Music In The British Provinces, 1690-1914 0754631605, 9780754631606

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Figures
List of Appendices, Musical Examples, and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations Used in Notes and Contributor Biographies
Introduction: Centres and Peripheries
1 ‘A pretty knot of Musical Friends’: The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s1
2 Music in the Minster Close: Edward Finch, Valentine Nalson, and William Knight in Early Eighteenth-century York
3 A Little Light on Lorenzo Bocchi: An Italian in Edinburgh and Dublin1
4 Disputing Choruses in 1760s Halifax: Joah Bates, William Herschel, and the Messiah Club1
5 The Role of Gentlemen Amateurs in Subscription Concerts in North-East England during the Eighteenth Century
6 The String Quartet in Eighteenth-century Provincial Concert Life
7 John Baptist Malchair of Oxford and his Collection of ‘National Music’
8 Music of Rural Byway and Rotten Borough: A Study of Musical Life in Mid-Wiltshire
9 Mr White, of Leeds
10 The Larks of Dean: Amateur Musicians in Northern England
11 Finding Themselves: Musical Revolutions in Nineteenth-century Staffordshire
12 Lost Luggage: Giovanni Puzzi and the Management of Giovanni Rubini’s Farewell Tour in 1842
13 Outside the Cathedral: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Local MusicMaking, and the Provincial Organist in Mid-Nineteenth-century England
14 Music for St Cuthbert, ‘Patron Saint of the Faithful North’: The Musical Repertory of St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Durham, 182
15 ‘That monstrosity of bricks and mortar’: The Town Hall as a Music Venue in Nineteenth-century Stalybridge
16 The Provincial Musical Festival in Nineteenth-century England: A Case Study of Bridlington1
17 Educating England: Networks of Programme-Note Provision in the Nineteenth Century1
Index

Citation preview

MUSIC IN THE BRITISH PROVINCES, 1690–1914

Dedicated to the memory of Catherine Dale

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Edited by RACHEL COWGILL and PETER HOLMAN University of Leeds, UK

First published 2007 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2007 Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman

Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Music in the British provinces, 1690–1914 1. Music – Great Britain – 18th century – History and criticism – Congresses 2. Music – Great Britain – 19th century – History and criticism – Congresses I. Cowgill, Rachel II. Holman, Peter, 1946– 780.9'41 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Music in the British provinces, 1690–1914 / edited by Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-3160-6 (alk. paper) 1. Music – Societies, etc. – Great Britain – History. 2. Concerts – Great Britain – History. I. Cowgill, Rachel. II. Holman, Peter, 1946– ML25.M85 2007 780.941'0903–dc22 2007011561 ISBN 9780754631606 (hbk)

Contents List of Figures List of Appendices, Musical Examples, and Tables Notes on Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Used in Notes and Contributor Biographies Introduction: Centres and Peripheries Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman 1

2

3

4

5

‘A pretty knot of Musical Friends’: The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s Bryan White

vii xi xv xxi xxiii 1

9

Music in the Minster Close: Edward Finch, Valentine Nalson, and William Knight in Early Eighteenth-century York David Griffiths

45

A Little Light on Lorenzo Bocchi: An Italian in Edinburgh and Dublin Peter Holman

61

Disputing Choruses in 1760s Halifax: Joah Bates, William Herschel, and the Messiah Club Rachel Cowgill

87

The Role of Gentlemen Amateurs in Subscription Concerts in North-east England during the Eighteenth Century Roz Southey

115

6

The String Quartet in Eighteenth-century Provincial Concert Life Meredith McFarlane

7

John Baptist Malchair of Oxford and his Collection of ‘National Music’ Susan Wollenberg

151

Music of Rural Byway and Rotten Borough: A Study of Musical Life in Mid-Wiltshire c. 1750–1830 Christopher Kent

163

8

129

vi

9

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Mr White, of Leeds Robert Demaine

10 The Larks of Dean: Amateur Musicians in Northern England Sally Drage

183 195

11 Finding Themselves: Musical Revolutions in Nineteenth-century Staffordshire Sarah E. Taylor

223

12 Lost Luggage: Giovanni Puzzi and the Management of Giovanni Rubini’s Farewell Tour in 1842 E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer

237

13 Outside the Cathedral: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Local MusicMaking, and the Provincial Organist in Mid-Nineteenth-century England Peter Horton 14 Music for St Cuthbert, ‘Patron Saint of the Faithful North’: The Musical Repertory of St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Durham, 1827–1910 Thomas Muir

255

269

15 ‘That monstrosity of bricks and mortar’: The Town Hall as a Music Venue in Nineteenth-century Stalybridge Rachel Milestone

295

16 The Provincial Musical Festival in Nineteenth-century England: A Case Study of Bridlington Catherine Dale

325

17 Educating England: Networks of Programme-Note Provision in the Nineteenth Century Christina Bashford

349

Index

377

List of Figures 1.1

1.2

1.3 1.4 2.1

2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1

6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

Detail from John Ogilby’s map of the road from London to Barwick. Britannia: or, The Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales (London, 1698). The plates in this edition are reprints of the 1675 edition Detail from a map of Northamptonshire, by Robert Morden, showing Stamford, Suthwick (Southwick), and Oundle. Britannia: or, A chorographical description of Great Britain and Ireland […] Written in Latin by William Camden, […] and translated into English, with additions and improvements. Revised, digested, and published, with large additions, by Edmund Gibson, 3rd edn (2 vols, London: R. Ware et al., 1753), vol. 1. The plates in this edition are reprints of the 1695 edition St John’s Church, Little Gidding Ferrar Papers, Item 2,170: Sheet 7 A and B Map of the ‘Minster Close and Bedern, York’, as it would have appeared in the eighteenth century, 27 February 1917, from George Benson, Later Medieval York: the City and County of the City of York from 1100 to 1603 (York: Coultas & Volans, 1919), facing p. 112 Edward Finch’s harmonization of the tune ‘St James’s’, York Minster Library MS M 18 S, f. 1 Lorenzo Bocchi, A Musicall Entertainment for a Chamber, opening of Sonata 2 A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, opening of ‘Plea Rarkeh na Rourkough’ Printed plan of the organ designed by John Snetzler for Halifax Parish Church, engraved by T. Sunderland of Halifax and probably circulated in late 1763 or 1764, during the call for subscriptions Subscription list from Pieltain’s Six Quartettos for Two Violins, a Tenor and Violoncello […] Op. 2d (London: for the author, [1785]) Oxford Musical Society, list of quartets (nineteenth-century manuscript catalogue), Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. Misc.C.374, pp. 20–21 A Blind Irish Piper, sketched by J.B. Malchair. ‘From this man I noted some beautiful Irish Tunes as he played them on the Bag-Pipe’, 15 May 1785 Merton Tower from Magpie Lane, by J.B. Malchair, pencil and grey wash, inscribed on verso ‘The Tower of Merton College Chapel Oxford from Magpie Lane, July 24. 1776’

12

14 15 29

46 49 69 70

98 147 148 156 161

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

8.1

‘Oh, cast ev’ry care to the wind’ (words from Revd William Lisle Bowles, ‘The Harp of Hoel’), from J.M. Coombs I, Eight Canzonets with an Accompaniment for the Pianoforte (London, [?1810]) J.M. Coombs I, two-part anthem, ‘Give ear unto me Lord I beseech thee’, adapted from Marcello, from Coombs’s Divine Amusement (London: Preston, 1819) Handbill from the press of J.M. Coombs II, for music at a service dedicated to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1820 Handbill for Chippenham Musical Festival, 7 August 1822, Wiltshire Archive Services, Devizes, D77/3A Photograph of Moses Heap, seated by a waterfall, inserted into opening pages of Moses Heap, ‘My Life and Times’, typescript by Jon Elliott (1962), Rawtenstall Library, RC 942 ROS Inscriptions from ‘John Heyworth’s Book’ of psalm tunes, hymn tunes, and an anthem, manuscript, Rossendale Museum SM 12 ‘For unto us a child is born’ from Tonic Sol-fa edition of Handel’s Messiah, edited by John Curwen (London: Curwen, 1891), bars 1–8 Presentation bookplate from a Tonic Sol-fa edition of Handel’s Messiah (pictured in Figure 11.1) Concert programme for Reading performance, Rubini’s 1842 farewell tour, Covert Collection (private ownership) Cover inscription, and excerpt from horn and voice parts, from ‘La potenza d’amore’, a canzonet written for Rubini by Tadolini, with horn obbligato by Puzzi. Copyist’s MS, Covert Collection Railway passengers’ announcement appealing for information concerning the luggage lost by the Rubini touring party, reproduced in P.B. Whitehouse (ed.), Railway Relics and Regalia (London: Country Life, 1975) Proposed membership list for an Exeter musical society, 1837, S.S. Wesley, manuscript notebook, RCM, MS 2,141e rev., ff. 18v–17 Ground plan of Stalybridge Town Hall, taken from the Ordnance Survey Map, 1852 Photograph, taken before 1905, of the renovated town hall from the back. The middle portion of this elevation was part of the original building, with wings added at either side. Tameside Image Archive, t10992 Photograph of Stalybridge Harmonic Society, c. 1865–85. Tameside Image Archive, t08609 Stalybridge Town Hall from the front, c. 1896–1902. Tameside Image Archive, t10325

8.2 8.3 8.4 10.1 10.2 11.1 11.2 12.1 12.2 12.3

13.1 15.1 15.2

15.3 15.4

170 171 172 173 197 201 225 226 240 243

247 261 301

302 305 315

List of Figures

16.1

16.2 16.3a

16.3b 16.4 16.5 17.1 17.2a 17.2b

17.3a 17.3b 17.4

Tabulated statement of accounts for Leeds Musical Festival, 1858–89, from Fred R. Spark and Joseph Bennett, History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, 1858–1889 (Leeds: Fred R. Spark; and London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1892), p. 371 Development of rail links with Bridlington, taken from D. Neave, Port, Resort, and Market Town: a history of Bridlington (Hull: Hull Academic Press, 2000), p. 171 Details of special arrangements for late trains, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1894, from a bound set of programmes donated by Herbert Thompson, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI Details of special arrangements for late trains, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1903, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI A.W.M. Bosville, part of a programme note for Mendelssohn, Lauda Sion, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1897, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI A.W.M Bosville, part of a programme note for Stanford’s The Revenge, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1895, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI Title-page of the programme booklet for the Monday Popular Concert in Liverpool, 17 February 1874 Anonymous programme note on Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ overture for the Liverpool Philharmonic Society concert on 27 January 1874 G.A. Macfarren’s programme note on Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ overture, from the programme booklet of the Philharmonic Society, London, for the concert on 17 May 1869. The entire booklet is attributed to Macfarren on page [3] George Grove’s programme note on Brahms’s Symphony no. 2 for the Crystal Palace Concerts, 21 April 1883, marked up for the Subscription Orchestral Concerts, Bristol Anonymous programme note on Brahms’s Symphony no. 2 for the Subscription Orchestral Concerts, Bristol, 13 March 1893 ‘A Pair of Enthusiasts’: a depiction of audience members at the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace in the 1870s (Graphic, 27 June 1874)

ix

330 332

333 334 338 339 359 364

366 368 370 376

List of Appendices, Musical Examples, and Tables Appendices 1.1 1.2 8.1 8.2 10.1 10.2 10.3 12.1 14.1 14.2 14.3 16.1 16.2

Transcription of letters from the Ferrar Papers, Magdalene College, Cambridge A description of the seven loose sheets in the Ferrar Papers, Item 2,170, Magdalene College, Cambridge Checklist of compositions by James Morris Coombs I Checklist of compositions by James Morris Coombs II Printed books associated with the Larks of Dean, held by Rawtenstall Library (originals on permanent loan to Lancashire Record Office [LRO]) Preliminary list of manuscripts associated with the Larks of Dean, held by Rawtenstall Library (original manuscripts on permanent loan to Lancashire Record Office [LRO]) Manuscripts associated with the Larks of Dean, held at Rossendale Museum Schedule and sources for the farewell tour of Giovanni Battista Rubini through the English provinces, 1842 Printed volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, c. 1800–1914 Manuscript volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham Printed volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, 1920–62 Organizational detail of the Bridlington Musical Festivals 1894–1901 and 1903 Works performed at the Bridlington Musical Festivals (1894–1901, and 1903), from a bound set of programmes donated by Herbert Thompson, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI

31 39 179 181 212 217 221 252 290 292 293 342

343

Examples 3.1 3.2 3.3

Lorenzo Bocchi, Sonata no. 11, opening of the first movement Lorenzo Bocchi, Sonata no. 3, opening of the last movement Lorenzo Bocchi, Sonata no. 12, opening of the second movement, ‘English Aire Improv’d after an Italian Manner’

80 82 83

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3.4

Edward Finch, Sonata no. 2, passage from the last movement, compared with Lorenzo Bocchi’s reworking ‘Magpey [Magpie] Lane’, Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 88 [No.] 21 ‘Strachen variga’, William Crotch, Specimens of Various Styles of Music, referred to in a Course of Lectures read at Oxford and London (3 vols, London: Robert Birchall, c. 1808–09), vol. 1, [no.] 21 ‘La Rochelle’, Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 60 [Untitled tune], Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 42 ‘The Budget for 1785’, Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 73 ‘Rothemurches Rant[,] a Strathspey’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 105 ‘Kellekranky’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 98 ‘Pen Rhaw’, ‘From the old M.S. Book of Mr. Jones of Jesus Oxon’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 13 ‘Pen Rhaw’, ‘From Jones’s Coll. p. 72’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 10 J.M. Coombs I, four-part verse anthem, ‘Seek the Lord’ (Isaiah), no. 19 from ‘Henry Baker’s Book’ (privately owned manuscript), p. 102 The melody of ‘Dear Patron of the Faithful North’, from [F. Police, (ed.)], The Parochial Hymn Book, rev. edn (London: Burns & Oates, 1883), no. 50

7.1 7.2

7.3a 7.3b 7.4 7.5a 7.5b 7.5c 7.5d 8.1 14.1

85 153

156 158 158 158 158 159 159 159 169 271

Tables 5.1 6.1 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 15.1

Calendar of winter subscription concert series in eighteenthcentury Newcastle and York A comparative list of string-quartet repertoire in provincial centres by composer, 1768–99 The dates when William Brown composed each part of his Mass Dates when particular compositions were copied into the Gradual book at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, by William Brown Hymns used at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, taken from The Parochial Hymn Book of 1883 Musical compositions in the manuscript volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham Compositions in part-books at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, that were copied from A Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction, eds Charles Newsham and John Richardson The nationalities of composers of masses copied into manuscripts held at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham Plainchant compositions copied into part-books from the 1850s at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham The building of town halls in England, 1820–34, based on Colin Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), pp. 254–6

119 140 275 275 277 280 283 285 289 300

List of Appendices, Musical Examples, and Tables

15.2 15.3 16.1 17.1

Expenses incurred for the town hall performance of Handel’s Samson by Stalybridge Harmonic Society in 1854 Comparison of musical events in Ashton Town Hall and Stalybridge Town Hall in 1876 Attendance and receipts for Elijah and Messiah performances at Birmingham Festivals from 1855 to 1891 The Crystal Palace Concerts: examples of notes recycled from the regions

xiii

308 313 327 360

Notes on Contributors The Editors Rachel Cowgill is Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of LUCEM, the Centre for English Music, at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on British musical cultures, Mozart reception, Italian opera, and gender and performativity in music. Her work has been published in JRMA, Early Music, COJ, MT, and in edited volumes from Ashgate, Berlin Verlag, and OUP. Her most recent essay, ‘Elgar’s War Requiem’, will appear in Byron Adams (ed.), Elgar and His World (Princeton University Press, 2007). With Julian Rushton, Rachel co-edited the collection Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music (Ashgate, 2006), and with Peter Holman she co-edits the book series ‘Music in Britain, 1600–1900’ for Boydell & Brewer. Her book, Redeeming the Requiem: the early English reception of Mozart’s last work, is in preparation for Boydell & Brewer, and she has recently been appointed editor of JRMA. Peter Holman is Professor of Historical Musicology and Director of LUCEM, the Centre for English Music, at the University of Leeds. He is the author of Four and Twenty Fiddlers: the violin at the English court, 1540–1690 (Clarendon, 1993; 2nd edn, 1995), which won the 1995 British Academy Derek Allen award, and studies of Henry Purcell and John Dowland’s Lachrimae. His major study and edition of Charles Dibdin’s Sadler’s Wells dialogues will soon be published by Artaria Editions. He is editor, with Rachel Cowgill, of the Boydell & Brewer series ‘Music in Britain 1600–1900’, which will include his forthcoming book Life after Death: the viola da gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch. As a performer he is director of The Parley of Instruments, musical director of Opera Restor’d, and artistic director of the Suffolk Villages Festival. As an authority on Baroque performance practice, he frequently teaches on early music summerschools and courses. Other Contributors Christina Bashford is Assistant Professor in Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), and Research Associate in the School of Arts and Humanities at Oxford Brookes University (UK), where she taught music (1994–2005) and launched the Concert Life in Nineteenth-Century London database project, with Rachel Cowgill and Simon McVeigh. Her research interests include the social and economic history of chamber music, concert life, and music criticism in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain, and she has published widely on these topics. With Leanne Langley, she co-edited Music and British Culture,

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1785–1914: essays in honour of Cyril Ehrlich (OUP, 2000), and her book, The Pursuit of High Culture: John Ella and chamber music in Victorian London, is forthcoming from Boydell & Brewer. Catherine Dale was Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Hull. Catherine combined interests in both the historical and the analytical study of music. She wrote widely on the music of the Second Viennese School, including two books on Schoenberg, and published chapters in Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies, 1 and 2 (Ashgate, 1999 and 2002). More recently she authored two monographs: Music Analysis in Britain in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Ashgate, 2003) and The Bridlington Musical Festival 1894–1903 (Matador, c. 2004). Sadly, during the preparation of this volume, Catherine died on 21 December 2005. We are grateful to Catherine’s mother for allowing her essay to be published here posthumously. Robert Demaine is a linguist by training, and has combined a professional career in computing with an active interest in music and music history, both as performer and researcher. He received his doctorate from the University of York in 2001 for a thesis entitled ‘Individual and Institution in the Musical Life of Leeds, 1900–1914’. His primary area of research is music and locality, with particular emphasis on music in Leeds, and a book tracing the history of music in Leeds up to 1914 is in progress for Ashgate. Robert is currently Head of Infrastructure within the Computing Service at the University of York. Sally Drage studied piano and flute at the Royal Manchester College of Music, and combines work as a peripatetic instrumental teacher and church organist with research into English provincial church music. Currently she is writing up her PhD dissertation at the University of Leeds, focusing on the performance practice of psalmody c. 1700–1850, and an edition of eighteenth-century psalmody which she co-edited with Nicholas Temperley is forthcoming for Musica Britannica. Sally has contributed to Early Music, ODNB, NG2, Manchester Sounds, and other edited Ashgate volumes. Her music editions have been used by Psalmody on their four Hyperion CDs, and by the Hallé Choir. David Griffiths, until his recent retirement, was Music and Special Collections Librarian at the University of York. He has published catalogues of the early printed and manuscript music holdings in YML, and articles on various aspects of the musical history of the city of York. His monograph ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of music-making in York, c. 1550–1990 (York Settlement Trust, [2004]) is the first extended study of music in York, and was based on his doctoral thesis. David is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, and participates in concerts regularly, both as a member of various choirs, and as a keyboard continuo player. Peter Horton has a particular interest in nineteenth-century English music and has written extensively on the life and works of Samuel Sebastian Wesley, including

Notes on Contributors

xvii

an edition of his anthems for Musica Britannica and Samuel Sebastian Wesley: a life (OUP, 2004). More recently, he has turned his attention to William Sterndale Bennett, contributing a study of his piano music to The Piano in NineteenthCentury British Culture: instruments, performers, and repertoire, eds Therese Ellsworth and Susan Wollenberg (Ashgate, forthcoming), and preparing an edition of Bennett’s travel diaries. He is Deputy Librarian (Reference & Research) at the RCM, London. Christopher Kent studied at the University of Manchester, the Royal Manchester College of Music, and King’s College, London, where he completed a doctorate on Elgar’s sketches. He joined the University of Reading, where he established a postgraduate course in organ historiography. He retired in 2002. Christopher has published widely in Elgar studies and organography, including Edward Elgar: a guide to research (Garland, 1993), the Cambridge Companion to the Organ, eds Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber (CUP, 1999), and the Cambridge Companion to Elgar, eds Daniel Grimley and Julian Rushton (CUP, 2005). He has co-edited volumes of the Elgar Complete Edition, served as Secretary of the British Institute of Organ Studies, and is a member of the Association of Independent Organ Advisers and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Meredith McFarlane is a Lecturer in the Graduate School of the RCM, London. Her research interests span English musical life in the long eighteenth century, and she recently contributed a chapter on the string quartet in London to the collection Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain, eds Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (Ashgate, 2004). Meredith completed her doctorate at the RCM in 2002, and has previously worked as editor of one of the Gramophone’s specialist quarterly magazines. She has also freelanced as a violist in many of London’s leading period-instrument ensembles and orchestras. Rachel Milestone graduated with a BA and MMus from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and is studying for a PhD at the University of Leeds, researching the English town hall as a music venue in the nineteenth century. She has been awarded funding from the Worldwide Universities Network for an exchange visit to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) in 2007. Rachel works as a researcher on the Concert Programmes Project, a joint venture between the RCM, University of Cardiff, and the BL, and she has performed as a singer and accompanist both nationally and in Europe. Thomas Muir was educated at Eton and Oxford University, and taught history and politics for 20 years at Stonyhurst College. He is the author of Stonyhurst College, 1593–1993 (James & James, 1992), which is now in its second, revised edition. Returning to study, he read music at the Universities of York and Durham, and his doctoral thesis forms the basis of a book entitled Roman Catholic Church Music in England, 1778–1920: the handmaid of the liturgy? which is forthcoming

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from Ashgate. In addition to his writing on the subject, Thomas is also active as a composer of music for the Roman Catholic church. Roz Southey holds degrees in history and music, and received her doctorate from the University of Newcastle in 2001, where she now lectures part-time. She is particularly interested in the historical and social contexts of eighteenth-century music-making in the north-east of England, and has published work in Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain, eds Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (Ashgate, 2004), and Resisting Napoleon: the British response to the threat of invasion, 1797–1815, ed. Mark Philp (Ashgate, 2006); her book, Music-Making in North-East England during the Eighteenth Century, was published by Ashgate in 2006. Roz also writes science-fiction short stories, and an historical detective novel is forthcoming from Crème de la Crime. E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer is Deputy Keeper of Musical Instruments at the Horniman Museum, London, where she curates the collections of historic western musical instruments, including the Boosey & Hawkes and Adam Carse Collections. Her research and practical interests include concert life in nineteenthcentury Britain, historical performance, and organology. She plays both the hand horn and the modern horn, and performs regularly. Bradley completed her doctorate on Giovanni Puzzi at the University of Oxford in 2000, and has contributed to various publications, including NG2, the Historic Brass Society Journal, Musique-Instruments-Images, and a range of conference proceedings. Sarah E. Taylor (née Kaufman) studied for her MPhil at the University of Leeds, producing a dissertation entitled ‘John Curwen and the Impact of Tonic Sol-fa on the Choral Movement in England’ (2002). She completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she is currently an Assistant Librarian, and has been closely involved in setting up an institutional repository for the university. Prior to this she worked in the library of the Royal Northern College of Music. She works as a freelance cataloguer for Intute (Arts and Humanities) as one of the subject specialists for music. Bryan White is a Lecturer in Music at the University of Leeds. He studied at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (USA) and the University of Wales, Bangor (UK), receiving his doctorate in 2000 for a dissertation on Louis Grabu and his opera Albion and Albanius. He has published on Grabu and Lully in Early Music, and has edited Grabu’s opera Albion and Albanius and G.B. Draghi’s Song for St Cecilia’s Day (1687) for the Purcell Society, of which he is a member. He is Deputy Director of the Byrd Project, Deputy Director of the Leeds University Centre for Historically Informed Performance (LUCHIP), and is the editor of the journal Early Music Performer. Currently he is working on a book entitled Music for St Cecilia in Britain from Purcell to Handel.

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Susan Wollenberg is Reader in Music at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Music; Fellow and Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall; and College Lecturer in Music at Brasenose College. She has published widely on a variety of subjects, including C.P.E. Bach and Schubert, and has longstanding interests in the study of women composers and in the social history of English music. She is the author of Music at Oxford in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (OUP, 2001), and was co-editor, with Simon McVeigh, of Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Ashgate, 2004). With Therese Ellsworth, she has edited a collection of essays entitled The Piano in Nineteenth-Century British Culture: instruments, performers, and repertoire, which is forthcoming from Ashgate.

Preface and Acknowledgements The inspiration for this volume of essays was twofold: the founding of Leeds University Centre for English Music (LUCEM) in 2000, in what is now the School of Music at the University of Leeds; and the first ever conference hosted by the Centre, on the theme Music in the English Provinces, 1700–1900 (19–20 May 2001). This is not a set of conference proceedings, however, for around a third of the essays included here (Chapters 1, 3, 4, 11, and 15) were not presented as papers in 2001, but have been offered to, or commissioned by, the editors since. We are grateful to everyone who participated in the conference and helped to launch LUCEM, and take this opportunity to thank our contributors to this volume for their enthusiasm and willingness to engage with our comments and questions and, in particular, for their patience in seeing this project come to fruition. LUCEM was formed to bring together scholars and performers who are interested in English music, musicians, and musical culture, and to focus attention on a particularly neglected area of musical history. The period covered by this volume – roughly from Purcell to Elgar – has traditionally been viewed as a dark age in English musical life, while research into English music of the period has tended to concentrate on London, as the commercial and cultural hub of the British Isles and Empire. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that by the mid-eighteenth century, England had a highly distinctive musical culture, in terms of its reach, the way it was organized, and its size, richness, and quality. There was an extraordinary amount of musical activity outside London, in particular in provincial theatres and halls, in the amateur orchestras and choirs that developed in most towns of any size, in taverns and convivial clubs, in parish churches and dissenting chapels, and, of course, in the home. Music played a vital role in provincial culture, not only in terms of socializing and networking, but also in economies and rivalries, demographics and class dynamics, religion and identity, education and recreation, and community and the formation of traditions. One of the central issues that emerge from this collection is the extent to which settled patterns of eighteenth-century provincial musical life declined, developed, or changed over the course of the nineteenth century. A deepening understanding of musical life in the provinces brings with it a clearer sense of London’s significance within the national context, and its changing role and status in relation to other musical centres across the British Isles. Most importantly, however, as our focus shifts from London to the regions, new light is shed on neglected figures and forgotten repertoires, all of them worthy of reconsideration. One perennial problem of definition needs to be mentioned: England or Britain? We decided to make LUCEM a centre for English music not just because its acronym signals our aspirations for a dark period of our musical history. We felt (and feel) that the casual equation of England with Britain can no longer be justified in our cultural discourse, particularly since a number of Scottish and

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Irish musicologists have shown in recent years just how complex the interactions were between art music and their indigenous traditions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Art music, however, was initially an imported commodity in Edinburgh and Dublin, which were dependent on London for professional performers and repertoire. That began to change when strong concert-giving institutions emerged in both cities, along with music publishing and allied trades, and prominent performers began to develop careers there rather than in London. Peter Holman’s essay on the Italian cellist Lorenzo Bocchi richly illustrates one stage in that process, and to reflect that we have named this collection Music in the British Provinces. To maintain coherence among the essays we have not looked beyond the British Isles to the developing Empire for a sense of how provincial musical identities played out on the imperial stage – this fascinating theme must wait for another occasion to be fully explored. As far as our chronological boundaries are concerned, these are drawn to coincide with the ‘urban renaissance’ in early eighteenth-century English culture, identified by historians such as Peter Borsay, and the outbreak of World War I, which had such a profound effect on all aspects of cultural life across the British Isles. On behalf of our contributors, our warmest thanks go to Heidi May and her team at Ashgate; to our colleagues and doctoral students at Leeds, among whom John Cunningham, Andrew Woolley, and Duncan Boutwood deserve particular mention for additional research and chasing up queries; to Janet Finlay, for patient assistance in matters technical and technological; and John Wagstaff for help in preparing some of the images for publication. Where individuals and institutions have contributed to specific aspects of the book, we mention them in the appropriate places. One of the best things about sharing the editing of a collection such as this is the opportunity to discuss issues arising from the work and its presentation – finally, then, we each thank our co-editor for the imagination, energy, and collegial support that have made it possible to see this book through to completion. Rachel Cowgill Peter Holman February 2007 Leeds University Centre for English Music

List of Abbreviations Used in Notes and Contributor Biographies BDA

BIA BL COJ CUP GMO HMSO IGI JAMS JRMA LRO LUCEM ML MT MUP MW NG NG2 ODNB OED OUP PRMA PRO RILM RISM RMARC RCM

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, eds Philip H. Highfill junior, Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans (16 vols, Carbondale and Edwardsville IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973–93) Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York British Library, London Cambridge Opera Journal Cambridge University Press Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy Her Majesty’s Stationery Office The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Family Search: international genealogical index

Journal of the American Musicological Society Journal of the Royal Musical Association Lancashire Record Office Leeds University Centre for English Music Music & Letters Musical Times Manchester University Press Musical World New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (20 vols, London: Macmillan, 1980) New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn, eds Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (29 vols, London: Macmillan, 2001) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [online] (Oxford: OUP, 2004) Oxford English Dictionary [online] (Oxford: OUP, 2007)

Oxford University Press Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association Public Record Office, Kew Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale Répertoire International des Sources Musicales Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle Royal College of Music, London

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THAS WCRO WYAS YML

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Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society Wiltshire County Record Office West Yorkshire Archive Service York Minster Library, York

Introduction: Centres and Peripheries Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman

Music historians interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain spent most of the last century dealing with the perception of ‘Das Land ohne Musik’, or ‘the ancient libel’ as Julian Rushton dubs it.1 It is true that no native British composer between Purcell and Elgar achieved the stature of the greatest Continental composers; yet, as recent scholarship has shown, British musical culture did more than its fair share to nurture the Meisterwerk, in terms of origination as well as consumption and critical reception (Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s London symphonies, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah spring to mind).2 Moreover, the insights social historians and ethnomusicologists have brought to this field lately, coinciding with the ‘cultural turn’ in musicology, have demonstrated the rewards to be gained by adopting much broader frames of reference.3 Britain’s sudden transformation into a leading commercial and naval power in the early eighteenth century attracted eminent musicians from all over Europe whose first destination, in most cases, was the capital. London was no musical backwater, but the largest and most lucrative pond of all, where musicians did not have to be big fish to make a good living, or, adjusting the metaphor, to haul in ‘a good catch of guineas’.4 London was the place where commercial public concerts were first established – by John Banister at his Whitefriars music school in 1672 – and where the first proper concert hall opened – York Buildings, just off the Strand, in the 1680s and 1690s. And by the late eighteenth century a music-lover with enough money and the right social connections could attend a 1 Julian Rushton, ‘Introduction: Learning in London, Learning from London’, in Peter Horton and Bennett Zon (eds), Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies, 3 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), pp. xv–xxiii (p. xv). For a historiographical survey, see Nicholas Temperley, ‘Xenophilia in British Musical History’, in Bennett Zon (ed.), NineteenthCentury British Music Studies, 1 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 3–19. See also Peter Holman, ‘Eighteenth-Century Music: past, present, future’, in David Wyn Jones (ed.), Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 1–13. 2 See, for example, William Weber, The Rise of Musical Classics in EighteenthCentury England: a study in canon, ritual, and ideology (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992). 3 For example, Dave Russell, Popular Music in England: a social history, 2nd edn (Manchester: MUP, 1997), and Ruth Finnegan, The Hidden Musicians: music-making in an English town (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), shortly to be reissued by Wesleyan University Press. 4 Leopold Mozart, Chelsea, to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg, 13 September 1764, in Emily Anderson (ed.), The Letters of Mozart and his Family, 3rd edn, S. Sadie and F. Smart (rev.) (London: Macmillan, 1990), p. 52 (L. 31).

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musical event every night of the season, as the Morning Chronicle’s ‘Mirror of Fashion’ demonstrated in 1792: MONDAY

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of YORK’s Concert. The Professional Concert. TUESDAY The QUEEN’s Concert, Buckingham-house. The Pasticcio, Hanover-square [Gallini]. WEDNESDAY Their MAJESTIES and PRINCESSES, will attend the Concert of Ancient Music, Tottenham-street. Mrs. VANNECK’s Concert. THURSDAY The QUEEN’s Concert and Card Party, BuckinghamHouse. [Academy of] Ancient Music, Free Mason’s Tavern. FRIDAY The Duchess of GLOUCESTER’s Concert. SALOMON’s Concert. SATURDAY The Pasticcio, Hanover-square. Catch and Glee Concert. SUNDAY Duchess of GLOUCESTER’s Concert. Lady HAMPDEN’s Concert [Nobility Concert]. Mrs. STURT’s Concert. General TOWNSHEND’s Concert. Mrs R. WALPOLE’s Concert.5

Many visiting musicians passed through London, however, or indeed bypassed it altogether, not only because the capital was found by some to be overstocked with musicians, but because of the increasingly rich and diverse opportunities available to the entrepreneurial musician elsewhere in the kingdom. Indeed, it was arguably the vibrant, complex, and in many ways self-sufficient cultural life of the British provinces that made the nation so distinctive musically in the context of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. So far, it is only for periods earlier than those covered here that musicologists have been able to place the British provinces in a broader European context.6 The current volume aims to promote this contextualization for later periods, therefore, by first exploring the place, structures, and significance of musical life in the British provinces, not with a focus exclusively on cities and towns, hence Tim Carter’s term ‘urban musicology’ seems inappropriate here, but from a range of different perspectives.7 Several key themes emerge in these essays. Networks are important throughout – particularly their relative stability, dynamism, and 5 Quoted in Simon McVeigh, Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn (Cambridge: CUP, 1993), p. 2. 6 See, for example, Fiona Kisby (ed.), Music and Musicians in Renaissance Cities and Towns (Cambridge: CUP, 2001); Urban History, 29 (Special Issue: Music and Urban History) (2002). 7 Tim Carter, ‘The Sounds of Silence: models for an urban musicology’, Urban History, 29 (2002): 8–18.

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flux – among communities and settlements (villages, towns, regional centres, the capital); venues and institutions (taverns, assembly rooms, town halls, cathedrals, churches, chapels); and individuals, via personal, familial, and professional ties. Changing relations between amateur and professional, and between touring, migrant, and native musicians also come into focus in several contributions, as do the merging and separation of public and private spaces for music-making; the invention and reinvention of musical traditions; and a sense of musicians playing differently to local, regional, and national audiences, or (usually from more of a commercial than a political imperative) working to make musical culture more coherent across the country as a whole. The term ‘provinces’, though often used merely to refer to the administrative divisions of a country or state, is, of course, by no means free of ideological baggage, carrying with it suggestions of otherness, dependency, and even cultural and intellectual stagnancy. It is easy to make assumptions based on twentyfirst-century notions of what is ‘central’, ‘radial’, and ‘peripheral’, but in earlier periods, the sense of oneself and one’s community in relation to others must have been experienced very differently, particularly before the development of national road, rail, and media networks. Peter Clark observes, for example, that ‘for most of the rural elite, the local market town – not London or Bath – was the regular and most accessible gateway to fashionable social life in Georgian England’.8 At a time when geographical variation in modes of speech, dress, taste, and etiquette would have been much more extreme across Britain, it is small wonder that some of those regional differences began to be conceived as a matter of pride – particularly with increasing urbanization and industrialization – akin to what Horace Smith described whimsically as ‘a nationality of counties’ in 1836.9 This manifestation of provincialism was a significant driver in the propagation of choirs, bands, concerts, and festivals across eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, as it was for the creation of clubs and leagues for organized sport, yet deep-seated tensions and ambiguities remained, which are captured neatly in the OED: Provincialism: provincial character or peculiarity; the manner, fashion, mode of thought, etc., which characterize a particular province, or ‘the provinces’ generally, as distinct from that which is (or is held to be) national, or which is the fashion of the capital; hence, narrowness of view, thought, or interests, roughness of speech or manners as distinct from the polish of the court or capital.

8 Peter Clark, ‘Small Towns, 1700–1840’, in Peter Clark (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: Vol. 2, 1540–1840 (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), pp. 733–74 (p. 770). 9 Paul Chatfield (as Horace Smith, pseud.), The Tin Trumpet; or Heads and Tales for the Wise and Waggish (London: Whitaker, 1836; repr. George Routledge, 1890), p. 296 (defining ‘Provincialism’). He continues: ‘The character of a whole people may be homogeneous, though compounded of many opposite ingredients; as spirit and water, sugar and acid, are necessary to the integrity of punch.’ For another, thought-provoking take on this theme, see Kenneth Clark’s Provincialism (New York: Knopf, 1968).

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What, then, did ‘the provinces’ mean in the context of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British music? England in the seventeenth century, like France and Spain, was a centralized monarchy with a culture based on a single court. Thus it did not have the musical establishments attached to many small courts, or vocal and instrumental ensembles attached to churches, as in Italy, the Holy Roman Empire, or Lutheran Germany. England’s provincial cathedrals, disrupted during the Civil War, made only a marginal contribution to musical life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, partly because they were restricted to organ accompaniment except for exceptional occasions, though their organists were often the focal point of secular musical life as the directors and promoters of concerts and festivals. As the eighteenth century progressed, Britain experienced higher rates of urbanization than almost anywhere else in Western Europe, and as small towns proliferated, new forums for music-making began to emerge. Appropriately, then, this volume begins with Bryan White’s account of an early music club in Stamford (Ch. 1). The development of provincial music clubs – beginning in Commonwealth Oxford – offered an increasingly popular alternative to the traditional focus on household musicians, the musical members of country houses, or the activities of town waits. Stamford’s musical club is remarkable, partly because it was a small town without the benefit of a cathedral and its choral foundation, and partly because of the up-to-date and cosmopolitan interests of its members. Not only did they collect vocal music by Henry Purcell and his London contemporaries, including one of his odes, but they also planned to produce a St Cecilia ode of their own, and they obtained copies of Corelli’s trio sonatas not long after they were first published. Stamford, of course, benefited from its position on the Great North Road, about 100 miles from London, as did York, another 100 or so miles further up the same road. David Griffiths investigates the musical interests of three early eighteenth-century clergymen at York Minster: Edward Finch, Valentine Nalson, and William Knight (see Ch. 2). All three were composers, and their copying activities reveal eclectic interests, ranging beyond Purcell and other seventeenth-century English composers, to Italians such as Corelli, Albinoni, Valentini, and Steffani, and, less predictably, to the Netherlands composers Albicastro and the Fioccos, father and son. It is not clear how they obtained much of their music, or how it was used, but it suggests that the formal music clubs and concert series in cathedral cities such as York were only the tip of an extremely musical iceberg. Copying Continental music was one way for provincial musicians to keep up with current trends, and another was importing the musicians themselves. Inevitably, foreign virtuosi tended to head initially for London, but, as institutions and opportunities developed in the course of the eighteenth century, they found the provinces offering a viable and secure alternative to the cut-throat competition of the capital. The first Italian musician to travel all the way up the Great North Road to Edinburgh (he seems to have stopped off in York in 1720 to give Edward Finch composition lessons) was apparently the cellist and composer Lorenzo Bocchi. Peter Holman (Ch. 3) describes how he brought the Italian style to Scotland, and then to Ireland; but also shows how he ‘went native’, setting texts in lowland Scots, developing an interest in collecting and ‘improving’ Scottish

Introduction: Centres and Peripheries

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and Irish vernacular music, and, possibly, having a hand in Allan Ramsay’s The Gentle Shepherd, the first Scottish opera. A similar case later in the century was the German violinist John Baptist Malchair, who arrived in England in 1754, and settled in Oxford in 1760. In addition to leading the orchestra at the Holywell Music Room, he worked as a drawing master, and also developed an interest in the popular music he heard on Oxford’s streets. Susan Wollenberg (Ch. 7) sees his interest in what later became known as ‘national music’ as parallel to his topographical drawings of Oxford: both came out of a very modern impulse to record aspects of English culture before they disappeared. Another German musician William Herschel (later a pioneer of astronomy) wended his way to the north-east, then teamed up briefly in Halifax with Joah Bates, the future director of the 1784 Handel Commemoration, and a convivial singing club. Herschel began to compose an oratorio and was appointed organist, and Handel’s Messiah received its first Yorkshire airing, but as Rachel Cowgill narrates (Ch. 4), this seemingly propitious musical community was fractured by disputes over payment for musical labour, cultural leadership, conflicting ambitions, and a power-struggle between townships. These were the growing pains of a small town enriched by the burgeoning textile industry, and of a singing club transforming itself into a dedicated chorus and orchestra for the public performance of oratorios. As Robert Demaine shows, by the time John White came to prominence as a conductor of oratorios across Yorkshire – largely through the patronage of Lord Harewood, who sponsored his training and regular visits to London – choral music had established a central place in the county’s cultural life, culminating in the great Yorkshire Music Festivals of the 1820s for which White was engaged as chorus-trainer (Ch. 9). Catherine Dale provides a more panoramic view of the development of festivals and oratorio performance in Britain in the first part of her essay (Ch. 16). Returning to the Great North Road, Roz Southey takes us to the major regional centres of Durham and Newcastle to examine the role of amateurs in eighteenth-century concert life (Ch. 5). She shows that there, as elsewhere, concerts were organized and promoted by a mixture of amateurs and professionals, and that amateurs were needed to provide rank-and-file members of local orchestras – hence the Newcastle composer Charles Avison’s continued cultivation of the archaic concerto grosso, with its contrast between simple ripieno and more virtuosic concertino parts. Meredith McFarlane highlights the porosity of boundaries between amateur and professional, and domestic and public music-making in her study of string-quartet performance in six provincial centres – Newcastle, Manchester, Oxford, Bath, Norwich, and Chichester (Ch. 6). The role of the militia, particularly as they were moved around the country during the Napoleonic crisis, was significant, as were the movements of professional players and amateurs travelling for business, in disseminating repertoire; again it becomes clear that provincial musicians were surprisingly aware of current developments in London and on the Continent. Improved roads and fast stagecoaches greatly increased the mobility of musicians during the eighteenth century – witness the succession of Italians and Germans who passed through York and Newcastle at the time, and the growing

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number of metropolitan musicians touring provincial centres each year in the lull between London seasons. This trend accelerated with the coming of the railways in the 1830s and 1840s. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer’s account of the farewell provincial tour of the tenor Giovanni Rubini in 1842 (Ch. 12) shows how the railways made such a wide-ranging and fast-moving musical expedition possible, and also that the modern network of impresarios, managers, agents, and cooperative local ‘professors’ was developing fast. Another ancillary trade was the writing and printing of programme notes for concerts. Christina Bashford (Ch. 17) describes how the practice developed (earlier in Britain than other countries), the growing network of provision, involving provincial institutions borrowing from London (and sometimes vice versa) and from other provincial centres, and how they disseminated authoritative responses to key works across the nation, encouraging concert-goers to engage with serious music on a deeper level than hitherto. Demonstrating again the importance of connection by rail is Catherine Dale’s discussion of the musical festival which flourished in the small north-eastern coastal resort of Bridlington for a decade from 1894 (Ch. 16). Here, as elsewhere, much of this success was down to the energies of a ‘local hero’ – Sir Alexander Bosville – who superintended all aspects of the arrangements, and whose programme notes took on a life of their own in venues elsewhere in the country. Extraordinary in so many ways, this festival featured the latest repertoire – British and Continental, choral and orchestral – and did much to bring the work of local composers before a national audience. Other chapters in this volume focus on, or develop out from, aspects of sacred music. Central to provincial musical life between about 1750 and 1850 was the repertory of parish church music, or ‘psalmody’ as it was called at the time. Christopher Kent (Ch. 8) goes on a tour of mid-Wiltshire to explore the work of James Morris Coombs, father and son, organists of Chippenham. Unexpected connections are revealed between their work as parish church musicians and other areas of musical life, including secular concerts, cathedral music, and even a Moravian settlement in the area. Sally Drage examines the work of the Larks of Dean (Ch. 10), a group of amateur singers and instrumentalists connected with Baptist churches in Rossendale in east Lancashire around 1740–1870. Many of the manuscripts they copied and the printed editions they used have survived, and show that their repertory went far beyond the expected psalm tunes, hymn tunes, and anthem-like ‘set pieces’ to include Handel’s oratorios, and even secular dances and overtures composed by members of the group. In a similar vein, but with a very different subject, Peter Horton (Ch. 13) explores the contribution made to secular musical life in the provinces by the nineteenth century’s most important cathedral organist, Samuel Sebastian Wesley. In the process a good deal is revealed about local arrangements for music and music-making in Hereford, Exeter, and Leeds. Thomas Muir (Ch. 14) charts the development of music in a Catholic church, St Cuthbert’s, Durham, from the Emancipation to the early twentieth century, in the process showing how the repertory changed from one founded on the works of the Viennese Classicists to one focused on plainsong and Renaissance polyphony – a shift paralleled by similar developments in Anglican churches under the influence of the Oxford Movement.

