# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Salaman, Charles Kensington

​SALAMAN, CHARLES KENSINGTON (1814–1901), musical composer, born at 11 Charing Cross, London, on 3 March 1814, was the eldest son and one of the fourteen children of Simeon Kensington Salaman, a member of a Jewish family of German and Dutch origin, by his wife Alice Cowen, an amateur pianist. Mrs. Juha Goodman [q. v. Suppl. II] was his eldest sister. Another sister, Rachel, married Sir John Simon (1818-1897) [q. v.], while a third, Kate (1821-1856), attained some reputation as a miniature-painter, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. After being educated privately Charles gave early evidence of musical talent, and had his first lessons on the piano from his mother. In 1824 he was awarded second place in the competition for studentship at the new Royal Academy of Music, but preferred to study the pianoforte independently, first with Stephen Francis Rimbault and then (1826-1831) under Charles Neate, the friend of Beethoven. Meanwhile in 1828 he studied under Henri Herz in Paris, and to him and to Neate his earhest compositions were dedicated in the same year. As a boy he played duets with Liszt and came to know Clementi. His first public appearance was at Lanza's concert at Blackheath, in June 1828. He composed the ode (with words by Isaac Cowen, his uncle) for the Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-on-Avon, 30 April 1830. In 1831 he commenced his long career as a pianoforte teacher. In May 1833 he gave his first annual orchestral concert at the Hanover Square rooms, when Mendelssohn's Concerto in G Minor was first rendered in public by a player other than the composer. At his annual orchestral concerts he introduced many distinguished artists and classical novelties. ​On 9 November 1835 he instituted, with Henry Blagrove and others, the 'Concerti da Camera,' a chamber music organisation. In 1838 he visited the Continent, played at Vienna, Munich, Homburg, and other places, and made the acquaintance of Schumann, of Mozart's widow and son, of Thalberg, and of Czerny. At Mainz he pubhshed his popular pianoforte romance, 'Cloelia.' From 1846 to 1848 he resided in Rome, conducting Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 for the first time there and composing his 'Saltarello' and several songs with Italian words. He was elected an honorary member of the Academy of St. Cecilia. Returning to London, he resumed his teaching, and founded the first Amateur Choral Society in 1849. In 1855 he began a series of musically illustrated lectures in London and the provinces, taking as his first topic 'The History of the Pianoforte and its Precursors.' At the Polytechnic Institution (10 May 1855) he gave this lecture before Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their children. In 1858 he founded the Musical Society of London, which lasted till 1868, and of which he was honorary secretary till 1865. In 1874 he was one of the founders of the Musical Association, and for three years its secretary and afterwards a vice-president. He gave his last concert in 1876 and soon retired from active work, but he maintained his vigour until near his death, in London, on 23 June 1901. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Golder's Green, Hendon. He married on 24 Dec. 1848 Frances Simon of Montego Bay, Jamaica, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Malcolm Charles Salaman, is well known as a dramatic and art critic.
Salaman's compositions are numerous, including songs and orchestral and pianoforte pieces. In his later years he made an annual custom of publishing a song on his birthday, and he wrote close on one hundred songs. The most famous is his beautiful setting of Shelley's 'I arise from dreams of thee,' written at Bath in 1836, when he was twenty-two, and published in an album called 'Six Songs' (1838). Some of his songs were written for Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words. A deeply religious man, he composed and arranged in 1858 the choral and organ music for the psalms and service of the synagogue of the Reformed Congregation of British Jews; some of his settings of the psalms were used as anthems in cathedrals. His literary ability was favourably shown in 'Jews as they are' (1882), in his published lectures, and in many articles contributed to the musical journals.
Among portraits of Salaman are a three-quarter length (oils) by his sister, Mrs. Julia Goodman, 1834, in the possession of Mr. Malcolm C. Salaman; a sketch, seated at piano (oils), by S. Starr, 1890, in the possession of Brandon Thomas; a marble medallion in high relief, by Girometti, Rome, 1847; and a lithograph, by R. J. Lane, A.R.A., after S. A. Hart, B.A., published in 1834.
[J. D. Brown's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886; Grove's Dictionary of Musicians (ed. Fuller Maitland); Brown and Stratton's British Musical Biography, 1897 the Biograph, September 1880; Who's Who 1901; Pianists of the Past. Personal Recol lections by the late Charles Salaman, in Blackwood's Magazine, September 1901 Musical Times (obituary notice), August 1901 (with portrait and facsimiles); Jewish World 28 June 1901; volumes of collected programmes, press notices, MS. correspondence dating from 1828, in the possession of Malcolm C. Salaman; Musical Keepsake for 1834 Concordia, 1875-6.]
J. C. H.