Life
He was born in Bridgend, on Saint David's Day, 1 March 1826, son of a tailor, also named John Thomas, a clarinetist in the amateur town band. He was the eldest of seven children, four of whom also played the harp, most notably his brother Thomas Thomas. John Thomas started off by playing the triple harp which had three sets of strings and was very difficult to play. At the age of 14, through the influence of Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron's daughter), he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London. His teachers there included Cipriani Potter for composition.
He taught at the Royal College of Music, where he eventually became professor, and at the Guildhall School of Music.
He wrote many pieces for the harp that are very popular today and are used in the exam syllabus. He also wrote an opera, a symphony, two harp concertos, overtures, chamber music, and two cantatas – Llewellyn (1863) and The Bride of Neath Valley (1866). He played one of his own harp concertos at a Philharmonic concert in 1852.
In 1861, he was briefly engaged to the Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt.
In 1872 he was appointed harpist to Queen Victoria.
Read more about this topic: John Thomas (harpist)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. And also the only real tragedy in life is being used by personally minded men for purposes which you recognize to be base.”
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“It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be,
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May
Although it fall and die that night;
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And in short measures life may perfect be.”
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