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The belief that an appreciation of sacred music, and the propagation of choral music in general, would lead to the moral edification of the populace lay behind John Curwen’s development of the Tonic Sol-fa method into a nationwide – indeed empire-wide – mass singing movement (Ch. 11). Sarah Taylor demonstrates the revolutionary effect this system and its pioneers had on an economically and educationally impoverished area in the Potteries, and demonstrates how competitive choral-singing broadened cultural and geographical horizons, as citizens of Staffordshire travelled to the Crystal Palace, Eisteddfods, and major regional centres to win honours for their communities. Similar ideologies can be seen at work in the development of the town hall as a venue for music-making, infusing musical performance, whether amateur or professional, with the authority and pomp of the corporation, and the moral, cultural, and political gravitas to which the citizenry aspired (Ch. 15). Yet this quintessentially Victorian performance space was vulnerable to the vagaries of fashion, as Rachel Milestone shows in the case of Stalybridge Town Hall, and, although many new works by British composers would be commissioned for performance in provincial town halls, it seems audiences and musicians alike could be fickle in their allegiances. This collection of essays does not claim to be comprehensive in its coverage of musical life in the British provinces over the ‘long’ eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and inevitably there are areas which remain dark on our map. What we offer, however, is a selection of case studies, each of which illuminates a particular aspect or important characteristic to aid our understanding of how provincial musical life developed. Charles Hallé, looking back on his years in Manchester, recorded these sentiments: ‘With my arrival in March 1848 begins an new epoch in my life, by far the most important and active one, which in many respects has been full of surprises to me.’10 We hope that the essays presented here will similarly be full of surprises, and that our ‘whistle-stop tour’ will open up fresh ideas, opportunities, and avenues for research.

10 Michael Kennedy (ed.), The Autobiography of Charles Hallé with correspondence and diaries (London: Elek, 1972), p. 115.

Chapter 1

‘A pretty knot of Musical Friends’: The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s1 Bryan White

The second half of the seventeenth century witnessed a significant expansion in the number of clubs and societies in England, at first centred on London and subsequently spreading to provincial cities and towns. A range of associations flourished in the capital, encompassing chartered organizations such as the Royal Society and the Sons of the Clergy, county associations that held annual feasts, and more informal clubs holding frequent meetings and brought together by common interests such as literature or bell-ringing.2 Music played a role in many of these organizations, either as an adornment to annual meetings, such as the anthems that graced the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy from the late 1690s, or as the primary focus of the organization, as was the case of the Society of Gentlemen Lovers of Musick, which met most years between 1683 and 1700, usually at Stationers’ Hall near Ludgate, for the performance of a musical ode in honour of St Cecilia.3 Outside London, only Oxford sustained a significant 1 The quotation is taken from Thomas Ferrar’s undated letter to Revd Henry Bedell, letter [3] in Appendix 1.1 (see note 16 below). An earlier version of this essay was delivered at the Twelfth Biennial Conference on Baroque Music in Warsaw, July 2006. I wish to thank Dr Richard Luckett and Mrs Aude Fitzsimons for providing me with access to the Ferrar Papers held in Magdalene College, Cambridge; Robert Williams for assisting me with the records held in Stamford Town Hall; and David Ransome for sharing his knowledge of the Ferrars and their circle, and of the Ferrar Papers. As this chapter was going to press, Peter Holman, working separately on English viola da gamba repertories after 1700, identified a group of manuscripts at the Fitzwilliam Library in Cambridge, copied by the Ferrar brothers who are the subject of this discussion. The manuscripts include the hands of Edward and Thomas Ferrar, and they demonstrate that the former was an active collector of music for the bass viol, and, by implication, that he played this instrument. Details of the manuscripts and their contents can be found in his forthcoming article ‘Continuity and Change in English Bass Viol Music: the case of Fitzwilliam MU. MS 647’, in the online Viola da Gamba Society Journal . 2 See Peter Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800: the origins of an associational world (Oxford: Clarendon, 2000), p. 59. 3 Donald Burrows, Handel and the English Chapel Royal (Oxford: OUP, 2005), pp. 32, 37–41. The first reference to music at the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy seems

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number of voluntary associations, at least until the Glorious Revolution; and of these several music clubs are known, one of which was active as early as the Commonwealth period.4 From 1688, increasing urbanization and personal wealth, especially amongst the middle classes, spurred what Peter Borsay has described as the ‘English urban renaissance’ in cities and towns throughout the provinces.5 Here, too, music played a prominent role with a great diversity of music societies springing up, especially after the turn of the century.6 These societies tended to be located in cathedral cities, and were supported by local clergy and professional musicians attached to the cathedral music.7 It is somewhat surprising, therefore, to discover that what appears to be the first music club in England outside London or Oxford for which any details exist, is not found in a cathedral city such as Norwich or York, or in a spa town like Bath, which specialized in leisure activities, but rather in the market town of Stamford in Lincolnshire. Here, an organized group of ‘musical friends’, with regular meetings, articles, and subscriptions, and access to the latest in fashionable music, was active in the last decade of the seventeenth century. to be an entry in the Post Boy of 27 November 1697 (no. 400), which has not, to my knowledge, been noted elsewhere: ‘The Cathedral Church of St. Paul’s being to be opened on the Thanksgiving Day [2 December], ’tis said the Stewards for the Annual Feast of the Sons of the Clergy have obtained it, for their Sermon to be preached there the Tuesday following [7 December], where will be an Anthem, as we hear, suitable to the Occasion.’ On the Society of Gentlemen Lovers of Musick, see W.H. Husk, An Account of Music Celebrations on St. Cecilia’s Day (London: Bell and Daldy, 1857), and the Preface to G.B. Draghi’s A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, 1687, ed. Bryan White, The Purcell Companion Series, 2 (forthcoming). 4 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800, p. 57; Susan Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Oxford: OUP, 2001), pp. 46–8; Penelope Gouk, ‘Music’, in N. Tyacke (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford: IV Seventeenth-Century Oxford (Oxford: OUP, 1997), pp. 632–3; M. Crum, ‘An Oxford Music Club, 1690–1719’, Bodleian Library Record, 9 (1973–1978): 83–99. 5 Peter Borsay, ‘The English Urban Renaissance: the development of provincial urban culture c. 1680–c. 1760’, in Peter Borsay (ed.), The Eighteenth-Century Town: a reader in English urban history, 1688–1820 (London: Longman, 1990), pp. 159–87. 6 See, for instance, Elizabeth Jane Chevill, ‘Music Societies and Musical Life in Old Foundation Cathedral Cities 1700–60’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, King’s College, London, 1993), passim; Chevill, ‘Clergy, Music Societies and the Development of a Musical Tradition: a study of music societies in Hereford, 1690–1760’, in Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (eds), Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 35–53; Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800, pp. 62–3, 66–7. An interesting parallel with the music club of Stamford can be seen in that of Wells, which met at the Cathedral’s ‘Close-Hall’, and was led by the physician Claver Morris, with the support of the vicars choral. Morris and the activities of the club in Wells receive extensive investigation in Harry Diack Johnstone’s forthcoming essay for JRMA, ‘Claver Morris, an Early Eighteenth-Century English Physician and Amateur Musician Extraordinaire’. I am grateful to Harry Johnstone for sight of his paper in draft. 7 Chevill, ‘Clergy, Music Societies and the Development of a Musical Tradition’, pp. 35–9. See also David Griffiths’s chapter (Chapter 2) in this current volume.

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

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An important textile centre in medieval times, Stamford had declined in significance in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. From about the 1670s, however, the town’s fortunes improved, thanks in part to its position on the Great North Road, 83 miles north of London (see Figure 1.1). ‘The urban renaissance did not bypass Stamford’, as one commentator notes, and it became an important ‘travel town’, benefiting from increased road traffic and improved coach transportation which brought London to just over two days’ journey away.8 Connections with London played an important role in obtaining new music, so that, despite its small size and relative isolation from any professional musical establishment, the town’s music club had the latest fashionable sonatas by Corelli within a few years of their publication in Italy and before they were printed in England. In the last decade of the seventeenth century, Stamford had around 2,500 residents, and, although the music club met in the town, it is not surprising that it found it necessary to draw its membership from the surrounding region rather than Stamford alone. Even by the middle of the eighteenth century, when Stamford had developed a cluster of societies, William Stukeley, founder of the town’s literary Brazen Nose Society, complained of the dearth of suitable members, ‘there being none proper persons in the town, none in the county, neither clergy nor lay in any direction from the place’.9 The evidence for the existence of a music club in Stamford in the 1690s is found amongst the Ferrar Papers, a substantial collection of documents of the Ferrar family which was bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge, by the former Master, Peter Peckard, at his death in 1797.10 During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, this family of prosperous merchants was located in London, where they were heavily involved with the Virginia Company until the cancellation of its charter in 1624.11 The following year, the brothers Nicholas (1593–1637) and John (c. 1588–1657) relocated with their families to the isolated manor of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, which lies about 15 miles southsoutheast of Stamford (see Figure 1.2). There, led by Nicholas, an ordained deacon, they established an Anglican religious household that thrived until the Civil Wars. The Ferrar family received the King at Little Gidding in 1642, and their royalist connections caused them to flee to The Netherlands later that year. They returned sometime around the end of 1645, but without Nicholas’s spiritual 8 Joan Thirsk, ‘Tudor and Stuart Stamford’, in A. Rogers (ed.), The Making of Stamford (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1965), pp. 68–9. 9 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800, p. 90. 10 The papers are reproduced in full in David R. Ransome, The Ferrar Papers 1590–1790 in Magdalene College, Cambridge, with an introduction and finding list (East Ardsley, Wakefield: Microform Academic Publishers, 1992) (on microfilm and CD-ROM). The existence of the club is noted in passing by Rebecca Herissone, in her article ‘The Origins and Contents of the Magdalene College Partbooks’, RMARC, 29 (1996): 47–95 (p. 47). 11 The following discussion of the Ferrar family is based upon David R. Ransome, ‘Introduction’, The Ferrar Papers 1590–1790; Ransome ‘Ferrar, John (c. 1588–1657)’, in ODNB (accessed 10 October 2006); N.W.S. Cranfield, ‘Ferrar, Nicholas (1593–1637)’, ibid.

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Figure 1.1 Detail from John Ogilby’s map of the road from London to Barwick. Stamford is found at mile marker 83. Empingham (Emphingham), the home of Robert Mackworth, is shown a few miles to the west of Stamford. Britannia: or, The Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales (London, 1698). The plates in this edition are reprints of the 1675 edition. By permission, Special Collections, Leeds University Library leadership, much of his religious and educational programme lapsed. In 1657 John Ferrar II (1630–1720), son of John Ferrar, married Anne Brooke, daughter of the Leicestershire knight, Sir Thomas Brooke, and with her had eight children. The family papers, which span the period 1590–1790, include records of the family business in London, letters, and collections of prints and music, chronicling the

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

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activities of the extended Ferrar family living in Little Gidding and beyond.12 Among the papers are a set of ten letters and copies of letters, written between 1693 and 1700, which provide details of musical activity amongst three of the sons of John Ferrar II – Thomas (1663–1739), Basil (1667–1718), and Edward (1671–1730) – and of a group of ‘Musical Friends’ or ‘Cecilians’ meeting in Stamford during this period.13 Thomas was Rector of Little Gidding and of Steeple Gidding during the period of the correspondence (see Figure 1.3). He had attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1679, taking his BA in 1682–83 and MA in 1686.14 Basil was a grocer in Stamford, where he seems to have been living by 1688; by 1702 he was also operating a shop in Oundle.15 Edward was a lawyer living in Huntingdon, though at the beginning of this correspondence he was still in Little Gidding. A discussion of the letters sent to and from the brothers will form the main body of this essay, offering insights into the nature of the music club which met in Stamford, the music it played, and also the domestic music-making of the Ferrar brothers. The ten letters that mention musical activities refer to two types of musicmaking: regular, organized music meetings of the ‘Cecilians’, held in Stamford and focused on instrumental music, especially the music of Corelli; and domestic vocal music, performed by and possibly taking place in the homes of the brothers or their friends. The first letter concerning the Stamford music club is dated 13 January 1693/94, from Basil in Stamford to Edward in Little Gidding [2].16 Basil refers to ‘Our musical friends [who] give their service to you [Edward]’. Although musical references are otherwise absent from the letter, several persons mentioned therein appear in relation to musical business in subsequent letters. ‘Mr: Walburg [who] designs for London on Monday next’ can be identified as Richard Walburge (d. 1715), a successful Stamford grocer.17 He became one of the town’s capital burgesses in 1689, and was elected alderman in 1694 on the payment of £15 ‘for the use of the corporation’.18 He was also an officer for St 12 A full catalogue of the papers, letters, and prints in the collection can be found in Ransome, The Ferrar Papers 1590–1790. The music collection is listed in Herissone, ‘The Magdalene College Partbooks’, pp. 94–5. 13 The eldest of the Ferrar brothers and heir to the manor, John (1660–1737), is not mentioned in the musical correspondence. 14 John and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: a biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900 (2 parts, 10 vols, Cambridge: University Press, 1922–54), part I, vol. 2, p. 134. 15 Basil was made free of the town of Stamford in April 1692, see Stamford Town Hall Books 1657–1721 (hereafter, STHB), vol. 2, p. 155. The opening of a shop in Oundle is mentioned in a letter from Basil to Thomas, dated 22 April 1702, The Ferrar Papers 1590–1790, Item 1,632. 16 All ten letters are numbered and transcribed in Appendix 1.1. The number of the letter is given in square brackets. 17 See the entry for his son Simon, in Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, vol. 4, p. 313. Walburge was made free of the town in April 1682, see STHB, vol. 1, p. 101. 18 STHB, vol. 1, pp. 141, 170.

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Figure 1.2 Detail from a map of Northamptonshire, by Robert Morden, showing Stamford, Suthwick (Southwick), and Oundle. The top of the map is west. Little Gidding is approximately one mile east of Ludington. Britannia: or, A chorographical description of Great Britain and Ireland […] Written in Latin by William Camden, […] and translated into English, with additions and improvements. Revised, digested, and published, with large additions, by Edmund Gibson, 3rd edn (2 vols, London: R. Ware et al., 1753), vol. 1. The plates in this edition are reprints of the 1695 edition. By permission, Special Collections, Leeds University Library Michael’s Parish Church in Stamford, serving as churchwarden in 1692 and 1693, and his name appears regularly in the vestry minutes until approximately 1711. Basil was of the same parish; his name, which first appears in the vestry minutes in 1705, when he was chosen as churchwarden, can be found regularly until his death in 1718.19 Like Walburge, he also became a capital burgess of the town,

19 Lincolnshire Record Office, Stamford St Michael’s Parish Account Book (Par 7/1).

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

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Figure 1.3 St John’s Church, Little Gidding. In 1634 Edward Lenton described the church as being 40 paces from the manor house. The west front was added in 1714. Photograph © B. White in 1701.20 Walburge served as steward to the Stamford music club in May 1694, and if his trip to London is indicative of regular contact with the capital, he may have been active in procuring music for the club on his journeys. He left a sizable estate at his death, and so may have been in a position to purchase music for the club from his private funds.21 Another member of the circle is referred to in Basil’s postscript as ‘Mr: Beedles’, presumably Revd Henry Bedell (1665–1730), who was probably already active in the Ferrars’ domestic musical activities. Bedell was the Vicar of Southwick, Northamptonshire, which is about ten miles due south of Stamford, and had been a contemporary of Thomas’s at Cambridge, attending Sidney Sussex College from 1681, taking his BA in 1685–86, and his MA in 1689.22

20 STHB, vol. 2, p. 207. 21 Lincolnshire Record Office, probate, 20 May 1715. 22 Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, vol. 1, p. 115, and H.I. Longden, Northamptonshire and Rutland Clergy from 1500 (16 vols, Northampton: Archer & Goodman, 1938–1952), vol. 2, p. 43.

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

We can deduce that sometime in January or February 1694 Basil had written to his brother Thomas, in a letter that is now lost, to inform him that the Stamford club had the promise of some music by Corelli; for the copy of Thomas’s reply [4], which survives in the Ferrar papers, dated ‘St Matthais 93/94’ (24 February), indicates that he was already familiar with Corelli’s music. Thomas complains that his brother’s mention of ‘the Magical name of Corelli’ has caused an itch in his fingers, for which the only cure is to consult ‘y[ou]r whole Colledge of Cecilians’. In the meantime he requests a passage of Corelli with which to soothe himself. Before turning his attention to musical matters, Thomas asks that he be remembered to Mr Peck – this is Robert Peck, father of Francis Peck (1692–1743) the antiquarian and author of Academia tertia Anglicana; or, The Antiquarian Annals of Stanford [sic] (London, 1727). Robert is known to have been a musician: he was listed as such in the Stamford Town Hall books when he was made a freeman in 1680, and another Stamford antiquarian, William Stukeley, writing with reference to Francis, noted that ‘he was the son of a barber who play’d the violin’.23 Robert was also an officer in the Stamford Parish of St John’s, serving as overseer for the poor in 1692, sidesman in 1695, and churchwarden in 1696.24 Indeed, Robert may well have introduced his son Francis to Richard Walburge, perhaps through their possible association in the Stamford music club, for Francis cites Walburge as a source for details of Stamford history on several occasions in his Annals. We may further speculate that Francis was acquainted with members of the Ferrar family, since he prepared a manuscript on the life and work of Nicholas Ferrar, which, though completed, never reached publication.25 This work was presumably based on the family papers, held at Little Gidding until 1748. Basil’s reply, dated 2 March 1693/4 [5], suggests that Thomas’s request for a remedy for his itch has been met: I have consulted our Cecilian Doctors for your distemper, and they have considered your case, and they have ordered you a small pill for your present remedy; w[hi]ch I now send to you; they tell me you must use a great deale of action in the taking it; w[he]n you please to come to Stamford you shall have a larger dose, but our friends think this enough for the present.

The ‘dose’ was apparently a page or two of music, since the reverse of the letter, containing the address, also includes the annotation ‘a tast of Corelli’. The remainder of the letter is devoted almost exclusively to the activities of the club, which to that point had been meeting weekly. Basil notes, however, that ‘new Articles for a Club the first Monday in every month for all this summer’ are to be signed when the club is ‘broake up on the 10th: Instant’. The articles, which do not survive, might well have been much like the 12 ‘Orders to be observ’d at the

23 STHB, vol. 1, p. 89; Francis Peck, Academia tertia Anglicana; or, The Antiquarian Annals of Stanford, with a new introduction by A. Rogers and J.S. Hartley (Wakefield: E.P. Publishing, 1979), p. vii. 24 Lincolnshire Record Office, St John’s Parish Vestry Book 1676–1817 (10/2). 25 A. Rogers and J.S. Hartley, ‘Introduction’, Academia tertia Anglicana, p. x.

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

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Music Meeting’ at Mr Hall’s Tavern in Oxford, which date from around 1690.26 The Oxford orders made provision for a monthly meeting on Thursdays, overseen by a steward who collected a shilling charge for attendance. Various rules governed penalties for lateness or failing to attend, regulated the duties of the steward, and made allowance for visitors to the club. No evidence regarding the Stamford club’s meeting place is provided, but it was probably a tavern, as was the case for the Oxford club. Basil’s letter also brings news of a new subscriber to the club: Robert Mackworth (b. c. 1665), who lived in Empingham, a few miles west of Stamford. The Mackworths were a prominent family of the county of Rutland. Robert’s father (also named Robert), was one of the Majesties of the Peace in 1681, and brother to Sir Thomas Mackworth, 3rd Bart. of Normanton.27 The letter indicates that the club was planning ‘to play Corelli’s 3d Opera […] having not yet played it’. Details regarding the dissemination of Corelli’s music in England before the late 1690s are sketchy, but Basil’s letter is the earliest English reference to op. 3, and one of the earliest dateable references to Corelli’s music in England. In 1693 Henry Playford published The second part of The DivisionViolin […] by Signior Archangelo Corelli, and others, and in 1695 Ralph Agutter advertised a set of 12 sonatas in the London Gazette.28 The attributions to Corelli in both of these publications are now known to be spurious, and it was not until 1697 that Corelli’s opp. 1–4 were advertised in Playford’s A General Catalogue of the Choicest Musick-Books.29 The Stamford club’s ability to procure Corelli’s op. 3 at such an early date – they were published in Italy for the first time in 1689 – is surprising. Richard Walburge’s previously mentioned trip to London provides a likely conduit for the transmission of Corelli’s music, and, as will be seen below, op. 4 was to arrive in Stamford thanks to a visit from a wealthy London merchant. The lost letter from Basil to Thomas, mentioned above, may have prompted the latter to contact Henry Bedell for a favour on behalf of the Stamford club. An undated copy of a letter from Thomas to Bedell [3], apparently copied before Thomas’s letter to Basil of 24 February [4],30 suggests that Bedell had promised previously to help the ‘pretty knot of Musical Friends from Stamford’ with the 26 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Top. Oxon. a. 76. See Crum, ‘An Oxford Music Club’, pp. 83–4. 27 On the Mackworths, see W. Harry Rylands and W. Bruce Bannerman (eds), The Visitation of the County of Rutland, Harleian Society, 73 (London: Roworth, 1922), p. 12. There appears to be no traceable connection between this family and the Mackworths of Gnoll Castle, Neath, whose collection of eighteenth-century printed and manuscript music is held at Cardiff University Library (on permanent loan from Cardiff Public Library). 28 On the early dissemination of Corelli’s music in England, see O. Edwards, ‘The Response to Corelli’s Music in Eighteenth-Century England’, Studia Musicologica Norvegica, 2 (1976): 51–96, and Peter Allsop, Arcangelo Corelli: new Orpheus of our times (Oxford: OUP, 1999), pp. 188–99. 29 BL, Harleian MS 5,936, pp. 422–8, cited in Allsop, Corelli, pp. 190–91. 30 Item 1,558 of the Ferrar Papers is a collection of copies of letters, which, to judge from those with dates, have been entered chronologically. Letters [3], [4], and [6] appear consecutively, which suggests that letter [3] pre-dates letter [4].

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loan of one or more instruments. In the letter Thomas requests the loan of Bedell’s violin, and mentions that the club is in ‘extreme want’ of a bass viol, which he hopes that Bedell may be able to procure for them. These requests are an indication, perhaps, that the population of Stamford alone was not only inadequate for players, but also to provide sufficient instruments to support a music club. It is unclear whether Bedell himself was to play with the group, or simply help the club to obtain the necessary instruments. Another draft letter from Thomas [6], preserved with those to Basil and Bedell, is addressed to Mr Walburge in Stamford as ‘Mr Steward’, indicating that Richard Walburge was the club’s steward for the summer meetings, or at least for the meeting in May; it is dated the ‘1st Monday in May 94’. Thomas provides a fulsome apology for his absence from ‘the Cecilian Court’ owing to the imminent visitation of the Archdeacon. A subsequent letter from Basil to Thomas [7], the date of which was lost when the top portion of the letter was torn, informs us that the wealthy London merchant Obadiah Sedgewick attended a meeting of the Stamford club, and ‘brought along with him Corellis 4th Opera of Sonata’s’. Sedgewick was a parishioner of St Katherine Coleman, where he served as churchwarden in 1680 and 1697,31 and at his death his estate was worth well over £9,000.32 His work as a grocer suggests a possible business association with Richard Walburge, who, as has been seen, travelled to London, or Basil, either of whom may indeed have invited Sedgewick to the club as a guest. The letter can be dated no later than Sedgewick’s death in August 1697, which once again demonstrates the club’s ready access to the latest fashionable music; op. 4 was published in Rome in 1694, first advertised in London in Playford’s 1697 catalogue of music books, and was not published in England until around 1701.33 The early spread of Corelli’s music to Stamford suggests that, despite the lack of direct evidence, his trio sonatas may have circulated widely in manuscript before London publishers began printing them. This letter also implies that the club had had contact with other music by, or attributed to, Corelli, for when Basil describes to his brother the nature of op. 4 he writes that: ‘they are in the same as his Ayres are, Corents, & Almands, Gavotts and Sarabands’ (probably a reference to Corelli’s op. 2). Basil’s and Thomas’s enthusiasm for Corelli is one of the most striking aspects of their correspondence, and it points towards the composer’s immense popularity in England in the eighteenth century. It is clear from the tone of the brothers’ comments, that, even by 1694, Corelli’s name was well established in England.34 Basil’s description of op. 4 is indicative: ‘I cannot tell how to give a Charecter great enough of them but in short, they are all over fine; such noble Ayre, and such lofty 31 J.R. Woodhead, The Rulers of London 1660–1689; a biographical record of the aldermen and common councilmen of the City of London (London: London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, 1965), p. 145. 32 PRO, Prob/11/439, proved 23 August 1697. 33 Edwards, ‘The Response to Corelli’s Music in Eighteenth-Century England’, p. 71; Allsop, Corelli, p. 190. 34 This is consistent with Edwards’s conclusion in ‘The Response to Corelli’s Music in Eighteenth-century England’, p. 77.

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

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expression […] that wee were all in rapture at the hearing of them.’ The brothers’ letters adumbrate Roger North’s comments written over a decade later: the works of the great Corelli […] became the onely musick relished for a long time, and there seemed to be no satiety of them, nor is the vertue of them yet exhaled, and it is a question whether it will ever be spent, for if musick can be immortall, Corelli’s consorts will be so.35

The Stamford music club’s access to Corelli’s trio sonatas raises questions regarding the number of players and the types of instruments at its disposal. Only one letter links individual players with the parts they played: Basil’s description of the club’s first encounter with the op. 4 sonatas indicates that the guest, Sedgewick, played the bass with Basil, though it does not specify what instruments they used. A total of only seven or eight players or singers is mentioned in the ten letters. Of the Ferrar brothers, Edward’s name appears only in relation to vocal music, and he is absent from the music-related correspondence after January 1694. This is perhaps because he moved to Huntingdon, and business and distance might have prevented his regular attendance at club meetings. Thomas appears to have been musically active throughout the period of the correspondence, though his particular instrument is never mentioned. Basil, who also appears through the whole span of the correspondence, played a bass instrument of some sort. The instruments played by Richard Walburge and Robert Mackworth are not known. Robert Peck, as we have seen, appears to have been a violinist, but his role in the club is a matter of speculation rather than certainty. Revd Bedell of Southwick presumably played the violin, though his involvement with the club, beyond possibly loaning it an instrument, is uncertain. Mr Baggerly, who is mentioned in the postscript of Basil’s first letter, may also have participated in music with the Ferrar brothers, though he cannot be associated definitely with the club. It is not possible to determine how the players were distributed in performances of the sonatas. The op. 3 sonatas require two violins, a bass instrument, and continuo. The title-page of the Roman publication of 1689 specifies either violone or archlute with organ, for the bass line and continuo, though the Stamford club was almost certainly working from manuscript parts in which such detailed information is unlikely to have been preserved.36 The op. 4 sonatas require two violins and bass, indicated as ‘violone o cimbalo’.37 No bass part separate from the continuo is mentioned in the 1692 Roman print, but it was common in England for a bass part to be added to trio sonatas, even where normal Italian practice omitted it.38 Performances of opp. 3 and 4 would, therefore, probably 35 John Wilson (ed.), Roger North on Music; being a selection from his essays written during the years c. 1695–1728 (London: Novello, 1959), p. 358. 36 Hans Joachim Marx, Die Überlieferung der Werke Arcangelo Corellis: catalogue raisonné (Köln: Arno Volk Verlag Hans Gerig KG, 1980), p. 128. 37 Ibid., p. 149. 38 See, for instance, Bodleian Library MS Mus. Sch. C.76, where Corelli’s op. 2 sonatas are provided with separate bass and continuo parts. I am grateful to Min-Jung Kang for this point.

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have involved a minimum of four players, one to a part. Basil’s letter about op. 4 raises the possibility that parts were sometimes doubled, since he describes Sedgewick as ‘playing a Bass with mee’. This account, however, is ambiguous, and could suggest several scenarios: both performers might have played bass viol, both might have played a chordal instrument (organ, harpsichord, or theorbo), or, most likely, one might have played the viol, while the other played keyboard or theorbo. There is evidence from Oxford, in parts copied by Edward Lowe (d. 1682), and Edinburgh, in a paper listing performers for a Cecilian concert that probably took place sometime around 1710, to suggest that ‘chamber music’ such as trio sonatas, which we associate with one-to-a-part performance, was sometimes performed with more than one player to a part.39 In the Edinburgh concert an unidentified Corelli sonata was performed with two players each on the 1st and 2nd violin parts.40 With regard to the performance of op. 4 at Stamford, one must consider that Sedgewick was a guest at the club, and that if he did double Basil on the bass viol, this might not have been normal practice. We might imagine that the club included a few more members than are discussed here, given Basil’s references to ‘our Cecilians’ or ‘our musical friends’, but it seems unlikely that Stamford’s club was even close in number to the 40-strong group which met at Hall’s Tavern in Oxford, mentioned above. Nor is there much indication of the involvement of professional musicians in the Stamford club. Instead we find amateur musicians, all drawn from the middle class, including merchants, clergy, and professionals. In contrast, the Oxford club included two composers – Daniel Purcell and Richard Goodson – and numerous organists and choral singers. In the Stamford club, only Peck, if he was a member, is likely to have had any pretensions to being a professional musician. Despite receiving his freedom from the town as a musician, he is never described as a wait in the Town Hall Books, and when his son Francis entered Cambridge, Robert was described as ‘mercatoris’, that is, a merchant or a tradesman.41 During the 1690s Stamford appears to have had only two town waits – Mark Flemming and Robert Norwood – who were admitted to the freedom of the town in 1685, when they and two servants were granted cloaks and badges.42 Norwood took his son, Charles, as apprentice in 1696; subsequent to this, the waits are not mentioned in the town records until 1705, when Walter Rogers petitioned the town council to take over the care of the town music, ‘a company of musicke [Norwood and Flemming?]

39 Peter Holman, ‘Original Sets of Parts for Restoration Concerted Music at Oxford’, in Michael Burden (ed.), Performing the Music of Henry Purcell (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), pp. 18 and 266; Holman, ‘An Early Edinburgh Concert’, Early Music Performer, 13 (January 2004): 9–17. The Edinburgh concert has long been thought to have taken place on St Cecilia’s Day 1695, but Holman convincingly demonstrates that it must have occurred much later. 40 Holman, ‘An Early Edinburgh Concert’, p. 11. 41 J.E.B. Mayor, Admissions to the College of St. John, Cambridge Pt. II ([Cambridge]: CUP, 1893), pp. 196 (and notes), lxxxiv; quoted in A. Rogers and J.S. Hartley, ‘Introduction’, Academia tertia Anglicana, p. vii. 42 STHB, vol. 1, p. 117.

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some time since [having] disobliged this corporason by going from it and carrying away these cloaks’.43 There is no evidence to suggest that the waits participated in the music club. The Stamford club stands apart from another early music club, which can be documented in Hereford from 1705, and which included trained musicians drawn from the cathedral’s college of vicars choral.44 Likewise, the extensive activities of the music club encouraged by Claver Morris in Wells were undertaken with the participation of that cathedral’s vicars choral. However, one aspect of the membership of the Stamford club was held in common with that of Oxford and Hereford: they were all male. Exclusively male membership was a hallmark of early associational activity in England.45 Given the apparent lack of professional musical input into the Stamford club, it is hard to imagine that the standard of performance was very high. It also raises the question of where members of the club received their musical training. Those who went to university might well have learned to play music there; and a wealthy merchant such as Richard Walburge might have paid for lessons, perhaps from Robert Peck or one of the town waits. The Ferrar brothers present an interesting circumstance, since the family had a musical tradition dating back to its establishment at Little Gidding: Nicholas Ferrar, while attending Enborne School in his youth, ‘learned prick song exactly’, and his sister Susannah, who also came to Little Gidding, was a lutenist.46 More generally, music played an important role in the religious community: an organ was built in the manor house at Little Gidding in 1632, and the dovecote near the house served as a school for the children of the family (including John Ferrar II), for which one of its three schoolmasters was engaged ‘that [he] might teach them to sing and play upon virginals, viol, and organ’.47 The nature of the early education of Thomas, Basil, and Edward is not known, but given that their father received musical training 43 Justin Simpson, ‘The Stamford Waits and their Predecessors: an historical sketch’, Reliquary, 26 (July 1885): 1–6 (pp. 5–6). Simpson’s article includes transcriptions of most of the town records referring to the waits during this period, though it does not include any reference to Peck, the admission of Norwood and Flemming to the freedom of the town, or the apprenticing of Norwood’s son. 44 Records of the music society in Hereford prior to 1749 are no longer extant, but William Cooke’s ‘Biographical Memoirs of the Custos and Vicars’ (Hereford Cathedral Library, HCA 7003/4/3) has allowed Chevill to deduce that some sort of club, meeting in the college of the vicars choral, was in existence no later than 1705, see her ‘Clergy, Music Societies and the Development of a Musical Tradition’, pp. 39–40. 45 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800, p. 12. 46 See L.R. Muir and J.A. White (eds), ‘Materials for the Life of Nicholas Ferrar’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Literary and Historical Section, 24/4 (1996): 287–428 (pp. 328, 366). 47 The presence of the organ is confirmed in a letter of 1634 from Edward Lenton to Sir Thomas Hetley, transcribed in ‘Materials for the Life of Nicholas Ferrar’, p. 416. See also Alan L. Maycock, Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding (London: SPCK, 1938; repr. 1963), pp. 130, 135. The provision for the teaching of the children is described in John Ferrar’s Life of Nicholas Ferrar, quoted in ‘Materials for a Life’, p. 366. See also Little Gidding: an illustrated history and guide, 2nd edn (London: Strathmore, 2006), p. 26.

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in childhood, it might be imagined that he arranged something similar for his children. Whether the Little Gidding organ survived the Civil Wars is not known, though if it did, it might have played a part in the Ferrars’ domestic music-making, which will be examined below. One further aspect of the activities of the Stamford club remains to be explored. The last three letters in the correspondence include details of the club’s efforts to arrange for the composition of a Cecilian ode. In a letter to Thomas dated 26 July 1698 [8], Revd William Browne refers to his attempts to procure an ode text for him. Browne had been admitted as a pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1689, aged 16; he was a man of independent means, a minister of St Mowden’s in Burton-upon-Trent from the 1690s, and a pluralist, holding posts in Grove and Wing in Buckinghamshire.48 In his letter, Browne explains that he has not been able to write a Cecilian ode himself, and that he has been unsuccessful in obtaining one from the otherwise unidentified Mr Cowper. Instead, he suggests that ‘Drydens Ode upon this occasion (the last year) is admirable, and […] wou’d be very diverting at second hand’ – this was a reference to Alexander’s Feast, set by Jeremiah Clarke for performance at Stationers’ Hall in London at the Cecilian feast on 22 November 1697.49 Browne’s suggestion that Alexander’s Feast was an appropriate text to be set for the Stamford club is extraordinary. The poem is very long, and though Clarke’s setting is lost, we can speculate from other London Cecilian odes from this period that it must have been an elaborate work – employing strings, woodwind, brass, soloists, and a chorus, and possibly lasting for over an hour. A setting of such a poem would seem to have been beyond the means of the Stamford club. Nevertheless, the episode shows that the London practice of celebrating St Cecilia’s Day was spreading to the provinces. Oxford appears to have been the first city beyond London to take up Cecilian celebrations, though the extant records suggest sporadic observance of the day.50 The only extant setting of a Cecilian ode that can be associated confidently with Oxford before about 1700 is Daniel Purcell’s ‘Begin and strike the harmonious lyre’. It was probably written for performance in 1693, when both he and the poet Thomas Yalden were students there.51 Some commentators have suggested that 48 Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, vol. 1, p. 239; N. Tringham (ed.), A History of the County of Stafford: Vol. 9, Burton-upon-Trent (London: Constable, 2003), p. 114; G. Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (4 vols, London: J. & W. Robins, 1847), vol. 3, p. 357. 49 Dryden’s poem was first published in November 1697, probably for distribution at the Cecilian feast, see D. Hopkins and P. Hammond (eds.), The Poems of John Dryden (5 vols, London: Longman, 1995–2005), vol. 5, pp. 3–4. 50 Tony Trowles makes this point in ‘The Musical Ode in Britain, c. 1670–1800’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford, 1992), pp. 109–112. I disagree, however, with his conclusion regarding Daniel Purcell’s ‘Begin and strike the harmonious lyre’. 51 An autograph manuscript of the ode is preserved in the BL, Add. MS 30,934. Yalden’s poem was published in The Annual Miscellany: for the year 1694, being the fourth part of Miscellany Poems (London, 1694), under the title ‘An Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1693. Written by Mr. Tho Yalden, and Composed by Mr. Daniel Purcell’.

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Purcell’s ode was written for London, on the strength of an annotation on the manuscript indicating that it was performed at Stationers’ Hall, but the nature of the work strongly suggests Oxford as a venue.52 The annotation, in the hand of William Croft, was probably made after 1714,53 and musical evidence casts doubt on its accuracy: in style, the work looks back to Henry Purcell’s pre-1687 odes, and its rather modest requirements – four-part strings, soloists, and SATB choir – do not fit with the extremely elaborate odes, such as Henry Purcell’s ‘Hail, bright Cecilia’ (1692), which were being written for London at this time. In contrast to ‘Begin and strike the harmonious lyre’, Daniel’s Cecilian ode for 1698, ‘Begin the noble song’, which was certainly written for London, employs a full Baroque orchestra.54 Beyond Oxford, several other provincial cities celebrated St Cecilia’s Day with odes, most notably Winchester, where Vaughan Richardson wrote at least three odes between 1700 and 1704. These works are limited in scope, at least when compared with the London odes, and are scored for SSB or SSAB choir, two violins, and bass continuo.55 Two of the odes also require a trumpet, and one a pair of recorders. A newspaper advertisement indicates that professional musicians from London – the trumpeter John Shore and the singer Richard Elford – were brought in to augment the forces in Winchester in 1704.56 Odes by William Norris, who served as organist at Lincoln Cathedral from 1690 until his death in 1702, and George Holmes, who held the same post from 1705 until his death in 1720, suggest that occasional celebrations of St Cecilia’s Day may also have taken place in Lincoln, though there appears to be no evidence for a performance of either work. Norris’s ode is similar in size to Daniel Purcell’s ‘Begin and strike the harmonious lyre’, though it requires two trumpets but no viola, and the setting may have been 52 Husk maintained that the work was performed in Oxford in 1693, and London in 1694: An Account of Music Celebrations on St. Cecilia’s Day, p. 86. Trowles argues that the ode was written for, and performed in, London in 1694 (‘The Musical Ode in Britain’, pp. 111–12), while Mark Humphreys also dates the work to 1694: ‘The Autographs of Daniel Purcell: a handlist and introduction’, A Handbook for Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Music, 14 (Oxford: Burden & Cholij, 2003), pp. 17–37 (pp. 24, 27). 53 Robert Shay and Robert Thompson, Purcell Manuscripts: the principal musical sources (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), p. 161. 54 London, Gresham College (Guildhall Library), MS 458. Another copy of this work, in the same hand, has been purchased by the BL, but has yet to be catalogued. 55 ‘Ye tuneful and harmonious choir’ was published in Richardson’s A Collection of New Songs (London, 1701) and probably written for St Cecilia’s Day 1700. An unidentified newspaper advertisement in Husk (An Account of Music Celebrations on St. Cecilia’s Day, pp. 92–3) records a Winchester Cecilian celebration in 1703; see also note 56. Two anonymous Cecilian odes in Bodleian Library MS. Mus. 6 – ‘From Sounds Celestial’ and ‘O, Welcome to the Choir’ – have been identified as Richardson’s by Catherine Wanless in her MPhil dissertation, ‘The Odes of John Eccles, c. 1668–1735’ (unpublished dissertation, University of Wales, Bangor, 1999), pp. 69–83. 56 Diverting Post, 25 November 1704, cited in Michael Tilmouth, ‘A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719)’, RMARC, 1 (1961): 1–107 (p. 57).

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made near to the time when the poem was first published in the Gentlemen’s Journal of April 1694.57 The style of Holmes’s ode, ‘Down from the fix’d serene on high’, and also references in the text, suggest a later date of composition, sometime after 1702.58 In Hereford, Henry Hall provided a Cecilian ode in 1704, though the music has not survived, and Claver Morris records Cecilian celebrations, including the performance of ‘Purcel’s Cecilia Song’, associated with the music club in which he participated in Wells in the early eighteenth century.59 Stamford’s attempt to produce a Cecilian ode is, therefore, consistent with the spread of Cecilian celebrations in provincial cities, though it differs in one important respect: no professional musicians are known to have been involved. Whether or not Thomas was eventually successful in commissioning a Cecilian poem, or a musical setting of it, is not clear. Basil’s letter to Thomas of 5 January 1699/1700 [9] indicates a continued interest in the matter: ‘Pray let mee know your resolutions concerning our Caecilian Song that wee may know how to proceed in these affairs.’ Judging from Thomas’s draft response to Basil [10], ‘your resolutions’ refers to the stewards’ request that he provide the text for the song himself. Thomas suggests a willingness to try, but indicates that if the club is able to find something else appropriate in the meantime, he would ‘be glad to be releast’ from the task. We can speculate that such a text and its setting would be a modest work similar to Vaughan Richardson’s ‘Ye tuneful and harmonious choir’, though how the club might have found a composer is not clear. In the event, as we shall see below, Thomas may have been released from his commitment to write a Cecilian song by the procurement of a set of parts for an ode in praise of music by Henry Purcell, which could have served appropriately as a Cecilian ode for the Stamford music club. The correspondence of the Ferrar brothers also provides insights into their domestic music-making, which appears to have been primarily vocal. The earliest letter in the brothers’ musical correspondence, from Basil in Stamford to Edward in Little Gidding, dated 24 April 1693 [1], concerns a setting of ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’ which Basil had sent to Edward. Basil’s description of the music, however, does not match Purcell’s well-known work which was published in that year: Saul’s part is in the Bass all the way, but the womans part is very high and put in a Cliffe not usual in the place where it is, w[he]n I come I will give you directions for singing that part, for no body can sing that p[art] but your selfe, I am sure.

Purcell’s version of ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’ was published in the second volume of Playford’s Harmonia Sacra in July 1693, and is set for soprano (the

57 Bodleian Library, MS Mus. C. 28. 58 University of California (US), William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, f0235M4. 59 In E. Hobhouse (ed.), Diary of a West Country Physician (London: Simpkin Marshall, 1934), pp. 58, 65, 74, 82, 113, 125. H. Diack Johnstone suggests Purcell’s 1683 Cecilian ode ‘Welcome to all the pleasures’ (London, 1684) is most likely to have been the work Morris refers to in his entry for 22 November 1709, see ‘Claver Morris’ (forthcoming).

