Logier, John Bernard

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1809–1846

Business Type: 
Music publisher
Music seller
Musical instrument maker: bugle horn
Musical instrument seller: unspecified
Address(es): 

76 Lower Sackville Street, 1809–11
27 Lower Sackville Street, 1811–18
[Berlin: c. 1818–29?]
46 Upper Sackville Street, c. 1829–41
28 Westmoreland Street, 1842–44
45 St Stephen's Green, 1845–46

Details: 

Johann Bernard Logier was born in Kassel, German, in 1777. He came to Ireland c. 1790 with a regimental band and settled in Dublin c. 1809 (Hogan).

Waterhouse states that he 'successfully exploited the keyed bugle, 1810, patented in London by Haliday, by marketing it as the 'Royal Patent Kent Bugle' and writing for it the first tutor which he dedicated to the Duke of Kent', much to the complaint of Haliday.

Logier developed the 'Royal Patent Chiroplast, or Hand Director' in 1814 - a mechanical teaching-aid for the piano (Waterhouse).

In January 1818, Logier advertised his intention to 'devote his entire time to his Professional Pursuits' after which he moved to Berlin (Freeman's Journal).

Succeeded in business by Andrew Ellard.

[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). An 1815 article in Allemeine musikalische Zeitung, translated by David Lasocki, stated that 'Mr. Logier & Co. have a patent'. Dudgeon's JAMIS article, 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. However, Lasocki's article provides an account of Court of Chancery transcripts relating to a claim of violations of the patent, unsuccessfully brought by George Collins. They detail that: Haliday invented the keyed bugle in late 1809; the bugle major of the Cavan Regiment showed it to Matthew Pace who purchased "the secret" from him for £50 and made one; Haliday made contact with Smollet Holden to sell him "the secret" and to procure a patent for it; as Holden wasn’t a manufacturer, Pace was approached, and as he already possessed “the secret” an agreement was made between them to put the patent in Holden’s name, Pace would be paid to manufacturer the instruments, and the profits would be divided between Holden and Pace; Holden was unable to obtain the patent in his name, so it was put in Haliday’s. The date assignment of patent rights to Haliday’s lawyer Tilly are not ascertained in Court, but it was asserted that the standing arrangement was to remain. George Collins was assigned the patent in September 1818.]

[Details differ according to sources: Boydell gives the addresses of Sackville Street, Westmoreland Street and St Stephen's Green without dates. Humphries & Smith give 76 Lower Sackville Street, corner of Abbey Street from 1809 to 1811; 27 Lower Sackville Street from July 1811 to c. 1817; 46 Upper Sackville Street from c. 1829 to 1841; 28 Westmoreland Street from 1842 to 1844; and 45 St Stephen's Green from 1845 to 1846. Hogan gives 76 Lower Sackville Street from c. 1809 to 1811; 27 Lower Sackville Street from c. 1811 to 1817; 46 Upper Sackville Street from 1817 to 1841; 28 Westmoreland Street from c. 1842 to 1844; and 45 St Stephen's Green from c. 1846. Hogan also states that he was invited to Berlin in 1821 'by the Prussian Government to establish his system' and stayed there for four years. Waterhouse gives the dates as 1810 to 1817; 1817 to 1829 abroad and 1829 onwards in Dublin.]

Select Product/Work List: 

Produced

  • Bugle, c. 1811–c. 1818: Ulster Museum. Mark: 'Made by J.B. LOGIER 27 Sackville St Dublin. Stamp: 'Killyleagh Volunteer Company 1778' (on the body). [The latter inscription must have been added later, possibly to mark a commemorative anniversary of the Volunteer Company: it is in small capitals, quite unlike the flowing script of the engraved name on the bell. See also a similarly inscribed instrument by Matthew Pace]
  • Six-keyed bugle (no. 466): sold by Sotheby's in 1993. Mark: 'Royal Patent Kent Bugle, Maunf|d Exclusively by J.B. Loger, Dublin, No. 466' (on the bell) and 'Halliday Inventor' (on the garland)
  • Keyed bugle: Musical Instruments Museum, Berlin. Inventory number 3088 (Waterhouse)

