Francis Edward Bache

Who was Francis Edward Bache?

Francis Edward Bache was an English organist and composer.

Born at Birmingham as the eldest of seven children of Samuel Bache, a well-known Unitarian minister, he studied with James Stimpson, Birmingham City Organist, and with violinist Alfred Mellon while being educated at his father's school. He played the violin in the 1846 Birmingham festival, and in 1849 went to London as a private composition student for three years under William Sterndale Bennett

In October 1850 Bache became organist of All Saints, Gordon Square. While continuing his studies with Sterndale Bennett, Bache composed concertos, overtures, two operettas, a string quartet and a piano trio along with many piano pieces. He made his debut as a concert performer at Keighley, Yorkshire on January 21, 1851. When he played the Allegro of an unpublished piano concerto of his own in June 1852, Henry Chorley remarked, "We have met with no Englishman for whom we have so long been waiting than Mr. Bache." In November 1851 Bache went to live with Mellon, who was then living in London, and in 1852 was given a contract by Addison, Hollier and Lucas to write light piano pieces; he turned out these works in considerable numbers. Of one of these he wrote, "I must say that I would sooner have written my Galop di Bravura than a Sonata which is only printed to lie on the shelf like a dead weight on account deficiency of anything like idea."