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witch, in the treble clef), countertenor (Saul, in the alto clef), and bass (the ghost of Samuel, in the bass clef).60 Basil’s comment regarding the unusual clef of the ‘womans’ part, presumably the witch, may refer to the practice of putting countertenor parts in the treble clef, with the intention that they be sung the octave below, as in Blow’s ‘Chloe found Amintas’ from Amphion Anglicus (London, 1700).61 If Basil’s description is accurate, then the ‘womans’ part was sung by a male voice, possibly a countertenor, and a bass sang Saul. The ghost of Samuel is not mentioned, but it is hard to imagine it being set for any voice other than bass. The resulting distribution of voices – a countertenor and two basses – does not fit Purcell’s or indeed any other known setting of the story of ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’. The other three settings, by Robert Ramsey, Nicholas Lanier (whose version is an adaptation of Ramsey’s), and Benjamin Lamb, are for soprano (witch), tenor (Saul), and bass (ghost of Samuel). The former two date from the first half of the seventeenth century, while Lamb’s almost certainly post-dates Purcell’s.62 The piece Basil Ferrar refers to in his letter cannot, then, be identified. It may be that he was writing about the music from memory, and was in fact describing Purcell’s setting but confusing the clefs for Saul and the ghost of Samuel. Equally, he might have had a corrupt copy; if Basil is describing Purcell’s setting, his copy must have been derived from a manuscript source, since Harmonia Sacra had yet to be published. (Franklin Zimmerman has suggested that Purcell’s work may have been written as early as 1690.)63 There is evidence to suggest that Robert Ramsey’s setting of ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’ continued to be popular well into the second half of the century. It is the final work in Edward Lowe’s collection, Add. MS 29,396 at the British Library, suggesting that it was circulating and perhaps being performed at least into the late 1670s.64 Furthermore, the two copies of Lanier’s adaptation, Add. MSS 22,100 and 31,460, are on paper that has been dated ‘c. 1682’ and ‘late seventeenth-/early eighteenth-century paper’ respectively.65 Ramsey’s setting, or Lanier’s adaptation, therefore, seem much likelier candidates than Purcell’s, particularly given Stamford’s proximity to Cambridge: Ramsey graduated from Trinity College in 1616 and was organist there from 1628 until 1644, and several persons associated with the Ferrar brothers’ music-making, including Thomas, 60 The title-page gives the date ‘Julii 1˚. 1693’. For further details on the appearance of this publication, see Franklin B. Zimmerman, Henry Purcell 1659–1695: his life and times (London: Macmillan; New York: St Martin’s, 1967), p. 213. 61 See also the preface to John Playford’s Cantica Sacra (London, 1674), in which he explains that ‘the CANTUS Parts are all Printed in the G sol re ut Cliffe, and may properly be Sung by Men as well as Boyes or Weomen’. 62 Basil Smallman, ‘Endor Revisited: English Biblical dialogues of the seventeenth century’, ML, 46 (1965): 137–45; Peter Holman, Henry Purcell (Oxford: OUP, 1994), p. 55. 63 Zimmerman, Henry Purcell, p. 213. 64 M. Chan, ‘Drolls, Drolleries and Mid-Seventeenth-Century Dramatic Music in England’, RMARC, 15 (1979): 117–73 (pp. 126–9). See also Smallman, ‘Endor Revisited’, pp. 140–41, where the paper used for this copy is dated to ‘c. 1678–82’. 65 Smallman, ‘Endor Revisited’, p. 142.

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also attended university at Cambridge. The possibility remains, however, that the letter refers to a setting that is no longer extant. The only other music mentioned in this letter, ‘the hundredth Psalme’, which Basil hopes they will sing correctly, is otherwise unidentified, though it may have been in the tradition of the three-part composed settings in Henry and William Lawes’s Choice Psalms of 1648, rather than a simple metrical psalm. All the known settings of ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’ would require four performers: three singers and a continuo player, though one or more of the singers might also play continuo. Neither the other musicians involved, nor the venue for the performance are clearly stated; but Basil’s intention to give Edward instruction in singing the woman’s part ‘w[he]n I come’ suggests Little Gidding as the venue, and, since Thomas lived there as well, he might have joined his brothers in music-making. Another performer can be posited from the postscript to the letter, in which Basil hopes ‘wee shall have Mr Baggerly’s company’. This may be William Baguley, who attended school at Oundle before matriculating at Peterhouse College in 1685. His Cambridge attendance – he took his BA in 1689–90 and his MA in 1693 – may have provided a link with Thomas Ferrar and Henry Bedell.66 William may have been the son of Michael Baggerly, a surgeon in Stamford, who appears in the vestry minutes of St George’s Parish Church in Stamford between 1697 and 1713, holding a range of offices (including churchwarden in 1712 and 1713).67 Vocal music-making that is apparently separate from the activities of the music club is also discussed in the penultimate letter in the correspondence, from Basil to Thomas, dated 5 January 1700 [9]. Basil mentions a trip the brothers took together to Southwick, where he certainly heard and perhaps performed music, probably with Revd Bedell and Thomas in Bedell’s home. No pieces are mentioned by name, but we learn that ‘the Mons[ieu]rs musick is very good, though the words were fit to bring a qualm upon my stomack’. This music was probably French, and may have disturbed Basil’s constitution either because he did not understand the words, or because it was Catholic church music. In addition to the letters discussed above, several song indexes in the hand of Thomas Ferrar, and the collection of music contained in the Ferrar Papers bequest, provide further insight into the family’s musical activities, and possibly those of the Stamford music club. Item 2,168 of the Ferrar Papers is an alphabetical first-line index of a total of 485 songs, encompassing all those appearing in The Theater of Musick (four books, 1685–86), The Banquet of Musick (six books, 1688–92), Deliciae Musicae (Volume One, four books, 1695–96), and New Songs in the Third Part of […] Don Quixote (1696), with H. Purcell’s ‘Stript of your green’, from The Gentleman’s Journal of January 1692. Thomas probably owned all of these publications, and must have compiled the meticulous index by 66 Venn, Alumi Cantabrigienses, part I, vol. 1, p. 67. I am grateful to David Ransome for this suggestion. 67 He was given the freedom of the town in August 1707, ‘in consideration of the Services he has already done & continues to do amongst ye poor of this Corporation’, STHB, vol. 2, p. 241; Lincolnshire Record Office, St George’s Parish Vestry Book 1634–1712 (Par 10/2).

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leafing through each volume rather than relying on the contents pages, since it includes Robert King’s ‘Ah poor Olinda’, a song omitted from the contents page of Book One of The Theater of Musick, and gives the voices required for many of the songs.68 Such an index would have been very helpful in using the books for musical gatherings at Little Gidding. Another item from the Ferrar Papers, no. 2,170, comprises two sets of lists of vocal music. The first set, three sheets of paper folded and pinned to form six folios, provides separate lists of the three- and four-voice catches in The Second Book of the Pleasant Musical Companion.69 The second set of lists is, in part, related. It comprises seven sheets of paper of the same size as those used for the list of catches (and indeed for the index comprising Item 2,168), but the sheets are not collected together.70 Three of the sheets continue the classified list of music from The Second Book of the Pleasant Musical Companion, and another provides a list of ‘Songs in Tenor Cliff’ (4A), apparently an index of a part of a manuscript volume of songs. The most surprising work identified in these lists, however, is Henry Purcell’s ode ‘Celestial Music’. Purcell composed ‘Celestial Music’ for a performance at Mr Maidwell’s school in London on 5 August 1689, to a text by one of the pupils. Beyond these details, which are provided in the partly autograph score of the work held at the British Library (RM 20.h.8), nothing is known of the circumstances surrounding its commissioning or performance. The Revd Louis Maidwell ran a school at his house in King Street, Westminster; his connection with Purcell is unknown. The work itself is reasonably modest in scale, requiring treble, countertenor, tenor, and bass soloists, four-part chorus, two recorders, and four-part strings with continuo. References to the ode occur on five of the loose sheets in Item 2,170. Sheet 7, written on both sides (see Figure 1.4), gives three lists of all of the movements in the ode, under the headings ‘Treble’, ‘Counter Tenour’, and ‘Bass’. Within each list, the text incipits are provided only for movements where the voice part to which the list applies is singing, including, it should be noted, the choral movements. The lists also provide information on the instrumentation for each vocal movement. It appears, therefore, that the lists describe the contents of performance parts for each of the three primary vocal soloists. No similar list is provided for the tenor voice, presumably because it is used only in choral movements and the trio ‘Let Phillis by her voice’. Two of the sheets refer to the choral movements in the ode.

68 Under each letter of the alphabet, the songs are entered in the order they appear in each printed volume. The same order of publications is followed for the entries under each letter: 1) Don Quixote; 2) Deliciae Musicae; 3) The Banquet of Musick; 4) The Theater of Musick. The number of each of the books within a given collection, which are entered in numerical order, is given for each song. 69 The book was published by John Playford in London, 1686. An identical issue was printed the following year, but with the date on the front page changed to ‘1687’. See C.L. Day and E.B. Murrie, English Song-Books 1651–1702 (London: Bibliographical Society at the University Press, Oxford, 1940), nos 84 and 93. 70 A description of the sheets is provided in Appendix 1.2, where they are identified by number, 1–7, and by side, A or B.

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Sheet 6A, under the heading ‘a Collection of Songs for Concert’, lists the final two movements of the ode with their voice parts: the three-voice ‘Let Phillis by her voice’, followed by the four-voice extended setting of the same text. In the case of the former, two parallel columns of voices are listed – ‘Counter-tenour/ Tenour/Bass’ and ‘1 Treb/2 Treb/Bass’ – the first reflecting Purcell’s setting, and the second seeming to suggest that the countertenor and tenor parts could be sung up an octave. Sheet 5A is headed ‘Songs with chorus a 4 voc’, and lists the two four-part choruses ‘Hence he by right’ and the aforementioned ‘Let Phillis by her voice’ with the list of voice parts – ‘Counter ten/Tenour/Treb:/Bass/Thro B’ – appearing between them. In all likelihood, these two sheets referred to vocal performing parts for choral singers. Other references to the ode amongst the seven sheets seem to form some part of a draft index, in which songs are grouped by the number of voices required to perform them. The titles of two solo movements from the ode are treated in this way on sheets 2A and 3A (see Appendix 1.2). While the songs and catches appearing in the various lists and indexes of items 2,168 and 2,170 might seem to record music used in domestic settings by Thomas Ferrar, ‘Celestial Music’ requires a larger number of performers, leading one to speculate that it was intended for performance by the Stamford music club. A minimum of nine musicians would be needed to perform the work: four string players (two of which double on recorder), a continuo player, and four singers (treble, countertenor, tenor, and bass) who would sing solo and choral movements, a practice that is indicated in the lists of movements on Sheet 7. More performers could easily have been accommodated if they were available, and the sheets referring to the choral movements would suggest there were additional vocalists singing only in these movements. Given that, in the correspondence discussed above, all the persons appearing in relation to the music club are male, it is unclear how the treble vocal parts would have been covered. The music club’s apparent attempts to arrange for a Cecilian ode in the years around 1698 and 1700 might have resulted in the acquisition and performance of ‘Celestial Music’: although the text does not mention St Cecilia, its subject is the power of music, and it would certainly seem to provide a fitting substitute were no specifically Cecilian work available. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to suggest how Thomas Ferrar might have acquired the ode. Specific reference to the Stamford music club, and to the musical activities of the Ferrar brothers, ends with Basil Ferrar’s letter of 5 January 1700, but there is no indication that the club was wound up at this point. A sign of its continued activities is found in the collection of music that belonged to the Ferrar family that includes the Magdalene College part-books (a large collection in the hand of the London copyist Charles Babel for four-part strings, sometimes augmented by a trumpet, which Richard Luckett has identified as belonging to the Ferrar bequest).71 Among the 28 items are parts for sonatas by Keller, Finger, and 71 Rebecca Herissone has discussed the part-books and their contents in detail, and provides a list of the 26 musical items in the Ferrar music box; see Herissone, ‘The Magdalene College Partbooks’, p. 47. Richard Luckett has subsequently identified an additional item belonging to the collection, George Bickham’s The Musical Entertainer.

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Figure 1.4 Ferrar Papers, Item 2,170: Sheet 7 A (above) and B (below). Reproduced by permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge

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Ravenscroft, and overtures by Bononcini, Haym, Mancini, Handel, and Clayton, all printed between 1706 and 1716. This music would have been well suited to the needs of the Stamford music club, as far as this can be judged from the extant correspondence. The musical correspondence, indexes and lists of songs, and collection of music found among the Ferrar papers, testify to a lively and wide-ranging musical life enjoyed by the brothers Thomas, Basil, and Edward. Aspects of their activities are unexceptional for amateur musicians of the time: domestic musical gatherings at which songs and catches from the many publications of the Playfords were performed were an important and increasingly common aspect of the expansion of musical activity among the middle classes. However, evidence of the brothers’ contact with music such as ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’ (whoever’s setting it might have been), suggests a more specialized interest in music, and access to works that were circulating only in manuscript. More surprising is their participation in an organized music club in Stamford, the earliest such club outside of London and Oxford for which any record appears to have survived. The existence of the club demonstrates the presence of a critical mass of amateur musicians in and around Stamford – a town that otherwise one might imagine to have been rather isolated musically – with sufficient time and money to devote to their leisure interests. Further, the club was clearly ambitious in its activities, and through personal contacts, probably in London, could obtain the latest music by Corelli, and, more surprisingly, Henry Purcell’s ode ‘Celestial Music’. The latter, unlike Corelli’s sonatas, could only have been known to a fairly small group of people, associated either with Maidwell’s school in London or the composer himself. The musical activities of the Ferrar family and Stamford’s music club are symptomatic of a larger trend of increasing sociable activity in England, an aspect of the country’s urban renaissance that was gathering pace in the period covered by the letters. They may indicate, therefore, that the musical societies which blossomed in the first half of the eighteenth century developed out of a more widespread provincial musical culture than has yet come to light.

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Appendix 1.1 Transcriptions of letters from the Ferrar Papers, Magdalene College, Cambridge The letters transcribed here are numbered (in square brackets) according to chronological order, based on the date appearing on the letter, or, where possible, on information contained in the letter when a date is absent. Each letter is also provided with the item number assigned to it in David Ransome (ed.), The Ferrar Papers 1590–1790 in Magdalene College, Cambridge, with introduction and finding list (East Ardsley: Microform Academic Publishers, 1992). Although Ransome’s catalogue is, for the most part, ordered chronologically, new information has allowed the dating of several of the letters to be refined. Two documents that appear as single items in the Ransome catalogue (1,558 and 1,598) are here divided into multiple entries. Where dates have been provided by the correspondent, they are in old style (whereby the year was reckoned from Lady Day (25 March) rather than 1 January) or in a combination of old and new, as for Letter [4] for example, dated as 93/94. Dates between 1 January and 24 March are transcribed exactly as they appear in the letter, but are given in both old and new style in the item description. Descriptions are given in italics to differentiate them from the letter, and are based on the address provided either at the head of the letter or on its covers. The latter are transcribed only where they provide information beyond the address of the writer and the recipient. The original spellings, capitalization, and punctuation have been retained. Editorial interventions and expansion of contractions are indicated in square brackets. Notes on the physical characteristics of the letters (especially where they are damaged) are given in angle brackets (chevrons). Page is abbreviated as ‘pg’. ‘Y’ when used as a thorn (as in ‘ye’) is given as ‘th’. Curly brackets (braces) indicate an attempt to clarify text that is not completely legible in the original. The letters are transcribed and reproduced here by permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge. [1] Ferrar Papers 1,542 Letter of 24 April 1693 from Basil Ferrar in Stamford to Edward Ferrar in Little Gidding. Stamford Apr[il] 24th: 93 Deare Bro[ther] I had wrote you at the dyer last week but he failed of going, so missed my oppertunity: this comes to give you thanks for your last {pios} and kind letter, and shall be glad to equall the kindness of so Loving a brother as your selfe, at all times: I have by Harry sent a quire of ruld paper, and I have sent the witch of Endor; Saul’s part is in the Bass all the way, but the womans part is very high and put in a Cliffe not usual in the place where it is, w[he]n I come I will give you directions for singing that part, for no body can sing that p[art] but your selfe, I am sure. I hope wee shall sing the hundredth Psalme right; I hope to see you of

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Friday and to enjoy your good company w[hi]ch will be a great happiness to your brother who truly loves you. My love to all BF I hope wee shall see have Mr Baggerly’s company [2] Ferrar Papers 1,554 Letter of 13 January 1693/94 from Basil Ferrar in Stamford to Edward Ferrar in Little Gidding. Stamford Jan[uar]y 13th 1693 Good Brother I did expect to have heard of your welfare w[it]h the rest of friends last week; I hope I shall this week ÷ I hope you had a good journey to Northampton and a safe return back[.] I was very happy in my last journey to Gidding having your good company w[it]h the rest: I hope you remember y[ou]r promise (in coming to see us) w[hi]ch you made mee w[he]n wee was w[it]h you; assure y[ou]r selfe of a hearty welcome to our house; Mr: Walburg designs for London on Monday next; if your business will permitt wee shall be glad to see you on Saturday next fro[m] Oundle Markett; to play a game at Hoop Ace w[i]th us; Mrs. Walburge Mr. Ri[chard] Wallburge w[i]th Mrs. Mary give their service to you and all our family and wish yo[u]r health – Our musical friends give their service to you and all w[i]th you. Agitant Goddard gives his duty to his noble Captaine and desired mee to acquaint him that he likes his quarters at Dame Sumpters very well; Pray give my humble duty to Father and Mother, w[i]th true love to Brothers and Sister; the same to your good selfe fro[m] your truly affectionate Brother to serve you Basil Ferrar I wrote to Bro[ther] Power on Sunday last: My humble service to Mr: Beedles[1] w[he]n you see him [3] Ferrar Papers 1,558 Copy of letter [undated – c. February 1694] from Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding to Henry Bedell in Southwick, Northamptonshire. To the Reverend Mr Beadles at Southwick. Sr This comes to remind you of y[ou]r promise the performance of w[hi]ch we very much expect. You will meet a pretty knot of Musical Friends from Stamford. We are wanting in Instrum[ents] and must desire your favour to help us out in this 1

Revd Henry Bedell of Southwick.

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point. If you lend your violin to Oundle it may be brought some day next week by o[u]r Baker Bon[n]y Bing,[2] or we will take care to send for it the next MarketDay. We are in extreme want of a Bass Viol; if you can procure one for us you will much oblige the whole Consort, and your humble serv[an]t T. Ferrar. Pray Sr fail us not – If you would come and see us next week, it will be kind and help the Concert of {Musick} {Mast[ers]}: Howev’r pray an ser this by a line – If you a viol, we will send for it, you know not how [4] Ferrar Papers 1,558 Copy of letter dated ‘St Matthias 93/94’ [24 February] from Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding to Basil Ferrar in Stamford. To Bro[ther] Ba[sil] Ferrar, Stanford I Rec[eive]d the box, also w[i]th your letter: Pray remember me to Mr Peck, and tell him I am his debtor till an opportunity: I think the wig will do very well, only it wo[ul]d have fitted a head of a Larger size. I am glad to hear you are so pleasantly Employed about Corelli: I question not but you are as busy as one th[a]t is opening a new mine: He digs hard but w[i]th pleasure; and one may discern chearfulness as well as Sweat upon his Browe; for he longs to be handling the p[re]cious ore: And I believe you and your Cecilians have bin all lately seized w[i]th an itch in your fingers: Not troublesom indeed like that Northern[3] one but as Catching, for I am not free from the Contagion at this distance, nay I am already fall’n of the distemper out of pure Conceit kindled/propagated[4] by the Magical name of Corelli: The most Salutary things for me in this Case are Time and Good Ayre: and you must be my physician. I suppose by this time your fingers have their own Cure already: but I must still Languish und[er] the Disease: Neither do I much complain since I know where my Medicine Grows: This is an opiate to stupify tho’ not remove the Pain. Nay let the Tarantula sting on {w[he]n} Musick is the Cure: the smart is pleasant w[hi]ch must be allay’d by such delightful appli[cat]ions. Howev’r I desire your assistance w[hi]ch may in some p[ar]t be Beneficial to me for the pr[e]sent: I can[n]ot expect a complete Cure till I have consulted y[ou]r whole Colledge of Cecilians for tions of this nature have not the kind and clear effects but – therefore string the viol, tune the Lute

2 Bonny Bings, or Bony Face Bings, apparently was a baker in Oundle who relayed letters to and from the Ferrars. 3 Probably a reference to a skin disease. ‘Northern itch’ does not appear in the OED. It does, however, appear in Sir Thomas Overbury’s description of a ‘Hypocrite’, in New and choise characters, of severall authours (London, 1615): ‘For, if amongst Sheepe, the rot; amongst Dogs, the mange; amongst Horses, the glaunders; amongst Men and Women, the Northerne itch and the French Ache be diseases; an Hypocrite cannot but bee the like in all States and Societies that breed him’ (unpaginated). 4 One word is written above the other.

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– ither? – you may judge me under/to be stung[5] w[it]h a Tarantula:[6] but you will easily excuse this {?}liency who know it as of the nature of Musick to {transpose} and to Regulate all Passions but one for it selfe. I am your truly Lov[ing] Bro[ther] T.F: L.G.S. Matthais 1693/4 [5] Ferrar Papers 1,555 Letter of 2 March 1693/4 from Basil Ferrar in Stamford to Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding. Stamford March: 2 93 Good Brother I received yo[u]r letter the last week for w[hi]ch I give you my hearty thanks. I have consulted our Cecilian Doctors for your distemper, and they have considered your case, and they have ordered you a small pill for your present remedy; w[hi]ch I now send to you; they tell me you must use a great deale of action in the taking it; w[he]n you please to come to Stamford you shall have a larger dose, but our friends think this enough for the present; Our weekly Club will bee broake up on the 10th: Instant: w[hi]ch is our Horse Fair=day and then wee shall sign new Articles for a Club the first Monday in every month for all this summer; I cannot tell whether you please to see us at the breaking up but I hope to see you at the Town Fair w[i]th Sister Anne; Mr: Rob: Mackworth hath promised us to be a subscriber; and I hope you will w[he]n you see us; wee design to play Corelli’s 3d Opera at the breaking our Club, having not yet played it; Mr: Mackworth was w[i]th us on Monday night last and desired mee w[he]n I wrote to you to give his humble service to you and Brother, and he will be very glad to see you at his house in Empingham when you come to Stamford: My duty and Love where it is due concludes this fro[m] yo[u]r truly Lov[ing] Br[other] to serve you Basil Ferrar Our Cecilians give their humble service to you. [On the reverse of the letter along with the address is the annotation ‘a tast of Corelli’.]

5 ‘under’ is written above ‘to be stung’, and ‘to be stung’ is repeated at the top of the next page. 6 Music was thought to ease or cure the sting of a tarantula. See T. Salmon, An Essay to the Advancement of Musick (London, 1672), p. 6, and E. Schwandt ‘Tarantella’, in GMO (accessed 5 September 2006).

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[6] Ferrar Papers 1,558 Copy of letter dated ‘1st Monday in May 94’ from Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding to Mr Walburge in Stamford. To Mr Walburge in Stanford Mr Steward By this line in all due submission is {signified} my absence from the Cecilian Court this pr[e]sent day: Tis another Court requires my attendance the visit[ati]on of o[u]r Arch {eae}[7] on w[hi]ch tho’ not till the morrow, yet is then too soon to make the duty of this day dischargeable with any tolerable convenience. To descend into any Farther Apology would be to question your hearing Reason, for so I am bold to call this excuse: being fearless of the Imput[ati]on of Disobedience or Contemt, so long as the obedience only to my Superiore w[hi]ch makes me now so far as I am obnoxious: Tho’ methinks the idea of that vertue is som thing sunk in me by this Inconvenience: this being the 1st time I ev[e]r observed disobedience to have bin the Parent of disunio[n] {but} forget I am a Petitioner – S[i]r w[he]n you Tune the acc[oun]ts of this day Pray stop this Fret and I hope it will make no unpleasing sound in the ears of my Judges tho’ of less Candor, then I’m assured they have. Tis a mere p[ar]ticular share of your Candor indeed I’m sensible must excuse the length of this to Y[ou]r humble serv[an]t T.F: 1st Monday in May, 94 Little Gidding Humble service to y[ou]r good Mother and Sisters Respects to all Cecilians [7] Ferrar Papers 1,597 Letter [before August 1697] from Basil Ferrar in Stamford to Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding. nd tell you, that there is one punishment that will naturally fall upon you, w[hi]ch you can no way avoid, neither is it in our powers to hinder it, when I tell you of it; and that is the loss of the Musick wee played last Monday: for Mr. Obediah: Sedgewick, a merchant in London was at o[u]r meeting and brought along with him Corellis 4th Opera of Sonata’s, w[hi]ch wee played over, he playing a Bass with mee, (w[hi]ch he doth very well), I cannot tell how to give a Charecter great enough of them but in short, they are all over fine; such noble Ayre, and such lofty expression (for so I must call it, for all Capt Spragg) that wee were all in rapture at the hearing of them: and were amazed at 7

Presumably ‘Archdeacon’.

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Segnr. Corelli’; his Basses are so very fine, that {the violins} you may scarce think your selfe beholden to the Violins for their musick; and so practicable and easy, as you cannott imagine: I suppose at this time you may begin to feel the punishment come upon you, therefore shall say no more, but leave you to struggle w[i]th this misfortune as well as you can; and hope for the future it may quicken your diligence in attending at Stamford, for fear of more troubles in the like nature: One thing more I must add, as to the nature of them, they are in the same as his Ayres are, Corents, & Almands, Gavotts and Sarabands All ive their service to you and all w[i]th you: my service ends n, and so I bid you farewell. Pray by the fir post [8] Ferrar Papers 1,591 Letter of 26 July 1698 from William Browne in Cambridge to Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding. July. 26. 98 D[ea]r Mr Thomas I must beg a thousand pardons of You, for being so negligent in a matter, wherein I fear I made gave you a sort of a promise; but ind[e]ed my small faculty at Verse is so far lost for want of exercise, and my occasions this year have engag’d me so much both abroad and at home, that really I have not had leisure to think of anything of this nature. – I spoke to Mr Cowper, as from You, whom by some performances of that kind, I found to have a moderate talent that way, and had he not fall’n violently ill and continued so, till we have almost no hopes of his recovery, I know he wou’d have oblig’d You. Mr Drydens Ode upon this occasion (the last year) is admirable, and truly I am of opinion, it wou’d be very diverting at second hand: I confess when I read it I despair’d of doing anything tolerable upon the subject and thought I shou’d be a greater Benefactor by being silent than by writing, or else I think I shou’d have ventur’d to have shown you even in that way how much I am Your most obliged and humble servant Will: Browne My most humble service to the Maj[o]r & his Lady y[ou]r Mother, to your good Lady, Bro John, and the rest, whether at Gidding or not. Today is the Election of Knights for the Shire, and it is suppos’d by the appearance in the field that it will fall upon my Lord Butt & S[i]r Rushout Cullen. The other competitors are The Lord Allington & Mr Piggot. I shall call of you at Gidding, I suppose, e’re long.

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

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[9] Ferrar Papers 1,598 Letter of 5 January 1699/1700 from Basil Ferrar in Stamford to Thomas Ferrar in Little Gidding. Stamford Jan:5th.99 Deare: Bro[ther] Your good company at Southwick added very much to the satisfaction of my visit there, for w[hi]ch I return you & my Sister many thanks. I got home between 3 and 4 in the morning and hope you got safe home about the same time, wee being the same distance as you are: I think the Mons[ieu]rs musick is very good, though the words were fit to bring a qualm upon my stomack. I am sorry to tell you that my Bro Butcher’s little girle departed this life on last night about 2 of the Clock; they are in very great trouble for it, the Child will be buried on Sunday night; at w[hi]ch time my selfe and some other friends shall attend it to its long home: Pray let mee know your resolutions concerning our Caecilian Song that wee may know how to proceed in these affairs: Wee hope Mrs. Walburge is better within this 4 days, then she hath been for some time past, so that wee hope the best, shee w[i]th Mrs. Mary desire their humble service to you and sister and all friends w[i]th wishes of many happy new years to you all: J[o]n[ath]o[n] Addleton last night upon his masters charging him w[i]th unfaithfulness, ran away and as yet wee have not seen him I fear he hath been a great villain. My duty and Love where I am in hast Y[ou]rs Basil: Ferrar [10] Ferrar Papers 1,598 Draft response of Thomas Ferrar to Basil Ferrar’s letter of 5 January; written on the verso of [9].

as to the Stuards request, after some debate whether to grant or deny, it has bin carried for the Former: Their desire has p[re]vail[e]d ag[ain]st my struggling genius. At natura negat, scribere jussit amor. [8] Love & Duty to the society forbids my silly bashful Muse to deny and transports her beyond the sense of her unequal power. And coolly speaking ’tis A hard & ungrateful task to court an old M[ist]r[es]s with who[m] I ne[ve]r was in Favor. But – you have my promise: yet I am not so 8 Though nature denies, Love bids (me) write. This is a conflation of Juvenal, Satires I, v. 79: ‘Si natura negat, facit indignatio verbum’ (Though nature say me nay, indignation will prompt my verse), and Ovid, Heroides IV, v. 10: ‘dicere quae puduit, scribere iussit amor’ (What (modesty) forbade me to say, love has commanded me to write).

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fond of p[er]forming it, but if you may in the me[a]ntime be supplied w[i]th a song f[ro]m any other quarter

I shall be glad to be releast[.] Send me – w[hi]ch may serve as a whetstone to rub my dull Fancy upon.

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

39

Appendix 1.2 A description of the seven loose sheets in the Ferrar Papers, Item 2,170, Magdalene College, Cambridge The seven sheets are loose and unnumbered in their modern folder. It is clear that they were designed to be folded in half, though they appear never to have been gathered together; nor were they intended to be, since each sheet is complete in itself, listing one type of song (Sheet 1: songs for one voice without continuo; Sheet 2: songs for one voice with continuo, etc.) or songs from one work (Sheet 7: lists of movements from ‘Celestial Music’). They do not appear to belong in any particular order. Below, each sheet is described in its present, unfolded state. The number of the sheet, and the assignment of A and B to the front and back, is editorial, though in the latter case the right-hand portion of each A side provides a heading that accurately describes the content of the whole sheet.1 Each half of the front and back of the sheet was treated as a separate page by Thomas Ferrar. In the description below ‘lh’ and ‘rh’ designate the left-hand and righthand halves of the front and back of each sheet. The whole page is transcribed (with forward slashes used to mark line divisions), followed by a description of the list of songs appearing on the page. The songs in 2B and 4A are identified where possible using the catalogue numbers for the publications in which they appear from C.L. Day and E.B. Murrie’s English Song-books 1651–1702 (London: Bibliographical Society at the University Press, Oxford, 1940) (henceforth, DM) and David Hunter’s Opera and Song Books Published in England 1703–1726 (London: Bibliographical Society, 1997) (H). The relevant song-books to which the catalogue numbers refer are listed at the end of the appendix. Two songs appear in The Monthly Mask of Vocal Musick (MM) (which is not indexed in H), and the texts of several songs for which no publication has been found are identified using M. Crum’s First-Line Index of English Poetry, 1500–1800: in manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969) (C), and S. Parks, M. Greitens, and C. Nelson (eds), Osborn Collection First-Line Index of English Manuscript Poetry 1500–1800 (New Haven: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 2005) (OC). The sheets are transcribed and reproduced here by permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge. 1A

lh: blank rh: ‘Single Songs / ~~ / 1 From France, from Spain / 2 Will you give me leave, & I[’]l[l] tell / Let wine turn a sp[ar]k & ale / I keep my horse I keep my wh[ore] / Pleast Music-Compan / 2 Book’.

1 The exception being Sheet 5 on which the A side lists choruses in four parts, while the B side lists choruses in three parts.

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A list of four songs for one voice (without continuo) from The Second Book of the Pleasant Musical Companion (London, 1687/88) (henceforth SPMC).2 The list gives the first line of each song, not the title provided in the table of contents of the printed book.3 Below the list of songs a seemingly unrelated annotation is provided, and it is unclear to what it refers: ‘Song-Tunes in an Old bound M.S. 4o [?quarto]’. A later annotation, in the hand of Edward Ferrar II (1696–1769), is written vertically on the bottom right-hand corner of this side: ‘Index of Gidding Single Songs’.4 1B blank 2A

lh: ‘Counter Ten: & thro’ B / ~~ / Her charming strains console / in Celest: Musick – w[i]th flut[e] / W[he]n Orpheus sang all / Celestial Musick’.

A list of the two countertenor solos from ‘Celestial Music’. rh: ‘Songs / Treble and thro’ Bass / ~~ / In the Monthly Mask of Vocal Musick. March [1]704 / – / 1. a song set by Mr Weldon / sung by Mr Cook, Theatre / ~~ / Whilst on the charming fair / – / 2. a song to Celia first to marry / another her Lov[e]’s being abs[en]t / made to the Aimable Vanqure / by Mr Durfey / ~~ / Ah tell me no more or vow of y[ou]r duty / – / Thus Virgils genius lovd / Celest: Musick’.

A list of two songs for voice and continuo from The Monthly Mask of Vocal Musick (March 1704), ‘Whilst on the charming fair’ by John Weldon and ‘Ah tell me no more or vow of y[ou]r duty’ (Anon.), and the solo song for treble and continuo, ‘Thus Virgil’s genius’, from ‘Celestial Music’. 2B

lh: [A list of seven songs without heading] ‘Must then a faithful lover April who till now Retreat at faint sun Fair Belinda’s useful[5] O Fy w[ha]t mean I no Thro’ I never saw that face Leave y[ou]r ogling’

[John Eccles H5; H8–11] [Henry Purcell DM200] [John Eccles DM146] [Anon. DM182; DM233] [Capt. Simon Pack DM786] [Raphael Courteville DM112]

rh: blank 2 A fifth one-voice song, ‘Tom of Bedlam’, which appears in SPMC, has been omitted from this list by Thomas. 3 These songs are numbers 18, 23, 24, and 26 in the ‘Table [of contents] of the Last Part of this Book’. 4 Son of Edward Ferrar. 5 The song title in the printed edition is ‘Fair Belinda’s youthful charms’. 6 Pack’s song also appears in DM74, DM76, DM188, and DM234 as a single line, which rules them out as sources for this list.

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This appears to be a continuation of the list of ‘Songs for Treble and thro’ Bass’ found on the rh side of 2A, since all of the identified songs are for this combination, apart from ‘O Fy w[ha]t mean I’, which is preserved as a single musical line without continuo in the two sources in which it appears (hence the rubric ‘no Thro’’). 3A

lh: ‘Counter Tenour & Bass / with thro’ B. / ~~ / Whilst music did improve / Celest: Musick’

‘Whilst music did improve’, for countertenor and bass, is the only duet from ‘Celestial Music’. rh: ‘2 Voices / Treble and Bass / ~~ / 1 Come Jack come tipple off / 2 The delights of the bottle / 3 Away w[i]th the causes of riches / 4 If I live to be old / 5 We live in woods we live in / 6 Old Chiron thus preacht / 7 W[ha]t ails the old Fool! Why / 8 Come lay by all care, e’ne let / 9 One night scarce had the weari’d / 10 How great are the blessings / 11 The storm is all over, a halcyon / 12 W[he]n Teucer from his Fath[e]r fled / 13 Tho’ my mistress be fair, yet / 14 Sacharissa’s grown old, & almost / 15 A poor soul sat sighing / Pleast Musical Compan: / 2 Book’

A list of the 15 two-voice songs from SPMC. 3B

rh: ‘Treb – Bass & thro’ B / Julia, Julia y[ou]r unjust’

A song for treble and bass voices and continuo by Henry Purcell. The song was published as a single sheet,7 and in DM145, DM200, and H5. lh: blank 4A

lh: blank rh: ‘Songs in Tenor Cliff / 8vo [?octavo]’ ‘Alexis shun[n]’d his fellow 29 All in the Downs the fleet 15 Bellinda’s pretty pleasing 32 Change Alley’s so thin Farewel deceivist no more Hear me mourn princess Heark how the trumpet

40 16 26 19

Here’s to thee my boy Let Brave’s who to the army Phillis the Lovely

20 58 47

[OC A0863; C A899 ‘A Song’] [Henry Carey H109; H180] [John Eccles DM174; DM210; DM242; H5; H8–11]

[OC H0276 ‘Prince[ss] Sobieski’s minuet’] [Henry Carey H180] [Robert King DM135] [Anon. H144–145]

7 P 6,045, in Einzeldrucke vor 1800 (RISM A/I), ed. Karlheinz Schlager (15 vols, Kassel and London: Bärenreiter, 1971–2003), vol. 7, p. 66.

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914 See see my Seraphina

34

Smile o smile my charming Sweet are the charms

36 38

Waft me some soft You’l find fro[m] the begin[ing] Wanton Cupids cease to hover

23 25 30’

[John Reading H71–72; Vanbrugh H110; Anon. H144–145] [OC S1280, Barton Booth, ‘A Song’; C S1360 ‘A Song’] [Henry Carey H180] [William Turner MM June 1718; Daniel Purcell MM July 1718]

A list of 16 songs, each followed by what appears to be a page number. This appears to be a partial index of a larger manuscript probably comprising songs collected from a range of printed and manuscript sources. 4B blank 5A

lh: blank rh: ‘Songs with chorus a 4 voc / ~~ / Hence he by right the – / to Celestial Music B. & thro’ / Counter ten / Tenour / Treb: / Bass [the four voice parts are enclosed by a curly bracket to the right of which is written ‘Thro B’] / Let Phyllis by her voice / Celest: Musick’.

A list of the two four-part choruses from ‘Celestial Music’. 5B

lh: blank rh: ‘single songs / with chorus’s. 3 voices / ~~ / Heres a health to the milkmaid / Pleast Musical Comp – / anion: 2 Book’.

This is a two-section song, the first for voice alone (without continuo) and the second for three voices. It is the only song in this form in SPMC. 6A

lh: blank rh: ‘A Collection of Songs for Concert / ~~ / a 3 voc. / [In two parallel columns with a curly bracket to the right of the first column. Column 1:] ‘Countertenour / Tenour / Bass’ [Column 2:] ‘1 Treb / 2 Treb / Bass’ [continuing in a single column:] ‘a 4 voc. / Counter-tenour / Tenour / Treble / Bass / Let Phillis by her voice’.

A list of voice parts for the two passages to the text ‘Let Phillis by her voice’ from ‘Celestial Music’, the first a trio for countertenor, tenor, and bass in Purcell’s original, and the second a chorus for treble, countertenor, tenor, and bass. 6B blank

The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s

7A

43

lh: ‘Bass / 1. Symphony / 2 Verse B. alone 3 Viol[ins] / Celest Music – Thro’ B. / 3 Cho[rus] a 4 voc. hence he by / right – Thro’ B / 4 Thro’ B – to Counter Ten / solus w[i]th flutes / 5 Thro’ B. to Treb. voice alone / 6 Verse a 2 voc. whilst / Music did Im[prove] – Thro B / 7. Thro B – to verse Count[e]r / Tenour alone – & 3 Viol[ins] / 8. verse a 3 voc Let / Phillis – Thro’ B. / 9 Cho[rus] a 4 voc. Let Phil / lis by – Thro’ Bass’

A numbered list (1–9) of all of the movements from ‘Celestial Music’, with the first line provided for all movements in which the bass voice sings. rh: ‘Celestial Musick / Treble / 1. Symphony / 2 Thro’ Bass to verse / Bass alone and 3 Violins / 3. cho[rus] a 4 voc. – Hence he / by Right the god of witt – / with a Thro’ Bass / 4 Thro’ Bass to Counter Te- / nour Solus with Flutes / 5 Solus Thus Virg[ils] Genius / to a Thro’ Bass. / 6. Thro’ B. to verse a 2 voc / 7 Thro’ B. to verse solus / Counter-tenour alone’

A numbered list (1–7) (8–9 are continued on the lh side of 7B) of all of the movements from ‘Celestial Music’, with the first line provided for all movements in which the treble voice sings. 7B

lh: ‘8. Thro’ B. to verse a / 3 Voc. Counter tenour – Tenour / and Bass / 9 Cho[rus] à 4 voc. Let / Phillis by her voice’

Continuation of list of treble movements from ‘Celestial Music’. rh: ‘Counter Tenour / ~~ / 1. Symphony / 2 Thro’ B. to verse Bass / alone and 3 violins / 3 Cho[rus] a 4 voc. hence he / by right with Thro B. / 4 verse Counter Ten. alone / with 2 flutes & Thro’ B / Her charming strains / 5. Thro’ B. to Treb. alone / 6. verse a 2 voc. whilst / music did improve to Thro’ B / 7 verse solus w[i]th Violins / W[he]n Orpheus sang – Thro’ B / 8. verse a 3 voc let Phill / by her voice – Thro’ B. / 9 Cho[rus] a 4 voc. Let Phill / and Thro’ B.’

A numbered list (1–9) of all of the movements from ‘Celestial Music’, with the first line provided for all movements in which the countertenor voice sings. Publications DM74 A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs (1685) DM76 A Collection of Twenty Four Songs (1685) DM78 The Theater of Music […] The First Book (1685) DM112 The Banquet of Musick […] The Sixth and Last Book (1692) DM135 A Second Book of Songs 1695 DM145 A Collection of Songs set to Music by Mr Henry Purcell. & Mr John Eccles (1696) DM146 Deliciae Musicae […] The Third Book (1696) DM174 Mercurius Musicus (1699) DM200 Orpheus Britannicus […] The Second Book (1702) DM182 Wit and Mirth (1699)

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DM188 Wit and Mirth […] The second Part (1700) DM210a Wit and Mirth […] Vol. IV (1706) DM233 Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive […] Vol. III (1719) DM234 Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive […] Vol. IV (1719) DM242 Wit and Mirth […] The Sixth and Last Vol. (1720) H5 Collections of Choicest Songs & Dialogues (1703) H8–11 A Collection of Songs (1704) H71–72 A Book of New Songs (1710) H109 Sea Songs (1720) H110 Modern Harmony (1720) H144–145 A Pocket Companion for Gentlemen and Ladies (1724) H180 The Works of Mr. Henry Carey. The Second Edition (1726)

Chapter 2

Music in the Minster Close: Edward Finch, Valentine Nalson, and William Knight in Early Eighteenth-century York David Griffiths

Edward Finch, Valentine Nalson, and William Knight were a trio of musical clergymen living within the precincts of York Minster during the first four decades of the eighteenth century. This chapter sets out to explore their musical remains, and in doing so throws light on the musical activities associated with the Minster close, and, inevitably, on the musical establishment of York Minster itself. Their musical activities, as surviving evidence implies, were mainly to do with the composition and copying of music, but the existence of several sets of parts also suggests the possibility, if not the probability, of musical performance. George Benson’s map (see Figure 2.1), a recreation of what the Minster close would have looked like in the eighteenth century, shows it as that area of land, almost square in size, which is bounded by the city walls between Bootham Bar and Monk Bar, and the streets of Goodramgate and Petergate. Until 1836 it was subject to the sole jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of York. The Bedern, which was the residence of the vicars choral of York Minster, was adjacent to the south-east corner of the Minster close.1 Our chronological boundaries, for the purposes of this study, are set at 1704, the date when Finch was appointed a prebendary of York Minster, and 1739, the year in which Knight died. Edward Finch Edward Finch was baptized at Kensington in 1663, the fifth surviving son of the first earl of Nottingham.2 He was admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1677, 1 George Benson, An Account of the City and County of the City of York: from the Reformation to the year 1925 (York: Cooper & Swann, 1925), pp. 104–13; P.M. Tillott (ed.), The City of York, The Victoria History of the Counties of England (London: OUP, 1961), pp. 339–43. 2 For biographical accounts of Edward Finch, see Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley, and D.W. Hayton, The House of Commons, 1690–1715 (5 vols, Cambridge: CUP,

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Figure 2.1 Map of the ‘Minster Close and Bedern, York’, as it would have appeared in the eighteenth century, 27 February 1917, from George Benson, Later Medieval York: the City and County of the City of York from 1100 to 1603 (York: Coultas & Volans, 1919), facing p. 112 took the MA in 1679, and in 1680 became a Fellow. In 1685 he was admitted to the Inner Temple, but did not pursue a legal career any further.3 From 1690 to 1695 he was MP for Cambridge University and simultaneously a secretary to his brother, the second earl of Nottingham. He was ordained in 1695, and became a prebendary of York Minster in 1704, Rector of Kirkby-in-Cleveland in 1705, and Rector of Wigan in 1707, where he was involved in a dispute concerning the positioning of an organ within the Parish Church. In 1710 he became a prebendary of Canterbury

2001), vol. 3, pp. 1,030–31; and David Griffiths, ‘Finch, Edward’, ODNB (accessed 11 January 2007). 3 F.A. Inderwick (ed.), A Calendar of the Inner Temple Records (5 vols, London: by order of the Masters of the Bench, 1896–1936), vol. 3, p. 214.

