Vincent Novello

Who was Vincent Novello?

Vincent Novello, English musician, son of an Italian who married an English wife, was born in London.

As a boy, Novello was a chorister at the Sardinian chapel in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he learnt the organ; and from 1796 to 1822 he became in succession organist of the Sardinian, Spanish and Portuguese chapels, and from 1840 to 1843 of St Mary's chapel, Moorfields. He also taught music privately throughout his career. One of his notable pupils was musicologist and music critic Edward Holmes.

He was an original member of the Philharmonic Society, of the Classical Harmonists and of the Choral Harmonists, officiating frequently as conductor. In 1849 he went to live at Nice, where he died. Many of his compositions were sacred music, much of which was very popular. His great contribution, however, together with Christian Ignatius Latrobe, lay in the introduction to England of unknown compositions by the great masters, such as the Masses of Haydn and Mozart, the works of Palestrina, the treasures of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and innumerable, now well known great compositions.