Waart, Edo de. 56 Wachmann, Eduard 56
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- Walsh, (Michael) Stephen
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- Walsingham, Thomas
- Walsingham Consort Books.
- Walter, (Gabriel) Anton
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Walsh, John (ii)(b London, 23 Dec 1709; d London, 15 Jan 1766). English music seller, printer, publisher and instrument maker. He probably assumed control of the business of his father, john Walsh (i), in about 1730, when the relationship with the Hare family apparently ceased and the numbering of the firm’s publications started. On 8 May 1731 Walsh succeeded to the appointment of instrument maker to the king. Although John Johnson and other rivals arose, the business continued to prosper and maintained its excellent engraving and paper. Burney characterized Walsh (ii) as ‘purveyor general’. Walsh fully developed the firm's relationship with Handel, publishing almost all his later works and in 1739 being granted a monopoly of his music for 14 years. About half of Walsh's output was of Handel compositions. The firm also sold other publishers' works, and bought up the stock of smaller firms when they ceased trading. Many of Walsh's apprentice engravers later set up on their own, including John Caulfield, Thomas Straight and Thomas Skillern. Walsh, who never married, was elected a governor of the Foundling Hospital in 1748 and may have been responsible for suggesting the performance of Messiah to raise funds. On Walsh's death the Public Advertiser placed his fortune at £40,000. The business was left, under specific conditions, to his cousin william Randall (ii) and John Abell (ii), who had presumably both been in his employ. For bibliography see Walsh, John (i). FRANK KIDSON/WILLIAM C. SMITH/PETER WARD JONES/ DAVID HUNTER
‘György Kurtág: an Outline Study’, Tempo, no.140 (1982), 11–21; no.142 (1982), 10–19 ‘Musical Analysis: Hearing is Believing?’, Music Perception, ii (1984), 237–44
‘Kurtag's ‘Kafka Fragments’, Hungarian Music Quarterly, xxx/1 (1989), 15–17 Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship (Oxford, 1991) [Eng. trans. of P. Boulez: Relevés d’apprenti (Paris, 1966)] Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex (Cambridge, 1993) Stravinsky: a Creative Spring (New York, 1999) STANLEY SADIE Walsingham, Thomas(d ?c1422). English theorist. He was almost certainly the monk and historian of St Albans Abbey, who became precentor and scriptorarius there in the 1380s. This information comes from the register of benefactors of the abbey (now in GB-Ccc). After becoming prior of Wymundham (now Wymondham), 1394–1409, he returned to St Albans. He is noted for his authorship of Chronica majora (before 1388), Ypogdima Neustrie (c1419) and Historia anglicana (ending in 1422), among other works. He is thought to be the author of the Regule Magistri Thome Walsingham de figuris compositis et non compositis (ed. in CSM, xxxi, 1983), a treatise on mensural music found in GB-Lbl Lansdowne 763 (compiled by John Wylde). The treatise is a detailed discussion of Ars Nova notation, following the method of Johannes de Muris’s Notitia. Referring to the semiminima as the most recently introduced note value, Walsingham refused to accept such subdivisions of the minima – an attitude that was extremely conservative for the time. ANDREW HUGHES
Walt, Deon van der(b Cape Town, 28 July 1958). South African tenor. He studied singing at the University of Stellenbosch, and made his operatic début as Jaquino in 1981 in Cape Town. Since 1982 he has been attached to a number of opera houses in Europe, principally in Stuttgart and Zürich, where he sang Tonio in La fille du régiment (1989). He made his début at Covent Garden in 1985 as Almaviva and at the Vienna Staatsoper in 1989 as Tamino, singing Belmonte at Salzburg the same year. The lyric quality of his voice makes him an ideal interpreter of the works of composers such as Donizetti, Mozart and Rossini. Although concentrating at first on lighter roles, he has recently taken on more dramatic roles by Massenet, Verdi, Puccini and others. His most significant recordings include Così fan tutte and Fidelio (under Harnoncourt), Meistersinger (Sawallisch) and many lieder recitals. JAMES MAY Walter, (Gabriel) Anton(b Neuhausen an der Fildern, nr Stuttgart, 5 Feb 1752; d Vienna, 11 April 1826). Austrian piano maker of German birth. He was the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time. He was in Vienna by 1780, when he married the widow Schöffstoss. In 1790 he was granted the title ‘Imperial Royal Chamber Organ Builder and Instrument Maker’. In about 1800 his stepson Joseph Schöffstoss joined the firm, by then employing up to 20 workmen. Of the total number of instruments produced, dating from about 1780 to 1825, approximately 3% survives, comprising about 20 pianos built before 1800 and an equal number after that date. The former are usually inscribed ‘Anton Walter in Wien’ to which is added ‘u(nd) Sohn’ in the latter. If Johann Andreas Stein invented the German action (with hammers mounted in wooden pivot forks on the keys, combined with a hammer escapement mechanism with upright hoppers), Walter was probably the first to develop it. He thus configured the Viennese action (with brass pivot forks and forward-leaning hoppers), adding a back-check which catches the returning hammers, thereby preventing unwanted rebound. The oldest pianos (c1785) by Walter which survive in their original condition have this Viennese action. After about 1790 this action became standard in Walter’s pianos and in Viennese pianos generally. In the first decades of the 19th century thousands of pianos were made in Vienna annually, proving the success of Walter’s piano action. Contemporary sources, including one of Beethoven’s letters attest the mechanical and musical qualities of Walter’s pianos. The firm was highly regarded in musical and aristocratic circles throughout the Hapsburg empire until at least 1810. In modern times Walter’s fame has rested on the fact that Mozart acquired a Walter piano in about 1782. This instrument was radically altered by Walter in 1800. As with his other early pianos, it is not known when the instrument first had its present action, or when the sustaining knee levers (for the damping) replaced the original hand stop. For both these reasons Mozart’s piano should not be relied upon as source material when discussing the interpretation of his music.
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