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Cathedral, and in 1718 the Rector of Eyam.4 On resigning his rectorship at Wigan in 1713, it is likely that he took up permanent residence in York, and from 1728 he lived there in the north part of the Treasurer’s House.5 Finch died at York in 1738, and was buried in the Minster, where there is a monument to him and his brother in the south choir aisle, executed by Rysbrack.6 As it almost certainly would have illuminated everything which follows, it is unfortunate that a part of the Finch family correspondence which apparently showed Edward Finch ‘taking an active interest in musical matters’ seems not to have survived. We can, however, piece together a substantial picture of his musical prowess and enthusiasms from other sources.7 A note in the catalogue of Granville Sharp’s musical library lists eight instruments in his possession which had formerly been owned by Edward Finch – a fife, three transverse flutes, an oboe, and three recorders – and from this and other evidence we can conclude that Finch was probably a flute player.8 Of Finch’s early musical education nothing is known, but in his early twenties he composed a sonata for alto recorder (or violin) and continuo, the so-called ‘Cuckoo sonata’. In an autograph of this sonata – Durham Cathedral Library MS M 70, which is written wholly in his hand – Finch notes that it was ‘made In King James the 2ds Reign’ – that is, between 1685 and 1688.9 This manuscript includes ten other sonatas by Finch for an unspecified treble instrument – probably flute or violin – and continuo; these are dated 1717–20, but whether this refers to the composition or the copying of the sonatas is unclear. Nos 1, 2, and 4 of these sonatas also appear in versions substantially altered by the Italian cellist 4 Borthwick Institute for Archives (BIA), York, Inst. AB. 9, pt 2, pp. 63 and 202–203; John Le Neve, Fasti ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1541–1857 (11 vols, London: Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 1969–2004), vol. 3, p. 20, and vol. 4, p. 66; Lichfield Record Office, Presentation deeds, B/A/3; George T.O. Bridgeman, The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan in the County of Lancaster, Part III, Remains historical and literary connected with the Palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester, NS 17 (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1889), pp. 601–13. 5 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York: Vol. 5, The Central Area (London: [HMSO], 1981), pp. 69–75. 6 Photographs of this monument can be found in several books; for example, John Bowes Morrell, York Monuments (London: Batsford, 1944), plate XXXVI. 7 Lydia Miller Middleton, ‘Finch, Edward’, in Leslie Stephen (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography (67 vols, London: Smith, Elder, 1885–1903), vol. 19, p. 5. Middleton, whose phrase I have quoted here, was writing in the 1880s. I have consulted the Finch family papers in the BL, Leicestershire Record Office, and Northamptonshire Record Office, but have failed to locate this correspondence. 8 ‘A catalogue of the manuscript and instrumental music in the joint collection of Messrs. William, James [and] Granville Sharp’, New York Public Library, MS Drexel 1,022, p. 0 [sic]. There is a microfilm copy of this manuscript in the University of York Library. See also Peter Holman’s chapter (Chapter 3) in this current volume, at pp. 64, 79, and 84–5. 9 Other sources of this work are listed in David Lasocki, ‘The Detroit Recorder Manuscript’, American Recorder, 23 (1982): 95–102. Brian Crosby, A Catalogue of Durham Cathedral Music Manuscripts (Oxford: OUP, 1986), is an essential guide to what is, at Durham, the largest surviving corpus of Finch’s music manuscripts.

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Lorenzo Bocchi, in October 1720, and it would seem therefore that Finch had turned to Bocchi for instruction, and that the cellist was probably in York around this time.10 This manuscript also contains two examples of Finch adding extra parts to trio sonatas from Corelli’s op. 3: violin and viola parts were added to no. 6, which was thus ‘Turn’d into a Concerto For 3 violins Tenor Violin & Basso Continuo’; and three parts, a viola and two violins, were added to no. 2, turning it ‘into a Concerto for Six Instruments 4 Violins a Tenor Violin & a Base for the Violoncello or Harpsichord’.11 Adapting works by Corelli in this way was not unusual – one thinks immediately of Geminiani, for instance – but it demonstrates Finch’s fondness for full harmony, which can also be seen in what may be called his harmonic exercises: in York Minster Library MS M 18 S, for instance, he harmonizes the tune of St James in eight parts, and observes ‘Tis as full Harmony as I could make for Voices’ (f. 1) (see Figure 2.2). This pursuit of close harmony probably also inspired his addition of extra voices to four-part Anglican chants in York Minster Library MS 11 S, as it is improbable that they were ever performed in their resulting eight-part versions. Finch also composed three pieces of sacred music, all in G minor: a Te Deum (1708); a short anthem, ‘Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord’ (before 1715); and a Jubilate (1721). These works were copied into the York Minster choirbooks from the 1720s onwards, indeed even as late as the 1820s, and so were most probably performed there; but there is no evidence to suggest performances took place anywhere else.12 The first two sacred works were also included in Thomas Tudway’s collection. The remainder of Finch’s small musical output comprises some Anglican chants and a few catches; he also adapted two works by Steffani for use as anthems in York Minster, ‘By the waters of Babylon’ and ‘I will give thanks’ respectively, which were copied into the Minster choir-books in the 1720s.13 Finch made no provision in his will for his musical collection, which subsequently went to his brother and executor, the second earl of Nottingham, who invited Thomas Sharp to take from it what he would; this selection then went to the latter’s son, Granville, and was finally dispersed by sale in 1814.14 Music composed, copied, 10 For a discussion of the Italian cellist’s career in the British provinces, including the possibility that he was in York around 1720, and his alterations to Finch’s sonatas, see Peter Holman’s chapter (Chapter 3) in this current volume. 11 Durham Cathedral Library, MS M 70, pp. 2 and 10. 12 The choir-books, now in YML, have the shelfmarks MSS M 14/1–2 (from the 1720s), and M 168, M 171, M 187, M 197–8, and M 201 (from the 1820s). 13 The dates for the Te Deum and Jubilate are taken from a holograph in the University of Glasgow Library (Euing MS R.d.39, ff. 13v and 32v), while the words of the anthem, with Finch’s attribution as composer, are given in Full anthems, and verse anthems; as they are […] sung in the cathedral and metropolitical church of St. Peter’s in York, etc. (York: White, 1715); his compositions in the York Minster choir-books are listed in David Griffiths, A Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts in York Minster Library (York: [University of York Library], 1981); and his compositions in the sixth volume of Tudway’s collection are contained in BL, Harleian MS 7,342, ff. 167 and 171v. 14 Finch’s will is in the PRO, PROB 11/687 sig. 38; Nottingham’s offer to Thomas Sharp can be found in the Hardwicke Papers, Gloucestershire Record Office, D 3,549,

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Figure 2.2 Edward Finch’s harmonization of the tune ‘St James’s’, York Minster Library MS M 18 S, f. 1. Reproduced by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of York

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or owned by Finch can now be found in the British Library, the Bodleian Library (including the Tenbury Collection), Cambridge University Library (including the Ely Cathedral Collection), Durham Cathedral Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Glasgow University Library, the Royal College of Music, and York Minster Library. All of this is in manuscript – I am not aware of any printed music which has been identified as having belonged to Finch. One manuscript formerly owned, and partly copied, by Finch – now lost – is the sole source for Purcell’s Trio Sonata in G minor, Z780, a sonata for violin, gamba, and continuo, with the gamba part missing; according to Bridge, writing in 1903, it also contained ‘a Sonata for the German flute composed by Mr. Finch’, which a note in the manuscript apparently described as having been ‘Made for the Great Room at Burley, whose Eccho plays the 2nd Treble and sounds like three or four instruments’.15 (Burley House, at Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland, had been built by Daniel Finch, the second earl of Nottingham, between 1694 and 1705, to a design by John Lumley.16) Finch’s manuscripts date from 1691 to around 1730, and possibly later, and include both instrumental and vocal music. The composers represented therein can be divided into English (almost exclusively post-Restoration) and contemporary foreign, with the group of English composers subdividing further into those associated mainly with London and those associated with York. In the first subgroup we find Blow, Courteville, Farmer, Hall, King, Purcell, Roseingrave, Weldon, and Greene (whose anthem ‘Lord, let me know mine end’ Finch considered to be the ‘Finest Anthymn that Ever was Made’17); in the second subgroup, the minor composers associated with York, we find Benson, Nalson, Quarles, and Salisbury. Thomas Benson was admitted a songman at York Minster in 1697, and for much of the time from 1698 until his death in 1742, he was also Master of the Singing Boys; he occasionally copied music for the Minster choir. Whenever there was a vacancy for the position of organist at York Minster, he deputized, and between 1714 and 1741 he was also organist at the neighbouring church of St Michael-le-Belfrey, where ultimately he was buried.18 He was the owner of a 7/2/6; A catalogue of the extensive and valuable music […] of the late Granville Sharpe [sic], Esq. which will be sold by auction, by Leigh and Sotheby […] Monday, February 7th, 1814 (London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1814). 15 The history of the manuscript is outlined by Robert Illing, in Henry Purcell: Sonata in G minor for Violin and Continuo; an account of its survival from both the historical and technical points of view (Flinders University, Bedford Park: Robert Illing, 1975); Bridge’s short article, ‘Purcell’s Violin Sonata’, appeared in the Musical News (30 May 1903), and is reproduced in Illing’s book, on p. 60. 16 Nikolaus Pevsner, Leicestershire and Rutland, The Buildings of England (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960), p. 289. 17 Finch stated this on f. 1 of the holograph copy he made of Greene’s anthem, now Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 3,135; and he wrote an almost identical phrase on a copy made by Thomas Ellway (on whom see below), now Bodleian Library, Tenbury MS 1,027, p. 28. 18 YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Chapter Acts, H5, f. 240; Chamberlain’s accounts, E2/5, passim; St Peter’s account, E2/22–3, passim. BIA, York, St Michael-le-

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manuscript, now in York Minster Library, of short works for one and two voices and continuo, and his compositions comprise: a minuet for harpsichord; a song published in The Monthly Mask of Vocal Music; and a gigue, added to the sixth of the 11 sonatas by Finch in Durham Cathedral Library MS M 70, which Finch dates ‘Febr: 2d / 1718 / This Gigha by Mr Tho: Benson’.19 Valentine Nalson, who is discussed in more detail below, is represented in Finch’s collection by a copy of his Morning Service in G – parts of the text underlay in the Kyrie and Creed are written in Finch’s hand.20 Charles Quarles was appointed organist of York Minster on 30 June 1722. Nothing is known of his parents or background, although he shared his unusual name with the organist of Trinity College, Cambridge, who died in 1717 and seems likely to have been his father. Given that the last (and indirect) payment to Quarles in the York Minster accounts was made on 7 October 1727, and a Charles Quarles was buried in All Saints, Cambridge, on 21 October 1727, it seems logical to assume that the death of the York organist also occurred at Cambridge.21 A sonata for unspecified treble instrument (probably a flute) and basso continuo, which is attributed to Carlo Quarlesi (Charles Quarles), can be found in one of Finch’s autograph manuscripts, noted above, and now in Durham Cathedral Library.22 An anthem, ‘Out of the deep’, was published in 1775 in The Cathedral Magazine (vol. 3, pp. 42–5), where it was ascribed to ‘Mr. Charles, late organist of York’, presumably Charles Quarles. Edward Salisbury, Quarles’s successor at York Minster, was appointed on 13 February 1728, and was doubtless the person of that name who had been an apprentice of Maurice Greene.23 There are two surviving copies of Salisbury’s working of the round ‘Hey ho, to the greenwood’, both made by Edward Finch. This round was furnished with the words ‘O praise, praise the Lord all ye heathen’, and Finch noted Salisbury’s addition of a ‘Walking Thorough Bass, All of which make a Good Full Anthymn, In Imitation of Mr. Maurice Greens Excellent Anthymn Begining Lord Let me Know my End’.24 The Continental composers represented among Finch’s manuscripts, many of whom lived at some point in London, include very well-known as well as relatively obscure names: Ambrosio, Bocchi, Borri, Brassolin, Carissimi, Corelli, Finger, Belfrey churchwardens’ accounts, PR Y/MB 33–34, passim. Francis Collins (ed.), Registers of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, York (Leeds: Yorkshire Parish Register Society, 1901), p. 257. 19 YML, MS M 22; Durham Cathedral Library, MS M 70, rev., f. 33; BL, Add. MS 17,853, f. 40; for details of the song, see RISM, Recueils imprimés, XVIIIe siècle (Munich: Henle, 1964), p. 240. 20 Bodleian Library, Tenbury MS 1,024, ff. 4–27. 21 YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Chapter Acts, H6, f. 103, and St Peter’s account, E2/23; burial register of the church of All Saints, Cambridge. I am grateful to the staff of the Cambridgeshire Record Offices for the latter information. 22 Durham Cathedral Library, MS M 70, rev., ff. 76–83. 23 Watkins Shaw, The Succession of Organists: of the Chapel Royal and the cathedrals of England and Wales from c. 1538 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), p. 319. 24 Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 3,135, rev., f. 1; Durham Cathedral Library, MS M 70, pp. 68–9 and 84–5.

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Fiocco (senior), Geminiani, Grano, Greber, Handel, Keller, Loeillet, Navarra, Pez, Steffani, Valentini, Veracini, Visconti, and Ziani. Finch also had an interest in music theory, particularly evident in the autograph manuscript of his which is now in Glasgow University Library, and which was probably compiled in the 1720s.25 This manuscript, a musical commonplace book, contains an annotated adaptation of Gottfried Keller’s A compleat method for attaining to play a thorough bass (London, [1707]); some rules for composition by Purcell; methods for tuning harpsichord and organ, respectively; and methods of keyboard fingering by Baptist (possibly Giovanni Battista Draghi or Jean Baptiste Loeillet), Handel, and Quarles (almost certainly the Charles Quarles who was organist of York Minster, discussed above). Valentine Nalson The second of our Minster precincts residents, Valentine Nalson, was baptized on 26 February 1683 at Doddington, Cambridge, the son of John Nalson, historian and royalist pamphleteer, who was then Rector there;26 Valentine may have received his name as a consequence of being born on St Valentine’s Day. He attended school at Huntingdon, and was admitted to St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1699, where he took the BA degree four years later. He was ordained deacon in 1706 and priest in 1707, in which year he was appointed Vicar at the church of St Martin, York, a living in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of York; from 1708 he was subchanter of the vicars choral at York Minster, and from 1713 a prebendary at Ripon Cathedral.27 While in York, Nalson lived, at least in his latter years, in a house in the Bedern.28 He died on 3 March 1723, and was buried at St Martin’s, York, where a memorial brass inscription tells us that he was: Hujus ecclesiae pastoris vere evangelici; cathedralis chori succentoris sacrae musices peritissimi […] Quam eximius fuit pietatis praedicator testantur conciones, quas christ[i]ano orbi moriens legavit.

25 University of Glasgow Library, Euing Collection, MS R.d.39. A terminus ad quem for this manuscript is the catch ‘Some say that Signor Bononchini Compar’d with Handel’s But A Ninny’, copied on f. 29v, which is thought to have been published in 1725. See Otto Erich Deutsch, Handel: a documentary biography (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1955), p. 180. 26 IGI (accessed 28 December 2002). Other evidence would suggest that the date of 1682 given there is old style. 27 John and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (2 parts, 10 vols, Cambridge: CUP, 1922–54), part 1, vol. 3, p. 232. YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Vicars Choral, Subchanter’s lease book, II. 28 Frederick Harrison, Life in a Medieval College: the story of the vicars-choral of York Minster (London: John Murray, 1952), p. 40.

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[A truly evangelical pastor of this church; succentor of the choir of the Cathedral with the greatest skill in sacred music […] How outstanding a preacher for piety he was is testified by his sermons, which on his death he bequeathed to the Christian world.29]

A collection of Nalson’s sermons was published posthumously in 1724, and a second edition followed in 1737.30 Nalson was appointed subchanter at the age of 25, and so given effective control of the musical establishment in the Minster;31 but of the musical education which presumably fitted him for this position nothing is known, and, unlike those of his two contemporaries, Finch and Knight, Nalson’s musical tastes remain obscure. (It would seem that Nalson died intestate, and there is no mention of music in the will of his wife Elizabeth.32) There remain the scores of his own works, however; the 1697 print of Purcell’s Te Deum & Jubilate which bears his signature; his copy of Pierre Antoine Fiocco’s ‘O quam serena mutilat’; and the copies he made respectively of the first eight of the 12 motets in Jean-Joseph Fiocco’s Sacri concentus and an anonymous Litany.33 He adapted as verse anthems works by the Fioccos: by Pierre Antoine – ‘Give thanks unto the Lord’, from Sacri concerti no. 8, ‘O quam serena mutilat’; and by Jean-Joseph Fiocco – ‘O clap your hands’, from Sacri concentus no. 3, ‘Ridet orbis’, and ‘O most blessed redeemer’, from Sacri concentus no. 1, ‘Maria quis te laudare’.34 (The adaptation ‘Thou, O God, art praised in Sion’, from P.A. Fiocco, Sacri concerti no. 7, ‘Coeli dapes’, sometimes ascribed to Nalson, is attributed to the ‘Rev. Mr. Ford’ in the York Minster anthem word-books of 1715 and 1736.) Why Nalson copied so much music by the Fioccos is somewhat of a mystery. It is unlikely, from what is currently known of Nalson’s life, that he visited or studied in Brussels, where the Fioccos lived, and it is an open question whether Nalson came to an appreciation of Fiocco senior via Finch, who shared his enthusiasm, or independently. Nalson composed some chants, a Mass in G: and a

29 The inscription, on a brass plate at present on the south wall of the church of St Martin, is recorded in Francis Drake, Eboracum: or the history and antiquities of the city of York (York: for the author, 1736), p. 329. I wish to thank Mr Bernard Barr for the translation. 30 Valentine Nalson, Twenty Sermons on General Subjects: most of them preached in the cathedral of York (London: Hildyard, 1724). 31 YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Vicars choral, Subchanter’s lease book, II. 32 BIA, York, Deanery of York, 16 August 1728. 33 His copy of Purcell, Te Deum & Jubilate, YML, shelfmark P 261; his copy of P.A. Fiocco, ‘O quam serena’ (Sacri concerti no. 8), YML, MS M 40, ff. 4–5v; his copy of J.J. Fiocco, Sacri concentus nos 1–8, YML, MS M 37; and of the anonymous Litany, YML, MS M 103/3. 34 The words of the first two anthems appear in the York Minster anthem wordbook of 1736, and the third in those of 1715 and 1736. Full anthems, and verse anthems; as they are […] sung in the Cathedral […] Church of St. Peter’s in York (York: White, 1715); Anthems […] as they are now perform’d, in the Cathedral […] in York: […] in Durham: and […] in Lincoln (York: Gent, 1736). The attributions to the Fioccos and Nalson respectively are clear – there is no hint of plagiarism on Nalson’s part.

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morning and evening service, also in G.35 The chants comprise: two double chants in G, one of which was jointly composed with Edward Finch; a double chant in A, which was jointly composed with William Knight (for whom see below); and two single chants.36 There are two versions of the morning service, one for four and one for six voices. The four-part version, which was most likely that originally copied into the York Minster part-books in 1712, exists in two copies, one of which is an autograph and the other a nineteenth-century copy.37 The six-part version was composed ‘on the Thanksgiving for the Peace [of Utrecht] 1713’, which was curiously the last known occasion on which the York waits played in the Minster.38 (This suggests the intriguing possibility that the York waits might have accompanied Nalson’s service.) The ‘Gloria’ of the Nunc Dimittis of this service, headed ‘Grand Chorus in Six Parts’, incorporates the ‘Cum sancto spiritu’ music from the Mass in G. This latter work was written for 3 violins, 2 violas, continuo, 2 sopranos, alto, 2 tenors, and bass. One can only assume, given that its place in Anglican worship would be proscribed at this time, that the Mass in G was composed specifically for domestic performance, and the existence of a set of parts suggests this likelihood. These parts, save for Tenor 1 and Bass, survive in York Minster Library – the alto and Tenor 2 parts were copied by Nalson and the others by Charles Murgatroyd, organist of York Minster from 1712 to 1721; there is also an autograph score of the ‘Qui tollis peccata mundi’.39 While the solo movements of the Mass are short and epigrammatic, the choral sections are full and imposing, and the overall effect suggests more than adequate competence in composition, although in his use of triple counterpoint, Nalson is sometimes less than successful.

35 There is a brief discussion of Nalson’s music in Ian Spink, Restoration Cathedral Music, 1660–1714 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), pp. 402–406. RILM includes an abstract for Andrew Keeler, ‘The Reverend Valentine Nalson’ (unpublished master’s dissertation, Trinity College of Music, London, 1986), but it would seem that there is no publicly available copy. 36 Copies of Nalson’s chants can be found in Ely Cathedral Library and YML. See W.E. Dickson, A catalogue of ancient choral services and anthems, preserved among the manuscript scores and part books in the cathedral church of Ely (Cambridge: CUP, 1861), passim; David Griffiths, Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts, passim. 37 YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Accounts (vouchers), E2/PV4; Bodleian Library, Tenbury MSS 865 and 1,024, f. 28 and following. 38 The date of composition is recorded in the copy of this work in Tudway’s collection, BL, MS Harleian 7,342; there are other copies in the Bodleian Library (Tenbury Collection), BL, Cambridge University Library (Ely Cathedral MSS), and YML. (These libraries also contain manuscript copies of the Morning Service in G.) The payment to the waits, made via the Minster organist, Charles Murgatroyd, can be found in YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Accounts (vouchers), E2/PV4. 39 YML, MS M 103/2 (Nalson’s autograph of the ‘Qui tollis peccata mundi’) and M 146 (the set of parts).

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William Knight Nalson’s successor as subchanter of the vicars choral, William Knight, was baptized at St Clement Danes, London, in 1684. He was a King’s Scholar at Canterbury before going to Eton College, and then to King’s College, Cambridge, in 1703. Having become a Fellow in 1706, he took the BA degree in 1708 and the MA in 1711. He was ordained in the same year, and came to York in 1712, having been appointed a vicar choral at the Minster.40 He was elected subchanter in 1722, following Nalson’s death, and subsequently rector of two York churches, St Michael-le-Belfrey and Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, respectively. After having lived in the Bedern, in the house formerly occupied by Valentine Nalson, he moved to the rectory of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, which was round the corner from Finch’s home in the Treasurer’s House.41 Knight died in 1739 and was buried in the church of St Michael-le-Belfrey, his obituary in a local newspaper reading as follows: An exemplary clergyman. On Saturday last died the Rev. William Knight, A.M. Sub-chanter and one of the Vicars Choral in our Cathedral, Rector of St. Michael le Belfrey, and of S. Trinity in Gotheramgate [sic]; a Man of strict Honour and Honesty in publick and private Life; his Hospitality as well as his Charity were boundless; he was universally reckon’d a fine Preacher, and his Behaviour, as a Clergyman, worthy the Imitation of his Brethren.42

A biographer, Anthony Allen, tells us that Knight ‘was passionately fond of Music especially what regards Anthems and other Church Music in the Pricking and Scoring of which as they call it I think he bestowed abundance of time and Pains’.43 The extent of Knight’s passion for music is revealed in his will, in which his scores were bequeathed under five headings: [1] I give all my Church Service and Anthem books in my own hand writing to Mr Wendy Fuller Organist of King’s College in Cambridge [2] & my scores of Italian musick to the use of the Organist of York Cathedral for the time being; [3] the five folios of Church Musick & w[hat] are in my Cupboard in the Quire to the use of the

40 Biographical information for Knight can be found in Anthony Allen, ‘Skeleton Collegii Regalis: or A catalogue of all the Provosts, Fellows, & the Scholars of the Kings College’, III, pp. 2,022–23 (King’s College, Cambridge, MS 6,843); ‘A catalogue of all the Provosts, Fellows, & Scholars […] in King’s College in Cambridge […] First collected by Thomas Hatcher […] afterwards continued by John Scot […] the whole greatly enlarged by William Cole, etc.’ (BL, Add. MS 5,817, f. 172); and Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 1, vol. 3, p. 30. 41 Harrison, Life in a Medieval College, p. 40; Drake, Eboracum, p. 570; Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, York, vol. 5, p. 116. 42 Collins, Registers of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, p. 254; York Courant, 28 August 1739. 43 Allen, ‘Skeleton’, p. 2,023.

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914 Subchanter of the said Church for the time being, [4] & what Mr Elway has in Mr Coopers hand writing to him while he continues in the church aforesaid, & to his Successors in the payment paid by the Prebendary of Wetwang after him; [5] the rest of my scores of Musick and papers of that sort to the use of the Master of the boys in the said Cathedral of York for the time being.44

Nothing is known now of the scores mentioned under the first heading. Fuller’s will, which was made on 8 January 1743, very shortly before his death, makes no reference to music of any sort.45 The scores under the second heading were left in the first instance to James Nares, the organist of York Minster from 1735 to 1756, and comprise both manuscript and printed music. The manuscripts include: Albinoni, Concerti op. 5 (copied in 1729 by Charles Murgatroyd, at that time organist of Lincoln Cathedral and formerly organist of York Minster, as noted above); Corelli, ‘7 Favourite Strains Pick’d out of [op. 6, nos 1–3 and 5–8]’ (copied by Knight himself); two motets by Steffani (copyist unknown); and Valentini, Concerti Grossi op. 7 (copied by Knight himself in 1716). There are three printed works, each consisting of a set of parts: Sebastiano Cherici, Motetti sagri op. 4 (Antwerp, 1689); Carlo Antonio Marino, Sonate à tre op. 7 (Amsterdam, 1706); and Henrico Albicastro, Sonate da camera à tre op. 8 (Amsterdam, 1704/5).46 (Albicastro is now thought to have been a Dutch composer of German extraction rather than Italian origin,47 but Knight would have probably included the former’s work under the heading ‘scores of Italian musick’.) Four of the five folios mentioned under the third heading are still extant, comprising two volumes of verse anthems, one of morning services, and one of evening services; the fifth volume, one of full anthems, is now missing, but its contents can be reconstructed from an index compiled in 1761 by William Foster, one of Knight’s successors as subchanter.48 These four folios were copied by John Cooper, a songman in York Minster choir, probably between around 1715, the date on which he was first paid for copying music for the Minster, and 1729, the date of his death.49 Their compilation doubtless owes something to the example set by Thomas Tudway, with the great collection he made for Lord Harley between 1715 and 1720, the 44 BIA, York, Prerogative Court of York, October 1739. Those scores which are known to have survived are all located in YML. 45 County Record Office, Cambridge, probate records of the court of the Archdeaconry of Ely, WR 13: 106. 46 YML, the manuscript music with shelfmarks MS M 73, M 28, M 154, and M 86 respectively; and the printed music with shelfmarks P 3/1–7 S, P 230 S, and P 229 S. 47 Rudolf A. Rasch, ‘Albicastro, Henricus’, in GMO (accessed 2 February 2007). 48 YML, shelfmarks MS M 8 S, M 164/G S (containing Foster’s index), and M 14/1–2 S respectively. The volume of full anthems, now missing, contained works by Aldrich (3), Blow, Byrd (2), Clarke, Croft (5), Gibbons (2), Goldwin, Greene (2), Hutchinson (2), Knight, Purcell, Tallis, Tudway, Tye (2), and Weldon. 49 Cooper was paid for copying on 21 occasions between 1715 and 1728 (YML, Dean and Chapter of York, St Peter’s accounts, E2/22, passim). A photograph of a page from the volume of evening services copied by Cooper (YML, MS M 14/2 S) can be seen in Griffiths, Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts, plate 6.

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final volume of which included compositions by Finch and Nalson respectively, as mentioned above. The music under the fourth heading, also copied by John Cooper, was in the possession of Thomas Ellway when Knight wrote his will. Most of the music in this bequest comprises English church music, and includes works by Blow, Byrd, Child, Croft, Goldwin, Goodson, Holmes, Humfrey, Purcell, Rogers, Tallis, Tudway, Walkeley, and Wanless. There are two works by foreign composers: a copy of Jean-Joseph Fiocco, Sacri concentus nos 2–8 (probably made as a result of Nalson’s influence), and the ‘Suffrages hymn and creed’ of Giovanni Battista Borri. Thomas Ellway, to whom this music was left, was a York Minster songman, paid by the Minster for copying music from 1722 until shortly before his death in 1751. He was the composer of some chants, a short full service, and a short anthem, all of which remain incomplete in York Minster Library, as well as a two-part song ‘Ah, lovely nymph I’m quite undone’.50 As Master of the Boys at York Minster, Thomas Benson (already discussed briefly above) was the recipient in the first instance of the music bequeathed under the fifth heading. Included here are various works which Knight copied, notably his book of 129 catches, which, unusually, were realized in score; some instrumental music for three and four unspecified instruments by Albinoni, Pez, Purcell, and Venturini; and a canon ‘Hey ho, to the greenwood now let us go’ (also a favourite of Finch’s, and the basis of a full anthem by Salisbury, as noted above). Two other items can be mentioned: a score of an anonymous Mass in D (which Knight bought from the widow of Thomas Wanless, organist at the Minster 1691–1712), an excerpt from which can be found in Finch’s manuscript in the Euing Collection; and a score of Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia (‘Hail, bright Cecilia’ Z328), Te Deum, and Jubilate, which Knight bought from the widow of Charles Quarles senior in January 1718.51 Having discussed them in detail as individuals, what of the connections, other than those of office, between these three men? Finch, through the Dean and Chapter of York – and we should note that his brother was Dean between 1702 and 1728 – was the patron of both Nalson and Knight. Finch and Nalson, and Knight and Nalson, respectively, together wrote some Anglican chants; Nalson’s Sermons, which he was preparing for publication shortly before his death, were dedicated posthumously to the brothers Finch; and William Knight in his will left Edward Finch money to buy a ring in his remembrance, although in the event Finch

50 YML, Dean and Chapter of York, St Peter’s accounts, E2/22, passim; York Minster part-books, MS M 164/J1–3 S, and M 164/H1–2 S; the song appears in Harmonia anglicana; or, English harmony revis’d (3 vols, London: Walsh, c. 1745–c. 1760), vol. 2, p. 55. 51 YML, with these respective shelfmarks: MSS M 12 S, M 24 S, M 31 S (2); M 173; and M 9 S.

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predeceased him.52 The musical common denominator between the three men is, perhaps not surprisingly, Henry Purcell. Perhaps a little more unexpected, however, is their mutual interest in the Fioccos. Finch’s ‘missing’ manuscript contained work(s) by P.A. Fiocco, and Nalson copied this Belgian composer’s ‘O quam serena mutilat’; Nalson also copied eight of the 12 motets in Jean-Joseph Fiocco’s Sacri concentus, and Knight possessed a copy made by John Cooper of nos 2–8 of the same set. In addition to their residence in York, these three men also had in common a period of residence in Cambridge and – particularly with Knight and Nalson – most likely a knowledge of the musicians there, among whom we could include Fuller (senior and junior), Hawkins (organist of Ely Cathedral), Quarles (senior and junior), and Tudway. It is tempting also to see Finch’s influence, through his London connections, in several of the musical appointments at the Minster in the early eighteenth century. He was probably responsible for bringing to York the young George Hayden, who was a Minster songman from 1704 until 1712. Hayden probably composed at York some of the Six new songs, with full symphonies, after the Italian manner, which were announced for publication in London less than six months after he left the Minster, but apparently never went to press.53 Finch was probably also at least partly responsible for the appointments of Salisbury and Nares as York Minster organists, in 1728 and 1735 respectively. (It is not known whether Finch visited London again after leaving in the late 1690s, although there is no doubt that he had the financial means and family connections to have done so. An acquaintance with Handel, however indirect, is suggested in a letter to Valentine Nalson, probably written between 1710 and 1722, to which the following throw-away line is added in what seems to be a post scriptum: ‘I shall endeavour to get the score of Mr Handle if Possible.’54) Finally, the musical activities of Finch, Nalson, Knight, and other Minster musicians in the Minster close, in addition to having their own intrinsic interest, can also be seen as a precursor of, and then a partner to, the musical clubs which were established in the city of York in the 1720s, and subsequently to the winter series of concerts which began around 1730.55 The place of the vicars choral in 52 YML, MSS M 11 S, p. 29; M 164/J1 S rev., p. 11; M 164/J2 S rev., p. 10; and M 164/J3 S rev., p. 9; Nalson, Twenty Sermons; Knight’s will, BIA, York, Prerogative Court of York, October 1739. 53 Hayden’s appointment as a countertenor in York Minster choir is recorded in YML, Dean and Chapter of York, Chapter Acts, H6, f. 16, and the last payment to him in the Chamberlain’s accounts, 1677–1707 [sic], E2/5, f. 37v. The advertisement concerning the publication of Six New Songs is noted in Michael Tilmouth, ‘A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers Published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719)’, RMARC, 1 (1961): 1–107 (p. 86). 54 The letter is appended to Finch’s harmonization of St James’s tune (YML, MS M 18 S) reproduced above as Figure 2.2. 55 On these developments, see Elizabeth Jane Chevill, ‘Music Societies and Musical Life in Old Foundation Cathedral Cities 1700–1760’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, King’s College, London, 1993), pp. 50–109; David Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of institutional music-making in York, c. 1550–1990 (York: York Settlement Trust, [1994]), pp. 103–20; and Roz Southey’s chapter (Chapter 5) in this current volume.

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English cathedral life has been established recently by John Harper, but for the pre-Reformation period only.56 The evidence of William Knight and Valentine Nalson bears testimony to the continuing importance of vicars choral in the musical life of the cathedrals and cities where they lived at least until the end of the eighteenth century and it is a subject which could be investigated profitably for those English cities with cathedrals of the so-called ‘Old Foundation’.57

56 John Harper, ‘The Vicar Choral in Choir’, in Richard Hall and David Stocker (eds), Vicars Choral at English Cathedrals: cantate domino; history, architecture, and archaeology (Oxford: Oxbow, 2005), pp. 17–22. 57 Harry Diack Johnstone notes the importance of the vicars choral at Wells Cathedral to a music society in existence in that city in the first quarter of the eighteenth century; see his ‘Claver Morris, an early eighteenth-century English physician and amateur musician extraordinaire’, JRMA (forthcoming). I am grateful to Harry Johnstone for sight of a draft of this article.

Chapter 3

A Little Light on Lorenzo Bocchi: An Italian in Edinburgh and Dublin1 Peter Holman

Lorenzo Bocchi is one of the more obscure eighteenth-century composers. He was not mentioned by Burney or Hawkins, and, so far as I know, he has never appeared in any musical dictionary, with the exception of a brief mention in Eitner.2 In 1973 T.J. Walsh even tried to argue that Irish references to him were actually misprints for the bass singer Giuseppe Boschi.3 Nevertheless, Bocchi did exist, and was a figure of some importance in British musical life in the 1720s. He was probably the first person to play the violoncello in Scotland and Ireland; his Musicall Entertainment for a Chamber contains the first solo violoncello music printed in Britain, as well as two late and rare examples of published solo viola da gamba music – an instrument he presumably played. He was involved in an early attempt to establish public concerts in Edinburgh, and seems to have collaborated with Allan Ramsay senior in several dramatic projects. He may even have had a hand in the process that led Ramsay to convert his pastoral play The Gentle Shepherd into a ballad opera – the first Scottish opera. He certainly made a pioneering setting of a cantata to words by Ramsay in lowland Scots. After he moved to Dublin, in 1723 or 1724, he was involved in the first regular concert series in Ireland, and played an important role in establishing music publishing there. More generally, he is the earliest known member of the Italian 1 An early version of this chapter was given at the International Conference on Baroque Music, Manchester, July 2004. I am grateful to John Cunningham, Fiona Smith, and David Todd for locating, transcribing, and checking sources in Edinburgh and Dublin for me, and to Barra Boydell, Nicholas Carolan, David Johnson, Harry Diack Johnstone, Lowell Lindgren, and Michael Talbot for reading drafts and for helping me in various ways. 2 Robert Eitner, Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (10 vols, Leipzig, 1900–1904), vol. 2, p. 78. The only published biography of Bocchi is in Nicholas Carolan’s introduction to the facsimile, John and William Neale, A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin: Folk Music Society of Ireland, 1986), pp. xxiii– xxv. See also Lowell Lindgren, ‘Italian Violoncellists and some Violoncello Solos Published in Eighteenth-Century Britain’, in David Wyn Jones (ed.), Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 121–57 (pp. 140–41, 150). 3 T.J. Walsh, Opera in Dublin 1705–1797: the social scene (Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1973), pp. 19–20.

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musical diaspora to establish a successful career in Edinburgh and Dublin rather than London.4 He was followed by, among others, Francesco Barsanti, Nicolo Pasquali, Christina and Giuseppe Passerini, Pietro Urbani, Domenico and Natale Corri, Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci, and Hieronymo Stabilini in Edinburgh, and Francesco Scarlatti, Carlo and Ferdinando Arrigoni, Pietro Castrucci, Francesco Geminiani, Andrea Caporale, Gian Battista Marella, Nicolo Pasquali, and Tommaso Giordani in Dublin.5 Nothing for sure is known about Bocchi’s life before his arrival in Edinburgh was announced in the Edinburgh Evening Courant for 11–12 July 1720: MR. Gordon, who lately arrived from Italy, where he had travelled for his Improvement in Musick, is daily expected here, accompanied with Signior Laurentzo Bocchi, an Italian Gentleman, who is reckoned the second Master of the Violin Chello in Europe, and the fittest Hand in Britain to join Mr. Gordon’s Voice in the Consorts, which he designs to entertain his Friends with before the rising of the Session.

We gather from this that he had arrived in Scotland in the company of the Scottish tenor Alexander Gordon. Gordon (c. 1692–1754/5) came from Aberdeen, and spent some years singing in Italy.6 He appeared in the Teatro di San Bartolomeo in Naples in the season of 1717–18, and may have been in the entourage of Charles Douglas, Duke of Queensberry, who was in Padua on 2 December 1717, in Venice for the 1718 carnival, and in Rome later that spring, arriving back in London in August.7 Gordon referred to ‘many Favours, already received, both at Home and Abroad’ from Queensberry in the dedication of his Itinerarium septentrionale (London: G. Strahan, 1726). On 6 July 1719 Gordon was in Lucca in the company of another Scot, James Paterson, who informed the merchant and diplomat Giovanni Giacomo Zamboni that they were about to go to Genoa to make arrangements for an ‘intended journey’; on 29 August Paterson reported that Gordon had ‘procured shiproom aboard of the Tartar for Barcelona’.8

4 For the Italian musical diaspora, see Reinhard Strohm (ed.), The EighteenthCentury Diaspora of Italian Music and Musicians (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001). 5 For musical life in eighteenth-century Edinburgh and Dublin, see David Johnson, Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (London: OUP, 1972); Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: concert management and orchestral repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799 (New York and London: Garland, 1996), esp. pp. 31–100; Brian Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 ([Dublin]: Irish Academic Press, 1988), and his Rotunda Music in EighteenthCentury Dublin ([Dublin]: Irish Academic Press, 1992). 6 For Gordon, see Carl Morey, ‘Alexander Gordon, Scholar and Singer’, ML, 46 (1965): 332–5; ‘Gordon, Alexander’, BDA, vol. 6, pp. 273–5; Winton Dean, ‘Gordon, Alexander’, in GMO (accessed 25 January 2007). 7 Elizabeth Gibson, The Royal Academy of Music 1719–1728: the institution and its directors (London and New York: Garland, 1989), pp. 76–8. 8 Lowell Lindgren, ‘Musicians and Librettists in the Correspondence of Gio. Giacomo Zamboni (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Rawlinson Letters 116–138)’, RMARC, 24 (1991): whole volume (pp. 27–8, 30).

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Gordon’s stay in Spain must have been short, for he seems to have been in London by late November, when he was included in an estimate of the costs of the projected Royal Academy of Music for its inaugural season the following spring.9 On 7 December he was described as ‘lately arriv’d from Italy’ when he sang in a benefit concert at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.10 He appeared at Lincoln’s Inn Fields on 19 January 1720 ‘accompany’d by the best Masters’, and on 5 and 10 February he sang new Italian cantatas by Francesco Mancini and Thomas Roseingrave.11 In April, May, and June 1720 he appeared in the Royal Academy’s productions of Porta’s Numitore, Handel’s Radamisto, and Domenico Scarlatti’s Narcisco at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket.12 His last performance was on 25 June, after which, presumably, he departed for Scotland in Bocchi’s company. We do not know how long they had been acquainted, though they had probably performed together in London, and it is possible that Bocchi had accompanied Gordon from Italy. It is clear from the Edinburgh Evening Courant report that they arrived to put on a concert series. Concerts started in Edinburgh in the 1690s, and there was a regular series run by the singer John Steill or Steil, the violinist Adam Craig, and the harpsichordist Henry Crumden at St Mary’s Chapel in Niddry’s Wynd in the second decade of the eighteenth century.13 Steill seems to have retired as a concert promoter after 1719, and turned to running the Cross Keys tavern in High Street, the venue for the meetings of the Edinburgh Musical Society in the 1720s. Gordon and Bocchi were perhaps prompted by Steill’s retirement to try running their own series, though it is not clear how long it lasted or how successful it was. They must have seemed a glamorous pair to Edinburgh’s concert-goers. Although Gordon was a tenor rather than a castrato, he was probably the first singer they had heard who had direct experience of singing in Italy, and therefore of Italian styles and standards of singing; the Scottish countertenor John Abell had spent his entire working life in England and on the Continent, and seems to have revisited his homeland only once, in 1705.14 It may have been hyperbole to describe Bocchi as ‘the second Master of the Violin Chello in Europe’, though his violoncello and viola da gamba sonatas suggest he was a fine player. The violoncello (as opposed to its predecessor, the large bass violin, normally tuned in B flat) only reached London in the first years of the eighteenth century, and there is no evidence that anyone had played it in Scotland before Bocchi.15 When Ralph Agutter set up as a musical-instrument maker and repairer in Edinburgh in 9 Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, ‘New Light on Handel and the Royal Academy of Music in 1720’, Theatre Journal, 35 (1983): 149–67 (p. 154). 10 Emmett Langdon Avery (ed.), The London Stage, 1660–1800: a calendar of plays, entertainments and afterpieces, part 2, 1700–1729 (Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1960), p. 559. 11 Ibid., pp. 564, 566–7. 12 Ibid., pp. 575–80, 582–8; Winton Dean and John Merrill Knapp, Handel’s Operas 1704–1726 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987), esp. pp. 302, 305, 337, 341, 345; Gibson, The Royal Academy of Music, esp. pp. 118–38. 13 Johnson, Music and Society, pp. 32–3. 14 Ian Spink, ‘Abell, John (i)’, in GMO (accessed 25 January 2007). 15 See Lindgren, ‘Italian Violoncellists’.

