Introduction

Biography

Novello was the son of an Ita­li­an fa­ther and an Eng­lish mo­ther, and fa­ther of Al­fred No­vel­lo.

As a boy, he was a cho­ris­ter at the Sar­di­ni­an cha­pel in Duke Street, Lin­coln’s Inn Fields, where he learned to play the or­gan.

From 1796–1822 he be­came, in suc­cess­ion, org­an­ist of the Sar­di­ni­an, Span­ish (Man­ches­ter Square) and Por­tu­guese (South Street, Gros­ve­nor Square) cha­pels, and from 1840–43 of St. Mary’s Cha­pel, Moor­fields.

He al­so taught mu­sic pri­vate­ly through­out his ca­reer. One of his no­ta­ble pu­pils was mu­si­co­lo­gist and mu­sic critic Ed­ward Holmes. In ad­di­tion, No­vel­lo stu­died or­gan un­der Sam­uel Webbe, and played the or­gan at the Por­tu­guese em­bas­sy.

In 1811, he found­ed No­vel­lo and Com­pa­ny, and was a char­ter mem­ber of the Phil­har­mon­ic So­ci­ety. In 1847, he re­tired to Nice, and his son Al­fred took ov­er No­vel­lo and Com­pa­ny.