John Jesse White 1833-1916

[giles.enders]

John Jesse White  Born 10 March  1833 Bermondsey, London   Died December 1916 Wandsworth, London

John Jesse White, violinist, organist and composer. He was the eldest of seven children,* the son of a greengrocer John White and his wife Mary Ann, later a music seller, who moved his family to a poor part of Birmingham (Tonk Street, now Hill Street) in about 1835.  He was a pupil of James Stimpson, for organ and theory, following which he became musical director at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham at the young age of twenty  He later moved to Paris for further studies under Jaques Halevy.  For a time he was first violin at the Theatre Lyrique, Paris.

As a musical director, composer and organist, he spent many years in Chile, Peru, La Plata and South America generally.  His experiences have been described as far out of the ordinary.  A Spanish opera of his was performed in La Plata, and a Portuguese opera, in Rio de Janerio.

John Jesse would have probably been totally forgotten if it were not for the following incident:  On December 8th 1863 he had played the violin in the early Masses in the Church of the Company of Jesus at Lo Campania, Santiago, Chile.  It was a day of the Great Festival.  He left early owing to a prior engagement, which was fortunate as the church caught fire and between 2,500 and 3,000 persons were burned to death. 

In 1881 he was back in Europe again, and appeared for the first time in Bayreuth on May 13 1881. He was for a time a member of the Meiningen Orchestra under Hans von Bulow and played in the production of Parsival in 1882
While in Germany he met and married his wife Matilde who was from Bavaria.  They had six children. only three survived him.

Soon after this he returned to England but a change of climate caused a long and dangerous illness.  He gave recitals and lectures in Birmingham and neighbourhood in 1885 and the next year was appointed music director of the Southport Winter Gardens.  He remained there for nine years and some of his compositions were introduced.  In 1895 he moved to Sydenham, South London, remaining there until his death in 1916.

Orchestral

Symphony No.1
Symphony No.2
'Titania' concert overture  1887
'Judah'  tone poem  1891
'Hedwig'  violin concerto in D minor, premiered in Munich in 1884 (in Fleischer collection)

Chamber

There are six string quartets.

Choral

Two large masses
Four lesser masses

Opera

A Spanish opera which was premiered in La Plata
A Portuguese opera which was premiered in Rio de Janeiro
'La Figlia della Dora' (Italian)  1868
'Ode, Queen of the North' (French)  1892

John Jesse White's siblings are listed below. I list these in the hope that some descendants might know more about him.
*
John Jesse White 1833
Amelia White  1835
Emma White  1839
Thomas Henry White  1843
James White 1845
George Frederick White 1847
Julia White 1851

[Sibeliusfan]

Sounds interesting. Did any of his music survive?
The Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland states that he was a pupil of Halévy in Paris ànd that there was a 19th-century namesake. That last thing makes biographical details unsure. For this JJW or for the other and intriguing: who was that other JJ White?

[giles.enders]

Some of the biographical information I used came from British Music Biography Brown?Stratton 1897.  I edited the piece I posted above in relation to two Whites, I quote: During the time he was first violin at the Theatre Lyrique, Paris, there was another violinist of the name and they were distinguished as M. White le Blanc and M. White le noir .
In later years the two were in Rio de Janerio together, and the compositions of the one have at times been mistaken for the other.

The White le noir is Joseph White and born in Cuba.  He was appointed professor to the Imperial Family of Brazil

[John H White]

I feel very honoured to know that there are so many composers with the name of John White. I gather that there is even one just a couple of years younger than me still living in England. I'd love to become acquainted with the symphonies of the first mentioned composer: I'm sure they'd be a lot more worth listening to than any of my own symphonic offerings!  Sadly, I very much doubt if I could claim relationship to either of the two mentioned in this thread, as my "White" ancestors for most of that period were farmers in the Scottish Borders.

[giles.enders]

Perhaps the name  'White' is not such a good one to have as all composers with that name have sunk below the parapet as far as their compositions are concerned.

[eschiss1]

The Renaissance/Tudor composer William White (ca.1571-1634) partially excepted? Or not even? (The name doesn't seem to have hurt Sylvius Leopold Weiss any recently, though. But... anyways.)

[giles.enders]

Outnumbered by:
Dora White, Felix White 1884-1945, Mary Louisa White 1866, Paul White 1895, Maude Valerie White 1855-1931, Arthur Norton Wight, 1858, James Whyte 1857, Ian Whyte 1901

[eschiss1]

and Adolphe Blanc. ... actually, ok, Adolphe Blanc is doing a little better right now.

[JimL]

White le noir is better known as José White, and he was a major violin virtuoso in Paris for quite a while.  His Violin Concerto in F# minor has been recorded at least twice, most recently by Rachel Barton Pine.

[eschiss1]

HMB also lists the Hedwig Concerto as having been published in 1884 (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel). (Reduction listed in February 1884, full score in March 1884 Hofmeister Monatsbericht.) When (more specifically)/where was it premiered? (Besides Fleisher, also Newberry Library in Chicago, British Library and the Dutch Royal Library have either the full score or the reduction. St Pancras does have the score also. Dedication from Fleisher: "Seiner Hoheit dem Herzoge von Sachsen Meiningen ehrfurchtsvoll gewidmet vom Componisten.") So in answer to Sibeliusfan- at least that work survives, yes, and in several forms (especially if "I edited the piece..." means what I think it does? I'm not sure.  I mean, Fleisher or other libraries listing something in score & parts doesn't always mean that those parts and score are in fact useable - regrettable qv a Hans Huber piano concerto, if I remember correctly, where I recall someone mentioning that the score and parts had been gone over with a view to performance but just were no longer sufficiently legible in the case of that work... - but if someone has made a performing edition from the Hedwig-Concerto, then the answer really -is- yes...)

[eschiss1]

Would I be right btw to guess that some of the worklist at the top of this came from White's entry in "British musical biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors, and composers born in Britain and its colonies online" (Brown/Stratton, 1897) or something like? (Specific archive.org link.)
I (well, not just me and not much right this moment- I'm supposedly on vacation, &c- but I enjoy such things) will try to see if more works than the Hedwig-Concert still survive, but it's possible some were never published, only performed from manuscript, and absent a keeper of White's papers, that may make it less likely. Still, a challenge, one enjoys a challenge...

Could the Fantasia on Nursery Rhymes by "J J White" published in 1892 be by the same John Jesse White (even if not mentioned in the 1897 entry...)?

[giles.enders]

Yes, apart from the concerto that is where I found the work list.  He seems to have had an interesting life much of which remains a mystery.