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1707, he advertised that he made ‘the Violin, Bass Violin, Tenor Violin, the Viol de Gambo’ among other instruments; there is no mention of the violoncello.16 Indeed, the strange form ‘Violin Chello’ in the 1720 advertisement suggests that even its name was unfamiliar. It is true that William Tytler, writing in 1792, thought that an Edinburgh concert he dated 22 November 1695 had included ‘violincellos’ as well as ‘viol de Gambos’. However, I have argued elsewhere that the concert actually took place around 1710, and the lost document used by Tytler as the basis of his article only mentions ‘Basses’.17 In any case, most of the bass players mentioned, including the French professional Sainte-Colombe junior, seem to have played the gamba rather than the bass violin or violoncello. The next trace of Lorenzo Bocchi comes from Durham Cathedral Library, MS M 70, a score-book copied by Edward Finch (1663–1738), Prebendary of York Minster and amateur musician.18 At the end of a sequence of his own sonatas for violin or flute and continuo in the reversed portion of the manuscript, Finch added a G major sonata by Bocchi (rev., pp. 62–5) and copies of three of his own sonatas which he described as ‘Emendata’ or ‘Alter’d by’ Bocchi (rev., pp. 66–75). They will be discussed later, but we should note here that Finch dated two of them ‘October 1720’, which suggests that he received composition lessons from Bocchi that month. If, as is likely, they met in York, then Bocchi was presumably on his way from Edinburgh to London. Perhaps he was travelling with Gordon to be in London for the winter concert season. The Scottish tenor was certainly there on 6 February 1721, when he gave a benefit concert at the Haymarket Theatre.19 We next hear of Gordon more than a year later: the Edinburgh Evening Courant for 17–21 May 1722 announced that he was to give a concert in Glasgow on 28 May: We are certainly informed, that at the Desire of several Gentlemen of the City of Glasgow, on Monday the 28th Instant, being the Anniversary of his Majesty’s Birth Day, will be performed a Consort of Musick in that City, the Vocal Part by Mr. Gordon, the other Parts by the best Masters from Edinburgh.

A few weeks later, in the issue for 12–14 June, the same newspaper reported: ‘We hear that sometime next Week, Mr. Gordon is to publish Proposals for the Improvement of Musick in Scotland, together with a most reasonable and easy 16 Edinburgh Courant, 13 May 1707, quoted in Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Revolution to the Rebellion of 1745 (Edinburgh and London: W. & R. Chambers, 1861), pp. 325–6. It has proved impossible to find an original copy of this newspaper. 17 William Tytler, ‘On the Fashionable Amusements and Entertainments in Edinburgh in the Last Century, with a Plan of a Grand Concert of Music on St Cecilia’s Day, 1695’, Transactions of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland, 1 (1792): 499–510; Peter Holman, ‘An Early Edinburgh Concert’, Early Music Performer, 13 (January 2004): 9–17. 18 For Finch, and his circle, see David Griffiths’s chapter (Chapter 2) in this volume. 19 Avery (ed.), London Stage, part 2, 1700–1729, p. 613.

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Scheme, for establishing a Pastoral Opera, in Edinburgh’. The proposals do not seem to survive, but it has been suggested that they were part of the process that led to the conversion of Allan Ramsay’s The Gentle Shepherd from a play into a ballad opera.20 This may well be so, as we shall see, but Gordon cannot have played much part. He returned to the King’s Theatre for the 1722–23 season, settled in London, and shortly afterwards abandoned singing for a new career as a writer and antiquarian. Bocchi is not mentioned in these reports, but it is likely that he was still working with Gordon in 1722, and there is evidence that he collaborated with Allan Ramsay in several projects at that time. Ramsay (1684–1757), the father of the painter, began his working life as a wig-maker in Edinburgh, and turned to writing and publishing in the second decade of the century.21 He made his name with Scots Songs (Edinburgh, 1718), a collection of new lyrics written to fit traditional tunes, and followed it up with The Tea-Table Miscellany, the first volume of which has a preface dated 1 January 1723.22 The latter includes the text of ‘A / Scots Cantata / The Tune after an Italian Manner. / Compos’d by / Signior LORENZO BOCCHI’, beginning with the words ‘Blate Jonny faintly teld fair Jean his Mind’.23 Bocchi’s setting, for soprano, unison violins, and continuo, was printed at the end of A Musicall Entertainment for a Chamber. So far as I know, it is the first example of this rather unlikely genre, and therefore Bocchi may well have invented it – if I am right in supposing that he suggested the idea to Ramsay.24 He was followed by William Boyce (who set the same text), Nicolo Pasquali, Joseph Ganthony, and doubtless others.25

20 Henry George Farmer, A History of Music in Scotland (London: Hinrichsen, [1947]), p. 301; Burns Martin, Allan Ramsay, a Study of his Life and Works (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1931), p. 75. The best account of The Gentle Shepherd is in The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 4, eds Alexander M. Kinghorn and A. Law (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Text Society, 1970), pp. 90–108; see also Roger Fiske, English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century, 2nd edn (Oxford: OUP, 1986), pp. 111–12. 21 For Ramsay’s biography, see Martin, Allan Ramsay; the Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 4, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 1–76. 22 For Ramsay’s role as a collector, editor, and arranger of Scots songs, see Johnson, Music and Society, pp. 133–43; Roger Fiske, Scotland in Music: a European enthusiasm (Cambridge: CUP, 1983), pp. 15–17; Dave Harker, Fakesong: the manufacture of British ‘folksong’, 1700 to the present day (Milton Keynes and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1985), pp. 9–13. 23 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 3, eds Kinghorn and Law (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Text Society, 1961), pp. 36–7; see also The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Text Society, 1974), pp. 107–8; Johnson, Music and Society, p. 191. 24 Johnson suggests that the impetus came from Ramsay, see Music and Society, p. 191. 25 Ibid., pp. 55, 142; Richard Goodall, Eighteenth-Century English Secular Cantatas (New York and London: Garland, 1989), pp. 217–18; Paul F. Rice, The Solo Cantata in Eighteenth-Century Britain: a thematic catalog (Warren MI: Harmonie Park, 2003), pp. 87–8, 99–100, 213–14.

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Two of Ramsay’s dramatic works provide evidence of collaboration between Ramsay and Bocchi. The first was written for the marriage of James, Earl of Wemyss and Janet Charteris on 17 September 1720, just two months after Bocchi’s arrival in Edinburgh. The text was published separately as ‘An / Ode / With a / Pastoral Recitative / on the Marriage / [of] The Right Honourable / James Earl of Wemyss, / And / Mrs Janet Charteris, / Edinburgh 17th September 1720’, and was reprinted in the second volume of Ramsay’s Poems (Edinburgh, 1728).26 It starts with six lines headed ‘RECITATIVE’ which seem to be sung by a narrator, beginning with the words ‘LAST Morn young Rosalind, with laughing Een, / Met with the singing Shepherd on the Green’. Then the characters Rosalind and Armyas engage in dialogue, also presumably in recitative. At the end there is the rubric ‘ARMYAS Sings.’, followed by six eight-line stanzas beginning ‘COME Shepherds, a’ your Whistles join, / And shaw your blythest Faces’. This is apparently the ode referred to in the title; it was presumably set as a strophic air. Bocchi is not mentioned in the text, but, since he was virtually the first exponent of the Italian style in Scotland, it is likely that he was the person who gave Ramsay the idea of starting the work with a ‘pastoral recitative’, and either wrote or arranged the lost music. Stronger evidence is provided by Ramsay’s masque The Nuptials, written for the marriage of James, Duke of Hamilton to Lady Ann Cochran on 14 February 1723. Like ‘An Ode with a Pastoral Recitative’, the text was first printed separately, as ‘The / Nuptials: / A / Masque, / On the Marriage of his Grace / James / Duke of Hamilton, / And / Lady Anne Cochran. / By Allan Ramsay. / Edinburgh: Printed in the Year M.DCC.XXIII’. It was reprinted in the second volume of Ramsay’s Poems, and there is also an early version in a probable autograph manuscript.27 The Duke of Hamilton was Captain General of the Royal Company of Archers, based in Edinburgh, which Ramsay joined in 1724.28 As we shall see, he was also the dedicatee of Bocchi’s Musicall Entertainment. Again, Bocchi is not mentioned by name by Ramsay, but his presence is indicated by the opening rubric: ‘Calliope, playing upon a Violencello, sings’. If I am right in thinking that Bocchi was the only cellist in Scotland in 1723, then it follows that he played the character of Calliope, accompanying himself in a setting of the first four verses, beginning ‘JOY to the Bridegroom, Prince of Clyde / Lang may his Bliss and Greatness blossom’. Ramsay does not follow the convention of using italics to differentiate between sung and spoken sections, but it is likely that the characters that appear subsequently, Venus, the three Graces, Hymen, and Minerva spoke rather than sang. There are no more indications of 26 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 2, eds Burns Martin and John W. Oliver (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Text Society, 1953), pp. 85–7; see also The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 5, 70–71. 27 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 2, eds Martin and Oliver, pp. 94–103; see also The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 7, 72–3; Michael Burden, ‘The Independent Masque 1700–1800: a catalogue’, RMARC, 28 (1995): 59–159 (pp. 88–9). 28 For Ramsay and the Royal Company of Archers, see The Works of Allan Ramsay, esp. vol. 4, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 25–8.

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music until Bacchus appears towards the end of the masque. The printed version does not tell us whether he sang or spoke, but the manuscript has the rubric ‘Enter Bachus singing’. In a speech following his song, Bacchus has the words ‘Play up there, Lassie, some blyth Scottish Tune, / Syne a’ be blyth, when Wine and Wit gae round’, and there is the rubric: ‘The Health about, Musick and Dancing begin.’ As in seventeenth-century English wedding masques, the dancing probably took up most of the evening. Like them, too, the event concluded with a song. The rubric ‘The Dancing over before her Grace retires with the Ladies to be undress’d; Calliope sings the / EPITHALAMIUM.’ is followed by three sections of verse in contrasted metres beginning ‘BRIGHT is the Low of Lawfu’ Love, / Which shining Sauls impart’. Bocchi’s music – if it was by him – does not survive, but we can guess that Calliope sang his verses in lowland Scots to Italianate music, as in ‘Blate Jonny’, and that traditional Scots tunes were used for Bacchus’s song and the dance music. The varied metre of the Epithalamium suggests that its sections were contrasted in some way, perhaps changing from duple time to triple time, or vice versa, or moving from recitative to aria. Perhaps Bocchi composed and arranged all the music. If Bocchi participated in The Nuptials, then he must still have been in Edinburgh in February 1723. Some time after that he moved to Ireland. The evidence for his activities in Dublin is complex, and depends on a re-examination of the early publications of John and William Neale, Dublin’s first important music publishers; they set up in business in Christ Church Yard around 1720.29 We know that Bocchi was connected with the Neales, for they announced his Musicall Entertainment for a Chamber in the Dublin Courant on 22 August 1724: WHeras Mr. Neale in Christ Church Yard, Dublin, has with great Care printed a new Opera, consisting of several Sonata’s for the Violin, Violoncello, Six-string Bass and Flute with a Scotch Cantata, and the Instrumental parts thereo[f] after the Italian Manner, compos’d by Mr. Lorenzo Bocchi which, (tho’ the first Musical Performance that was ever printed in this Kingdom) is judg’d to be no Way inferior to an[y] London Impressions, by the best Masters here: This is to acquaint all Lovers of Musick, that the said Opera will be publish’d by Subscription at the beginning of next Winter, and the Author having most of the Scotch Nobility his Subscribers, hopes to meet with the same Encouragement in this Kingdom. Mr. Neal has likewise lately publish’d four Quarto Books of the best English Airs and Minuets, Irish Tunes and Scotch Tunes for the Violin; the Irish and Scotch are also for the Flute, which may be had at a British Half Crown each.30

29 Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, pp. xiii–xxiii. For overviews of Dublin music publishing, see W.H. Grattan Flood, ‘Dublin Music Printing from 1685 to 1750’, Bibliographical Society of Ireland, Publications, 2/1 (Dublin, 1921): 7–12, and his ‘John and William Neale, Music Printers, 1721–1741’, Bibliographical Society of Ireland, Publications, 3/8 (Wexford, 1928): 85–9. 30 This advertisement is wrongly dated 22 August 1723 in Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, pp. 40–41. I am grateful to Lowell Lindgren for alerting me to the error, and to Barra Boydell for confirming the true date. The advertisement was repeated in Harding’s Dublin Impartial News Letter, 24 October 1724.

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Bocchi had clearly collected subscriptions before he left Scotland: it is dedicated to the Duke of Hamilton, and the main subscription list of 93 names does indeed include ‘most of the Scotch Nobility’. The list must have remained open after he arrived in Dublin, for it also includes ‘His Excellency the Lord CARTARET Lord Lieutenant, General, and General Governour of Ireland’, ‘Mr John Sigismond Cousser, Master of Musick, Master of the King’s Music in Ireland’, ‘Mr. --- Clegg’ and ‘Henry Davis’ (presumably members of the respective Dublin musical families), ‘Mr. Dowdall’ (Sprackling or Francis Dowdall), ‘Luke Gardiner, Esq’ (probably the person who was Master of the Revels in Dublin in 1741), and ‘Philip Percival, Esq’ (member of the Irish Parliament for Askeyton and ‘Director and Supervisor’ of the Irish State Music.31 A second list of 33 ‘ADDITIONAL: SUBSCRIBERS’, presumably collected in Dublin in the winter of 1724–25, consists almost entirely of Irish names.32 The collection exists in two states. Copies of the first, RISM A/I, B 3,233,33 are in the National Library of Ireland,34 the National Library of Scotland, and the Euing Library, Glasgow; there was also reportedly one in the Stadtbibliothek (later Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek), Hamburg.35 It has the following title-page: A MUSICALL / ENTERTAINMENT / For a Chamber. Sonatas, / For / Violin, Flute, Violoncello. / and SIX STRING BASS. / With A Thorough ba∫s for the Harpsicord. / or ba∫s Violin. Lastly a Scotch Cantata, with the / Instrumentall parts after the Italian Manner. / Dedicated to his Grace James, / Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. / Composed by / Lorenzo Bocchi / OPERA PRIMA / Dublin Printed & Sold by Iohn & William Neal / in Christ Church yard.

The other state, RISM A/I, B 3,232, found only in Cambridge University Library, is identical to B 3,233 except that the imprint is missing.36 31 For Dublin musicians, see Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar; David Hunter, ‘The Irish State Music from 1716 to 1742 and Handel’s Band in Dublin’, Göttinger HändelBeiträge, 11 (2006): 171–98. Cousser’s copy of A Musicall Entertainment is listed in his commonplace book, see Harold E. Samuel, ‘John Sigismond Cousser in London and Dublin’, ML, 61 (1980): 158–71 (p. 170). 32 Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xxxv. 33 Répertoire international des sources musicales, Einzeldrucke vor 1800 (RISM A/I), ed. Karlheinz Schlager et al. (15 vols, Kassel and London: Bärenreiter, 1971–2003), vol. 1, p. 349. 34 Add. Mus. 10,069; facsimile of the title-page in Lasairiona Duignan, ‘A Checklist of the Publications of John and William Neale’, Irish Booklore, 2/2 (1976): 230–37 (p. 230). 35 Eitner, Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon, vol. 2, p. 78. The Hamburg copy is not listed in Richard Charteris, ‘The Music Collection of the Staatsund Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg: a survey of its British holdings prior to the Second World War’, RMARC, 30 (1997): 1–138; or his ‘Further British Materials in the Pre-War Music Collection of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg’, RMARC, 31 (1998): 91–122. 36 Facsimile (Wyton: King’s Music, c. 1990). It once belonged to the writer Franck Thomas Arnold; see Donald R. Wakeling, ‘An Interesting Music Collection’, ML, 26 (1945): 159–61.

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It has been argued that B 3,232 is the original, engraved by Bocchi before he left Scotland, but this cannot be so.37 The engraver was clearly the same person, using the same tools, as the person who engraved a number of other early Neale publications (see Figures 3.1 and 3.2).38 A characteristic feature of his work is that, although punches appear to have been used for most of the symbols (note-heads, sharps and flats, rests, bass clefs, and so on), the treble clefs differ slightly from one another and seem to have been drawn by hand, implying that a punch was lacking for that symbol. The engraver was clearly skilled in some aspects of his craft – he was able to draw treble clefs accurately and fairly consistently – though he was inexperienced and clumsy in matters of musical layout and spacing, and there are several places where he made mistakes with the Italian, presumably misreading Bocchi’s handwriting: he rendered ‘Con il Basso’ as ‘Couil Basso’ (p. 19), spelt ‘il’ in ‘Per il Fluto’ as ‘ill’ (p. 26), and ‘Per’ in ‘Per la viola da gamba’ as ‘Par’ (p. 39), and so on. He was presumably a Dublin engraver who turned to music when the Neales started in business.

Figure 3.1 Lorenzo Bocchi, A Musicall Entertainment for a Chamber, opening of Sonata 2. By permission of King’s Music 37 38 p. 233.

Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xxiv. See, for instance, the facsimiles in Neale, A Collection; Duignan, ‘A Checklist’,

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Figure 3.2 A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, opening of ‘Plea Rarkeh na Rourkough’. By permission of the Folk Music Society of Ireland The Dublin Courant advertisement also mentions other Neale publications: ‘Mr. Neal has likewise lately publish’d four Quarto Books of the best English Airs and Minuets, Irish Tunes and Scotch Tunes for the Violin; the Irish and Scotch are also for the Flute, which may be had at a British Half Crown each.’ The first seems to have been the collection advertised on 28 and 31 December 1723, in Harding’s Weekly Impartial Newsletter: JUST publish’d a Quarto Book, containing above thirty Plates, being a Choice Colection of the Newest Airs, Minuets, and Play House Tunes; faithfully Corected by the best Masters here, and to be Sold at Mr. Neal’s Musick Shop in Christ Church Yard. / Note this is the first ever done in this Kingdom; Choice English Fidels to be had at the aforesaid Shop.39

The title-page reads as follows:40

39 See also Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xvii; Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, p. 41. 40 The most complete list of Neale publications is in Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, pp. xx–xxiii; I have followed the numbering established there in what follows.

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A CHOICE COLLECTION / OF THE NEWEST / AIRS AND MINUETS. PROPER FOR THE VIOLIN / GERMAN. FLUTE OR HAUTBOY / Dublin Printed for & Sold by John and /Will.m Neale in Christ Church yard prce 2s=8d½

Unique copy in Dublin, National Library of Ireland, JM 5,467; Carolan, no. 1. Of the other three collections, the fourth, ‘Irish and Scotch [tunes] for the Flute’, seems to be lost. The title-pages of the second and third are: A COLECTION / of the Most Celebrated Scotch Tunes / For The / VIOLIN / Being all Diferent from any yet Printed in Londo[n] / And Carefully Corrected by the Best Master[s] / Dublin Printed & Sold by Iohn & William Neal in Christ Church yar[d] / Where are to be had all the New Pieces as they Come out in London / Books Printed here A Quarto Book of Aires & Minuets A Quarto Book / of Irish Tunes A Quarto Book of Irish & Scotch tunes for the Flute / pr 2s: 8d:½

Unique copy in Belfast, Library of Queens University; Carolan, no. 3. A COLECTION / of the most Celebrated Irish Tunes proper for the / Violin German Flute or Hautboy / Plea Rar keh na Rough set wth. different divisions / Bass & Corus / As performed at the Subscription Consort by / Senior Loranzo Bocchi / Dublin Printed & Sold by Iohn & William Neale in Christ Church Yard. / Note they have lately Printed a Quarto Book of the Best Scotch Tunes and / another of the Finest English Ayers & Newest Minuets ------ pr. 2s: 8d½ / Likewise there are to be had all the New Pieces as they Come out, in London.

Copies in Belfast, Library of Queen’s University,41 and Dublin, National Library of Ireland, Add. MS 10,872; Carolan, no. 2. Carolan no. 3 is clearly connected with Bocchi by virtue of the fact that he is mentioned on the title-page. We will return to it later, but Carolan no. 2 may also be connected with him. A Colection of the Most Celebrated Scotch Tunes seems to be only the third print devoted entirely to the repertory, yet it is virtually unknown to scholars of Scottish music: it is ignored by Francis Collinson, George Emmerson, David Johnson, Mary Anne Alburger, Roger Fiske, John Purser, Charles Gore, and Bruce Olson.42 The unique surviving copy (which is incomplete: p. 6 is missing, and there is a stub after p. 28, the last complete page) 41 Reproduced in facsimile in ibid. 42 Francis Collinson, The Traditional and National Music of Scotland (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966); George S. Emmerson, Rantin’ Pipe and Tremblin’ String: a history of Scottish dance music (London: Dent, 1971); Johnson, Music and Society; Mary Anne Alburger, Scottish Fiddlers and their Music (London: Victor Gollancz, 1983); Fiske, Scotland in Music; David Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1984); John Purser, Scotland’s Music: a history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from the earliest times to the present day (Edinburgh and London: Mainstream, 1992); The Scottish Fiddle Music Index, ed. Charles Gore (Musselburgh: Amaising, 1994); Bruce Olson, An Incomplete Index of Scottish Popular Song and Dance Tunes Printed in the 18th Century (accessed 13 January 2007).

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consists of 50 complete pieces, all single-line tunes. It may be significant that at least 16 of them are also in ‘MUSICK / For / Allan Ramsay’s / Collection of / SCOTS SONGS / Set by Alexr Stuart & Engraved by R. Cooper / Edinbr. Printed & Sold by Allan Ramsay’, the collection of tunes Ramsay published in 1725 or 1726 as a musical supplement to the Tea-Table Miscellany; the violinist Alexander Stuart or Stewart was employed by the Edinburgh Musical Society from at least 1726 to 1736.43 Bocchi presumably got to know the repertory of traditional Scots tunes during his time in Ramsay’s Edinburgh circle, and he is the obvious person to have brought a collection of them to Dublin; the Neales made a point of stating on the title-page that the collection was ‘all Diferent from any yet Printed in Londo[n]’. If so, then he is the first-known Italian musician to develop an interest in Scottish traditional music. He was not the last: he was followed by Francesco Barsanti, Francesco Geminiani, and Pietro Urbani, among others. One wonders whether Bocchi’s interest was sparked off by the ridiculous legend – put forward by William Thomson in the 1725 edition of his Orpheus Caledonius, and repeated by James Oswald, Geminiani, and others – that an Italian, David Rizzio or Riccio (d. 1566), valet de chambre and French secretary to Mary Queen of Scots, had a hand in creating the Scots song repertory.44 A Colection of the most Celebrated Irish Tunes, the earliest printed collection of Irish traditional music, offers us a glimpse of Bocchi’s activities as a performer in Dublin. It consists entirely of single-line tunes except for the piece on pp. 6–9, headed ‘Plea Rarkeh na Rourkough or ye Irish Weding improved with diferent divisions after ye Italian maner with A bass and Chorus by Sigr: LORENZO BOCCHI’; according to the title-page it was ‘As performed at the Subscription Consort by / Senior Loranzo Bocchi’. On p. 6 there is a two-stave tune-and-bass setting of the tune, ‘Pléaráca na Ruarcach’ in modern Gaelic, followed by singleline divisions in the treble clef on pp. 7–9. There are cues from time to time for a ‘Chorus’, and they coincide with the entries of a treble-clef ‘CHORUS’ part, printed separately on p. 9, that essentially doubles the bass an octave higher. Perhaps the piece was performed as a simple form of concerto, with Bocchi playing the solo part down the octave on the violoncello or viola da gamba, ripieno violins (playing the ‘Chorus’), and bass instruments; the bass is unfigured, but a continuo part could easily have been realized from the two-stave score. The only other evidence for these subscription concerts – the earliest known public concerts in Ireland – comes in an advertisement in the Dublin Courant on 18 August 1723: At Mr Neal’s Musick Room in Christ-Church-Yard, there will be held a Subscription Consort, commencing about next Michaelmas, and to continue once a Week (For the 43 See Johnson, Music and Society, pp. 140–41; The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 8–9. For Stuart, see Johnson, Music and Society, pp. 34–5, 140–41. 44 For Rizzio, see Kenneth Elliott, ‘Rizzio, David’, in GMO (accessed 25 January 2007). See also Fiske, Scotland in Music, esp. pp. 17–22; Purser, Scotland’s Music, p. 179.

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Benefit of) and perform’d by the best Hands in the Kingdom: Subscriptions will be taken in by Mr. Neal, each Subscriber paying a guinea on Subscribing his Name.45

The advertisement was repeated in the Dublin Courant on 19 October, but with ‘next Michaelmas’ (that is, 29 September 1723) changed to ‘about next November’, so evidently the concerts were postponed.46 We do not know how long they lasted – they do not seem to be mentioned in later Dublin newspapers – or to what extent Bocchi participated in them, but he may have been involved in them from the start. Bocchi certainly seems to have made an impact in Dublin, for he is mentioned in two verse accounts of the development of music in Ireland: Matthew Pilkington’s ‘THE / PROGRESS / OF / MUSICK / IN / IRELAND, / TO MIRA’, from his Poems on Several Occasions (Dublin, 1730),47 and Laurence Whyte’s ‘A Dissertation on Italian, and Irish Music’, from his Poems on Various Subjects, Serious and Diverting (Dublin, 1740; 2nd edn, 1742).48 Pilkington also included the text of a lost piece, ‘AN / HYMN TO SLEEP. / Set to MUSICK by Mr. LORENZO BOCCHI.’,49 while Whyte specifically remembered Bocchi for ‘Plea Rarkeh na Rourkough’: Sweet Bocchi thought it worth his while, In doing honour to our Isle, To build on Carallan’s Foundation, Which he perform’d to Admiration, On his Pheraca’s went to work, With long Divisions on O Rowrk.

Bocchi seems to have returned to Edinburgh between 27 July 1725, when his Musicall Entertainment was advertised in Faulkner’s Dublin Journal as ‘Just Published’,50 and 22 February 1726, when the following advertisement appeared in the Caledonian Mercury: Signor LORENZO BOCCHI has published an Opera of his own Composition, by Subscription, containing 12 Sonata’s, or Solo’s, for different Instruments, viz. a Violin, 45 See also Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xvi. 46 Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, p. 40. 47 Matthew Pilkington, Poems on Several Occasions (Dublin, 1730), p. 23; see also Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, pp. xxiv–xxv. Modern edition in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, ed. Seamus Deane (3 vols, Derry: Field Day, 1991), vol. 1, pp. 409–12. For the intellectual context, see Harry White, The Keeper’s Recital: music and cultural history in Ireland, 1770–1790 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1998), esp. pp. 15–18. 48 Laurence Whyte, Poems on Various Subjects, Serious and Diverting, Never before Published (Dublin, 1740; 2nd edn, 1742), p. 158; see also Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xxv. Modern edition in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, ed. Deane, vol. 1, pp. 412–15. 49 Pilkington, Poems, pp. 26–7. 50 Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xxiv; it has proved impossible to find an original copy of this newspaper.

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914 Flute, Violencello, Viola da Gamba, and Scots Cantate; with Instrumental Parts after the Italian Manner, the words by Mr. Ramsay; with a Thorow-bass for the Harpsichord. Subscribers may have their Copies at Mr. John Steill’s, any Time before the First of March ensuing. Any Person that has not subscribed, may likewise be furnished, there being more Copies cast off than will serve the Subscribers.

Significantly, there is no mention of an Edinburgh publisher or printer. Subscribers are asked simply to pick up copies they had ordered several years before, and extra copies are advertised for sale. An indication that Bocchi still had unsold copies of the original Dublin edition when he returned to Edinburgh is provided by the National Library of Scotland copy, which has three Scottish names added in ink to the main subscription list, including ‘Barron Clark’ – presumably Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, supposed pupil of Corelli, accomplished amateur composer, leading member of the Edinburgh Musical Society, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer.51 Presumably Bocchi brought the plates of the collection with him, and at some point had the title-page altered to suit the changed circumstances. Before Bocchi left Ireland he contributed to a later Neale publication: A / SECOND COLLECTION / of English Aires & Minuets, / with Severall Favorite Air’s out of the Late Operas / of Otho, Iulius Cae∫ar, Vespasian, & Rodelinda; / all Sett with a Ba∫s, being Proper for / the Violin, German Flute, Harpsicord or Spinett / Dublin Printed & Sold by Iohn & William Neale / in Chri∫t Church Yard pr 2s: 8d / Where are to be had all the New Peices as they Come out in London[.]52

The last of these operas, Handel’s Rodelinda, was first performed on 13 February 1725 and its score was published in London on 6 May, so A Second Collection was presumably published later in the year or in 1726.53 The two pieces by Bocchi (pp. 5, 29) are for treble instrument and continuo, and are both entitled ‘A Favourite minuet’.54 Nothing is known of Bocchi’s movements between February 1726 and June 1729. He may have stayed in Edinburgh during that time, perhaps teaching and working for the organization that was formally constituted in 1728 as the Edinburgh Musical Society. Allan Ramsay wrote a poem ‘TO THE / MUSICK CLUB.’, published in 1721 in the first volume of his Poems, in which he states that ‘Correlli’s soft Italian Song’ was mixed in its meetings with Scots songs, such as ‘Cowden Knows, and Winter Nights are long’, adding: ‘Nor should the Martial Pibrough be despis’d, / Own’d and refin’d by you, these shall the more be

51 Information provided by David Johnson. For Clerk, see the introduction to Five Cantatas by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, ed. Kenneth Elliott, Musica Scotica, 4 (Glasgow, 2005), pp. viii–li. 52 Unique copy: National Library of Ireland, JM 5,467; Neale, A Collection, ed. Carolan, p. xxii. 53 Dean and Knapp, Handel’s Operas, pp. 589, 601–2. 54 I am grateful to John Cunningham for transcribing them for me.

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priz’d’.55 The best description of the society before 1728 comes in Hugo Arnot’s History of Edinburgh: Before that time, several gentlemen, performers on the harpsichord and violin, had formed a weekly club at the Cross-keys tavern* [footnote: * Kept by one Steil, a great lover of musick, and a good singer of Scots songs.], where the common entertainment consisted in playing the concertos and sonatas of Correlli, then just published; and the overtures of Handel. That meeting becoming numerous, they instituted, in March 1728, a society of seventy members, for the purpose of holding a weekly concert. A governour, deputy-governour, treasurer, and five directors, are annually chosen by the members, for regulating the affairs of this society. Its meetings have been continued since that period much on the same plan, only the place where they are held has been changed from St Mary’s Chapel to their own hall. These meetings are only interrupted during three or four weeks of the vacation, in the months of September and October.56

There are straws in the wind suggesting that Bocchi returned to Dublin at least once during those years. One is the report in the International Genealogical Index that a Lorenzo Bocchi married Margery Drury in Dublin in 1729.57 No source is given for the information, and its credibility is undermined by a second IGI record, that Bocchi was born in Dublin in 1704 – which is implausible given that he was described as ‘the second Master of the Violin Chello in Europe’ in 1720, when he would have been only 16. More significant are two payments by the Edinburgh Musical Society in June 1729.58 The first, on 6 June, reads ‘Charges wt Messrs Dieburg and Bocchi after Concert £2/11/6’, while the second, on an unspecified day that June, is for ‘Charges in Dons wt Messrs Dieburg & Bocchi £3/11/5’. On 17 June the following advertisement appeared in the Caledonian Mercury: On Friday next the 20th Inst. at Taylor’s hall [in Cowgate], will be a Concert of Musick; in which M. DUBOURG and M. BOCCHI will perform several new Solo’s and Concerto’s. Tickets may be had at the Old Coffeehouse, and at the Door the Night of Performance, at a Crown each. To begin at 7 o’Clock.

The important point here is that Bocchi was collaborating with the young English violinist Matthew Dubourg.59 Dubourg (1703–67), a pupil of Geminiani, settled in Dublin in 1721, contributed to the Neale anthology A Choice Collection 55 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 1, eds Burns Martin and John W. Oliver (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Text Society, [1944–45]), pp. 194–5. See also The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law, p. 46. 56 Hugo Arnot, The History of Edinburgh, from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time (Edinburgh and London: W. Creech, J. Murray, 1779; 2nd edn 1788), p. 379. See also Johnson, Music and Society, pp. 33–5. 57 IGI (accessed 12 January 2007). 58 Minute books of the Edinburgh Musical Society, Edinburgh Central Library; information provided by David Johnson. 59 For Dubourg, see ‘Dubourg, Matthew’, BDA, vol. 4, pp. 485–6; Brian Boydell, ‘Dubourg, Matthew’, in GMO (accessed 25 January 2007); Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, esp. p. 278; Hunter, ‘The Irish State Music’, esp. pp. 177–8.

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of the Newest Airs and Minuets, was one of the original subscribers to Bocchi’s Musicall Entertainment, and was probably involved with him in the Dublin subscription concerts. He returned to London in the spring of 1727, but became Master of the State Music in Ireland at the beginning of 1728, succeeding Cousser who had died in December 1727.60 Presumably Dubourg went to Scotland sometime after then, and perhaps Bocchi accompanied him. After June 1729 Bocchi simply vanishes: we have no idea whether he died, returned to Italy, or went on to some other country. However, he was remembered in Scotland as late as about 1740, when the Edinburgh copyist David Young included ‘Bocchi’s Bass Minuet’ in one of the violin manuscripts he copied for Walter McFarlane.61 Before we leave Bocchi’s life we need to consider the possibility that he might have had a hand in turning Allan Ramsay’s The Gentle Shepherd from a pastoral play with just four songs into a ballad opera with twenty-one. As already mentioned, Alexander Gordon has been credited with a role in the process, but he abandoned his musical career about the time Bocchi first went to Ireland, and it now seems that Ramsay collaborated with Bocchi rather than Gordon on at least three other projects. Bocchi was in Dublin in April 1725 when Ramsay finished the original play, though he may have returned to Edinburgh by the time the ballad-opera version was developed in the winter of 1728–29. Most modern accounts of the work do not give the sources of their information, so it is worth setting out the evidence in some detail.62 The first public performance of The Gentle Shepherd seems to have been ‘in Taylors-hall [Edinburgh], By a Set of Young Gentlemen, January 22, 1729’, according to a note printed with an extract from the epilogue to the play in The Tea-Table Miscellany (London, 1730).63 We know that the performers were boys from Haddington Grammar School because the prologue used on that occasion mentions John Leslie, the school’s Rector, and Sir John Clerk of Penicuik wrote to Leslie on 30 October 1730 approving ‘much of your methode to make your boys once a year to act a play in publick’.64 The Caledonian Mercury announced on 19 August 1729 that ‘On Wednesday the 27th Instant, will be acted by the young Gentlemen of the Grammar-school of Haddington, the Tragedy of Julius Caesar, and the celebrated ALLAN RAMSAY’s Pastoral Comedy. To begin precisely at 9 in the Morning.’ We do not know for sure that they performed the 60 For Cousser, see George J. Buelow, ‘Kusser, Johann Sigismund [Jean Sigismond Cousser; John Sigismond Cousser]’, in GMO (accessed 25 January 2007); Hunter, ‘The Irish State Music’, esp. pp. 175, 187–9. 61 Now National Library of Scotland, MS 2,084, vol. 2, no. 56. Information provided by David Johnson. For the McFarlane manuscripts, see Johnson, Music and Society, pp. 116–17. 62 For instance, Eric Walter White, A History of English Opera (London: Faber, 1983), pp. 178–80; Fiske, English Theatre Music, pp. 111–12; Olive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson, ‘The Gentle Shepherd’, in GMO (accessed 25 January 2007). 63 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 3, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 125–6; The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law, p. 119. 64 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 3, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 213–14; The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 6, eds Kinghorn and Law, p. 214.

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ballad-opera version of The Gentle Shepherd on that occasion, but it seems likely in view of the fact that Ramsay included the ‘SONGS INSERTED / IN THE GENTLE SHEPHERD’ when he published the fifth edition of The Tea-Table Miscellany that year, adding for the benefit of the reader: ‘The Following SONGS to be sung in their proper Places on the acting of the Gentle Shepherd, at each the Page marked where they come in.*’65 The first edition in which the song texts are incorporated into the play seems to have been published in 1734; the first with the tunes of the songs in 1758.66 I have been unable to find contemporary evidence that the Haddington boys asked Ramsay to develop The Gentle Shepherd into a ballad opera after seeing a production of The Beggar’s Opera by an English company in Edinburgh in October 1728, as asserted by Roger Fiske, Eric Walter White, and others. However, an early account of Ramsay’s life, probably written by his son, the painter Allan Ramsay junior, makes it clear that The Beggar’s Opera was the inspiration: ‘Ramsay, who had always been a great admirer of Gay, especially for his ballads, was so far carried away by the torrent [of imitations of The Beggar’s Opera] as to print a new edition of his Pastoral, interspersed with songs, adapted to the common Scotch tunes.’67 It may also be significant that The Beggar’s Opera was produced in Dublin in March 1728, less than two months after the London premiere, and was performed there at least 40 times that year.68 Perhaps Bocchi saw it there, or even took part in the performances. If the 1729 production of The Gentle Shepherd was anything like the London productions of The Beggar’s Opera and other ballad operas of the period, a competent composer and arranger would have been needed to harmonize the songs, to provide orchestral preludes and postludes for them, and to write an overture.69 Bocchi is the obvious candidate, since he had a history of collaborating with Ramsay, had an interest in collecting and arranging popular tunes, and had a far higher profile as a performer and composer than Ramsay’s other musical collaborator, Alexander Stuart. Significantly, Ramsay only seems to have collaborated with Stuart in 1725, when Bocchi was in Ireland. What of Bocchi the composer? So far as we know, he was not especially prolific. We only have 17 original works: 13 solo sonatas, three minuets, and the cantata ‘Blate 65 The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 3, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 67–78. 66 Burns Martin, A Bibliography of the Writings of Allan Ramsay, Records of the Glasgow Bibliographical Society, 10 (Glasgow, 1931), pp. 50, 55–6, nos 114, 141. 67 Printed in The Works of Allan Ramsay, vol. 4, eds Kinghorn and Law, pp. 71–6 (p. 72). 68 For The Beggar’s Opera in Dublin, see La Tourette Stockwell, Dublin Theatres and Theatre Customs, 1637–1820 (Kingsport TN: Kingsport Press, 1938), p. 60; Walsh, Opera in Dublin, pp. 34–5; Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, pp. 44–5; John C. Greene and Gladys L.H. Clark, The Dublin Stage, 1720–1745: a calendar of plays, entertainments, and afterpieces (Bethlehem PA, London, and Toronto; Lehigh University Press, Associated University Presses, 1993), pp. 111–16. 69 For the musical aspects of ballad-opera productions, see Fiske, English Theatre Music, pp. 114–26.

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Jonny’. Nevertheless, they reveal an attractive and reasonably fluent composer, and the range of styles found in them can tell us a certain amount about his musical background and interests. Bocchi was a cellist, so it is not surprising to find two violoncello sonatas in A Musicall Entertainment, no. 9 in C and no. 10 in D minor.70 Less expected are two sonatas, no. 11 in D minor and no. 12 in F, for the ‘SIX STRING BASS’, as the title-page has it; they were the last solo viola da gamba pieces published in Britain before the modern revival.71 The gamba was a surprisingly popular alternative solo instrument for Italian cellists at the time, and there seem to have been a fair number of amateurs still playing it, in Scotland as well as England. It is not surprising that Bocchi’s violoncello and gamba sonatas require a good deal of virtuosity, with rapid passage-work and chordal writing. It is more of a surprise that the four violin sonatas, no. 1 in G, no. 2 in A minor, no. 3 in A, and no. 4 in D, are also hard to play, for many of his potential customers would have been amateur violinists. The violin parts do not go particularly high (d´´´ is the consistent top note for nos 1–3), though they have a good deal of rapid passagework and writing in chords, including a Corellian fugue in no. 3, with much of the thematic material presented in double stops. In particular, Bocchi specifies complex bowings, such as the spiccato writing under slurs in the first and fourth movements of no. 1 (henceforth 1/i, 1/iv, and so on), or the rapid alternation of staccato and slurred notes in 2/ii. Most unusual is Sonata no. 4, which uses the scordatura tuning a-d´-a´-d´´, producing an open D chord. Scordatura was more common in the relatively conservative Austrian and German solo repertory than in contemporary Italian music, though it is used in five Vivaldi violin concertos, and, interestingly, in the last of Pietro Castrucci’s op. 1 sonatas, published in Amsterdam in 1717 but written in England – a piece Bocchi might have known.72 The other four sonatas in A Musicall Entertainment – no. 5 in F, no. 6 in E minor, no. 7 in C, and no. 8 in G minor, are for ‘Fluto’ and continuo. ‘Fluto’ is clearly a corruption of the Italian flauto, which would normally have meant the recorder rather than the flute; at the time the flute was usually called flauto traverso (or some variant) in Italian, and ‘German flute’ in English. As we might expect, the parts do not go below f´, the lowest note of the alto Baroque recorder, and nos 5, 7, and 8 are in good keys for the instrument. They use the sort of Italianate florid figuration that is found in other recorder sonatas of the period, such as those by Handel and Barsanti.73 As with the violin sonatas, they have demanding passagework that would probably have been beyond most amateurs at the time.

70 See the survey in Lindgren, ‘Italian Violoncellists’. 71 See the survey in Peter Holman, ‘A New Source of Bass Viol Music from Eighteenth-Century England’, Early Music, 31 (2003): 81–99. 72 See Michael Talbot, Vivaldi (London: Dent, 1978; repr. 1984), p. 152. Castrucci’s op. 1 is available in facsimile (Alston: J.P.H. Publications, 2003). 73 For a discussion of Bocchi’s recorder sonatas, see Peter Wells, ‘The Recorder in Eighteenth-Century Dublin: hidden repertories and recent discoveries’, Consort, 58 (2002): 41–53 (esp. pp. 48–50).

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However, no. 6 is much simpler than the other three, and is in E minor, one of the sharp keys particularly associated with the Baroque flute; perhaps it was written for an amateur flute player in Edinburgh or Dublin. According to William Tytler, the flute was introduced to Scotland about the time A Musicall Entertainment was published: The flute a-bec was the only flute used at that time [1695]. The German, or traverse, of modern invention, was not then known in Britain. I have heard, that Sir Gilbert Elliot, afterwards Lord Justice Clerk, who had been taught the German flute in France, and was a fine performer, first introduced that instrument into Scotland about the year 1725.74

The earliest references to the transverse flute in Ireland seem to be on the titlepages of two of the Neale publications already discussed, Carolan nos 1 and 3, published in 1724. There do not seem to be any named flute or recorder players in Dublin at the time apart from John Neale himself, though at least one member of the City Music, Thomas Johnson or Johnston, played the oboe, and therefore probably also played the recorder and flute.75 Professional oboists tended to play all three instruments in the early eighteenth century – hence the frequent changes between them in orchestral works of the period. Another possibility is Callaghan MacCarty, who joined the City Music in 1725, and may have been a flute player.76 The remaining sonata, the G major in Durham Cathedral MS M 70, was presumably written for Edward Finch, who seems to have been a flute player.77 Most of Finch’s sonatas are in sharp keys, and have treble parts that go down to d´ – the lowest note of the Baroque flute. Further evidence that he (or someone in his circle) played the flute is provided by several other pieces in the Durham manuscript, including ‘A Division upon a Cromatic Ground being to be sung by 7 Voices or the 7 Parts may / All be playd upon an Organ or Harpsichord or with 7 Instrumts. whilst ye German Flute Plays Division’ (pp. 37–8), and a C major version of Corelli’s A major sonata op. 5, no. 9, ‘set a third Higher / For the German Flute’ (pp. 52–5). The solo writing in Bocchi’s G major sonata is significantly simpler than in any of the sonatas in A Musicall Entertainment except for no. 6. The rest of them look as if they were intended for professionals, and were probably performed in Bocchi’s concerts in Edinburgh and Dublin. He doubtless played the violoncello and gamba sonatas himself, and Matthew Dubourg is an obvious possibility for the violin sonatas. A striking feature of some movements, such as 1/i or 5/iv, is that they contain demanding continuo

74 Holman, ‘An Early Edinburgh Concert’, p. 13. 75 Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, esp. p. 282; Hunter, ‘The Irish State Music’, pp. 180, 195. 76 Suggested without any evidence in Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar, pp. 128, 285. See also Hunter, ‘The Irish State Music’, pp. 181, 195. 77 See David Griffiths’s chapter (Chapter 2) in this current volume.

