Hunter, Anne (1742-1821)

She was a poet and lyricist born Anne Home in Scotland as the daughter of a military surgeon who started to write and publish poetry as a child.

She married the surgeon John Hunter who is remembered today for his assistance given to mothers that suffered false accusations of infanticide after their babies had died. Her brother became one of his students and he, himself, became a successful surgeon. After her husband died suddenly from a heart attack she was given a Queen’s pension and also the money got from the establishment of the Hunter Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.

She published, collected and wrote poetry and song lyrics throughout her lifetime, often anonymously, with her “Adieu, ye streams that Smoothly Glide” published in 1765, “Death Song” which was adapted to an “Original Indian Air”, “The Lamentation of Queen Mary of Scots” and her 1800 “Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn” which was sung to the music of the Welsh tune “The Ash Grove”.

In 1791 she met up with the composer Franz Joseph Haydn after he had moved close to her home in London. They became good friends and collaborators and he took her lyrics and composed several songs from them such as “IV Original Canzonettas” in 1794, dedicating his first set to her, “O Tuneful Voice”, “The Spirit Song”, “The Wanderer” and “The Mermaid’s Song”. It was even stated in the Cambridge Companion to Haydn “without Anne Hunter’s influence and poetic inspiration, it is unlikely that Haydn would have tried his hand at composing English songs”.

In 1802 she published her Poems and two years later followed it with The Sports of the Genii. The Scottish poet Robert Burns was so impressed he used her “To the Nightingale” and “Sonnet, After the Death of Laura” (entitled “Sonnet after the Death of a Petrarch by Burns) in his Commonplace Book.

Another composer that used her poems to give musical settings to was Johann Peter Salomon when he composed using her lyrics for “O Tuneful Voice”, also used by Haydn, and “The Fatal Moment”. William Horsley also used her poem “May Day” for a composition he had written.

Today her contribution to music and poetry can be found on the recordings The Romantic Muse, Haydn: Songs, Haydn: Original Canzonettas, O Tuneful Voice and The Sea.

Sources:

Hunter, Anne (1742-1821)

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