Haliday, Joseph

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1816–1857

Business Type: 
Musical instrument maker: bugle horn
Address(es): 

6 Great Longford Street, 1824
33 Mabbott Street, 1839
55 New Street, 1846
1 Rosemount, 1849
18 New Street, 1849
68 New Street, 1850
22 Grange Gorman, Upper, 1851
c/o Mr. Dill, 28 Grange Gorman, Upper, 1857

Details: 

Bandmaster of the Cavan Militia, Haliday invented the keyed bugle, which he patented in 1810 (Dudgeon, New Grove), registered as 'Halliday's [sic] Improvements in the Musical Instrument called the Bugle Horn' (Lasocki).

Lasocki asserts (citing personal correspondece with Dudgeon) that 'there is no surviving evidence that Haliday made instruments himself'.

A pupil of his, Thomas Lindsay Willman, is reported to have played a concerto on the instrument in Dublin in 1811 (Dudgeon, JAMIS).

There is much confusion regarding the patent rights to the keyed bugle. Apparently, when Haliday moved to Dublin in 1816, he discovered Logier and others making keyed bugles without authorisation and published a booklet to discredit Logier (Dudgeon, New Grove). However, in Dudgeon's JAMIS article, he states that Haliday was possibly cheated by his lawyer Robert Tilly and is also believed to have sold the patent rights to Matthew Pace for £50.

Select Product/Work List: 

Invented

  • Keyed bugle, 1810 (Dudgeon, New Grove)

    • Published

  • Strictures on Mr Logier’s Pamphlets, Entitled Syllabuses of the Examination of His Pupils on His System of Musical Education, with Observations Showing the Inefficacy of the System When Applied to Practice , 1817 (Dudgeon, JAMIS)
  • IOU [nom de plume], Secrets Worth Knowing for Keeping a Music Shop (Dudgeon, JAMIS)
    • See Also: 

    Logier, John Bernard
    Pace, Matthew

    Source(s): 

    Dudgeon, Ralph T., 'The Keyed Bugle; its History, Literature and Technique' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of California San Diego, 1980)

    Dudgeon, Ralph T., 'Joseph Haliday, Inventor of the Keyed Bugle', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, 9 (1983), 53–67

    Dudgeon, Ralph T., 'Haliday, Joseph', in The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, ed. by Sadie Stanley, 3 vols (London: Macmillan, 1984), II, p. 118

    Lasocki, David, 'New Light on the Early History of the Keyed Bugle from Newspaper Advertisements. Part 1: The Astor Advertisement and Collins v. .Green', Historic Brass Society Journal, 21 (2009), 11-50 (p. 11)

    Last Update: 16-03-2017