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passages, sometimes in the tenor clef – a sign, perhaps, that Bocchi accompanied them himself on the violoncello. Bocchi’s style is best described as post-Corellian, though his sonatas contain a variety of styles and formal patterns, and some of the movements have specific, more modern models. The clearest cases are in the two violoncello sonatas. 10/i seems to be based on two movements in Vivaldi’s op. 3 concertos, L’Estro armonico. It begins with an allusion to the violoncello solo in the opening movement of op. 3, no. 11, but it also incorporates descending scales in thirds borrowed from the last movement of op. 3, no. 8 (see Example 3.1). Bocchi clearly liked that idea: transposed into the major, it also forms the main theme of 9/i. He could easily have encountered L’Estro armonico: the original Amsterdam edition was sold in London from 1711, and John Walsh reprinted it in two instalments in 1715 and 1717.78

Example 3.1

Lorenzo Bocchi, Sonata no. 11, opening of the first movement

78 Michael Tilmouth, ‘A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers Published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719)’, RMARC, 1 (1961): 1–107 (p. 80); William C. Smith, A Bibliography of the Musical Works Published by John Walsh during the Years 1695–1720 (Oxford: Bibliographical Society, 1968), pp. 137, 147, 151; Rudolf Rasch, ‘La famosa mano di Monsieur Roger: Antonio Vivaldi and his Dutch Publishers’, Informazioni e studi vivaldiani, 17 (1996): 89–135 (pp. 93–5).

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Bocchi also borrowed from Handel. His minuet ‘In Imitation of a french Horn’ (12/iii) was presumably inspired by the famous ‘Minuet for the French Horn’ from Handel’s Water Music HWV348/7, since it is full of fanfares using Handel’s pervasive crotchet-and-four-quaver rhythm, though it does not borrow any other thematic material. Bocchi might have heard the Water Music in London, or he could have come across the minuet in a keyboard arrangement published in 1720; it did not appear in orchestral form until Arnold’s edition of 1788.79 Another famous Handel piece alluded to by Bocchi is the D minor Presto, best known as the finale of the overture to Il pastor fido HWV8a (1712) and the finale of the keyboard Suite in D minor HWV428/6, published in 1720.80 Bocchi’s version (3/iv) is in the major, but it borrows three important features: each section begins with a trill figure over tonic-dominant harmony, the passage-work includes descending scales, and there is a characteristic idea in which the lower part of a broken chord idea shadows the rising and falling bass in thirds (sixths in Bocchi’s movement) while the upper part is an inverted pedal (see Example 3.2). The most unusual aspect of Bocchi’s music is his interest in ‘improving’ popular music. We have already encountered ‘Plea Rarkeh na Rourkough’. By claiming that this tune was ‘improved with diferent divitions after ye Italian maner’, Bocchi seems to be implying that the addition of divisions was a novel Italian feature. In fact, the practice of writing divisions on English popular tunes went back to the sixteenth century, and was well established in the late seventeenth century, as the Playford series The Division Violin and a number of early Scottish sources show.81 Furthermore, several other pieces in A Colection of the most Celebrated Irish Tunes, including ‘Challeeny vacca shu sheorshe’ (pp. 18–19) and ‘ye RAGG sett by A gentleman’ (p. [27]), also include divisions, suggesting that the technique was also well established in Irish music.82 The aspect of Bocchi’s arrangement that would have been novel in this context, and relates to contemporary Italian practice, is the ‘chorus’ part. It creates interplay between solo and tutti that acts rather like the contrast between the orchestral and solo sections of an Italian concerto. Bocchi’s ‘English Aire Improv’d after an Italian manner’, 12/ii, is a more radical reworking of popular music. The jig-like tune turns out to be ‘The Parson among the Peas’, a ballad with the words ‘One long Whitsun holiday’. Words and music were first printed in the 1714 edition of Thomas D’Urfey’s Wit and 79 Smith, A Bibliography, p. 167; Christopher Hogwood, Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks (Cambridge: CUP, 2005), esp. p. 24. 80 For a discussion of the sources of this piece, see Terence Best, critical report to George Frideric Handel, Klavierwerke I–IV, Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, iv/7 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000), esp. pp. 54, 67–9; Peter Holman, ‘Did Handel Invent the English Keyboard Concerto?’, MT, 144 (Summer 2003): 13–22. 81 See Margaret Gilmore, introduction to the facsimile of The Division Violin (London: OUP, 1982); Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music in the Eighteenth Century. 82 For a discussion of ‘graces’ in Irish harp music, including some that are essentially divisions, see Colette Moloney, ‘Style and Repertoire in the Gaelic Harp Tradition: evidence from the Bunting manuscripts and prints’, Irish Musical Studies, 4, The Maynooth International Musicological Conference 1995, Selected Proceedings, Part One, eds Patrick F. Devine and Harry White (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996), pp. 310–34.

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Example 3.2

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Lorenzo Bocchi, Sonata no. 3, opening of the last movement

Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, and the tune appears in several other early eighteenth-century sources.83 Bocchi used three main techniques to ‘improve’ it. First, he recognized that the opening phrase could be treated imitatively if he made the bass enter after two bars with a tonal answer (at the fifth, with the first interval changed from a tone to a third). It was the contrapuntal potential of this phrase that probably attracted him to the tune in the first place, and he made the most of it by repeating it throughout the piece, in F, C, D minor, and back in F, creating an Italianate harmonic pattern; the original tune touches on the relative minor, though it does not modulate to the dominant. Second, he combined the octaves in the tune with arpeggios that outline 5/3, 6/4, and 7/5/3 chords, creating a characteristically Italian progression – albeit one that was rather 83 See the list of sources in Franklin B. Zimmerman, Henry Purcell 1659–1695: an analytical catalogue of his music (London: Macmillan, 1963), D137. Zimmerman included it in his catalogue because of the claim in John Hawkins (A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (5 vols, London: T. Payne, 1776; 2nd edn, 2 vols, London: Novello, 1853; repr. New York, 1963), vol. 2, p. 818) that Purcell set the ballad as a response to a challenge from D’Urfey. However, the tune seems to be an instrumental jig to which D’Urfey added words rather than an original Purcell composition.

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old-fashioned by the 1720s. Third, he inserted passage-work based on rising and falling sequences that serves to link the statements of the opening phrase, creating a concerto-like interplay between the harmonically static statements of the theme and the modulating episodes (see Example 3.3). The piece is no masterpiece, but it works well enough, and it demonstrates the potential of a fruitful marriage between the local vernacular idiom and the international Italianate style – which was presumably Bocchi’s intention.

Example 3.3 Lorenzo Bocchi, Sonata no. 12, opening of the second movement, ‘English Aire Improv’d after an Italian Manner’

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A similar impetus lies behind the cantata ‘Blate Jonny’. The work has the simplest plot, similar to those in some English cantatas of the period.84 The girl scorns the boy, causing him to pour out his heart in the first air. His unexpected eloquence causes her to change her mind, which in turn allows him to express his ‘rising joy’ in the second air. Thus, there is nothing specifically Scottish about the subject, and the musical setting is purely Italianate, with no attempt to imitate Scottish musical idioms. In fact, the only specifically Scottish feature of the work is that Ramsay’s text is in lowland Scots, the point of the piece apparently being the piquant and novel association between the local vernacular and the cosmopolitan Italianate musical style. The cantata is effective enough, though it is odd that Bocchi chose to cast both its da capo airs as fast 3/8 movements in D minor, thus largely denying himself the opportunity to use the music to dramatize the turn of the plot. The rubric ‘Violini con la parte’ at the beginning of the middle section of the second air suggests that the cantata was conceived for multiple violins – which in turn raises the possibility that Bocchi had an orchestra available for at least one of his Edinburgh concerts. As already suggested, Bocchi’s reworkings of Finch’s sonatas seem to be the fruit of composition lessons given in October 1720. Since Finch also copied out the original versions of his sonatas, it is possible to see the nature of Bocchi’s changes, providing us with a fascinating insight into what a reasonably up-to-date Italian composer thought of the post-Purcell style as used by an English amateur – particularly one whose composing experience went back to the 1680s (one sonata (rev., pp. 41–4) is marked ‘made In King James the 2ds Reign’). I intend to discuss these reworkings in more detail in a forthcoming article, so it will be sufficient only to summarize them here. The sonatas are Finch’s no. 1 in D, dated ‘Xtmas / 1717’ (original: M 70, rev., pp. 13–15; reworking: rev., pp. 68–71), no. 2 in D, ‘April 29 / 1718’ (original: M 70, rev., pp. 16–19; reworking: rev., pp. 72–5), and no. 4 in G, ‘November 20th / 1718’ (original: M 70, rev., pp. 24–5; reworking: rev., pp. 66–8). Bocchi mostly chose not to alter the sequence of movements, though in no. 4 he modernized Finch’s suite-like four-movement sequence by placing the ‘Pastorale’ third rather than second, and inserting in its place a new slow movement in the relative minor rather than the tonic; it uses a series of Vivaldian punctuating chords, ending with the familiar late-Baroque Phrygian progression descending by step from E minor onto a B major chord. Most of the time Bocchi confined himself to making detailed changes to existing movements. Sometimes, as in the sarabandlike ‘Affetuoso’ of no. 2, he changed the melody to avoid consecutives and/or bare fifths between melody and bass, or to improve Finch’s rather amateurish and angular passage-work. However, most of his changes were to the bass, and were concerned with clarifying and modernizing Finch’s harmonic thinking. In the Pastorale of Sonata no. 4, for instance, Bocchi’s simple bass with its dominant and tonic pedals is more in keeping with the pastorale idiom than Finch’s busy and rather ineffective original. Bocchi clearly did not like rapid passing modulations, much used by seventeenth-century English composers to spice up the harmonies 84 See, for instance, Thomas Arne’s Cymon and Iphigenia and The Lover’s Recantation, listed in Rice, The Solo Cantata, pp. 45–6, 55–6.

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and push the music forwards. He tended to replace them with simpler and more strategic harmonies, as in the second section of the last movement of Sonata no. 2, where a descending sequence, originally harmonized by a bass passing rapidly through a series of keys, is now supported by a pedal (see Example 3.4).

Example 3.4 Edward Finch, Sonata no. 2, passage from the last movement, compared with Lorenzo Bocchi’s reworking

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To sum up: Lorenzo Bocchi is important because he was the first member of the Italian diaspora to establish himself in Edinburgh and Dublin rather than London, an astute career move that was imitated later in the century by many of his compatriots. He also deserves to be remembered for his collaborations with Allan Ramsay, and particularly for the possibility that he was involved in the transformation of The Gentle Shepherd from a play into the first Scottish opera. No one would pretend that his original compositions are important in European terms, though A Musicall Entertainment is an attractive collection with unusually varied scorings, and his borrowings from Corelli, Vivaldi, and Handel give us an insight into his musical world and the range of his interests. Most important, much of his energy seems to have gone into engaging with the local musical and literary idioms he encountered in Britain, be they Finch’s solo sonatas, traditional tunes from England, Scotland, and Ireland, or Allan Ramsay’s verses. His desire to make these idioms acceptable to polite society by refining them with the Italian idiom places him at the head of a tradition that runs through the settings of Scots tunes by Barsanti, Geminiani, Urbani, J.C. Bach, and others, to the settings of Scots, Irish, Welsh, and English tunes by Haydn and Beethoven at the end of the eighteenth century, and to similar collections published throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Similarly, his cantata ‘Blate Jonny’ seems to be the earliest setting of lowland Scots by an Italian composer, which places it at the beginning of the long and remarkable tradition of interest in the vernacular poetry of the British Isles by composers all over Europe. In this, as in so much else, Lorenzo Bocchi was a pioneer, and deserves more attention than he has received until now.

Chapter 4

Disputing Choruses in 1760s Halifax: Joah Bates, William Herschel, and the Messiah Club1 Rachel Cowgill

Disputes between men of note involve the whole City in their consequences. ~ Aristotle, A Treatise on Government, trans. William Ellis (London: T. Payne et al., 1778), Bk 5, Ch. IV, p. 252.

To Charles Dibdin, stopping off there on his ‘musical tour’ of the north in March 1788, Halifax was ‘an astonishing trading town for its size’ with a reputation as ‘the most musical spot for its size in the kingdom’.2 Situated in a remote, rugged Pennine valley, surrounded on most sides by hills, its combination of soft water, pastoral farming, and fast-flowing moorland streams proved particularly conducive to the finishing, production, and dyeing of cloth (principally woollen kerseys and worsted), which had gradually superseded agriculture as the mainstay of the local economy. Halifax had developed as one of 23 townships in an unusually large parish, due in part to the area’s fragmented manorial structure; but the granting of permission in 1617 to hold a wool market in the town had stimulated its growth into a major commercial centre for the buying and selling of cloth, culminating in the opening of the magnificent Georgian Piece Hall on 1 January 1779, which replaced the more modest cloth hall to the south of the town, at Wards End.3 Market day at 1 This chapter develops ideas touched on in the opening sections of my article ‘“The most musical spot for its size in the kingdom”: music in Georgian Halifax’, Early Music, 28 (2000): 557–75. I am grateful to the staff of the West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) and Borthwick Institute for Archives (BIA), the archivist of King’s College, Cambridge, and John Montagu, the eleventh earl of Sandwich for assistance during this project. My thanks also to Bryan White for comments on an early draft. 2 Charles Dibdin, The Musical Tour of Mr. Dibdin; in which – previous to his embarkation for India – he finished his career as a public character (Sheffield: for the author, 1788), pp. 276, 196. 3 See Philip Smithies, The Architecture of the Halifax Piece Hall, 1775–1779 (Halifax: for the author, 1988). Halifax Piece Hall was the latest in a series of specialist buildings for the marketing of cloth to be constructed in the West Riding, hence the extravagance and ambition of the scheme: Kirkgate Cloth Hall, Leeds (1711); White Cloth Hall, Leeds (1756); Mixed Cloth Hall, Leeds (1758); the new White Cloth Hall, Leeds (1775); Huddersfield (1766); Bradford (1773); Halifax (1779). See Barrie Trinder,

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the Piece Hall brought a familiar symbol of industry to Dibdin’s mind – ‘an idea of a bee-hive; the prodigious number of cells, and the porters coming in and out with their bundles of cloth, were exactly like the loaded bees’4 – and for Thomas Twining, who visited Halifax just two years after the hall opened, ‘the appearance of trade, population & advancement of every kind [was] striking’.5 Between 1664 and 1764 the population in the parish of Halifax had more than doubled, from 3,844 households to 8,263; and by 1801 it would reach 12,031, reflecting the area’s increasing prosperity and opportunities for employment.6 Alongside Leeds and Wakefield, Halifax was one of three major centres for woollen and worsted cloth production in the West Riding of Yorkshire, a region estimated by contemporaries to have enhanced its share of the export market for English cloth from 20 per cent in 1700 to 50 per cent in 1770.7 For most of the eighteenth century, the parish produced cloth for the local market via extensive networks of small, independent textile artisans and yeoman clothiers. As the decades passed, however, their activities were centralized and coordinated by a new breed of merchant-manufacturer who combined the roles of clothier and dealer: these men supplied cloth directly to the national and international markets, but also shaped and controlled its production by buying the wool and paying their own ‘makers’ to spin, weave, and finish it. Essentially this was a natural outgrowth of domestic production, and around 1780 it began to make way for the factory system, as the major merchant-manufacturers started to sink capital into purpose-built mills and new technologies: by 1835 there would be 22 factories in Halifax itself, and a total of 153 factories in the parish as a whole.8 The remarkable expansion of Halifax as a market and manufacturing town had a profound effect on the social structure of the parish, as class-historian John ‘Industrialising Towns, 1700–1840’, in Peter Clark (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: Vol. 2 1540–1840 (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), pp. 805–29 (p. 809). 4 The Musical Tour of Mr. Dibdin, p. 276. 5 Ralph S. Walker (ed.), A Selection of Thomas Twining’s Letters 1734–1804: the record of a tranquil life (2 vols, Lewiston NY: Edward Mellen, 1991), vol. 1, p. 206. 6 John Smail, The Origins of Middle-Class Culture: Halifax, Yorkshire, 1660–1780 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994), p. 52. His figures are based on hearth-tax returns (1664) and a vicar’s ‘census’ (1764). 7 Evidence given in 1772 by Thomas Wolrich, a Leeds merchant, before Parliament on the state of the textile industry in the West Riding, cited in Smail, Origins, p. 51. 8 Ibid., pp. 51–81; John A. Hargreaves, Halifax (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (Carnegie), 1999), p. 71. Christopher Chalkin summarizes the general expansion of manufacturing towns during this period: ‘the textile towns of the East Midlands, the West Riding and south-east Lancashire grew between five and 15 times between 1750 and 1850, with Nottingham and Leicester expanding slowest and the Lancashire towns fastest’, The Rise of the English Town, 1650–1850 (Cambridge: CUP, 2001), p. 12. See also Pat Hudson, ‘From Manor to Mill: the West Riding in transition’, in Maxine Berg, Pat Hudson, and Michael Sonenscher (eds), Manufacture in Town and Country before the Factory (Cambridge: CUP, 1983), pp. 124–44, and Colum Giles and Ian H. Goodall, Yorkshire Textile Mills: the building of the Yorkshire textile industry, 1770–1930 (London: HMSO, 1992).

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Smail demonstrates.9 The local landed gentry, relatively small in scale and number, resided mostly on the parish’s rural periphery, and included, for example, the Listers of Shibden Hall, the Farrers of Midgley, the Thornhills of Fixby, and the Ramsdens of Greetland. More than equalling them in wealth and magnitude by the mid-century were the increasingly prosperous textile merchant-manufacturers, of whom 60–70 had amassed substantial fortunes, and 50–150 medium-sized fortunes by 1750.10 Many lived outside Halifax itself, in townships elsewhere in the parish – John Edwards of Skircoat, for example, and John Priestly and George Stansfield of Sowerby. A blurring of boundaries between ‘old’ and ‘new’ money was readily apparent, therefore, and also evident in other ways – the influential Halifax textile merchants John and Samuel Waterhouse, for example, belonged to an ancient family that had once owned Shibden Hall. In these contexts, as we shall see, markers other than sheer land and wealth would become important as means of signalling status, power, and influence both within and beyond the parish.11 A growing appetite for luxury goods – the trappings of an affluent lifestyle – and increasing demand for secure, accessible capital and more sophisticated financial and legal services brought about rapid changes in the character of Halifax itself. Shopkeepers and skilled craftsmen, such as joiners, masons, carpenters, cobblers, and saddlers, were able to make a steady living in the town, and William Bailey’s Northern Directory of 1781 – the first such directory to include Halifax – lists twelve grocers, seven drapers, four druggists, four ironmongers, a brass founder, two iron founders, a hat maker, a silk merchant, and a watchmaker.12 Professionals also thrived, including lawyers, surgeons, and ministers, with a lesser tier comprising schoolmasters, accountants, booksellers, and the like. And Smail describes how, together with the prosperous merchant-manufacturers, this professional élite (probably around 15 in number at this point) gradually dominated the social, political, and cultural landscape of the town as the century progressed: The developments in the parish’s textile industry were more than just economic changes; they represented a fundamental cultural transformation that helped to create the kind of distinct experience that was necessary for the origins of middle-class culture 9 Smail, Origins, passim. 10 Ibid., pp. 70, 124–5. 11 On the landed gentry and land-owning mercantile-manufacturing families of Halifax, see: Smail, Origins, passim; John Watson, History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax in Yorkshire (London: T. Lowndes, 1775); Biographia Halifaxiensis: or, Halifax Families and Worthies. A biographical and genealogical history of Halifax parish (2 vols, Bingley: for the compiler, 1883); Jill Liddington, Female Fortune: land, gender, and authority. The Anne Lister diaries and other writings, 1833–36 (London and New York: Rivers Oram, 1998), passim. 12 Bailey’s Northern Directory, or, Merchant’s and Tradesman’s Useful Companion, for the Year 1781. Containing an alphabetical list of the […] traders in every principal town from the river Trent to Berwick upon Tweed, with the cities of London and Westminster, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, etc. (Warrington: William Ashton [1781]), pp. 200–203. Some Halifax tradesmen combined two or more occupations: for example, ‘grocer and druggist’.

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In their discussions of emergent middle-class structures of influence and sociability, both John Smail and Peter Clark make fleeting reference to events in Halifax which form the focus of this current study – disagreement and conflict in the town’s music clubs, and disputes surrounding the installation of the organ in the parish church.14 For Clark, these were caused by a desire to convert existing modes and contexts for music-making ‘into something much more fashionable’.15 This was undoubtedly the case: the organ, for example, was designed to facilitate a public musical festival of the type that was on the increase throughout southern and midland English towns and cities in the 1750s and 1760s.16 But as we shall see, these disputes have far more to tell us, about the role of music-making in parochial politics, the development of the public sphere, and the shift from a society based on connections forged largely through neighbourhood, work, and kinship, to one in which a haute bourgeoisie of merchant-manufacturers and prosperous professionals began to recognize a commonality of values, aspirations, and interests distinct from those of other groups in the community. At stake in these musical disputes were class-oriented ideas of sociability and etiquette, consensus and accommodation, the value of labour, and cultural and political ambitions on a local, regional, and national scale. All of these, to varying extents, were subject to contest and renegotiation as the structures of provincial culture strained to adapt to rapid social and economic change. Additionally, these events illuminate formative years in the careers of Joah Bates (1741–99) and William Herschel (1738–1822), and early expressions of Handel veneration in the provinces, which, through the agency of the Bates family and John Montagu, the fourth earl of Sandwich, can be seen to be linked to later manifestations in the metropolis, principally the Concerts of Ancient Music, established in 1776, and the Handel Commemoration in 1784.17 13 Smail, Origins, pp. 81 and 115 (quotation from both), 82–113, 124–6. Smail’s words can be misinterpreted, here, as can the title of his book: he does not suggest that middle-class culture radiated out from Halifax, but rather that the socio-economic circumstances and development of the town make it an illuminating case study for the emergence of an identifiably middle-class culture. 14 Ibid., p. 183; Peter Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800: the origins of an associational world (Oxford: Clarendon, 2000), pp. 123, 235. 15 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 123. 16 See Brian W. Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival and the Choral Society in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: a social history’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1968), and Catherine Dale’s chapter (Chapter 16) in this current volume. 17 On Bates, Sandwich, and the canonization of Handel’s music in London, see William Weber, The Rise of Musical Classics in Eighteenth-Century England: a study in canon, ritual, and ideology (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992), passim. He observes, for example, that it was ‘undoubtedly Bates who shaped the repertory and social style of the Ancient Concerts’ (p. 154).

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In late summer 1767, an anonymous, privately-printed pamphlet began to circulate in the parish of Halifax: ‘A PLAIN and TRUE NARRATIVE OF THE DIFFERENCES, BETWEEN Messrs. B----s [sic], And the MEMBERS of the MUSICAL-CLUB, HOLDEN AT THE OLD-COCK, in HALIFAX, In a LETTER to a FRIEND’. This was purportedly a response to a misrepresentation of recent musical events in the town by ‘Mr. B – s and Sons’ (p. 3), generally understood to refer to Henry Bates, who had been Parish Clerk for Halifax since 1735.18 Born around 1704, Bates described himself early in life as a wool comber, and on 2 May 1732 he married Susan Lister (b. c. 1708), with whom he had six children – Samuel (1734/5–36), Henry (1736–1816), Grace (b. 1738/9), Joah (1741–99), Susan (1744–47), and William (1747–51).19 By 1754 Bates was listed as an ‘innkeeper’,20 but although later sources state that he ran the Ring O’Bells tavern, which still stands on Church Street, it is by no means clear that this building was used as an inn at this time. Draft indentures from this period name a ‘Henry Bates’ as tenant of a croft that was part of the Old Hall complex near the church, which included a tavern, and indeed by the 1850s was being referred to as the ‘Church Tavern’.21 It seems likely that Henry’s wife, Susan, was the fifth child of Samuel Lister and Mary Holdsworth of Upper Brea, in which case she could claim descent via lesser scions of the Lister dynasty from Thomas Lister of Ovenden (d. 1606).22 Marriage into one of the oldest families in the district would help to explain not only Bates’s nomination as Parish Clerk three years later, but also the high social and educational aspirations of his eldest sons Henry and Joah; the Bates brothers were both educated at Manchester Grammar School and Cambridge University, Joah earning a scholarship first to Eton (1756) 18 See British Library, 1490.d.9, digitized in Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Gale Group. Clark’s statement that Bates senior was the ‘vicar’ is incorrect (British Clubs and Societies, p. 123); this credits him with a much higher status in provincial town culture than he enjoyed as parish clerk. In fact it was his eldest son, Henry Bates junior, who took the cloth, becoming Vicar of Madingley, Cambridgeshire, in 1772, see John and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (2 parts, 10 vols, Cambridge: CUP, 1922–54), part 2, vol. 1, p. 184. Bates’s appointment as clerk is noted in entries for the baptisms of his children in WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/1/1/10, Halifax Parish Register, 1726–1756. 19 IGI (accessed 1 July 2007); Weber, Musical Classics, p. 152; Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 2, vol. 1, p. 184; WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/1/1/10. Where death dates are not given here, they are not known. The birth date for Henry Bates senior is extrapolated from evidence he supplied in consistory court cases discussed below; see, for example, BIA, CP I/1,369, John Caygill and Robert Butterfield, churchwardens of Halifax vs James Bates and John Sutcliff, chapel wardens of Midgley in the chapelry of Luddenden, 1748. (James Bates was a distant cousin of Henry Bates senior, according to the latter’s evidence in this case.) 20 Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 2, vol. 1, p. 184. 21 WYAS (Calderdale), RP 291 and 437, draft indentures dated c. 1754 and 1760. See John H. Patchett, ‘The Development of the Area to the West of Halifax Parish Church (c. 1540–c. 1965)’, THAS, 13 (2005): 13–33 (pp. 16–18, 29). 22 On the Lister pedigree, see Liddington, Female Fortune, p. 5; Biographia Halifaxiensis, p. 239.

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and then to King’s College, Cambridge (1760).23 These family dynamics can be seen to have played a part in the events the anonymous author goes on to relate in his 28-page pamphlet. Dated 20 August 1767, the Narrative begins before the formation of the Musical Club at the Old-Cock inn, by describing an earlier group of Halifax singers who referred to themselves as the ‘Messiah Club’ and met regularly at ‘Mr. B[ates]’s’ – probably at the inn rather than his dwelling, in view of a later reference to a good-sized ‘Room, designed for the Purpose of practising in’ (p. 18).24 The author makes clear that he was a member of both clubs, and indeed his Narrative appears to be the only source which details their musical activities. In terms of singing cultures in eighteenth-century England, the Messiah Club appears to have been something of a hybrid. Its name implies a bias towards sacred vocal music in its repertoire, perhaps in the manner of the long-established London musical society, the Academy of Ancient Music, which met from 1726 (initially as the Academy of Vocal Music) mainly at the Crown and Anchor tavern in the Strand, and first performed Messiah in February 1744.25 The Academy, however, was a serious professional body, whereas the main motivation of the Messiah Club in Halifax seems to have been sociable entertainment: ‘our Design in entering into a Music-Club, was purely to have an Opportunity of spending a few leisure Hours agreeably, in that laudable Amusement’ (p. 17). The Messiah Club also differed from the Academy in its social profile: members were predominantly ‘poor labouring Men’ (p. 10), in the author’s own words, but included some skilled craftsmen – ‘a Weaver, a Taylor, a Whitesmith. &c.’ (p. 7), the latter being a worker or polisher of metal (as opposed to a forger or blacksmith). In that sense the Messiah Club can be seen to have resembled more closely the Madrigal Society, founded in 1741 in the City of London at the Twelve Bells alehouse in Bride Lane, Fleet Street: John Hawkins described the members of the Madrigal Society in the 1750s as ‘mechanics, weavers from Spitalfields and others from various trades and occupations’,26 and they also included a stationer, a dyer, clerks from the Navy Office, a bakery-owner from Clerkenwell, and singing men from the metropolitan church choirs.27 The Messiah Club similarly included 23 Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 2, vol. 1, p. 184; [Frederick George Edwards], ‘Mr. and Mrs. Joah Bates: a distinguished amateur and a notable singer’, MT, 46 (1905): 13–20. 24 The author makes no mention of instrumentalist-members of the Messiah Club, but does refer to the purchase of instruments for the Musical Club established at the OldCock in November 1766 (discussed later). (Quotations and passages from the pamphlet are referenced here in the text.) 25 Donald Burrows, Handel: Messiah, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge: CUP, 1991), p. 47. 26 John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (London: T. Payne, 1776; repr. 2 vols, New York: Dover, 1963), vol. 2, p. 887. 27 Weber, Musical Classics, pp. 191–2. On the Academy of Vocal Music, the Madrigal Society, and the contexts for sociable and recreational singing at this time, see Brian Robins, Catch and Glee Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2006), passim.

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several members who received payments from ‘the Collections […] as a Reward for their Attendance at Church as Singers’ (p. 11). A lack of references to women in the Narrative suggests that, in keeping with most eighteenth-century clubs, the membership of the Messiah Club (and the musical club formed later at the Old-Cock inn) was exclusively male, and the link with masculine sociability is confirmed by the author’s description of members Joah and Henry Bates initially as ‘social, good natured, Catch Singers’ (p. 5).28 This suggests that Messiah Club meetings were rounded off with bouts of convivial catch-singing, as tended to happen with city musical clubs established earlier in the century.29 But the brothers’ catch-singing expertise was almost certainly a reflection of their acquaintance with John Montagu, fourth earl of Sandwich, whom Joah had met in 1760 via musical contacts at King’s College, Cambridge, and who had become one of the nine founders of the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club in November the following year.30 Sandwich would remain a powerful influence on Joah Bates’s career, and whilst catch-singing may well have provided an initial means of securing the earl’s attention and patronage, it was his developing fascination for Handel that would encourage a lasting empathy. Bates would be appointed private secretary to Sandwich in 1771, but before then he seems to have provided various musical services, including singing tuition for the earl’s mistress Martha Ray (1742?–79) and their children, and the direction of biannual musical meetings of ‘academical friends’ at the earl’s Hinchingbrooke residence, near Huntingdon. ‘In or around 1767’, according to the earl’s chaplain, these meetings escalated into six-day festivals, comprising successive performances of six Handel oratorios, each preceded and followed by catch- and glee-singing, and involving 60–70 amateurs, with Sandwich himself on the drums, some professional stiffening, and Martha Ray as soprano soloist. These festivals were held ‘till about the year 1773’, and the timing of their escalation in relation to Handelian developments in Halifax was probably more than coincidence, as we shall see;31 for now, however, it is the combination 28 On women’s exclusion from music clubs, see Robins, Catch and Glee Culture, pp. 57, 75, 91, and from club culture in general, see Clark, British Clubs and Societies, passim. 29 See Elizabeth Jane Chevill, ‘Music Societies and Musical Life in Old Foundation Cathedral Cities 1700–60’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 1993), passim. 30 Weber, Musical Classics, p. 152. According to Edwards, one of the earl’s sons was a pupil of Bates at King’s (‘Mr. and Mrs. Bates’, p. 14). On the progress and significance of the Catch Club, see Robins, Catch and Glee Culture, pp. 32–71. 31 See A Voyage performed by the Late Earl of Sandwich round the Mediterranean in the years 1738 and 1739 written by himself […] to which are prefixed, Memoirs of the Noble Author’s Life, by John Cooke, M.A. Chaplain to his Lordship (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1799), pp. xxxiii–xxxv (quotations are from here). These may have been Bates’s own recollection of the events, for Cooke cites as his source ‘a very respectable friend, a scientific master of the art, who bore a distinguished part in the direction and execution of them’. On Sandwich as patron, see N.A.M. Rodger, ‘Montagu, John, fourth earl of Sandwich (1718–1792)’, in ODNB, and The Insatiable Earl: a life of John Montagu, fourth

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of convivial catch-singing and Handel’s oratorios in the interests of one of the town’s most active musical families which is significant, for this, arguably, is what gave the Messiah Club its particular character. Most English clubs and societies held their meetings at public drinking-houses before 1800, according to Peter Clark, not only because refreshment was on tap, but because these venues represented ‘a special kind of controlled space – open in principle to all-comers, but regulated by convention and etiquette and by the landlord’s management’.32 For the Messiah Club, however, it seems that any such expectations were disappointed. As the Narrative makes clear, members paid money to support the club’s activities, partly through ‘forfeits’ for absence (p. 14), and the innkeeper, Henry Bates senior, received an allowance from this fund to provide them with candles. Repeated references to the ‘Articles of our Club’ indicate that it was formally instituted and that decisions were made democratically, which was typical of eighteenth-century club culture as a whole; when Bates’s lighting was deemed inadequate for the price paid, therefore, the ‘President’ of the club was asked ‘by an Order regularly made’ to pursue alternative arrangements. In so doing, however, the president – described as a long-standing friend of Bates – incurred the innkeeper’s wrath and provoked the flashpoint for the ensuing dispute (pp. 3–4). Henry Bates’s sons were still members of the Messiah Club despite long periods away from Halifax, and indeed had been ‘Schoolfellows’ (p. 15) of some of the singers, presumably at Dr Samuel Ogden’s free school in Halifax.33 Although hitherto regarded as ‘social’ and ‘good natured’, however, from this point onwards Henry and Joah’s relations with the club reportedly grew ‘gradually cooler and cooler’ (pp. 4–5). Other than his reference to the Bates brothers’ catch-singing prowess, the author of the Narrative gives no indications of the club’s standard repertoire besides Messiah. Joah introduced works by the Hanover-born musician and amateur astronomer William Herschel, who had moved to the north-east from London around 1760, and was a resident of Halifax for six months from March 1766. ‘These Mr. J B. out of his great Partiality to the musical Compiler, pronounced to be original and good’, but the pamphleteer dismisses them as ‘purloined Pieces’ and Bates’s actions as ‘contrary to the Articles of our Club’ (p. 4), though his reasons remain unclear and most of Herschel’s sacred vocal music is now lost.34 Henry Bates senior is reported to have claimed ‘the earl of Sandwich 1718–1792 (London: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 117–21. Among the earl’s papers at Mapperton House in Dorset are editions of Handel’s vocal music bearing the label ‘Miss Ray’. These are Jephtha (Randall), Saul (Part III), the coronation anthems (Randall), and Samson (Walsh) (shelfmark: Lib.A.3). Household records from the 1760s appear to have perished in the fire at Hinchingbrooke in 1830. 32 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 164. 33 Joseph Sutcliffe Smith, A Musical Pilgrimage in Yorkshire (Leeds: Richard Jackson, [1928]), p. 215; [Edwards], ‘Mr. and Mrs. Bates’, p. 13. 34 The text actually refers to ‘Mr. H_____l’s purloined Pieces’, but it was surely not ‘Mr. Handel’ who was being impugned here. William (originally Friedrich Wilhelm) Herschel was an oboist in the Hanover Guards, but moved to England in 1757 with his brother Jacob, after having been posted there during the Seven Years War. He eked out a

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Organ Bass of the Messiah’, from among the club’s music-books, as Bates family property, ‘his Sons having paid the Person who transcribed it at Cambridge’ (p. 19). This is plausible, for Joah matriculated at Christ’s College on 30 November 1759, just over four years after his brother Henry had enrolled at Peterhouse,35 and around this time Messiah was performed in the Senate House, Cambridge, under John Randall (1759, 1760, 1763). Complete or partial renditions were also being given elsewhere in the provinces, however, including Oxford (1749, 1752, and regularly from 1754), Salisbury (1750, 1752, 1754–55, 1762–63), Bristol (from 1756), the Three Choirs Festival (from 1757), Church Langton (1759, 1761, 1763), Birmingham (1760), Coventry (1760, 1761, 1763), Wolverhampton (1760), Bury St Edmunds (1760), and Winchester (1762–63). Inspiration might also have come from a south-westerly direction, via performances given in Manchester for the annual benefit of the organist John Wainwright (1763 and 1764);36 at St Mary’s, Stockport, conducted by Wainwright for the benefit of the organist ‘Miss Wainwright’, probably his daughter (1765); and at Hey Chapel for the organist Thomas Stopford (1765).37 That one of the Bates brothers brought the score living as a music copyist, and, finding London ‘overstocked with musicians’ (his words), he took up leadership of the earl of Darlington’s militia band, which was quartered in Richmond, Yorkshire; further appointments followed in Sunderland and Newcastle, and he became director of the subscription concerts in Leeds in 1762. Constance A. Lubbock (ed.), The Herschel Chronicle: the life story of William Herschel and his sister Caroline Herschel (Cambridge: University Press, 1933), pp. 1–41 (quoting William’s autobiographical memoranda, notes, and family correspondence). See also T. Herman Keahey, ‘Herschel, Sir William’, in GMO (accessed 16 July 2007). 35 Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 2, vol. 1, p. 184. 36 The organ-playing of Wainwright, organist of the Collegiate Church in Manchester, is said to have influenced Bates, probably whilst he was studying at the Grammar School before taking up his scholarship at Eton. This must have been John Wainwright (1723–68), who was organist from May 1767 and probably acting as deputy for the elderly Edward Betts (appointed in 1714) before that, rather than Robert Wainwright (1748–82) as suggested in Eva Zöllner, ‘Bates, Joah’, in ODNB. For clarification on this point I am grateful to Sally Drage; see also p. 209 in her chapter (Chapter 10) here. 37 Performance data in this paragraph are taken from: Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: concert management and orchestral repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799 (New York and London: Garland, 1996), pp. 254, 268; Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival’, pp. 40–97, 108–10, 124–9; Douglas J. Reid and Brian Pritchard, ‘Some Festival Programmes of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, ‘1. Salisbury and Winchester’, RMARC, 5 (1965): 51–79; ‘2. Cambridge and Oxford’, RMARC, 6 (1966): 3–23; ‘4. Birmingham, Derby, Newcastle upon Tyne, and York’, RMARC, 8 (1970): 1–22; Susan Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Oxford: OUP, 2001); and Burrows, Handel’s Messiah, p. 47 (part of an overview of the performance history of Messiah, pp. 23–54). There was, of course, some resistance from church authorities to the performance of oratorios in churches, and Messiah was one of the first to be allowed because the libretto consists of passages directly from the Bible. The first performance of Messiah in a church or cathedral, as opposed to a ‘secular’ venue, appears to have been at Bristol in 1758, closely followed by Hereford in 1759. Among those present at the Bristol performance was John Wesley, just about

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of Messiah with him when returning to Halifax for the vacation is supported, however, by a later, undated anonymous memoir: To Mr. Bates the Halifax musicians were indebted for their first sight of the Messiah. His father had a choral club at his house, one of the old houses in Church-street, opposite the great church-yard gates […]. And there the musicians of Halifax were one night assembled, when his eminent son came down from London, and throwing a copy of the Messiah before them, bade them to see what they could make of it. At first sight they pronounced it too difficult; but by dint of practice they effectually mastered it.38

Charles Dibdin also credited the Bates family specifically with introducing the work, which by the time of his visit was clearly the keystone of the local choral tradition. His comments post-date Joah Bates’s directorship of the 1784 Handel Commemoration, however, which needs to be taken into account: Mr. Bates has so planted a veneration for the works of Handel, that children lisp ‘For unto us a child is born,’ and cloth-makers, as they sweat under their loads in the cloth-hall, roar out ‘For his yoke is easy and his burden is light.’ I have been assured, for a fact, that more than one man in Halifax can take any part in the choruses of the Messiah, and go regularly through the whole oratorio by heart.39

Joah Bates seems to have acknowledged this role himself at a particularly tense moment in his relations with the Messiah Club: the pamphleteer evidently bristled at Bates’s retort that ‘the Messiah was the only Thing [the Club] could attempt; which we had been taught to chatter like Parrots’ (p. 11). The emphasis on Messiah in the Club’s repertoire links its activities directly to the scheme to ‘improve’ Halifax Parish Church with the installation of an organ, for which a voluntary subscription was begun on 17 January 1763, but which obstructions from within the parish delayed until July 1766. Of over £12,000 subscribed, £551 5s. were used by the Halifax churchwardens to commission an instrument from John Snetzler, who was recommended by the Bates brothers in Cambridge, and £600 were invested in another civic improvement scheme – the town’s new waterworks – so that maintenance of the organ and an organist’s salary could be covered from annual interest payments, without any additional

his only known concert attendance, who doubted ‘that congregation was ever so serious at a sermon as they were during this performance’. See W. Reginald Ward and Richard P. Heitzenrater, The Works of John Wesley. Vol. 21: Journals and Diaries, IV (1755–65) (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992), p. 161. The Hereford performance took place in the morning, giving oratorio performance the same status as a festal service (Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival’, pp. 52–5). 38 WYAS (Calderdale), Soc:7/2, ‘Programmes and cuttings re various local and non-local musical societies, 1777–1900’, undated clipping from ‘Our Local Portfolio. No. CIII’ (Halifax Guardian, pre-1869). On the identification and location of Bates’s ‘house’, see p. 91 above. 39 The Musical Tour of Mr. Dibdin, p. 196.

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burden to parishioners.40 This overlapping between voluntary associations has been identified by social historians as one of the ways in which the middle classes asserted political authority in the public sphere, and took initiative in reshaping their environment.41 The Halifax wardens and their supporters justified the organ scheme strictly on devotional grounds – it was to facilitate ‘performance of anthems and for the accompanying the singing of psalms [sic]’;42 however, a letter from Henry Bates junior in Cambridge, updating the wardens on progress, indicates that, by 2 February 1764 at the latest, plans had been laid to celebrate the installation with a festival performance of Messiah: I call’d upon Mr. Snetzler in London[. H]e has [an] Organ by him just finished[,] the very Fellow of what you are to have at Halifax, & a most noble Instrument it is indeed – I shou’d be glad to know whether Mr. Stansfeld [sic] can possibly prevent the setting up [of] the Organ, for till this be known my Brother cannot proceed to engage Hands for the Performance of the Messiah at the opening of it.43

The Messiah Club, it seems clear, was the chorus-in-training (and chorus-inwaiting) for this grand occasion – indeed, the Narrative notes that when the club was instituted ‘we engaged to continue it […] till the Organ in the Church was opened, and no longer’ (p. 7). The centrality of Handel’s Messiah in the conception of these events was emphasized in embellishments of the proposed design for Snetzler’s organ case (see Figure 4.1). Though probably just decorative touches on the printed plans, never intended to form part of the actual structure, they are significant for at the top of the left-hand stop-list, the figure of Handel appears, modelled on Louis François Roubiliac’s monument for the composer’s tomb in Westminster Abbey (1762).44 ‘Handel’ engages the viewer’s gaze directly, pointing heavenwards and holding two pages of music, as if tablets of stone, on which the text and melody of ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’ and ‘Comfort Ye’ (headed ‘Mesiah’) are visible. The detail on the second music sheet does not in fact derive from Roubiliac; 40 See exhibits and evidence heard in the organ dispute, BIA, CP I/1,449, John Butterworth and William Parker vs John Walker and Samuel Waterhouse. According to WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2, the organ trustees’ account/minute book for 1766–1924, Snetzler was paid on 4 May 1765, and the fee included £26 5s. for an additional, ‘vox humana’ stop requested by the Vicar, Revd Dr George Legh. Cases and carriage from London were additional costs (£28 14s.). 41 See Smail, Origins, passim. 42 BIA, CP I/1,449, answers from Walker and Waterhouse to allegations dated 26 July 1764. 43 WYAS (Calderdale), STA:215/1, manuscript copy of letter from Henry Bates, 2 February 1764. 44 The completed organ is depicted in Whitley and Booth’s ‘The Choir, Looking West’ (February 1840), and shows no sign of either figure; the print is reproduced in J.W. Houseman, ‘History of the Halifax Parish Church Organs’, THAS (April, 1928): 77–112. Snetzler’s organ does not survive, but some of his pipes were incorporated into a new organ built for the church by Harrison & Harrison of Durham and London in 1928.