    • Published

  • 'An ode for the Golden Jubilee of George III’s reign, which was performed in 1809' (Boydell, 'Music, 1700-1850')
  • 'Logier’s Collections of Country Dances for the pianoforte or harp. These dances are so arranged that the[y] may be play’d by one or two performers on the piano forte; in the former instance, the middle line is suppressed; in the latter one of the performers plays the subject on the upper line an octave higher & the other the accompaniment. The same effect is produced by playing the upper line on the flute, violin or flageolet. The publisher considers it unnecessary to point out to the public the great variety which will result from these arrangements as it will produce all the effect of a duet or trio … Dublin. Published at I.B. Logier’s Music Saloon 27 Lower Sackville Street'. Vols 1–6, 1812–15 (Boydell, 'Flageolet')
  • Logier, An Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Royal Kent Bugle, 1813 (Hogan)
  • Logier, A Treatise on Practical Composition and Harmony, ‘founded on the diatonic and chromatic scales in all the major and minor modes with their fundamental harmony and inversions’ (Hogan)
  • Logier, Theoretical and Practical Study for the Pianoforte, c. 1814 (Hogan)
  • Logier, Wellington's Victory or Battle of Vittoria, a Grand Military Sonata for the Piano Forte, c. 1815 (McHale)
  • Logier, Logier's Periodical Military Duetts [sic] for Two Performers on One Piano Forte, c. 1815 (McHale)
  • Logier, Strains of Other Days - Being a Selection of Irish Airs, Arranged for the Piano Forte, c. 1816–25 [series] (McHale)

    • Sold (as listed in the Freeman's Journal)

  • 'The Stock consists of elegant Horizontal and Upright Grand Piano Fortes and Square ditto, by the best Makers, and a number of Second-hand ditto; a very fined toned Pedal Harp, Barrel Organs, Flutes and Flageolets at all Prices, &c. &c. a Set of Musical Glasses and a Foreign Violincello. Hist Stock of Printed Music, which consists chiefly of the most Classical Authors will be sold at HALF PRICE, without reserve [...] Also, a large assortment of Military Instruments, consisting of Slide Horns, Trumpets, Kent and Field Bugles, Trombones, Drums, Clarionets, Flutes, &c. &c. and a quantity of Military Music, well worth the attention of Commanders of Regiments. Two Excellent Finger Organs, which would suit a small place of Worship.', 1818 [on his departure from Dublin]
    • See Also: 

    Ellard, Andrew
    Haliday, Joseph
    Holden, Smollet
    Pace, Matthew

    Source(s): 

    Freeman's Journal, 1 January 1818, p. 2

    Hogan, Ita Margaret, Anglo-Irish Music 1780–1830 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1966), pp. 102–03, 114–15, 195–96

    Humphries, Charles and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the British Isles, from the Beginning until the Middle of the Nineteenth Century; a Dictionary of Engravers, Printers, Publishers, and Music Sellers (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 215

    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

    Boydell, Brian, 'Music, 1700–1850', in Eighteenth-Century Ireland 1691–1800, ed. by T.W. Moody and W.E. Vaughan, A New History of Ireland, IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 568–627 (p. 601)

    Boydell, Barra, 'The Flageolet in Ireland: Aspects of the Repertoire, the Instrument and its Makers', in Musicology in Ireland, ed. by Gerard Gillen and Harry White, Irish Musical Studies, I (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990), pp. 151–168 (p. 156)

    Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index: a Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors (London: Tony Bingham, 1993), p. 239

    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 (pp. 13–4, 21–43)

    McHale, Maria, 'Music', in The Irish Book in English 1800–1891, ed. by James H. Murphy, The Oxford History of the Irish Book, IV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 595–601 (p. 597)

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Logier, Johann Bernhard’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 16-05-2018