(b ?Dartmoor, 4 June 1770; d Boston, 2 Aug 1827). American conductor, composer and publisher of English birth, father of John Hill Hewitt. Apart from family records giving his place and date of birth, the first documented information about him is that he occupied 12 Hyde Street, Bloomsbury, London, during 1791–2. He arrived in New York on 5 September 1792. Although he advertised himself there as having had concert experience in London under ‘Haydn, Pleyel, etc.’, no evidence of this has been found. He lived in New York until 1811, his longest period of residence at one address being from 1801 to 1810 at 59 Maiden Lane. From 1792 until the end of March 1808, he was conductor of the orchestra at the Park Street Theatre, where his duties included arranging and composing music for many ballad operas and other musical productions. He also operated his own ‘musical repository’, where he gave lessons and sold musical instruments and music composed by himself and others.
Although his musical activities in Boston began as early as 1805, the family did not move there until 1811. He pursued the same musical interests there as in New York, conducting the orchestra at the Federal Street Theatre, giving lessons, and composing and publishing music; he was also the organist at Trinity Church. In 1816 he returned to New York, taking his two eldest sons with him. Between 1820 and 1825 he travelled often between Boston, New York and several southern cities, particularly Charleston, and Augusta, Georgia. In late 1826, an unsuccessful operation was performed in New York. In early 1827 he was brought back to his family in Boston, where he died. His place of burial is unknown.
Hewitt published at least 639 compositions, mostly by British composers such as William Shield, Michael Kelly and James Hook, though he also issued works by Handel, Haydn and Mozart, and approximately 160 of his own compositions. These include instrumental and vocal compositions and stage works (largely ballad operas), many making use of American patriotic and popular tunes. He also arranged instrumental and vocal works by others and was the author of three pedagogical treatises.
Hewitt was an influential figure in New York during the first decade of the 19th century. His position as conductor of the Park Street Theatre orchestra and leader of the orchestras for many concerts gave him a key role in the city’s musical life. In Boston, his activities included business dealings with Gottlieb Graupner. Of James Hewitt’s children, his daughter Sophia Henrietta Emma Hewitt (1799–1845) was well known as a concert pianist, his son James Lang Hewitt (1803–53) was a successful music publisher, and another son George Washington Hewitt (1811–93) taught and composed music.
(selective list)
all published in New York, n.d., unless otherwise stated
|
Stage: c20 works, incl. Tammany, or The Indian Chief (ballad op, A. Hatton) (c1794), 1 song extant; The Tars from Tripoli (ballad op) (c1806–7), partly by Hewitt; 7 pantomines, 2 ballets, lost except 2 ovs. |
|
Inst, pubd in kbd score: 3 pf sonatas, D, C, F (c1795–6), no.1 ed. in RRAM, vii (1980), no.3 ed. in RRAM, i (1977); The Battle of Trenton, D (c1797), partly by Hewitt, ed. in RRAM, vii (1980); Thema with 30 Variations, D (c1803–6), ed. in RRAM, i (1977); marches, waltzes, variations, sonatas, rondos |
|
Other vocal: 84 songs, 1v, pf, many ed. in RRAM, vii (1980); 7 hymns in Harmonia sacra (Boston, 1812) |
EwenD
WolfeMEP
O.G.T. Sonneck: A Bibliography of Early Secular American Music (Washington DC, 1905; rev. and enlarged by W.T. Upton, 2/1945/R)
O.G.T. Sonneck: Early Concert-Life in America (Leipzig, 1907/R, 2/1949)
J.T. Howard: ‘The Hewitt Family in American Music’, MQ, xvii (1931), 25–39
R.J. Wolfe: Secular Music in America 1801–1825: a Bibliography (New York, 1964)
J.W. Wagner: James Hewitt: his Life and Works (diss., Indiana U.,1969)
J.W. Wagner: ‘James Hewitt, 1770–1827’, MQ, lviii (1972), 259–76
J.W. Wagner: ‘The Music of James Hewitt: a Supplement to the Sonneck-Upton and Wolfe Bibliographies’, Notes, xxix (1972–3), 224–7
V.B. Lawrence: ‘Mr Hewitt Lays it on the Line’, 19CM, v (1981–2), 3–15
JOHN W. WAGNER