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Figure 4.1 Printed plan of the organ designed by John Snetzler for Halifax Parish Church, engraved by T. Sunderland of Halifax and probably circulated in late 1763 or 1764, during the call for subscriptions. Reproduced (from CP I/1,449) by permission of Borthwick Institute for Archives its presence confirms that this particular image of Handel was taken from an engraving of Roubiliac’s monument produced by J.H. O’Neal for the frontispiece of the Royal Magazine of June 1763. As Suzanne Aspden suggests, O’Neal’s imposition of the opening bars of ‘Comfort Ye’ onto this second leaf served to convey more strongly than in the original the idea of Handel as ‘moral exemplar

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and teacher’.45 These decorative additions to the paper designs for the Halifax organ were probably inspired by the ‘heavenly’ organ Roubiliac sculpted as the backdrop to his monument; indeed, Roubiliac’s angel is redrawn as a balancing figure to the right of the case, her celestial harp set down, and eyes lowered in rapt contemplation of an open book. Signs are here, then, that the newly erected and much celebrated monument to the recently deceased composer in Westminster Abbey was in the minds of those directing the Halifax organ project, suggesting a yet more striking connection with the Handel Commemoration performances of Messiah that Joah Bates was to direct in Westminster Abbey and at the Pantheon in 1784. Henry Bates’s anxious enquiry, in his letter of February 1764 to the churchwardens (quoted above), was well founded. George Stansfield was the most powerful opponent of the Halifax parish organ, and the campaign he orchestrated against the project would become the latest of five major disputes to rock the parish since 1748, following several decades of calm. Though often revolving around relatively minor issues, in reality these disputes were the public expression of a struggle for cultural and political dominance between the out-townships and Halifax itself, and, as an extension, within the ranks of the mercantile-manufacturing élite.46 A pamphlet, entitled Memorandum, 1764, which was circulated in support of Stansfield’s party, testifies both to their intensity and to their connectedness in a general vying for power which concentrated on the parish church (as symbolic, but contested communal space) and the vestry. The vestry was still the main administrative structure in the parish, but it had been bypassed in the organ scheme by the raising of a public subscription. In 1748 some Persons in Halifax took it into their Heads, that the Bells wanted chipping; that a new Wainscot ought to be put up in Place of the Tapestry in the Chancel; and that a new Pulpit shou’d be erected in a Situation agreeable to their own Taste. These Alterations were estimated at above Five Hundred Pounds; all to be laid upon the Parish: Nine out of Ten of the Parishioners opposed this; but they were called Cyphers, and it was boasted that the two Churchwardens for the Township of Halifax, had all the Power; and that the Ten Church-Wardens of the tributary Townships had only to raise and pay the Money demanded of them. Upon this Principle they chipped the Bells at a Venture: The Parishioners refused to pay; upon which a Law Suit was begun and carried on for six Years together;[47] at last a Verdict was given for the Parishioners: Halifax lost the Money expended in Chipping the Bells, and paid Costs of Suit. The Idea of the new Wainscot, and the new Pulpit, soon after vanish’d away.

45 Suzanne Aspden, ‘“Fam’d Handel Breathing, tho’ Transformed to Stone”: the composer as monument’, JAMS, 55 (2002): 39–90 (pp. 75 and 77, figs 5 and 9). 46 For an overview of all five disputes, see Smail, Origins, pp. 146–55. I have found nothing in the primary sources to suggest Stansfield opposed the organ in a spirit of ‘neoPuritanism’, although this might have been the case for some his supporters. 47 See BIA, CP I/1,369–71. The townships of Midgley, Sowerby, and Warley each fought a separate case, with identical documentation. On the place of the vestry in parochial structures, see Rosemary Sweet, The English Town 1680–1840: government, society, and culture (Harlow: Longman, 1999), pp. 30–33.

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914 In this Year 1764, some Persons in Halifax have got an Organ into their Heads, and can think of no place for it but the Parish-Church, which does not belong to them. A great Majority of Parishioners are against it: But the Organists suppose all Power to be vested in themselves. Their common Talk has been that they wou’d place their Organ in the Parish-Church in Spite of the Arch-Bishop, the Spiritual-Court, or the Parishioners: but now they are come a little to their Senses, and have apply’d to the Court for a Faculty. The Parishioners oppose it, and insist on the Affair being determined by a legal Vestry: but no Vestry is to be allow’d, no Consent asked; the Organists, like the Bell-Chippers in 1748, wou’d make the Parishioners into Cyphers: and those same well disposed Persons boast now, that they have Subscribed One Thousand Pounds to be laid out in Law [deletion] their continued Strife for Power over their fellow Parishioners wou’d be in some Degree pardonable, if they cou’d give a single Instance of their having Power, and not abusing it.48

The timing of the organ dispute was crucial. Stansfield, a major textile merchant-manufacturer, had built one of the finest residences in the parish – the neo-Palladian mansion Field House (1749) – shortly after his father’s death.49 In 1758 he had instigated a voluntary subscription among his fellow Sowerby residents to rebuild on a grand scale the decaying chapel in their township, one of 12 chapels of ease distributed across the parish. On completion of the new chapel in 1763, Stansfield’s party had petitioned the Archbishop of York to promote Sowerby from a chapelry to a parish, which would have granted their community autonomy by severing its administrative and political ties to the township of Halifax.50 In March 1764, at a meeting at the Talbot Inn, 13 of the Halifax organ subscribers were formally elected as trustees of the organ fund, all of whom were either prominent clergy or members of the town’s commercial élite: John Caygill, for example, one of the Halifax wardens involved in the ‘bell-chipping’ dispute of 1748,51 whose Halifax mansion (‘the Square’, late 1750s) was modelled on a London square by the fashionable York architect John Carr, and who would later donate land for building the Piece Hall; also John Royds, for whom Carr was building an imposing mansion on George Street (Somerset House, 1766); and the Halifax churchwardens John Walker and Samuel Waterhouse, both major merchants in the town.52 At the same time, the Halifax wardens were using their influence to resist the Sowerby bid for parochial status. Henry Bates’s visit to Snetzler’s workshop had been on the back of a visit to London to consult the earl of Sandwich, then Secretary of State (1763–65), and the Speaker of the House of Commons for advice on Stansfield’s planned application to Parliament for division of the parish. Sandwich had apparently assured Bates that he would 48 WYAS (Calderdale), SH:4/T.Hx1764, printed pamphlet, Memorandum, 1764. 49 Smail, Origins, pp. 110–11, fig. 3. 50 See WYAS (Calderdale), STA:215/1, papers relating to the rebuilding of Sowerby Chapel, and FH:282/9, printed pamphlet comprising the petition and answers. 51 See BIA reference in note 19, and Memorandum, 1764 (quoted above). 52 Smail, Origins, passim and fig. 9; BIA, CP I/1,449, especially the deposition of James Scholes, landlord of the Talbot Inn (no. 13, 12 December 1764).

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‘oppose the Bill not only to oblige me, but also ex officio, that as a Servant of the Crown, it wou’d be his duty’, the living of Halifax being in the gift of the King.53 The desire to quash those threatening to derail the planned Messiah performance in the Parish Church, however, was probably just as pressing. Ultimately the Sowerby petition for parochial status was turned down by the Archbishop, but the chapel wardens retaliated by bringing a case before the consistory court in York later in the year, having been persuaded and indemnified to go to law by Stansfield: the Halifax wardens, they alleged, had contracted the building of the organ and arranged for its installation in the West gallery of the Parish Church (involving removal of private pews, stalls, and other structural alterations) without seeking permission from or consulting the out-towns, and thereby committing parishioners unfairly to an ongoing financial burden. (They challenged the security of the organ trust fund.54) The Halifax wardens presented a robust defence over the coming months, indemnified by 30 subscribers from Halifax, headed by Caygill (£100) and including both Henry Bates senior and junior (10 guineas each).55 Whilst the legal business dragged on, however, the organ lay in packing cases in Snetzler’s shop, to the intense frustration of the Halifax party who could do little more than tip his servant ‘for extra diligence’.56 Fearing that the organ would be irreparably damaged by neglect, they secured an affidavit from Snetzler himself, who stated that it should be: put up in the said Parish Church of Halifax or in some other Church or place where it is intended to remain that the said Organ may have the benefit of the open air and also of having its pipes cleaned and their Tone preserved by being sometimes used and played upon.57

On this authority it was arranged for the organ to be delivered to the door of the Parish Church by wagon in the dead of night on 15 April, whilst one ‘Jack Maude’ was paid 1s. 6d. ‘to watch the motions of the Sowerby men’;58 by 6 May it had been set up in the West gallery of the church, but could not be played

53 WYAS (Calderdale), STA:215/1. 54 Smail, Origins, p. 151. BIA, CP I/1,449, allegations dated 26 July, 22, and 29 November 1764; 7 November 1765; and 6 February 1766. 55 Houseman, ‘Halifax Parish Church Organs’, pp. 81–3. Houseman notes that the total subscription from the Halifax party for legal costs was £728, and that the final legal bill for Sowerby was £437 8s. 6d., and for Halifax £194 5s. His source is not clear, however; the organ trustees’ minute/account book, which furnished him with figures elsewhere, does not include these details. 56 WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2, organ trustees’ minute/account book, 4 May 1765. 57 BIA, CP I/1,449, John Snetzler’s affidavit of 6 April 1765 (presented as an exhibit), supported by the deposition of Bartholomew Brearley, joiner and organ-builder (no. 3, 22 January 1766). 58 WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2, organ trustees’ minute/account book.

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upon legally until the dispute was resolved.59 Further pressure was brought to bear during the case in the form of a petition against the organ signed by 508 parishioners, canvassed by Stansfield, and preparation of documentation for the case to be heard in the Court of King’s Bench; but a faculty granted by the Archbishop provided the long-awaited licence on 11 July 1766, and at last the organ could be rendered fully operational.60 Joah Bates played it for the first time in a service on 13 July 1766, accompanying psalms and Purcell’s ‘O give thanks unto the Lord’ Z33 (1693).61 Grand performances of Messiah to celebrate the opening of Snetzler’s organ were given on two successive mornings, 28–29 August 1766, and were evidently a moment of vindication for the Halifax party. With a palpable sense of triumph, Henry Bates junior wrote to his sister Grace, a week later: I have now half an hour’s leisure to acquaint you with the particulars of our last week’s grand celebrity. You have been already informed that we totally defeated our adversary on the 10th of July, in consequence of which victory it was determined to open our Organ with the performance of the Messiah: And my Brother & myself were desired to undertake the management of it. Accordingly we engaged a band of between 90 and 100 instruments & voices; amongst whom were many performers of the first class. We had between twenty & thirty Violins, seven tenor Violins, six Violoncello’s [sic], two double Basses, four Hautbois, four Bassoons, two trumpets, two French horns, Kettle drums, & a Chorus of about forty singers, besides the principal singers. This noble band being assembled on Thursday last, the 28th of Augt. on a scaffold erected on purpose in the front of the new loft, & extending from pillar to pillar, performed the Messiah in such a manner as to give infinite satisfaction to the most polite and numerous assembly that ever appeared in Halifax upon any occasion. The best Judges declared they never heard any thing in London to equal it. The next day the performance was repeated with, if possible, still greater applause […] My Brother played a Concerto on the Organ each day between the first & second Acts of the Oratorio. The town was so full of company upon this occasion that scarce a bed was to be got in either public or private house for some time before. We had assemblies each evening; or I don’t know whether I might not more properly call them genteel mobs. For tho’ they consisted of the politest people in this country, yet there were such crouds [sic] of them, that one cou’d scarcely move about. In short, thro’ the whole affair one never saw a face that was not in raptures; and my Brother and myself were complimented

59 BIA, CP I/1,449, particularly the deposition of Laurence Wood, carpenter, who assisted the delivery of the organ (no. 4, 7 March 1766). 60 Smail, Origins, p. 151. BIA, CP I/1,449, petition, dated 15 July 1764 (Exhibits A–C), and WYAS (Calderdale), STA:215/1, bill from Robert Whitworth to Stansfield for canvassing votes over four days. WYAS (Calderdale), HAS/B:8/4, and (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/1, documents prepared for King’s Bench. BIA, Licence to erect an Organ in the Church of Halifax, Faculty Book 1, 1736–1768, pp. 413–14. 61 Houseman, ‘Halifax Parish Church Organs’, p. 84; [Frederick George Edwards], ‘Batesiana’, MT 46 (1905): 99–100 (p. 99). On this anthem, one of Purcell’s most popular in eighteenth-century England, see Franklin B. Zimmerman, Henry Purcell, 1659–1695: an analytical catalogue of his music (London: Macmillan, 1963), and Peter Holman, Henry Purcell (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1994), p. 138.

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on all hands for having treated our friends at Halifax with such an entertainment as they had no Idea of; and made the town more brilliant than it ever was before since it stood […] In my list of instruments I forgot to mention the Organ, which is an exceeding fine one, & was played by my Brother thro’ the whole performance.62

Here Bates implies that the chorus was positioned in front of the orchestra, and that the orchestra outnumbered the choir, both of which seem to reflect Handel’s own preferences. (The chorus would only outstrip the orchestra as the taste for massed choirs developed in the nineteenth century.) The addition of horns to the original scoring took its precedent from Handel’s Foundling Hospital performances; and the reference to Joah playing the organ ‘thro’ the whole performance’, and the absence of a harpsichord in Henry’s list, suggests that the organ was the only continuo instrument – something Handel did not advocate, but might have experimented with briefly.63 Advertisements in the Leeds Intelligencer boasted that performers were gathered from ‘various Parts of England’ (19 August 1766). Many of the soloists were ‘Gentlemen of Cambridge’, so probably university acquaintances of the Bates brothers. The Oxford tenor Thomas Norris, another Handelian protégé of the earl of Sandwich, ‘regulated the time in each piece, particularly the choruses’, presumably because Joah was not easily visible at the organ in the West gallery.64 Leader of the band was William Herschel. With regard to the chorus, the Narrative tells us that the Messiah Club provided the core, which was supplemented from Hey Chapel (now Heywood) in the neighbouring parish of Rochdale, where Messiah had already been performed the previous September (see p. 95 above). However, a clearer idea of its likely 62 Quoted in: ‘Batesiana’, p. 99; Betty Matthews, ‘Joah Bates: a remarkable amateur’, MT, 126 (1985): 749–51 (p. 749). The location of the original letter is not known. 63 See Donald Burrows, ‘Handel’s Oratorio Performances’, in The Cambridge Companion to Handel, ed. Donald Burrows (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), pp. 262–81. For comparison, the orchestra-to-chorus ratio under Bates at the 1784 Handel Commemoration in Westminster Abbey was 249:257, and he directed from a harpsichord with its keys connected to an organ 18 feet away towards the back (centre) – again, this was something Handel himself had experimented with. The singers were placed at the front, with the trebles bunched in the middle and the remaining voices stretching out to left and right. See the seating plan in Charles Burney, An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster-Abbey, and the Pantheon, May 26th, 27th, 29th; and June the 3d, and 5th, 1784. In Commemoration of Handel (Dublin: Moncrieffe et al., 1785). 64 Norris’s six symphonies, published in London as ‘op. 1’ around 1772, are dedicated to Sandwich in acknowledgement of ‘many favours conferr’d upon the Author’, see Robert J. Bruce, ‘Norris, Thomas’, in GMO (accessed 16 July 2007). At the 1784 Handel Commemoration, according to Henry Bates junior, the band ‘had no time beater[,] which is a terrible eye sore, but was wholly conducted by the motion of [Joah’s] head or his holding up a hand’. See transcriptions of Bates family letters by A.H. Mann, Rowe Music Library, King’s College, Cambridge, VV-8EF-T-4A-Man/1, pp. 15–16. Additional quotations and details in this paragraph are taken from an unsigned letter to the editor, Halifax Guardian, 6 June 1825.

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composition comes from a manuscript ‘List of Singers 5 Jan.y 1764’, which has survived among the Field House muniments and appears to be a roster for the chorus the Bates brothers were planning to assemble for Messiah, which was finally performed in the church two and half years later: Trebles 1. Mary Akeroyde 2. Betty Crowther 3. Mary Hartly 4. Sarah Hartly 5. Susan Hartly Contra Singers 6. John Oates 7. Francis Wilde 8. John Holdsworth 9. John Dean Tenor Singers 10. John Hitchen 11. Charles Barret 12. David Crowder 13. Shadrach Gledhill 14. Charles Hill 15. John Hill 16. William Hardy 17. David Smith 18. James West 19. Laurence Wood Bass Singers 20. James Hartley 21. James Heap 22. John Naylor 23. Benjamin Pickles 24. Natty Whitely 25. William Ingham 26. James Cawdry 27. Isaac Farrer 28. Mark Farrer 29. Edward Farrer65

Departing from the practice among festival choruses in the south, and reflecting the fact that Halifax was not a cathedral city, the choir does not include boy trebles; and the imbalance between the voices (5:4:10:10) indicates that the Hey singers, probably not named here, were female sopranos. A musical society had been established at the chapel of ease at Hey in 1747 under the minister Richard Hopwood, whose father had been a pupil of Elias Hall. The chapel was wellequipped for music-making, with an organ (from 1761) and seating for around

65

WYAS (Calderdale), FH:283.

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500, and sustained a choir of around 20 voices which had admitted women during the 1750s. The Hey singers had been supporting oratorio performances in Lancashire villages since at least the year before the list above was drawn up, often combining forces with members of Shaw Chapel choir which had included women from 1750.66 The Messiah Club, with its roots in male homosociability, was probably not the source of the female voices listed in the roster. Three of these (Trebles 3–5) may have been related to James Hartley (Bass 20); a Rochdale organist named Hartley is known to have been one of Joah Bates’s earliest music teachers, and there was a significant musical family of Hartleys in early nineteenth-century Halifax.67 For most of the other singers, however, attempts at identification result in little certainty. Since most of the men listed were probably members of the Messiah Club, this is doubly frustrating, but it supports the claim in the Narrative that members were mainly ‘poor labouring men’, whose lives left little impression on the historical record, and we can at least be relatively confident that Laurence Wood was the Sowerby carpenter of that name who assisted with the delivery and installation of the organ; that Charles Barret was the hired labourer of that name also from Sowerby; that James West was the ‘poor child’ of that name from Sowerby who was apprenticed in 1740; and Isaac Farrer was the Halifax innkeeper of that name.68 This suggests also that choristers came from across the parish, and that Stansfield’s resistance to the installation of the organ should not be considered typical of Sowerby as a whole. Henry Bates’s glowing account of the Messiah performances in his letter to his sister is supported by reports that the net proceeds reached £309 4s. 6d.69 Whilst the brothers were revelling in their success, however, it seems that the MessiahClub members in the chorus were becoming resentful. The author of the Narrative accuses Henry and Joah Bates of behaving like ‘two despotic Monarchs, awing and insulting their Vassals and Dependents’ (p. 5): during the performances, he claims, the choir had been deprived of refreshment; and club members were dismayed when the Hey singers received two guineas a piece, and their own 66 Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival’, pp. 120–31, 139–47. On Hall, see Sally Drage, ‘Elias Hall, “the faithful chronicler” of Oldham psalmody’, Early Music, 28 (2000): 621–34. Shaw Chapel musical society was in existence by 1740: Pritchard cites transcriptions of deeds made by J.T. Travis Clegg in 1901, in the possession of Oldham Public Library – a ‘Feoffment of several seats in the Gallery at Shaw Chapel for the use of the Society of Singers’ (February 1740) and ‘Articles, Proposals and Agreements of the Old Shaw Chapel Society of Singers’ (p. 121). 67 Pritchard notes that Hartley moved to Sheffield around 1765 (‘The Musical Festival’, p. 139). Rachel Cowgill, ‘The Business of Music in Late Georgian and Victorian Halifax, c. 1760–c. 1901’, THAS, 10 (2002): 77–95 (pp. 83, 87–8). 68 BIA, CP I/1,449, deposition no. 4 (7 March 1766); WYAS (Calderdale), SPL 94/6, SPL 108/74, RP 818. 69 Unspecified source cited in Houseman, ‘Halifax Parish Church Organs’, pp. 84–5. The funds were to be applied to the organ, but they never reached the trustees; after the ball they were entrusted to C. Wetherherd, who promptly went bankrupt (trustees’ minute/ account book, WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2).

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requests for a guinea each were referred by Henry to the organ trustees, with the recommendation that they only be compensated for their lost earnings: For a Weaver, a Taylor, a Whitesmith, &c, could not earn above Eighteen-pence, or Two Shillings per Day, therefore Seven and Sixpence to each for the three Days would be quite enough. However, the Trustees were kind enough to pay us our Demand [pp. 6–7].

The organ trustees’ accounts do indeed record a payment of £12 12s. to ‘the Singers at the Oratorio’, which suggests that 12 men were paid from this source.70 The reported difference in payments would have taken into account the 17 miles or so travelled by the Hey Chapel singers to assist in the Halifax performances; but a disparity along gender lines might well have been perceived if the Hey singers were mostly female, which would have done nothing to soothe tensions. The club’s relations with the Bates family deteriorated still further with the appointment of a parish organist, William Herschel; and subsequent events illuminate both the financing of the organistship, and something of the circumstances surrounding Herschel’s rapid resignation and departure from Halifax for the Octagon Chapel at Bath. On 12 December 1764, at the height of the organ dispute, Henry Bates junior deposed the following in court: the Town of Halifax allegate is so very large rich and populous that the Deponent is of opinion that a skilful Organist may be got to play upon an Organ at Halifax for about the yearly Salary of twenty pounds for he saith he thinks a skilful man with such a salary by teaching Scholars[,] tuning Instruments and other perquisites that may arise from his Scituation there [sic] cannot make less than Seventy pounds a year one year with another.

Joah’s deposition concurred with his brother’s, but also indicated that a formal expression of interest in the organist’s post had already been received: the prospect of the Benefits arising from teaching Musick[,] tuning Instruments[,] Concerts and other advantages in the Town and Neighbourhood of Halifax are so promising that they have induced a very able Musician to propose himself a Candidate for the place of Organist there who the Dept. believes will be willing to accept a Salary of twenty or five and twenty pounds for doing all the Duty and Business of an Organist there.71

This was probably William Herschel, whose vocal music Joah Bates had encouraged the club to take up some time before the Messiah performances, as we have seen. Herschel moved to Halifax in March 1766, apparently confident of the appointment, and noted in an autographical memorandum that on 7 March he led the ‘orchestra’ in Messiah ‘at a private club of chorus singers’ at Bates’s – 70 WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2, organ trustees’ minute/account book, ‘1766 For the organ’. 71 BIA, CP I/1,449, depositions nos 15 and 16.

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with Joah directing from a chamber organ and Henry on cello – where ‘the same Oratorio’ was in rehearsal ‘every other Friday’.72 It was perhaps this that inspired him to compose ‘the first song in an intended Oratorio which I called the success of Satan against Man. The words taken from Milton’s Paradise Lost’, now lost, on 30 March.73 The organistship was formally advertised in the run-up to the festival, and it was indeed Herschel who emerged as the successful candidate from a contest with Robert Wainwright on 30 August 1766. His extemporization had concluded with a rendition of Old Hundredth, but before he began, Herschel had placed lead weights on the keys at the lowest pitch and octave above, to imitate the effect of a pedal-point on an organ with pedals.74 Unlike the German instruments Herschel would have been familiar with in Hanover, most English organs were built without pedals; and although Snetzler had experimented with pedals in some English instruments, there are none in evidence in his design for the Halifax organ (see Figure 4.1).75 Following his election to the organistship, Herschel invited the members of the Messiah Club, which had been dissolved on the inauguration of the organ, to ‘sup with him’ as his guests at Bates’s establishment, ‘by Way of paying his Footing’ (p. 7). After they had eaten, Joah presented them with a proposal for a new club, which was to be 40–50 strong and specifically intended for the performance of oratorios in the church. He stressed the benefits of self-sufficiency, of not having to pay a premium to hire personnel from outside the parish, and the prestige such performances would bring to the town, having repeatedly flattered the company that they were already the ‘best Chorus Singers in England’ (pp. 6, 11). In particular, however, he underlined the principle of inclusivity and the importance of choral training ab initio as a means of bringing on new talent, which we can infer he intended to apply to both sexes: He said, ‘He would have it a free Club, open to every one, who chose to join, and cou’d sing any at all; that it would be a Nursery for Chorus Singers; as it would then give every one, even the most Ignorant, an Opportunity of improving themselves’ [p. 8].

To progress the scheme, Bates proposed that the money remaining in the Messiah Club be spent on music which would remain the property of the new club in perpetuity. The singers rejected this suggestion, however: for if the members were not proprietors, they could never receive a return on the membership, forfeits,

72 Quoted in Lubbock, The Herschel Chronicle, p. 35. 73 Ibid., p, 36. This work has not been traced. 74 Ibid., p. 37 (citing another autobiographical memorandum, ‘The Messrs Bates and principal Gentlemen of the town were in the body of the church, and it was unanimously decided that I was to be their Organist’). See also WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2, organ trustees’ minute/account book, and Edward Miller, The History and Antiquities of Doncaster and its Vicinity (Doncaster: W. Sheardown, 1804), p. 162. 75 See Alan Barnes and Martin Renshaw, The Life and Work of John Snetzler (Aldershot: Scolar, 1994), passim, and for an account of the Halifax organ pp. 135–9. Pedals were added to the Halifax organ in 1837.

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penalties, and so on, which they had to pay each fortnight from their ‘scanty Earnings’, as ‘poor labouring Men, with Families’ (p. 10). At this point, to judge by the Narrative, the mood of the meeting turned: it dawned on those present that what was being proposed was a speculative venture – an annual oratorio performance to supplement the wages of the organist – and that measures to develop a home-grown oratorio choir and orchestra were simply a means of reducing Bates’s expenses and exploiting local labour. Benefit oratorios for parish organists, as opposed to local charities such as hospitals or schools, were not a completely new idea in the north (for earlier examples see p. 95 above), but the exchange that followed – whether or not it is an accurate record of Bates’s arguments and demeanour – illustrates fundamental disagreements concerning the value of musical labour and the organization of music-making in provincial culture: The Question was then put, ‘To what Purpose, or for whose Interest, wou’d it be to form a Club upon the above proposed Plan?’ Mr. J. B____s answered, ‘It would be the Means of establishing a proper Taste of Music in the Town, and be of the greatest Advantage to the Members, who woul’d hereby attain to a great Proficiency in Chorus-Singing.’ But, when it was observed, the mere Character of being a good Chorus-Singer, wou’d be a small equivalent to a poor Man, incumbered with a large Family, for his Time and Money expended in attaining that Character; he again gave up himself to Wrath and Fury; and assured them, ‘That, if they intended to do any Thing towards the Support of their Families, by engaging in a Club of this Nature, they shou’d find themselves greatly mistaken; for, he was very sure the Gentlemen of this Town wou’d never favor so mean, and low-lived a Scheme: none but they,’ he added, ‘Who make Music their Profession ought to get any Thing by it. And as we have now an Organist, all public Concerts must be for his Benefit alone, and no other Person in the Town can have any Right to a Thing of that Kind [pp. 12–13].

From the points attributed here to Bates, we can infer that workers were not to make music for financial gain, but purely for self-improvement. The mercantilemanufacturing élite would not pay their ‘makers’ to sing for them, implying that their enjoyment rested on a paternalistic sense of superiority, something they could not sustain if placed in the role of a customer.76 And the organist was to be regarded as inhabiting a separate category by virtue of his ‘professional’ identity and training, and granted a virtual monopoly such as might be enjoyed elsewhere in the parish by a provider of specialist services. ‘Here the Secret came out’, the author notes; for the preconceptions articulated here are precisely those he had been resisting, implicitly, in the course of his pamphlet. Throughout the Narrative the club members are portrayed as a rational, homogenous, and sociable group, which acts cooperatively, democratically, and by consensus. The author’s anonymity reinforces this perception, and sharpens the 76 Almost 70 years later, George Hogarth (editor of the Halifax Guardian, 1832–34), was also at pains to distance the amateur chorister from suspicions of monetary gain in his ‘A Village Oratorio’, in George Hogarth (ed.), The White Rose of York: a midsummer annual (London: John Murray; Halifax: Whitley & Booth, 1834), pp. 199–214.

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sense of contrast with the hot-headed, individualistic, and competitive behaviour attributed to the Bates brothers and later Herschel. Reminding us that Henry and Joah were once their school-fellows and equals, he quietly undermines the legitimacy of their claim to be ‘Gentlemen’: he queries their assumption of the moral high ground wherever he can, and throughout it is the ‘poor labouring men’ who are credited with the qualities of sociability, respectability, and gentility normally associated with their social superiors. Moreover, at a time when the social and political order was felt to be in transition, the ‘PLAIN and TRUE NARRATIVE OF THE DIFFERENCES, BETWEEN Messrs. B----s [sic], And the MEMBERS of the MUSICAL-CLUB’ seems to usurp the public political discourse that was increasingly associated with the culture of the middle-class élite.77 For a group of artisans to publish a pamphlet written in this tone and register, therefore, suggests an attempt to reclaim lost status – lost through the economic and structural changes in their working lives, and threatened again in these attempts by Bates and Herschel to reorganize their musical leisure. As Smail observes: The increasing importance of large-scale manufacture of textiles gradually reduced the descendants of the parish’s independent clothiers to the status of semi-independent wage laborers working for a new group of manufacturers and merchants.78

Joah Bates’s proposals having been rejected, a second set of articles for a new club was put on the table for discussion, already signed by Henry Bates, both junior and senior, and William Herschel. These expressed the opposite of Joah’s inclusive model, proposing that the organist would be perpetual president of the club, and would have sole right to introduce new members on the basis of their musical abilities. Again club members objected, fearing that the convivial atmosphere would be sacrificed in the interests of musical excellence, and that they would be unable to refuse admittance even to ‘the most rude, litigious, and unsociable Men’ if those men had Herschel’s approval (p. 17). Their request to modify the articles so that members were only admitted by ‘the Consent of a Majority’, and each was made a ‘Proprietor of the Stock’, was refused (p. 18). Seeing no way forward, the Messiah Club singers resolved to remove their musical library and transfer their activities to ‘the great Room at the Old-Cock’ on Southgate, one of their number (possibly Isaac Farrer) being innkeeper there (pp. 20 and 27). Built as a townhouse by William Saville in the 1580s, the OldCock had functioned as an inn since 1668, and the ‘great Room’ probably refers to what is now the Oak Room on the first floor.79 A few days later the members

77 On the role of the pamphlet and petition in the Halifax parish disputes, see Smail, Origins, esp. pp. 151–5. On political rhetoric and class formation, including the discourse of ‘interest’, see Dror Wahrman, Imagining the Middle Class: the political representation of class in Britain, c. 1780–1840 (Cambridge: CUP, 1995). 78 Smail, Origins, p. 222. 79 West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service, ‘The Tudors in West Yorkshire’ (accessed 19 July 2007); Hargreaves, Halifax, p. 38.

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installed a chamber organ, and celebrated the founding of a new club at the OldCock on their own, cooperative terms, with a rendition of Messiah. As ‘a Means of encouraging Music, and promoting Friendship and good Neighbourhood’ (p. 20), they opted to meet every other week, so that members could also attend the club at ‘Mr. B[ates]’s’ and those who sang in the organ gallery for church services could continue to do so. Herschel, however, moved his meetings to the same night, forcing the musicians to choose between clubs. The Narrative also accuses him of instigating a whispering campaign, telling the parents of the boy trebles (apparently now recruited for the top line) that the musical club at the OldCock was ‘a Set of debauched Fellows, fit for nothing but to corrupt the Morals of Youth’, in contrast to the club under his direction at ‘Mr. B[ates]’s’, which ‘would be frequented by Gentlemen of Character’ (p. 21). Although there were now two musical clubs in Halifax, the deepening rift and lack of cooperation between them resulted in a failure to build directly on the success of the 1766 Messiah performances, and fewer chances of performing oratorio, for the cost of making up numbers from musicians outside the parish was prohibitive. Without the support of both clubs, Herschel’s position as organist seems to have become untenable. The Narrative refers to several attempts on Herschel’s part to negotiate with the trustees for an increase in pay, including attempts to capitalize on the offer of a position at Bath to improve his prospects in Halifax, and, failing that, to obtain approval for one of his brothers to act as his deputy. Herschel himself recorded that on 18 October he gave the organ trustees notice of his intention to resign at the end of the quarter, and four days later was invited to dine with the treasurer, who offered to increase his salary if he changed his mind. In the end, however, Herschel stayed in post for only three months, before leaving for Bath and the organist’s bench at the Octagon Chapel.80 He was succeeded on 16 December 1766 by Thomas Stopford, previously the organist of Hey Chapel. Stopford would fulfil his duties in Halifax for 53 years, until his death on 9 September 1819, aged 77, and successfully supplemented his stipend of £30 per year with income from benefit concerts, subscription concerts, and oratorios in the church.81 Although it is not clear how these events were set up financially 80 Autobiographical memoranda quoted in Lubbock, The Herschel Chronicle, pp. 38–9. Financial insecurity for his family back in Hanover following his father’s stroke was probably an additional consideration for Herschel at this point. A receipt pasted into the front of the organ trustees’ minute/account book (WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2), records payment of 13 guineas (for three months’ work) on 30 November 1766, signed by William Herschel, and a further receipt notes payment to his organ-blower for this period (10s.). Controversy continued to surround Herschel in Bath, it seems; see Ian Woodfield, The Celebrated Quarrel between Thomas Linley (senior) and William Herschel: an episode in the musical life of 18th-century Bath (Bath: Holburne of Menstrie Museum and University of Bath, 1977). 81 Date of Stopford’s appointment in organ trustees’ minute/account book (WYAS (Wakefield), WDP53/4/10/2). Handbills for some of Stopford’s concerts have survived in WYAS (Calderdale), Soc:7/1. See also transcriptions of handbills in HAS/B:11/5/1, and performance data in Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival’, pp. 258–9. Stopford had been a member of the Shaw Chapel musical society before his appointment as organist at Hey:

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– whether the musicians expected to perform gratis, or to receive a fee – it seems Stopford was able to restore not only stability, but also something of the spirit of cooperation and conviviality in the musical life of the town, qualities which the Messiah Club had been so concerned to promote and then to reclaim. Like Herschel, Bates seems to have turned his attention elsewhere; after returning to Cambridge, he began to orient himself more and more to London, apparently with ambitions for a political career.82 From his engagement as Sandwich’s private secretary, and involvement in the Handel oratorio meetings at Hinchingbrooke, arose the Concerts of Ancient Music in 1776. To supplement the trebles at these concerts, Bates would import sopranos from Lancashire and Yorkshire, and maintain them in London throughout the season.83 His use of female sopranos as ‘chorus leaders’ to boost the boy choristers at the 1784 Handel Commemoration also demonstrates his adherence to a practice tried and tested in northern traditions of oratorio performance. The Musical Club at the Old-Cock seems to have flourished for some years, as the Narrative, perhaps predictably, was at pains to point out: Since November 1766, we have continued our Meetings regularly at the Old-Cock every Fortnight, and the Money which has been collected by the Sale of our Annual-Tickets, and at the Door from Non Subscribers, which has been much more than we expected, has constantly been laid out in purchasing and transcribing Music, and providing Instruments and Necessaries for the Use of the Club [p. 22].

Evidence from subscription lists of the period shows that the Musical Club at the Old-Cock invested in new editions on a regular basis, at least for the next eight years, and continued to favour the works of Handel – Judas Maccabaeus (1769), Jephtha (1770), Israel in Egypt (1771), Saul (1773), and Joshua (1774). In 1771 they also subscribed to Randall’s reprint of Morley’s A Plain and Easy Introduction

according to Pritchard, he signed an endorsement made in 1763 to the second of the Shaw Chapel deeds detailed in note 66 above (see ibid., p. 139). Stopford evidently kept up his links with Hey once he became organist in Halifax: he taught the soprano Sarah Harrop of Hey (c. 1755–1811), whom Joah Bates married in Northwich, Cheshire, on 14 December 1780; see Manchester Mercury & Harrop’s General Advertiser, 19 December 1780; parish records of All Saints, Witton (Northwich) [MF55/6 Cheshire Record Office] Register December 1780–February 1792, p. 1, no. 2. My thanks to Sally Drage for these references. The couple were probably guests of Joah Bates’s sister Grace (now Mrs Furey), living at Winnington Lodge near Northwich; see transcripts of Bates family letters made by A.H. Mann, Rowe Music Library, VV-8EF-T-4A-Man/1. 82 See letter from Joah Bates to the earl of Sandwich, King’s College, 27 October 1771, Sandwich Papers, Mapperton, HMC/73/F52/1. 83 Percy A. Scholes, The Mirror of Music, 1844–1944: a century of musical life in Britain, as reflected in the pages of the Musical Times (2 vols, Oxford: Novello and OUP, 1947), vol. 1, p. 49. Female chorus singers ‘from the North of England’ were regularly engaged to assist the trebles of the Three Choirs Festival from as early as 1772; Pritchard identifies these as Mary Radcliffe, and probably Joanna Wood and Sarah Harrop (Bates’s future wife), all from Hey Chapel (‘The Musical Festival’, pp. 144–5).

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to Practical Music, which suggests a developing interest in the more theoretical aspects of musical training.84 At the time of writing, August 1767, the author of the Narrative could report that the club had invested in a set of timpani, and that plans were also afoot to buy a pair of horns (interestingly an instrument usually played by professionals) providing that an ‘agreeable, sociable Person’ would come forward to learn to play them. Financial arrangements remained a sensitive subject, however: to counter rumours that ‘we hold our Meetings from a Motive of Gain, and perform for Hire’, the author published details of the club’s Articles: each Member pays Four-pence every Club-Night; and we admit the Public to hear us at Six-pence each, or, if any Person takes an Annual-Ticket, the Price of which is Eight Shillings, it admits him Twenty-four Nights in the Year; which only amounts to Four-pence per Night [pp. 22–3].

These probably did not differ widely from the Articles originally adopted by the Messiah Club, and remained unequivocal in their allegiance to fundamental principles of sociability, fraternity, and conviviality: Besides, we neither desire, nor expect the Public to frequent our Meetings from a Motive of contributing to our Emolument, but entirely for their own Entertainment and Amusement. When our Performances cease to be agreeable or entertaining, we shall not wonder to see ourselves deserted [pp. 22–3].

Given that the dispute appears to have been won, with order restored and key protagonists having dispersed, the question remains why at least one aggrieved former member of the Messiah Club saw a need to publish this ‘PLAIN and TRUE NARRATIVE’ of events. An answer can be found in advertisements placed in the Leeds Intelligencer (21 July–25 August 1767) for a three-day choral festival at Wakefield Parish Church to celebrate ‘the Opening of the Organ (which has been almost totally rebuilt)’, and which was to comprise performances of Messiah (27 August) framed by Judas Maccabaeus (26 and 28 August). That the Bates family were crucial to these arrangements is signalled in the Narrative, which accuses them of threatening the Wakefield organist Robert Jobson that they would withdraw if he engaged any musicians from the Old-Cock club (pp. 24–5).85 Evidently worded to emphasize the national stage on which the Bates family was now playing, and by contrast the provincialism of their rivals, the notice for the Wakefield festival promised ‘a very numerous Band of capital Musicians from London, Oxford, Cambridge, York, Lincoln, Nottingham, Durham, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and parts adjacent’ (Leeds Intelligencer, 25 August 84 Jenny Burchell, ‘Musical Societies in Subscription Lists: an overlooked resource’, A Handbook for Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Music, 9 (Oxford: Burden & Cholij, 1998), pp. 1–74 (whole vol.), at p. 18. 85 For Jobson’s direction of festivals across the north, 1769–84, see Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival’, p. 259. According to Pritchard, he changed his name to Warburton in 1786.

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1767). Seemingly calculated retorts in this context, therefore, are the notices published for performances of the same Handel oratorios in Halifax at the end of the year: Messiah for the benefit of a Mr Jackson (advertising himself as a tutor and tuner of harpsichord and spinet), in the Assembly Rooms on 31 December 1767; and Judas Maccabaeus for Stopford’s benefit in the Parish Church on 4 January 1768. Both of these concerts, featuring members of the Old-Cock Musical Club, boast reliance on more local talent: For the Vocal Parts are engaged, Miss [Mary] Radcliffe and Miss [Joanna] Wood, of Hey-Chapel, and the Singers of the Old-Cock Club […] The whole band will consist of 12 Violins, two Tenors, five Violoncellos, two German Flutes, two French-Horns, Kettle-Drums, a Harpsichord, and an elegant Organ erected for the Purpose, with a full Chorus of upwards of 20 Voices (Leeds Intelligencer, 15 December 1767).

And the advertisement for Judas Maccabaeus positively revels in a sense of regional patriotism: With the Assistance of a numerous Band of the most eminent Performers, both Vocal and Instrumental, from the large neighbouring towns, (particularly Manchester) and Villages, join’d with the Members of the Old-Cock Club in this Town […] The Recitatives and Songs by Mr Tinker, Miss Radcliffe, Miss Wood, Mr Marler, and Others. The March will be accompanied with a Side-Drum, French-Horns, &c. and the proper Choruses, with Kettle-Drums, Trumpets, Hautbois, &c. The First and Second Trumpet by Mr. Tinker and Mr. Travis (Leeds Intelligencer, 29 December 1767).

Evident in this closing volley, is that what to the Bates brothers and their associates seemed a pitiful lack of ambition and narrowness of influence, the amateurs of Halifax were eager to celebrate as a matter of local pride and provincial identity. Handel’s oratorios were emerging as a focus for communal music-making among industralizing towns and villages across the Pennines, and as a point of stability in a rapidly changing world.

Chapter 5

The Role of Gentlemen Amateurs in Subscription Concerts in North-East England during the Eighteenth Century Roz Southey

Almost every town of any size in the north-east of England seems to have hosted a subscription series of concerts during the eighteenth century. The earliest known series was put on in York in the late 1720s; Newcastle followed suit in the mid-1730s, and Durham shortly afterwards. Smaller towns such as Sunderland, Morpeth, and Darlington had subscription concerts in the second half of the century, but little information can be gleaned for most of these shorter-lived series. In many cases across the north-east, the subscription series seem to have been the result of collaboration between so-called gentlemen amateurs and professional musicians in the region; this chapter explores the extent of gentlemen-amateur involvement, therefore, and the different roles these amateurs were willing to take on. Newcastle and York have both been the subject of detailed studies, by Jenny Burchell and David Griffiths respectively.1 Valuable as these are, they do not deal specifically with the issues of concern here; Burchell focuses on the orchestral repertoire of the Newcastle series, and Griffiths is concerned to trace the full range of musical activities in York from the Middle Ages until the late twentieth century. Burchell does concern herself with the distinction between ‘commercial’ and ‘polite’ concerts, however – that is, with the question of whether series in provincial cities such as Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, and Bath, and in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, were principally commercial enterprises run by professional musicians, or concerts put on by gentlemen for their own pleasure, which assumed a commercial aspect over a period of time. As far as the Edinburgh series is concerned, her arguments – that the ‘polite’ element was predominant – are convincing, but a closer study of the circumstances surrounding the

1 David Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of institutional music-making in York, c. 1550–1989 (York: York Settlement Trust, [1994]); Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: concert management and orchestral repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799 (New York and London: Garland, 1996).

