John Christopher Smith Junior (1712-1795) : his life, selected works, and his association with Handel

Thesis

John Christopher Smith Junior (1712-95), often confused with his father of the same name, was Handel’s student, a teacher of music, a composer, and an accomplished keyboard player who sometimes played continuo for Handel’s Italian operas; he also acted as Handel’s assistant when the great man was stricken with blindness.

His early keyboard compositions (Opp. 1 and 2) are Handelian in style as also are his early large-scale works: three operas in English, two odes, a serenata, and one oratorio. Surprisingly, Smith himself took up Italian opera in the mid 1740s, writing three complete operas (two at least lacking recitatives) and arias for two more.

When, in 1751, Handel began to show symptoms of increasing blindness, he called on Smith to assist him with the oratorios. During these years Smith became the Foundling Hospital’s first organist, wrote two more sets of keyboard pieces heavily influenced by Scarlatti, composed four oratorios of his own, plus two English operas and an afterpiece in association with David Garrick.

Following Handel’s death, Smith went into partnership with John Stanley to continue the oratorio series, first at Covent Garden and later at Drury Lane. Smith composed one further collection of keyboard works, now firmly in the galant style, and two more oratorios (one incomplete), a burial service, and an unfinished English opera.

Smith’s chief importance lies in his connection with Handel’s oratorios, and the presence of his hand on various manuscripts (see Appendix I) strongly suggests that he was at least partially responsible for some of the late additions to these works. Other appendices cover the Foundling Hospital, oratorios performed in competition with the Smith-Stanley series, Smith’s oratorio singers, his family trees, and other Smiths.

Music examples are in Volume II, and Volume III is a catalogue of Smith’s works with musical incipits.

Authors: Small, BM

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: England; composers; John Christopher Smith Junior; Handel
• Subjects: Composers -- England -- 18th century -- Biography; Handel, George Frideric, 1685-1759 -- Friends and associates; Smith, John Christopher, 1712-1795