{{Short description|English composer and singer (1841–1913)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{infobox person | name = Michael Maybrick | birth_date = 31 January 1841 | birth_place = Liverpool, UK | death_date = 26 August 1913 | image = michaelmaybrick.jpg | occupation = [[composer]] | relatives = [[James Maybrick]] (brother) }} '''Michael Maybrick''' (31 January 1841 &ndash; 26 August 1913)<ref>''Who's Who 1914''</ref> was an English composer and singer, best known under his pseudonym '''Stephen Adams''' as the composer of "[[The Holy City (song)|The Holy City]]", one of the most popular religious songs in English.

==Songs== *[[The Holy City (song)|The Holy City]] * A Warrior Bold

==Early life== Maybrick was born at 8 Church Alley, Liverpool, the fourth of the eight children of William Maybrick, an engraver<ref>[https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=YYa30&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=michael&gsfn_x=NP&gsln=Maybrick&gsln_x=NP&msypn__ftp=Liverpool,%20Lancashire,%20England&msypn=92187&msypn_PInfo=8-%7C0%7C0%7C3257%7C3251%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C5271%7C92187%7C0%7C0%7C&msypn_x=1&msypn__ftp_x=1&MS_AdvCB=1&cpxt=1&cp=11&catbucket=rstp&MSAV=2&uidh=aia&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=5875014&recoff=6%2018%2019&dbid=8978&indiv=1&ml_rpos=19] {{dead link|date=October 2018}}</ref> and his wife, Susannah. Both his grandfather and father served as parish clerk at St Peter's, Liverpool, and were minor composers. His uncle Michael Maybrick was organist at St Peter's, wrote sacred music, and conducted the [[Liverpool Choral Society]]. Having become proficient on the piano by the age of eight, the young Maybrick studied the organ with [[W. T. Best]] and at the age of fifteen became organist of St Peter's; he also wrote anthems and had a work performed in London.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|author=Patrick Waddington|title=Maybrick, Michael [Stephen Adams] (1841–1913)|date=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/46651|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46651|accessdate=1 November 2009}}</ref>

==Musical career== {{Listen | filename = The Blue Alsatian Mountains by Michael Maybrick.ogg | title = The Blue Alsatian Mountains by Michael Maybrick | description = The Blue Alsatian Mountains by Michael Maybrick }} On the advice of his godfather, [[Alfred Mellon]], in 1865 Maybrick went to [[Leipzig]] to study keyboard and harmony with [[Carl Reinecke]], [[Ignaz Moscheles]], and [[Louis Plaidy]], but later decided to train as a baritone with [[Gaetano Nava]] in [[Milan]]. After gaining experience in Italian theatres, he appeared with great success in London on 25 February 1869 in [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]]'s ''[[Elijah (oratorio)|Elijah]]''. Further success came as Telramund in [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]'s ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' led to appearances with [[Charlotte Sainton-Dolby]], including her farewell concert on 6 June 1870, and to regular engagements at the English festivals and with the [[Carl Rosa Opera Company]]. He appeared as a [[baritone]] at all the leading concert venues in London and the provinces, as well as in English opera.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=merc>{{cite web|url=http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/Maybrick3.html|title=Death of Michael MAYBRICK|website=Old-merseytimes.co.uk}}</ref>

By the early 1870s, Maybrick was singing his own songs, beginning with "A Warrior Bold". Published under the pseudonym Stephen Adams and mostly with lyrics by [[Fred Weatherly]], his songs achieved extraordinary popularity. His early sea song "Nancy Lee" sold more than 100,000 copies in two years. Maybrick penned other sea songs including "The Tar's Farewell", "They All Love Jack" and "The Midshipmite", sentimental songs such as "Your Dear Brown Eyes", romantic numbers like "The Children of the City", and sacred songs like "The Blue Alsatian Mountains", "The Star of Bethlehem", and the well-loved "[[The Holy City (song)|The Holy City]]". In 1884 he toured New Zealand performing his own songs. His friends spoke of his charming personality, but others thought him arrogant and vain.<ref name=odnb/> He composed one of the earliest musical settings of [[A. E. Housman]], 'When I was one-and-twenty' in 1904, the same year [[Arthur Somervell]] published his ''A Shropshire Lad'' song cycle.<ref>[http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/06/two_song_cycles.php 'Two Song Cycles by Arthur Somervell'], ''Opera Today'', 2 June 2020</ref>

==Retirement== Maybrick was a keen amateur sportsman, being a cricketer, a yachtsman and a cyclist, and a [[Captain (army)|captain]] in the [[Artists Rifles]]. On 9 March 1893 he married his forty-year-old housekeeper, Laura Withers, and settled with her at [[Ryde]] on the [[Isle of Wight]].

==Notes== <references/>

==References== *'Obituary: Michael Maybrick', ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 54, No. 848 (Oct. 1, 1913), pp.&nbsp;661–662

==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Michael Maybrick}} * {{IMSLP|id=Adams, Stephen|cname=Stephen Adams (Michael Maybrick)}} * {{ChoralWiki|Stephen Adams}} *[http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/Maybrick3.html Obituary] in ''[[Liverpool Mercury]]'', 30 August 1913 * [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/109793 Stephen Adams recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]]. {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maybrick, Michael}} [[Category:1841 births]] [[Category:1913 deaths]] [[Category:Artists' Rifles officers]] [[Category:English composers]] [[Category:19th-century English male singers]] [[Category:Musicians from Liverpool]] [[Category:Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England]]