Howard, Samuel

, Mus. D. was brought up in the king’s chapel, and took his degree of doctor of music at Cambridge at the time of the Installation of theduke of Grafton as chancellor of that university. Dr. Howard had studied much under Dr. Pepusch at the Charter-house, and was well acquainted with the mechanical rules of counterpoint. His overture in the “Amorous Goddess,” a happy imitation of Handel’s overture in “Alcina,” particularly the musette and minuet, was very popular in the theatres and public gardens. But his ballads, which were long the delight of natural and inexperienced lovers of music, had the merit of facility; for this honest Englishman preferred the style of his own country to that of any other so mnch, that he never staggered in his belief of its being the best in the world, by listening to foreign artists or their productions, for whom and for which he had an invincible aversion.

He began to flourish about the year 1740, and from that time till Arne’s Vauxhall songs were published under the title of “Lyric Harmony,” they were the most natural and pleasing which our country could boast. After the decease of Michael Christian Festing, Dr. Howard took the lead in managing the affairs of the musical fund; but not with equal address and intelligence. He was a dull, vulgar, and unpleasant man; and by over-rating his own importance, and reigning paramount over his equals, he rendered the monthly meetings disagreeable, and cooled the zeal of many well-wishers to the society. He long laboured under a dropsy, yet walked about with legs of an enormous size, during several years. But it was not this disorder which put an end to his existence at last, but repeated paralytic strokes. He died about the year 1783. ¹