Isaac Nathan (179215 January 1864) was an Anglo-Jewish emigre Australian musician, composer, musicologist, and music educator, who has been called the "father of Australian music", having assisted the careers of numerous colonial musicians during his twenty-year residence in Australia. He is best known for the success of his Hebrew Melodies (1815–1840) in London. Burwick and Douglass, A selection of Hebrew Melodies, Ancient and Modern, by Isaac Nathan and Lord Byron. He became a composer of popular operatic comedies in the Royal Theatres (1823–1833), introduced below. After emigrating to Australia in 1840, Nathan wrote Australia's first operas Merry Freaks in Troublous Times (1843) and Don John of Austria (1847)Crowden, David (2024). Isaac Nathan (1792–1864) and his contributions to Australian music in the mid–nineteenth century: a foundational fusion of musical traditions in New South Wales (1841–1864). PhD Thesis, School of Music, The University of Queensland.https://doi.org/10.14264/06ca19e, p271 Nathan also wrote the Australian Melodies, which entangled fragments of Aboriginal songlines with European musical traditions.Troy and Barwick, "Claiming the 'Song of the Women of the Menero Tribe'" 13; Crowden, Isaac Nathan, p.180.
Nathan as apprentice to Corri; and vocal teacher In London, Domenico Corri (1746–1825) transmitted the teachings of Niccolò Porpora (1686–1768) “to a younger generation of musicians, most notably Isaac Nathan.”Crowden, Isaac Nathan, p101–102; Toft, Heart to Heart, xiii; Foreman, The Porpora Tradition; Edward Rimbault Dibdin, "Isaac Nathan", Music and Letters 22, no. 1 (1941), 75-80, https://www.jstor.org/stable/727830, 75. Nathan made significant contributions as a singing teacherEdward Rimbault Dibdin, "Isaac Nathan," Music and Letters 22, no. 1 (1941), 75-80, https://www.jstor.org/stable/727830, 75. and music historian notably publishing his Essay on the History and Theory of Music (1823) and later the Musurgia Vocalis (1836), and Southern Euphrosyne (1848). As a teacher, Nathan tailored arrangements and compositions to the individual singing needs of his students and community choirs while using the Neapolitan bel canto pedagogical tradition that he inherited in London.Crowden, Isaac Nathan, 154–156. Nathan's students in England, included Princess Sophia AugustaMiscellaneous, "Royal Music Collection. Miscellaneous vocal and instrumental music, Vol. I. 19th century." in Royal Music Library Manuscripts [1560–1927] (British Library c.1815–1840). and Princess Royal, Princess Charlotte, who was his Patron for the Hebrew Melodies, as well as Robert Browning Isaac Nathan a Man of Many Parts, Cantor, Instigator of Byron's Hebrew Melodies, Robert Browning's Music Tutor and the Innovator of Australian Music by Julian Scutts. In Australia his students included Dame Marie Carandini,Crowden, Isaac Nathan, 149–153 Elizabeth BushelleCrowden, Isaac Nathan, 144., William J. (Ian Pemberton) PalmerCrowden, Isaac Nathan, 154. Miss E. M. Woolley,The Alcaid vocal score (89 pp.) at MLMSS 6152/1X/4 in Lilian Foulis collection https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110078042 Ms Emily Stronghttps://sydney.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/61USYD_INST/1tvk8cv/alma991000606409705106 and Mme Lucia Dondi née Mary Anne Lucy Chambers, The Australian NightingaleWilliams, "Lineages of Vocal Pedagogy in Australia, 1850–1950." Vol 1., 89., and Vol 2., 2; Crowden Isaac Nathan, p161;
Hebrew Melodies In 1813 Nathan conceived the idea of uniting beautiful Biblical poetry with divine ancient liturgical melodies and received encouragement from Princess Charlotte. One of the first subscribers was John Braham, the tenor, who joined with Nathan and lent his name to the project. The pair then invited Lord Byron to craft the words in a collaboration that resulted in significant popularity. Harold B. Segal writes "…as a whole [the Hebrew Melodies] could be considered at the forefront of discourse in England in which Jewish and Hebraic motifs went far beyond the conventional Hebrew Melodies and into the metaphysical propensities of romanticism. The result was the poet's famous Hebrew Melodies.Harold B. Segel, Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation. (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014): 8–9, Accessed 23 June 2023, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315078861/polish–romantic–drama–harold–segel–harold–segel. Ruth Ha Cohen observed it was a unique mode of composition declaring it "a two-way process in which Nathan both set pre-existing poems by Byron to music and furnished tunes to which Byron composed new poetry" and asserting "there was no antecedent for collaboration on such a scale" and that it was a "clear attempt to make [Jewish] music more agreeable and accessible to Christian ears"Ha Cohen, Music Libel Against the Jews, 171–173. Nathan's setting of these melodies remained in print for most of the century and new editions were published throughout his life, the last of which were printed in 1861.Joseph Jacobs et al., "Nathan, Isaac," in Jewish Encyclopedia: The unedited full–text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopaedia (1906), Accessed 19 June 2023, https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11354– nathan–isaac; http://d2b4hhdj1xs9hu.cloudfront.net/QE9E179X.jpg The Hebrew Melodies used, for the most part, melodies from the synagogue service. Nathan's claim that they were original ancient melodies handed down from the ancient service of the Temple in Jerusalem, was criticised at the time by his competitors. The success of the Melodies gave Nathan some fame and notoriety. His copyright for Hebrew Melodies ought to have brought him income – at one point he sold it to his married sister, presumably to avoid it being lost in bankruptcy. He attempted a publishing business in partnership with his brother Barnett Nathan, who later became proprietor of Rosherville Gardens.
