The practical violin school;: A new and complete synopsis of violin playing, in an easy, progressive and practical form, and designed espressly for the American student
Ureli Corelli Hill was an American musician and conductor. He served as the first president of the New York Philharmonic Society.
Background
Ureli Corelli Hill was probably born in 1802 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Ureli (sometimes given as Uri) K. Hill, a Boston musician and organist of the Brattle Street Church, and Nancy Hull, the daughter of Stephen Hull, of Hartford, Connecticut. George Handel Hill, known as "Yankee" Hill, was his brother. As a boy Ureli Hill took an interest in music and--probably with little instruction--learned to play the violin.
Education
In 1836 Hill went to Cassel to study with Ludwig Spohr.
Career
Hill found his way ultimately into various orchestras and by 1828 was playing first violin in the New York Sacred Music Society, which in 1831, under his baton, gave the first complete performance of The Messiah in New York City. On his return to New York became one of the city's most popular violin teachers, despite the fact that he was not a distinguished performer.
He served for the first six years as president of the Philharmonic Society of New York, later as vice-president, and finally as a member of the board of directors. At the initial concert of the society, given December 7, 1842, he played with the first violins, and during the first five seasons he conducted eight of the orchestra's concerts. In the year following the establishment of the Philharmonic Society he organized a string quartet which is said to have been the first of its kind in the city to give public performances. Samuel Johnson, one of its critics, remarked of it that it was "a miserable failure, artistically and financially, " and added that it would be a "gross flattery" to call Hill a third-rate violinist, but the quartet's soirées were popular, and Hill's enthusiasm for good music never waned.
In other ventures Hill met disheartening failures. He invented a piano which he claimed could not get out of tune because of its small bell tuning-forks, which took the place of wire strings. At considerable expense he exhibited the instrument in London and New York, but it was an entire failure in both cities. About 1847 Hill went to Cincinnati, but after three or four years he returned to the East. He was induced to invest heavily in real estate in Paterson, New Jersey, but the profit which he expected to reap from his investments did not materialize.
He continued his musical career, taught for several years at the Conservatory of Music in Newark, and carried on his orchestra work, but his role became more difficult. As old age came upon him he found himself unqualified to meet the higher demands made upon its performers by the Philharmonic Society and in 1873 he resigned. Still later he tried to hold a position at Wallack's but failed. Unable then to bear the double disappointment of his artistic and business failure, he committed suicide at his home in Paterson. His farewell note, written before swallowing an overdose of morphine, stated "Why should or how can a man exist and be powerless to earn means for his family?"