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Robert Lucas de Pearsall

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ROBERT LUCAS DE PEARSALL (1795-1856), English composer, was born on the 14th of March 1795, at Clifton. Educated for the bar, he practised till 1825, when he left England for Germany and studied composition under Panny of Mainz; with the exception of three comparatively short visits to England, during one of which he made the acquaintance of the English school of madrigals, he lived abroad, selling his family property of Willsbridge and settling in the castle of Wartensee, on the lake of Constance. He produced many works of lasting beauty, nearly all of them for voices in combination: from his part songs, such as "Oh, who will o'er the downs ?" to his elaborate and scholarly madrigals, such as the admirable eight-part compositions, "Great God of Love" and "Lay a Garland," or the beautiful "Light of my Soul." His reception into the Roman Church in his later years may have suggested the composition of some beautiful sacred music, among other things a fine "Salve Regina." He wrote many valuable treatises on music, and edited a Roman Catholic hymn-book.

He died on the 5th of August 1856.