Provincial life, authoring books and raising a family Nathan married Eliza Worthington, daughter of Lord Mayor of Dublin William Worthington in 1812. Eliza converted to Judaism and took the name Sarah. The young couple had 6 children together and dreamed of emancipation for the Jews, and embodied interfaith love, and scholarly approach to enlightened post-Napoleon aspirations for society. Both published significantly. Eliza's first novel Elvington was published in three volumes in 1812 and she is the first Jewish female author to write and publish a work of such significance. During their time in Bristol, she produced a second edition in 1819, and advertised Nathan's singing prospectus. Over the next few years the young couple raised their children in Bristol, wrote books, attended intellectual soirées with the Hunt Circle and Lyric Society and Nathan performed and taught several of his star pupils in this era. Eliza wrote another book called Langwreath which she published in 1822. Nathan published his encyclopaedic Treatise with patronage and dedication to King George IV and corresponded directly with Charles M. Sumner, the King's Librarian at Carlton House. The collection was catalogued in the same year, and Nathan appears to have gained privileged access, remarkable for a Jew in 1823. Nathan's publication of An Essay on the History and Theory of Music led to appointments as a composer in the King's Theatre and he contributed to five operas between 1823 and 1833.
London return In 1823, Nathan's father died, and he returned to London possibly with the aid of an inheritance. Nathan published a history of music (1823), dedicated by permission to King George IV, which shows in its treatment of Jewish music a great deal of understanding of the Bible and of Jewish traditions. The Essay on the History and Theory of Music contains within it 90 pages of exercises in the Neapolitan bel canto tradition which Nathan documented. This work was possibly formed part of an application for the role of professor of singing at the newly formed Royal Academy of Music. Nathan's treatise was later copied extensively by others including Domenic Crivelli (who was appointed professor of singing in 1824, and given access to Nathan's treatise), and Manuel García II, who was sent a copy of Nathan's Memoires of Madame Malibran de Beriot, for his sister in 1836, which contained citations directing Garcia to his Treatise.See Memoires of Madam Malibran de Beriot https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Memoirs%20of%20Madame%20Malibran%20de%20Beriot/K9VZAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 Memoires of Madame Malibran de Beriot Nathan was not successful in his aspiration to be the professor of singing at the Royal Academy. Nathan wrote no fewer than five operas between 1823 and 1833, and many of his songs became very popular, notably "Why are you wandering here, I pray?" sung by Madame Vestris (who also played and fascinated in the lead character, Don Felix, in breeches in the comic opera The Alcaid).
Comic Opera at the Royal Theatres Sweethearts and Wives (1823–1827) ran for five seasons and more than 120+ performances at the King's Theatre at Haymarket, the first long run to exclipse 100 performances since John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1728), with over 500 playbills across the country.https://imslp.org/wiki/Sweethearts_and_Wives_(Nathan%2C_Isaac) The Alcaid; or, Secrets of Office (1824) ran for nine performances, was a technical advancement as a full opera with modulations, dances, and political satire engaged with the Liberal Trenio revolution in Spain (1820–1823) and a Passport office incident playing upon the Aliens Act (1824).https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Alcaid%3B_or_The_Secrets_of_Office_(Nathan%2C_Isaac) The Illustrious Stranger (1827–1832) ran for five seasons initially, was popular in provinces and returned for a reprisal run in 1837, and more than 150+ performances at Drury Lane, eclipsing Sweethearts and Wives as the most popular show of the 1820s with over 1000 playbills across the country.https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Illustrious_Stranger_(Nathan%2C_Isaac) The King's Fool; or, The Old Man's Curse (1833) ran for 37 performances at the Royal Victoria Theatre (Old Vic, formerly Royal Coburg).https://imslp.org/wiki/The_King's_Fool_(Nathan%2C_Isaac)
Nathan was a well-established singing teacher in the 1830s and by 1836 his Musurgia vocalis, the second edition of his Essay on the History and Theory of Music established him as an authority on the bel canto tradition. One of his pupils was the English poet, the very young Robert Browning, who 60 years later recalled: "As for singing, the best master of four I have, more or less, practised with was Nathan, author of the Hebrew Melodies; he retained certain traditional Jewish methods of developing the voice".Quoted in
Official secret service for the Royal Family