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ERSKINE, THOMAS ALEXANDER,
sixth earl of Kellie, a distinguished musical genius, was born on
September 1st, 1732. He was the eldest son of Alexander, fifth earl of
Kellie, by Janet Pitcairn, daughter of the celebrated physician and poet.
The earls of Kellie were a branch of the Marr family, ennobled through the
favour of James VI. and I., which was acquired by the services of Sir Thomas
Erskine of Gogar, in protecting his majesty from the machinations of the
earl of Gowry and his brother. The father of the subject of this memoir,
though possessed of a kind of rude wit, was always deemed a person of
imperfect intellect, of which he seems to have been himself aware. Being
confined in Edinburgh castle for his concern in the insurrection of 1745, he
one morning came into the room occupied by his brethren in misfortune,
showing a paper in his hand. This was a list of persons whom the government
had resolved to prosecute no further, and while his lordship’s name stood
at the head, on account of his rank, it was closed by the name of a Mr
William Fidler, who had been an auditor in the Scottish exchequer. "Oh,
is not this a wise government?" cried the earl, "to begin wi’ a
fule and end wi’ a fiddler!" On his lordship’s death, in 1756, he
was succeeded by his eldest son, who seems to have inherited the wit of his
father, along with the more brilliant genius of his mother’s family.
The earl of Kellie displayed,
at an early period of life, a considerable share of ability; and it was
anticipated that he would distinguish himself in some public employment
worthy of his exalted rank. He was led, however, by an overmastering
propensity to music, to devote himself almost exclusively to that art. We
are informed by Dr Burney, in his History of Music, that "the earl of
Kellie, who was possessed of more musical science than any dilletante with
whom I was ever acquainted, and who, according to Pinto, before he travelled
into Germany, could scarcely tune his fiddle, shut himself up at Manheim
with the elder Stamitz, and studied composition, and practised the violin
with such serious application, that, at his return to England, there was no
part of theoretical or practical music, in which he was not equally well
versed with the greatest professors of his time. Indeed, he had a strength
of hand on the violin, and a genius for composition, with which few
professors are gifted." In the age during which the earl of Kellie
flourished, it was unfortunately deemed an almost indispensible mark of a
man of genius, either in literature or music, to devote himself much to the
service of Bacchus. Hence this young nobleman, whose talents might have
adorned almost any walk of life, identified himself with the dissolute
fraternity who haunted the British metropolis, and of whom there was a
considerable off-shoot even in Edinburgh. Thus he spent, in low buffooneries
and debaucheries, time which might have been employed to the general
advantage of his country. He, nevertheless, composed a considerable quantity
of music, which, in its day, enjoyed a high degree of celebrity, though it
is generally deemed, in the present age, to be deficient in taste and
feeling. "In his works," says a late writer, "the fervidum
ingenium of his country bursts forth, and elegance is mingled with fire.
From the singular ardour and impetuosity of his temperament, joined to his
German education, under the celebrated Stamitz, and at a time when the
German overture, or symphony, consisting of a grand chorus of violins and
wind instruments, was in its highest vogue, this great composer has employed
himself chiefly in symphonies, but in a style peculiar to himself. While
others please and amuse, it is his province to rouse and almost overset his
hearer. Loudness, rapidity, enthusiasm, announced the earl of Kellie. His
harmonies are acknowledged to be accurate and ingenious, admirably
calculated for the effect in view, and discovering a thorough knowledge of
music. From some specimens, it appears that his talents were not confined to
a single style, which has made his admirers regret that he did not apply
himself to a greater variety of subjects. He s said to have composed only
one song, but that an excellent one. What appears singularly peculiar in
this musician, is what may be called the velocity of his talents, by which
he composed whole pieces of the most excellent music in one night. Part of
his works are still unpublished, and not a little is probably lost. Being
always remarkably fond of a concert of wind instruments, whenever he met
with a good band of them, he was seized with a fit of composition, and wrote
pieces in the moment, which he gave away to the performers, and never saw
again; and these, in his own judgment, were the best he ever composed."
Having much impaired his
constitution by hard living, the earl of Kellie visited Spa, from which he
was returning to England, when he was struck with a paralytic shock upon the
road. Being advised to stop a few days at Brussels, he was attacked by a
putrid fever, of which he died at that city, on the 9th of October, 1781, in
the fifty-first year of his age. |
