienste’ in 1863. Pearsall was also an excellent draughtsman, and assisted in illustrating von Hefter's ‘Geschichte der Geräthschaften des Mittelalters.’ He also published translations in English verse of ‘Faust’ and ‘Wilhelm Tell.’ His extensive and valuable library of musical treatises was presented by his heirs to the Benedictine Abbey at Einsiedeln in Switzerland.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, passim; an excellent brief memorial of De Pearsall was published by Mr. Julian Marshall in the Musical Times, 1882, p. 376, which corrected many errors that had appeared in previous notices; Novello's catalogues.]