William Hayman Cummings (22 August 1831 –
5 June 1915) was an English musician, tenor and
organist at Waltham Abbey. Cummings
was born in Sidbury (near Sidmouth) in Devon.
He was educated at St Paul's Cathedral Choir School and
the City of London School,
becoming a pupil of Dr E. J. Hopkins, J. W. Hobbs and Alberto Randegger, and was for many years a chorister in St Paul's Cathedral and
the Temple Church. In 1847, as
a teenager, he was one of the choristers when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the first London performance
of his Elijah at Exeter Hall. Cummings also sang at numerous festivals and
concerts throughout Great Britain and twice toured in the United States. His
performance at the Triennial Festival of the Handel and Haydn Society in
Boston was noticed as follows by the Chicago Tribune of 15 May 1871: The tenor is also a
new-comer, brought from England for this occasion, Mr. Wm. H. Cummings. He is a
slightly-built gentleman, about five feet ten inches high, has light hair, a
receding forehead, a light gentlemanly-looking (but not distingue) mustache, and
stands quietly while singing. His voice is a tenor of good volume, and
admirable quality—like a silver trumpet. The intonation is to be relied on, and
his delivery of the tone pleasant. The words are delivered as well as possible,
both in recitative and the airs. I doubt whether Mr. Cummings be a great
singer, yet he is a better oratorio tenor than I have heard. He is entirely
innocent of tremolo and absurd affectation. He is credited in 1855 with linking
Mendelssohn's tune to Charles Wesley's words "Hark! The Herald Angels
Sing", which are now universally inextricably linked. At
the Birmingham
Festival he was the last-minute tenor soloist at the premiere
of The Masque at Kenilworth (1866)
by Arthur Sullivan,
taking Mario's place (with
only half-an-hour's notice to prepare). He was also the tenor soloist there for
the premiere of the sacred cantata The Woman of Samaria by William Sterndale Bennett in
1867. Cummings founded the Purcell Society in 1876. He served as singing professor
at the Royal Academy of Music for
15 years beginning in 1879. He held strong views on singing and delivered the
occasional stern tirade attacking the "pernicious vibrato". As late
as 1907 he gave an address on "The Culture of the Voice" in which he
praised the messa di voce (which
was obsolete by then) and, according to the Derby Daily Telegraph of
4 January 1907, administered:
a crushing rebuke to
those who indulge in what is known as the 'tremolo'. It is, as the Doctor said,
a reprehensible habit. Apart from the fact that it mars the beauty of many fine
voices, it is, I agree, "a most distressing fault to the auditors, who
frequently listen in doubt as to the precise pitch of the note the singer is endeavouring
to produce".
He later became a professor and later the
principal of the Guildhall School of Music.
One of his notable pupils at the school was conductor Bruce Carey. He received an honorary Doctorate in Music
from Dublin University in
1900 and was made a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. In 1902, he published a book on the origins of
"God Save the King".[1] Cummings' other appointments included:
·
Professor, The Royal
Normal College and Academy for the Blind
·
Council
Member, Incorporated Society of
Musicians
·
Vice-President, Royal College of Organists
·
Vice-President, Royal Musical Association
·
Hon.
Treasurer, Royal Society of Musicians
·
Hon.
Treasurer, Philharmonic Society
·
President,
Incorporated Staff Sight Singing College
Cummings married Clara Anne Hobbs, a
daughter of his teacher, the well-known singer John William
Hobbs (1799–1877).
He
died in London and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery, South London.