Jane Savage

Jane Savage (born 1752/1753, died 1824) was an English harpsichordist and composer. She was the daughter of English musician and composer William Savage (c. 1720–1789) and his wife Mary Bolt Savage. It is likely that Jane Savage accompanied her father from his estate near Tenterden in Kent to London in 1780 or 1781 and lived in Red Lion Square, Holborn. Most of her music was published in this period. Her output was mainly vocal or keyboard works, described as "drawing-room pieces". No modern edition of her works exists.

Her unpublished pieces have predominantly been lost. In 2020, Hymn for Christmas Day, an anthem setting the text "While shepherds watched their flocks by night", composed in around 1785 and performed by the Asylum for Female Orphans in London, was rediscovered and published by the Church Music Society. It is the earliest known example of an anthem for the Church of England to have been written by a female composer.

After her father and mother died, Savage married merchant R. Rolleston in about 1790. It is unclear whether she continued her career in music. She did not publish any compositions in her married name.

Works

Selected works include: Six Sonatas for Harpsichord or Piano (1783) Six Rondos for the Harpsichord or Pianoforte, Opus 3 (1786) Strephan and Flavia, A Favourite Cantata (voice and keyboard instrument) (1786) A Favourite Duet (keyboard) (1789) Two Duets for Voices (1789) God Save the King, adapted as a Double Lesson (keyboard) (1789)

References

External links

Christine Fornoff, Art. „Savage, Jane“. In: Lexikon „Europäische Instrumentalistinnen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts“, hrsg. von Freia Hoffmann, 2011.

1752 births

1824 deaths

18th-century classical composers

19th-century classical composers

English classical composers

Women classical composers

18th-century English people

19th-century English people

Classical-period composers

English classical pianists

English women pianists

18th-century keyboardists

19th-century British composers

Women classical pianists

19th-century women composers

18th-century women composers

18th-century English women

19th-century English women

19th-century women pianists