J. C. Fisher


James Churchill Fisher, generally known as J. C. Fisher or J. Churchill Fisher was an Australian singing teacher and composer. He is best known as an advocate of the Tonic Sol-fa system of music teaching, and was responsible for the system's introduction to Australia.

History

Fisher was born in Portsea, Hampshire, England, and had practised as a singer, conductor, and music teacher for several years. As a young man he had a fine tenor voice, and sang with Charles Santley. He also sang with Jack Hatton on numerous occasions.
He emigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney 24 December 1852 aboard Chaseley.
His first public engagement was as conductor of the Sydney Choral Society, which met at the schoolroom, St. James's church, as successor to James Johnson.
From 1855 to 1858 he sang on the opera stage, generally at the Victoria and Prince of Wales theatres, alongside Catherine Hayes, Anna Bishop, Sara Flower, Frank and John Howson, and Messrs. Laglaise, Conlon, Sherwin, Robert Farquharson, Lewis Lavenu, George Loder, and others.
He left the stage and in 1859 took up a position with the Council of Education as teacher at the Marshall Mount National School, in the Illawarra district. While there he introduced the tonic sol-fa system of teaching music as introduced by Rev. J. Curwen.
In 1861 Fisher was transferred to the Fort Street Model School then in 1862 was appointed head master of the Paddington Model School, where he introduced school concerts. These were so successful that his abilities as a teacher of singing were recognised by the Board of National Education, and the tonic sol-fa method was formally approved. In 1867 he was tasked with instructing teachers in the method. He was appointed musical instructor under the Council of Education, a position he held until 1880 when the Council was reformed as the Department of Public Education.
He finally gained a position with the Department's Examiners and Training Branch in May 1881, but had lost enthusiasm for the job and was asked to resign, which he did in March 1884.
He died at Paramatta on his 65th birthday after years of pain and paralysis brought about by meningitis. His remains were buried at Rookwood Cemetery.

Personal

Fisher married Emma Hall on 16 March 1854 at Wollongong, New South Wales.
Of their twelve births only two girls and one boy survived childhood. The singer Emma Fisher was a daughter, but apart from that fact no more has been found.
He was found insolvent in 1870.
He was an excellent painter of landscapes.

Compositions