Frobisher, John, friend of Branwell Bronte

Frobisher, John:

prominent figure in the musical life of Halifax.

 

He organised Liszt' t triumphant concert. He was the organist to the Parish Church, and conductor of the Choral Society. Branwell, knowing him from his Halifax days, wrote to him in March 1846 and sent him his poem “An Echo from Indian Cannon,” a patriotic piece inspired by an incident in the First Anglo-Sikh War, with the suggestion that he publish it to the tune of Gluck’s “mater divinae gratiae,” or in an arrangement of his own.

 

One of the best documented journeys was the long and arduous tour of the British Isles in 1840–41. It was arranged by the impresario and conductor Louis Lavenu, who assembled a small troupe of four or five musicians including the Welsh singer John Orlando Parry, whose diaries give a colourful account of those times. Liszt was the star attraction, and he was tempted by Lavenu’s invitation because he needed the money to cover the rising expenditures of his family in Paris. The party appeared in such places as Oxford, Chichester and Exeter in the south, and Manchester, Halifax, Preston, Rochdale and Darlington in the north. In November 1840 Lavenu took his group across the Irish Sea where they performed in Dublin, Cork and the smaller market towns of southern Ireland. The tour, which later encompassed Scotland, was dogged by misfortune, attracted small audiences and confronted out-of-tune pianos and other mishaps, all faithfully reported in Parry’s diaries. Lavenu lost more than £1000 on the venture (a small fortune in those days) and Liszt’s fees remained unpaid. 45 years elapsed before Liszt returned to Great Britain. lisztomania