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Newcastle series suggests that, despite the involvement of gentlemen amateurs, the commercial element was stronger than Burchell suggests. My own work on Durham concert life in the eighteenth century has revealed close connections with cathedral personnel. The concerts were directed by the Cathedral’s organist, and the singing men performed as principal singers, instrumentalists, and many of the rank-and-file.2 Their financial backers, however, and their principal audience, were the prebendaries of the Cathedral, mostly minor scions of noble families, many of whom were deeply interested in music and promoted private concerts in the Deanery and elsewhere. Lack of evidence prevents a detailed analysis of the extent to which the clerics were involved in the series; although the Dean of the Cathedral, Spencer Cowper, clearly had a great deal of influence over the concerts in the 1750s and constantly referred to them as ‘our’ concerts, the exact nature of his involvement is not clear.3 A further subscription series in Durham during the 1750s, run by the Newcastle-based composer Charles Avison and his friend John Garth of Durham, was supported financially by the earl of Darlington and other gentlemen, although details again are sparse; the establishment of this series and its conflict with the Cathedral series has been dealt with in another context.4 The term ‘gentleman’ invites numerous readings. Penelope J. Corfield, examining its use from the Middle Ages until the late nineteenth century, makes it clear that ‘gentleman’ was a term that gradually expanded its scope, from a narrow class of land-owning armed men to a much wider body that could include even those relatively low in the social scale. By the eighteenth century, it was not necessary for someone to avoid trade in order to be considered a gentleman, although involvement in heavy manual labour was always a bar; nor was it necessary to be a landowner.5 ‘Gentleman’ was always a flexible term, involving a mediation between ancestry, social standing, and personal reputation. It was frequently applied to those living off unearned income, and it was probably in this sense that Charles Avison of Newcastle described himself as a ‘gentleman’ at the death of his wife in 1766.6 Avison had apparently amassed and invested sufficient wealth, by this time, to be able to lend money at moderate rates of interest to

2 See Roz Southey, Music-Making in North-East England during the Eighteenth Century (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), passim. 3 On Cowper’s involvement in music in Durham, London, and Hertfordshire (where he had his principal residence), see Spencer Cowper, Letters of Spencer Cowper, Dean of Durham, 1746–1774, ed. Edward Hughes, Surtees Society, 165 (Durham: Andrew; London: Bernard Quaritch, 1950). 4 Roz Southey, ‘Competition and Collaboration: concert promotion in Newcastle and Durham’, in Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (eds), Concert Life in EighteenthCentury Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 55–70. 5 Penelope J. Corfield, ‘The Rivals: landed and other gentlemen’, in Negley Harte and Roland Quinault (eds), Land and Society in Britain, 1700–1914: essays in honour of F.M.L. Thompson (Manchester: MUP, 1996), pp. 1–33. 6 Burial Registers of St Andrew’s Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, 17 October 1766: ‘Avison, Catherine, wife of Charles, Gentleman’.

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minor members of local gentry families.7 At the time of his wife’s death, however, he was still involved in the promotion of concerts, and clearly did not consider such commercial work as a bar to classifying himself a ‘gentleman’. Corfield’s point that tradesmen could be defined as gentlemen is particularly important in the case of Newcastle: as will be seen below, tradesmen were among the members of the organizing committee around the turn of the century. For the purpose of Newcastle concerts, Avison did not, at least in the early years, regard himself as a ‘gentleman amateur’. He was a professional musician, earning his living by his musical talents, and that immediately set him apart from those who played for pleasure, rather than for their livelihood. Indeed, the most significant factor in defining status among musicians in the north-east, in this period, seems to have been the distinction between professionals and amateurs, rather than between gentlemen and non-gentlemen.8 Local sources, particularly newspapers, suggest that in the north-east ‘professional’ and ‘gentleman’ were almost always used in the sense of those who made their living from music and those who played for pleasure.9 Because of the paucity of evidence relating to the smaller regional towns and to Durham, this chapter will concentrate on the two main centres of Newcastle and York. In both places amateur musical societies were well established and active from early in the eighteenth century, but as we shall see, although they were generally organized by amateurs – men of private means with money and time to spare – they often employed local professional musicians to strengthen and direct their music-making. York’s ‘musick-club’ met in Coney Street from around 1724, and Newcastle’s Musical Society subscribed to various musical works in the 1740s and was almost certainly in existence at an earlier date.10 York Musical Society, for which records survive for most of the 1780s and 1790s, met weekly throughout the year except in December, and its membership was divided into playing and non-playing members. The playing members included four or five of the leading professional musicians in the city, including John Camidge, organist of the Minster.11 In the 1790s Newcastle’s Musical Society met privately, appointed as its leader the violinist and clarinetist Thomas Wright (the town’s 7 Northumbrian Record Office, Carr-Ellison MSS 855, Box 4: receipt for return of monies owing. 8 The growth of ‘professionalism’ and the ‘professions’, albeit in the context of the ‘learned professions’ (that is, clergy, doctors, and lawyers), is outlined in Rosemary O’Day, The Professions in Early Modern England, 1450–1800: servants of the Commonweal (London: Longman, 2000), pp. 3–17. 9 For more general discussion of these themes, see Cyril Ehrlich, The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century: a social history (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985). 10 YML, Add. MS 65/1, Account Book of D’Arcy Dawes, 1 October 1724. Jennifer Burchell, ‘Musical Societies in Subscription Lists: an overlooked resource’, A Handbook for Studies in Eighteenth-century English Music, 9 (Oxford: Burden and Cholij, 1998), pp. 1–75. 11 York Record Office, Acc. 30: 1–4, York Musical Society Minute Book, 14 September 1767–28 December 1792.

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foremost professional musician at the time), gave him annual public benefits, and occasionally held public concerts to support distressed professional musicians.12 Both centres also had regular commercial concerts from an early date, from 1709 in York and 1712 in Newcastle.13 Winter series were established later (see Table 5.1): in York the earliest series date from the late 1720s, and Newcastle followed in 1735.14 This chapter considers the relationship between these developments and the centres’ amateur musical societies, and gauges the extent to which ‘gentlemen amateurs’ were involved in these commercial undertakings by examining four aspects of the concert series for evidence of amateur involvement: the financial backing and organizational arrangements (two matters that are often difficult to disentangle), the choice of repertoire, and the people who played in the concerts. The evidence is perhaps clearest for Newcastle’s first subscription series, in 1735, which was advertised in September, a mere two weeks before the series began.15 The most famous name associated with it was the composer Charles Avison; 20 years later he gave an account of the origins of the series in the Newcastle Journal (4–11 November 1758), and it is from this, and from newspaper advertisements of the time, that our knowledge of how it was initially run derives. According to Avison, ‘when the concert was first set on foot, it was undertaken by 12 Gentlemen, who procured above One hundred and Seventy Subscriptions for 12 concerts, at Half a Guinea each Ticket’.16 The 12 gentlemen are not named, but it is probable that they were members of the Musical Society. The direction was given over to Avison; a dispute in April–May 1736 with the leader of the orchestra (an unnamed Swiss violinist) makes it clear that Avison was in charge of rehearsals and the distribution of music (including giving players permission to take music home for practice), and that he also chose the concert programmes (frequently changing them at short notice, allegedly).17 Avison’s pre-eminence, however, had apparently not 12 See, for example, Newcastle Courant, 7 and 28 January 1797. One benefit was for the newly bereaved family of the cellist Walter Clagget, who had been engaged for six or seven years at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal. It is not clear whether the Newcastle Musical Society paid its leader or whether he had to be content with the income from his annual benefit. 13 Daily Courant, 1 August 1709, quoted in Michael Tilmouth, ‘A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719)’, RMARC, 1 (1961): 1–107 (p. 73). Newcastle Courant, 19–21 May 1712. Earlier concerts may have been held for which records do not survive; in Newcastle, local newspapers – from which the details of most known concerts are derived – began only in 1711. 14 A subscription concert was certainly established in York from around 1728, when D’Arcy Dawes attended it (Account Book of D’Arcy Dawes, passim), although this may originally have been private in nature; from the early 1730s it was open to the public and held in the New Assembly Rooms in Blake Street. Newcastle’s first concert series, a commercial affair, was advertised in September 1735. See Newcastle Courant, 20 September 1735. 15 Newcastle Courant, 20 September 1735. 16 Newcastle Journal, 4–11 November 1758. At this stage, the daily issues of the Newcastle Journal carried the dates for the entire week; the account by Avison was actually published on 11 November. 17 Newcastle Courant, 17 April 1736.

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Table 5.1 Calendar of winter subscription concert series in eighteenth-century Newcastle and York Date and place

Finance / organization

Musical direction

NEWCASTLE 1735–36 (October–March)

‘gentlemen’

Charles Avison

1736–37 (October–March)

‘gentlemen’

Charles Avison

1737–38 (October–March)

‘gentlemen’

Charles Avison

1738–39 (October–March)

Charles Avison

Charles Avison

1739–40 until 1769–70, as 1738–39 above except for the following two seasons 1757–58 (March–July)

Charles Avison

Charles Avison

1758–59 (March–July)

Charles Avison

Charles Avison

1770–71 (October–March)

Edward Avison

Edward Avison

1771–72 until 1775–76, as 1770–71 above 1777–78 (October–March)

Matthias Hawdon

Matthias Hawdon

1779–80 (October–March)

Matthias Hawdon

Matthias Hawdon

1780–81 (October–March)

Matthias Hawdon

Matthias Hawdon

1782 (January–March)

Matthias Hawdon

Matthias Hawdon

1783 (January–March)

Matthias Hawdon

Matthias Hawdon

1783–84 (November–January)

Robert Barber

Robert Barber

1784 (January–March)

Matthias Hawdon and Thomas Ebdon (from Durham Cathedral)

Hawdon and Ebdon

Thomas Ebdon and Edward Meredith (both from Durham Cathedral)

Ebdon and Meredith

1790 (January–March)

Charles Avison jnr and Thomas Hawdon (organists in Newcastle)

Avison and Hawdon

1791 (January–March)

?Musical Society

1792 (January–March)

‘The Committee of the Subscription Concerts’

1785, no concerts 1786 (January–March)

1787–89, no concerts

Committee

?1793

?

?

1794 (January–March)

Thomas Wright (organist)

Thomas Wright

Committee/Musical Society

?Thomas Wright

1795–96, no concerts 1797–98 (October–March)

1798–99 until 1802–03, as 1797–98 above 1809

Committee

?Thomas Wright

YORK around 1730

Musick Assembly

?John Hebden

1732–33

Musick Assembly

?John Hebden

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Table 5.1 cont’d Date and place

Finance / organization

Musical direction

1733–34 until 1738–39, as 1732–33 above 1739–40 (October onwards)

Musick Assembly

John Hebden

1740–41 (October onwards)

Musick Assembly

John Hebden

1741–42 (October onwards)

Musick Assembly

John Hebden

1743 (January onwards)

Musick Assembly (new directors)

?

1743–44 (January onwards)

Musick Assembly

?Pizzolato (leader)

1744–45 (January onwards)

Musick Assembly

?Pizzolato (leader)

1745–46

Musick Assembly

?Knerler (leader)

1746–47

Musick Assembly

?Knerler (leader)

1748 (?January)

Musick Assembly

?Cattanei (leader)

1748–49 (October onwards)

Musick Assembly

?Cattanei (leader)

1749–50 (October onwards)

Musick Assembly

?Miles Coyle (leader)

1750–51 until 1775–76, as 1749–50 above 1776–77 (November onwards)

?Music Fund

?Shaw (leader)

1777–78 (October onwards)

?Music Fund

?Shaw (leader)

1778–79 (November onwards)

Shaw and Frances Hudson

Shaw and Hudson

1785–86 (December onwards)

William and Frances Hudson

Hudsons

1786–87 (December onwards)

William and Frances Hudson

Hudsons

1787–88 (December onwards)

William Hudson

William Hudson

1779–80 until 1784–85 (November/ December onwards) as 1778–79 above

1788–89 until end of century, as 1787–88 above

been the original intention of the 12 gentlemen. According to the Swiss violinist, the gentlemen had planned that the music should be chosen by two ‘indifferent’ (that is, disinterested) people, and that all the performers should be ‘upon a Level’, as he put it, with none taking precedence.18 These two ‘indifferent’ people would presumably have been chosen from the 12 organizing gentlemen. The dispute with the leader was decided in Avison’s favour, after a series of abusive letters appeared in the Newcastle Courant, and the defeated party seems to have left town.19 Financial matters apparently remained in the hands of the gentlemen, but problems surfaced almost at once. The subscription was doubled for the second series (from half a guinea for the 12 concerts in 1735–36, to one guinea in 1736–37), and was maintained at this high level for the third.20 For the fourth series, however, 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., 10, 17, and 24 April; 8, 15, 22, and 29 May 1736. For more detail on this dispute, see Southey, Music-Making in North-East England, pp. 24–5 and 41–2. 20 Newcastle Courant, 7 August 1736 and 1 October 1737. It is difficult to compare these prices with others at this period; the earliest known subscription series in Durham

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starting in late 1738, there was a change. An advertisement in the Newcastle Courant stated that ‘the Gentlemen who first promoted the Subscription Concerts [have resigned] the Management of it to Mr. Avison’.21 Avison’s explanation was that the managers had been overambitious – ‘they thought of nothing so much as the Improvement of the Concert: It was, therefore, determined to increase the Number of Performers, and consequently their Expenses’.22 The higher subscription had been introduced to meet this extra expense, but the number of subscribers had fallen immediately from the original 170 to around 100.23 The income generated was inadequate, therefore, and the managers had given up the struggle, relinquishing the financial management to Avison. Avison reduced the subscription to its original level with immediate effect, and no doubt jettisoned at least some of the more ambitious plans.24 The Newcastle gentlemen’s willingness to recognize that their plans had proved unrealistic prevented the kind of disaster that befell the York subscription series four years later. In York, the series had been run since its inauguration by an enigmatic body called ‘The Musick Assembly’.25 This was apparently made up of gentlemen amateurs: over the years, the rent for the stylish new Assembly Rooms, where concerts were held, was paid by an assortment of men, including two doctors, four vicars, and several with the title ‘Mr’.26 It is not clear whether this body was in fact the Musical Society by another name, and David Griffiths has suggested that it was an offshoot of the Musical Society set up specifically to run the public concerts.27 The gentlemen directors of the Musick Assembly owned stock in the new Assembly Rooms, which they used to help finance the series. They hired a professional musician, the cellist and bassoonist John Hebden, to see to the musical direction of the concerts.28 Both Hebden and the directors had ambitious plans, which included bringing the best Italian performers from London for the series. No fewer than five Italians performed in the 1739–40 series, including the violinist Giovanni Piantanida, and his wife, the singer Costanza Posterla.29 The others were was not until 1740, at which time it cost half a guinea (ibid., 20 September 1740); no prices survive for York subscriptions until 1743, at which time a series (probably of 21 concerts) was advertised at the cost of half a guinea (York Courant, 11 January 1743). London prices were inevitably much higher in general; in the 1760s, six guineas were charged for a season of 20 concerts at Hickford’s Rooms. See Simon McVeigh, Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn (Cambridge: CUP, 1993), p. 3. 21 Newcastle Courant, 29 July 1738. 22 Newcastle Journal, 4–11 November 1758. 23 Ibid. 24 Newcastle Courant, 29 July 1738. 25 See, for example, York Courant, 23 October 1739. 26 York Record Office, M23/4 and 4a, Account Book of the York Assembly Rooms, 1730–1883, passim, and M23/1, Minutes of the York Assembly Rooms, passim. 27 Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place’, p. 105. 28 York Record Office M23:1, Assembly Room Minutes, 4 December 1736. 29 York Courant, 23 October 1739 and 15 January 1740. On a trip to Scarborough to give a concert with the five Italians, Hebden advertised himself as ‘Sig. Hebdeni’, see ibid., 19 August 1740.

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the violinist Alexander Bitti, who had been among the musicians of the Duke of Chandos at Cannons; Giovanni Cattanei; and Joseph-Marie-Clément Dall’Abaco (1710–1805), a Dutch composer with Italian ancestry, who was known in York as ‘Sigr Abacho’.30 Inevitably, the cost of this was high. Minutes from the Assembly Rooms refer to ‘the extraordinary Expence that the Gentlemen Directors of the Concert are at’.31 The directors fell into arrears with their payments to the Assembly Rooms for rent and coals, and by 1742 the Musick Assembly seems to have been bankrupt.32 In a last-ditch attempt to salvage something from the disaster, members of the Musick Assembly crept into the Assembly Rooms in the early hours of one morning and removed the music-books and instruments from their cupboard to prevent their sale to pay creditors.33 Despite this mismanagement, public support for a subscription series seems to have remained high, and agitation for a new series began almost as soon as the situation was known.34 After prolonged negotiations, conducted principally in the local press, the books and instruments were returned, and a new set of gentlemen directors was appointed in time to run at least half of the next season’s concerts.35 The taste for Continental soloists had not abated, it seems, but the new directors were more cautious and appointed only one at a time: first, Antonio Pizzolato, a Venetian, then the German violinist, Knerler.36 From around 1750, the directors seem to have moderated their ideas still further: the performers in the concerts from that time were local residents, although two may originally have been from London. Miles Coyle, who led the series from 1749 until 1776, hailed from the south of England; and Thomas Perkins, the oboist, had trained as a dancing master in London – his place of origin is not clear.37

30 Otto Erich Deutsch (ed.), Handel: a documentary biography (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1955), p. 111; Philippe Mercier, ‘Dall’Abaco, Joseph-Marie-Clément’, in GMO (accessed 10 February 2007). 31 York Record Office M23:1, Assembly Room Minutes, 28 November 1739. 32 Ibid., 5 April 1742. 33 York Courant, 20 April 1742. 34 Ibid., 23 November 1742. 35 Ibid., 28 December 1742. 36 Ibid., 3 June 1746. Pizzolato’s involvement with the York concerts (in 1743 and 1744) is known only from an advertisement in the York Courant of 18 February 1746, when he explained that he had had the misfortune to be attacked by pirates during his passage back from Dublin across the Irish Sea. See also Elizabeth Jane Chevill, ‘Music Societies and Musical Life in Old Foundation Cathedral Cities 1700–1760’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, King’s College, London, 1993), p. 95. Knerler, who led concerts in York from mid-1746 to mid-1747, was active as a concert soloist in Dublin 1747–49; for his activities in Ireland, see Brian Boydell, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988). 37 York Courant, 23 January 1750 and 6 September 1748. The advertisement for a concert on 11 October 1749 noted that Miles Coyle ‘has never before perform’d in the north’ (ibid., 3 October 1749); Perkins, who seems to have arrived in York around 1740, opened a dancing school in the city in September 1748, advertising that he had been ‘educated five Years under Mr Nichols, a very eminent Dancing-Master in London’ (ibid., 6 September 1748).

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The directors made up for the lack of high-profile names in the subscription series by expanding and highlighting the mini-series of concerts held in the city during Race Week in June or July. From 1751 the directors hired Felice de Giardini as the regular leader, a role he performed for the next 20 years.38 An Italian soloist – usually female – was brought in each year to perform the vocal items, and the concerts seem to have been very successful both financially and musically. Nevertheless, even with this income the Musick Assembly was still not financially secure, and at the end of each year, meetings had to be held to discuss the viability of mounting another series. Increases in subscription prices failed to solve the problem.39 Finally, the directors hit on the idea of holding an annual benefit for themselves every March, and, together with the income from the Race Week concerts, this seems to have kept the Musick Assembly, and the series, afloat until at least the 1770s.40 These arrangements seem to have remained in place in the two centres for much of the century, but changes began to take place in the last three decades. This is first evident in York in the mid-1770s, when the Musick Assembly gave up control of the series to professional musicians. The financial security of the series had begun to suffer again. The Race Week concerts had fallen victim, along with dancing assemblies and theatrical performances, to a change in the social calendar which had seen far fewer people attending the races.41 Faced with the loss of income from the Race Week concerts and a dip in the value of their investments, the gentlemen amateurs withdrew. Around 1776, the series fell into the hands of its principal performers, a violinist called Thomas Shaw, described on his arrival in York in 1776 as ‘Mr. Shaw jnr from Bath’, and the oratorio singer Frances Hudson, who was a native of York and based in the city.42 After Shaw’s departure in the mid-1780s and Frances Hudson’s prolonged illness, the series was managed until the end of the century by Mrs Hudson’s husband, William.43 However, this did not solve the financial problems, and the series was clearly in 38 Ibid., 20 August 1751. Giardini’s visits to the provinces in the summer months were typical of many musicians who found London devoid of money-making opportunities out of season. McVeigh points out that Giardini was also leader of the Three Choirs Festival 1770–76; see Simon McVeigh, ‘Felice Giardini: a violinist in late eighteenth-century London’, ML, 64 (1983): 162–72 (p. 164). 39 York Courant, 22 March and 1 November 1748. 40 Ibid., 13 March 1750. 41 York Record Office M23:2, Assembly Room Minutes, 9 July 1782. 42 York Courant, 21 February 1786 and 29 October 1776. This was probably the Thomas Shaw (c. 1752–c. 1830) who led the orchestra at Drury Lane, London, from 1786 into the early nineteenth century. See Jane Girdham, English Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London: Stephen Storace at Drury Lane (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), pp. 71–7, and Ian Woodfield, The Celebrated Quarrel between Thomas Linley (senior) and William Herschel: an episode in the musical life of 18th-century Bath (Bath: Holburne of Menstrie Museum and University of Bath, 1977), passim. The erroneous report of his death at Margate in the York Courant, 10 September 1792, which described him as leader of the orchestra at Covent Garden, must have arisen from confusion with his father, Thomas Shaw (c. 1716–92), also a string player and concert director in Bath. On Shaw as a composer, see also p. 142 below. 43 York Courant, 2 December 1788.

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steady decline throughout this period, with repeated rises in subscription prices and reductions in the numbers of concerts held.44 In Newcastle the subscription series continued under the financial, organizational, and musical control of Charles Avison, until his death in 1770. It was then taken over by his elder son, Edward, and after Edward’s death in 1776, by one of Charles Avison’s pupils, Matthias Hawdon.45 Hawdon also had costly plans, unfortunately, including the engagement of expensive soloists – Miss Harwood from Yorkshire, for example, who was hired for the entire 1780–81 season – and the holding of elaborate, large-scale oratorio performances, such as those given in 1778 and 1781. He also put on large-scale concerts in Race and Assize Weeks, employing the entire choir of Durham Cathedral (with several members performing as soloists); choristers from Hey and Shaw chapels in Lancashire; Robert Jobson, organist from Leeds and the tutor of Miss Harwood; and musicians from local military bands such as that of the Huntingdon Battalion.46 These extravagant productions seem to have led to his bankruptcy in 1781;47 thereafter, for several years he struggled to put on a reduced series of only three concerts, held monthly between January and March, before ill health prompted him to withdraw.48 A brief experiment with a series chiefly of vocal music organized by musicians from Durham Cathedral apparently proved unprofitable, and the series lapsed.49 Public support for a series seems limited at this time: an attempt by Charles Avison’s younger son (also Charles) to revive the series in 1790 appears to have met with limited success.50 Although evidence is sparse, the series seems then to have been taken up by the gentlemen of the Musical Society: an advertisement of 1792 refers to ‘the Committee of the Subscription Concerts’.51 A further, short series in the spring of 1794 was put on by the town’s foremost musician, Thomas Wright, who, being leader of the Musical Society band, may have put on his series with the Society’s support.52 No further series are advertised for the period 1795–98. The town’s regard for music then appears to have revived, 44 For details, see Roz Southey, ‘Commercial Music-Making in Eighteenth-Century North-East England: a pale reflection of London?’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Newcastle, 2001), pp. 222–9. 45 Edward Avison’s first subscription series was advertised in the Newcastle Courant of 22 September 1770; Matthias Hawdon’s first series was advertised in the same newspaper on 18 October 1777. 46 Newcastle Chronicle, 21 October 1780, 12 September 1778, and 17 March 1781; Newcastle Courant, 8 November 1779. On these personnel, see also pp. 103–6, 112, and 206–8. 47 Hawdon’s bankruptcy is noted in the records of the engraver Thomas Bewick, to whom Hawdon owed money for the printing of concert tickets. From Bewick’s records, it is possible to deduce that Hawdon owed his various creditors a total of around £300; Tyne and Wear Archives, 1,269/12, Bewick’s Accounts, 28 July 1781. 48 Newcastle Courant, 3 December 1785. 49 Ibid., 10 December 1785 and 4 March 1786. 50 Newcastle Advertiser, 16 January, 27 February, and 27 March 1790. 51 Newcastle Courant, 21 April 1792. 52 Ibid., 7 December 1793.

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prompted by a growing patriotic interest in military music (witnessed elsewhere in the country too, with the onset of the French Wars).53 A Newcastle Volunteer Corps was set up in January 1795, and its band, led by Wright, was certainly in existence by July. From 1795 until 1802, the band held two large-scale and highly popular public concerts each year, one for its own benefit and the other for the benefit of its leader. For the most part they played patriotic music, including a large number of new pieces composed by Wright and other band-members. This renewed interest in music seems to have given rise to a new subscription series, which was set up in 1797 and continued until 1803.54 This flourishing of music and of the subscription series – however limited and brief – was in direct contradistinction to the situation in other towns in the area, where subscription and other concerts were languishing at this time. William Hudson gave up his organization of York concerts in 1800, when financial difficulties became too great; in Durham and Sunderland subscription series lapsed in the early 1790s, and thereafter seem to have been almost non-existent. These turn-of-the-century concert series in Newcastle were organized by a body named in advertisements simply as ‘the Committee appointed for conducting the subscription series’.55 It is possible that this was the public face of the Musical Society, although the sparse evidence does not allow firm conclusions on this. No records for the Musical Society survive, and only a few newspaper advertisements, but an almost complete set of handbills for the subscription series allows at least a partial reconstruction of the list of gentlemen involved. Each handbill includes a brief outline of the evening’s programme, gives the words of the songs, and, at the bottom, the names of two men denoted respectively president and vicepresident. These two names change for each concert. A total of 40 different men fulfilled these two offices between 1797 and 1803, of whom well over half appear only once or twice.56 Only seven men make multiple appearances, the most frequent being Edward Kentish, who acted as vice-president on ten occasions, chiefly in 1801–2.57 It is not possible, at present, to identify all of these individuals or their relative social status. Their duties are not clearly stated, but it is likely that they performed the same function as similar officials for subscription series held in Newcastle in the early nineteenth century. In these latter concerts, the president was responsible for the choice of music and the vice-president for the organization and orderly running of the concert on the night.58 A preliminary study of the programmes suggests that there was little difference in the repertoire chosen by individual presidents: Haydn and Pleyel remained ever-popular, with 53 See Roz Southey, ‘Music and Politics, 1793–1813, Section 2: The Volunteer Band, Newcastle upon Tyne’, in Mark Philp (ed.), Resisting Napoleon: the British response to the threat of invasion 1797–1815 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 179–84. 54 Songs sung at the subscription, and other, concerts in Newcastle upon Tyne 1790– 1883 [sic], programmes collected by William Boyd, Newcastle Central Library, L780.73. 55 Newcastle Courant, 22 September 1798. 56 Boyd, Songs, passim. 57 Ibid. 58 Regulations of the Subscription Concerts, 1809, Newcastle Central Library, L.942.52.

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a considerable input of instrumental music by Thomas Wright, and of songs by the organist of St Nicholas’s Church in the town, Thomas Thompson. The series thrived for four years between 1798 and 1802, but increasingly ambitious plans, which involved the hiring of young but relatively expensive female singers from London, seem to have provoked a financial crisis in 1803.59 No record survives of another series until 1809; it is not clear whether the series lapsed or continued on a smaller scale. The last of our four aspects of amateur involvement remains to be explored: the extent to which amateurs actually took part in the concerts. The evidence for this is somewhat patchy, and almost nothing is known in connection with the York and Newcastle series. The only firm information concerning Avison’s orchestra comes from the 1738 advertisement in which he announced his take-over of the Newcastle concerts; this states that the gentlemen, despite withdrawing from the organization of the series, still intended ‘to assist him with their Performance’.60 It seems likely that the bulk of Avison’s band was made up of amateurs, led by a professional leader and with one or two other professional musicians also taking part; this would seem to be a similar model to that which operated in other towns in the region, and also to the situation in Edinburgh, for example.61 Our chief evidence for the involvement of amateur personnel as performers in subscription concerts comes from elsewhere in the north-east. In Sunderland, for instance, where a subscription series was run by Durham Cathedral personnel for some years, an advertisement for a concert in 1778 notes that ‘the Assistance of the Deletante [sic] of the Town and Neighbourhood will be esteemed a very great Favour’.62 In 1785, again in Sunderland, a performance of Messiah was advertised to be given ‘by the Choir of Durham, assisted by the Musical Gentlemen of the Town and Neighbourhood’.63 And in 1792, an advertisement for a benefit appeared with the rider that, ‘as the Gentlemen Performers, not only of Sunderland, but of Newcastle also, have kindly promised Mr Wright their Assistance on the night, the Band will be much more numerous than usual’.64 All this indicates that the participation of musical amateurs was frequent in Sunderland, and it is probable that this was the case throughout the region. Only one instance of these amateur performers actually being named has been found to date, probably because such public exposure was considered immodest, and because it blurred the lines between professional musicians, who were

59 Newcastle Courant, 30 January 1802; Newcastle Chronicle, 13 December 1802. 60 Newcastle Courant, 29 July 1738. 61 For details of the gentlemen of the Edinburgh Musical Society, and their relationship with the professional musicians they employed to guide and lead their band, see Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 31–60. 62 Newcastle Chronicle, 4 April 1778. ‘Dilettante’, like the word ‘amateur’, did not have the negative connotations that it has today. In the eighteenth century it signified a lover of the fine arts – someone who indulged in them for personal satisfaction, rather than professionally – and it was, if anything, a compliment. 63 Newcastle Courant, 5 March 1785. 64 Ibid., 26 May 1792.

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relatively low in social status, and elite amateurs, who might be suspected of receiving remuneration for their appearance. Thus, the leader of the Darlington Subscription Concerts in 1765 was referred to in an advertisment merely as ‘a private Gentleman’.65 One of the reviews of a musical festival held in Durham in 1792,66 however, went into unusual detail about the instrumental items and concluded: We must not omit mentioning that the Band was greatly strengthened by several Gentlemen Performers who politely came forward and gave their assistance; amongst the number we could distinguish the Rev. Mr. Nesfield, Rev. Mr. Greville, Rev. Mr. Viner, Mr. Methold, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Bainbridge, Mr. F. Forster and many others.67

Not all of these can be identified at present, but several – Mr Bainbridge and Mr Methold, for instance – were members of local gentry families. The Revd Mr Nesfield, Vicar of Chester-le-Street, played a flute concerto, which was described by the reviewer as ‘delightful’.68 To sum up: it is clear that gentlemen amateurs provided the financial and organizational backing for subscription series in both York and Newcastle, although firm evidence of their involvement in Newcastle exists only for a few years at the beginning and end of the century. In both centres, however, the series devolved into the hands of professional musicians, apparently because of financial difficulties. Gentlemen amateurs tended to have overambitious plans which were financially risky, although, as is shown by the case of Matthias Hawdon in Newcastle, professional musicians were not immune to this failing either. In addition, gentlemen were frequent performers in concerts, generally in rank-and-file roles, but occasionally taking solo parts. This is not an insignificant consideration, as the presence of amateurs must have affected the repertoire composed for these orchestras – Avison’s expressed dislike for double-stopping, for instance, was probably influenced by the practical difficulties he experienced in Newcastle.69 Evidence from Edinburgh indicates that towards the end of the century the amateurs of the Musical Society were reluctant to adopt works which were technically more difficult, and preferred works from earlier in the century, 65 Ibid., 14 September 1765. 66 On the festival itself, see Newcastle Courant, 17–19 October 1792. The festival was held for the dedication of the organ at the church of St Mary le Bow; proceeds were donated to the new infirmary in the city – one of the few occasions in the north-east when concerts were held for philanthropic purposes. 67 Ibid., 20 October 1792. 68 Ibid. 69 Avison argues that double stops ‘only deaden the Tone, spoil the Expression, and obstruct the Execution […] they baffle the Performer’s Art, and bring down one good Instrument to the State of two indifferent ones’: Charles Avison, An Essay on Musical Expression (London: C. Davies, 1752), p. 92. See also Pierre Dubois (ed.), Charles Avison’s Essay on Musical Expression, with related writings by William Hayes and Charles Avison (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), p. 42.

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which they considered easier to play.70 Moreover, Avison’s preference for the concerto grosso form, even while his friend, John Garth of Durham, was exploring the new solo concerto style in his cello concertos, suggests not only personal preference, but also practical considerations; the combination of relatively simple rank-and-file parts with more taxing parts for first violin, cello, and other principals may highlight the difference between his amateur and professional players.71 This would have suited the composition of his band and also accounts for the popularity of these concerti with amateur musical societies throughout the country; subscription lists for Avison’s concerti reveal that at least 17 different musical societies purchased the music, including societies close at hand, such as Durham, Darlington, and Carlisle, and those further afield, such as Dublin, Glasgow, Nottingham, and Spalding.72 Assessing the influence of amateurs on other repertoire heard in these concerts is rather more problematic, given the paucity of evidence, but it is clear that this influence was exerted in Newcastle, at least at the turn of the century. On the individual gentlemen amateurs whose names survive, however, work remains to be done in determining their social status and the full extent of their personal involvement in commercial music-making.

70 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 63–4. 71 It is important to note, however, that many amateurs were extremely gifted players, as witnessed in the musical activities of John Marsh; see Brian Robins (ed.), The John Marsh Journals: the life and times of a gentleman composer (1752–1828) (Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon, 1998). 72 Burchell, ‘Musical Societies’. Burchell provides a full list of musical societies that purchased Avison’s music: Aberdeen, Carlisle, Darlington, Derby, Dublin, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Lincoln, Newcastle, Norwich, the Senior Music Society at Nottingham, Oxford, Spalding, Whitehaven, and York.

Chapter 6

The String Quartet in Eighteenth-century Provincial Concert Life Meredith McFarlane

The dissemination and reception of a musical genre in any given locality will, inevitably, depend on the particular character and intensity of musical life in that area. The progress of the string quartet is a case in point. The development of the quartet was synchronous with escalating interest in, and incidence of, public music-making in late eighteenth-century England. And there can be no doubt that its widespread acceptance as a chamber item in concert programmes was facilitated by thriving musical activity in so many English towns at the time that the string quartet was gaining popularity. Its increasing vitality notwithstanding, English concert life was fragile, and fluctuations in documented activity suggest that such ventures were risky to say the least. Crucial was the network of local musical societies which proliferated throughout England by the late eighteenth century, alongside the less formalized domestic musical circles or parties. In this context, local amateurs (supported by guest professionals) would regularly get together to play chamber music. While the capital’s increasingly professionalized concert scene was heavily weighted towards commercial enterprise, outside the metropolis a clear delineation between commercial endeavour and other musical activity is not always so easily discernible. In the provinces, where resources were often limited, there was a characteristic overlap between, on the one hand, domestic and public musical events, and, on the other, amateur and professional activity.1 Focusing on the string quartet, which embodied the latest musical styles, enables us to assess the role and importance of musical centres outside the capital in marketing and integrating new music successfully into concert programmes. Detailed studies of music-making in the provinces have tended to focus on a specific town or region’s musical activities as a whole,2 but the inspiration for 1 These themes are also explored in Roz Southey’s chapter (Chapter 5) in this volume. 2 For example, see David Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of institutional music-making in York, c. 1550–1990 (York: York Settlement Trust, [1994]); Kenneth James, ‘Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Bath’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 1987); Roz Southey, Music-Making in North-East

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this study is Jenny Burchell’s Polite or Commercial Concerts?,3 which compares the orchestral repertoire and organization of concert life in a range of different towns. Taking this approach with a chamber genre, which was less likely to be a standard fixture in concert programmes at this time, sheds further light on the relative independence or progressiveness of provincial musical centres in comparison with London,4 particularly in terms of exponents and repertoire. The extent of amateur involvement and the gradual professionalization of such chamber repertoire in public concerts also emerges as a significant theme. It is likely that quartets were performed by concert organizations in locations ranging from regional centres to prosperous small villages, but this chapter will concentrate on six of the larger English provincial centres: Chichester, Norwich, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle. It is to be expected that Chichester and Norwich would be rich in musical culture, for such ‘cathedral cities, with their choirs, grand organs and snug “society” gathered around a cathedral close, had the best environments for music to flourish in’.5 Though subject to extensive redevelopment in the 1700s, Chichester remained relatively uncommercialized through the eighteenth century, preserving its status as a cathedral city and market town. Norwich, on the other hand, was a prosperous centre for agriculture and cloth manufacturing, and, as ‘one of the largest cities outside London’,6 the likelihood that the latest cultural attractions would be disseminated there was substantially increased. With its constant influx of visitors, Bath was even more likely to benefit from such cultural flow; it was England’s most fashionable resort town, and its preoccupation with public amusements on a grand scale assured a vibrant concert life. Concerts provided the prime source of public entertainment in Oxford, but, in contrast to Bath, Oxford’s musical life was closely regulated and generated through the University which, in spite of its membership making up only a small percentage of the population, formed the main focus of the town’s commercial enterprise.7 England during the Eighteenth century (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006); and Susan Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Oxford: OUP, 2001). 3 Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: concert management and orchestral repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799 (New York: Garland, 1996). 4 Information on London’s concerts has been compiled from Simon McVeigh, Calendar of London Concerts 1750–1800, unpublished database, Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. See Meredith McFarlane and Simon McVeigh, ‘The String Quartet in London Concert Life, 1769–1799’, in Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (eds), Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 161–96. 5 John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination: English culture in the eighteenth century (London: HarperCollins, 1997), p. 536. 6 Trevor Fawcett, Music in Eighteenth-Century Norwich and Norfolk (Norwich: University of East Anglia, 1979), p. 1. 7 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 15, 17, and 171. As Susan Wollenberg observes in her article ‘Music in 18th-Century Oxford’, ‘The title of this paper might more accurately have been phrased “Music in the University of Oxford in the 18th Century”, although in fact, then as now, town and gown appear closely connected from a musical point of view’, PRMA, 108 (1981–2): 69–99 (p. 69).

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Manchester, as the hub of the cotton industry and trade,8 and Newcastle, for coal mining, export, and concomitant industries, attracted civic-minded, educated and wealthy businessmen, merchants, and professionals. Though they were ‘late additions to the catalogue of cultured centres’,9 the towns’ rapidly growing industrial pre-eminence (in light and heavy manufacturing respectively) meant that their musical life was flourishing by the time the string quartet was introduced to the concert stage. This chapter is based on the extraction and analysis of public concert data from a variety of sources, largely from newspaper advertisements in the local press.10 There are obvious hazards in correlating historical information about different places and from different types of sources, and no attempt has been made here to resolve the inherent discrepancies and significant lacunae in documentation. Of particular concern is an imbalance in the newspaper coverage of concerts among my chosen locations: it has been possible to collate far more complete records for Bath, Newcastle, Oxford, and Norwich, than it has been for Manchester and Chichester. Information on various aspects of string-quartet performance in the latter two towns is more illuminating, however, owing to the nature of other extant sources. One certainty is that only a fraction of all concerts held in the provinces would have been advertised. Furthermore, whereas the type of information provided in London newspaper advertisements became consistently more detailed after 1785, there is no corresponding turning point in the data available from newspapers for this study. Typically, advertisements list composer and genre but, as they do not consistently indicate instrumentation, it is not always possible to differentiate between string quartets and those that include wind instruments. These caveats aside, this study will establish the nature and significance of string-quartet performance in English life, by examining a wide cross-section of urban centres. Apart from the standard orchestral and concerted items, the quartet was the most prevalent instrumental genre in the public concerts considered for this study. Other favoured items included duets, trios, quintets, sonatas, and marches. Typically quartets represented over half of the chamber repertoire performed. The emphasis on variety meant that no two items of the same genre occurred in succession on the same programme; on the rare occasions that more than one quartet was featured in a single concert, they appeared in separate acts. Quartets were usually featured as a central instrumental piece (that is, neither an opener nor a finale in either half).

8 Wilfrid Allis, ‘The Gentlemen’s Concerts: Manchester, 1777–1920’ (unpublished MPhil dissertation, University of Manchester, 1995), p. 17. 9 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, p. 243. 10 Building on data compiled by Burchell, Southey, Robins, and others (see notes above). I am grateful to Jenny Burchell, Roz Southey, and Brian Robins for their generosity in sharing research and answering queries.

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Concerts in the English provinces came and went under myriad auspices and titles. However, two main types, both of which featured regular string-quartet performances, were common to all localities under examination here: benefits and subscription series. The overwhelming majority of quartet performances uncovered in Bath and Norwich took place at benefits. Such concerts constituted indispensable earnings for professional musicians, and the string quartet’s frequent appearance in these overtly commercialized and highly fashionable concerts highlights the popularity of the genre. Greater flexibility in the structure of benefit concerts (which were more inclined to reflect the performers’ interests in terms of taste and organization) may have facilitated the inclusion of novel chamber items. And perhaps there was some financial incentive in programming works written for smaller forces.11 By convention, based on reciprocity, performers played gratis for the benefit concerts of other musicians; money probably did change hands, however, on an ad hoc basis. In Manchester, quartets were also mainly performed at benefits, which ‘form the largest category of extant programmes’.12 Occasionally these fell under the auspices of the ‘Gentlemen’s Concert’, also known as the ‘Manchester Musical Society’ – after 1770, this was the main musical organization responsible for concerts of a commercial orientation, which were given alongside their regular private meetings.13 The proliferation of subscription concerts in Bath and the active profile of the Norwich Musical Society suggest that string quartets would also have been performed in these contexts.14 Likewise Oxford’s Musical Society mounted subscription concerts; here vocal items were outnumbered by instrumental works, and quartets for flute and strings were frequently among the latter after they were introduced in 1774 (see p. 137 below). Three years later, the Newcastle series followed suit, capitalizing on the marketability of a developing

11 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 136–7. 12 Ibid., p. 264. 13 ‘The society gave six miscellaneous and six choral concerts in the year. For those nights tickets were issued to the subscribers, admitting ladies, or non-subscribing gentlemen who were strangers in the town. There were also private concerts every Tuesday evening, of which one in each month was for practice, preparation and rehearsal for the public nights, and then none but performers were admitted. […] At a later period the “private concerts” as they were then called, were given once a month, on Thursday evening.’ Introductory comments, probably by John Harland, to ‘The Earlier Days of the “Gentlemen’s Concerts”’ (1850), in John Harland (ed.), Collectanea Relating to Manchester and its Neighbourhood, at Various Periods, vol. 2, Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, 72 (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1867), pp. 77–91 (p. 78). 14 Far fewer quartet performances have been uncovered in the various Bath subscription concerts than in benefit concerts, but there were at least some (17, as compared to 38). In Norwich, on the other hand, no records exist of string-quartet performance in the subscription series. In view of the active profile of the Norwich Musical Society, however, which presented at least seven concerts per season in the 1780s and 1790s, and the obvious popularity of the genre among Norwich concert-goers (from its frequent inclusion in local benefits), it would seem most unlikely that they were not performed in this context.

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genre: advertisements for these concerts frequently included the catch-phrase ‘music entirely new’.15 In Chichester, string-quartet performance was inextricably linked to the musical endeavours of the amateur violinist and composer John Marsh, who took over the leadership and management of the subscription concerts on his move to the southern cathedral town in 1787. The Chichester concert calendar typically operated as a half-yearly winter cycle from October to March – unusually for a provincial centre, it would seem, since it clashed with the opening months of the London season – with alternating public and private concerts at more or less fortnightly intervals.16 Marsh’s journals are laden with anecdotes of his activities as a string-quartet connoisseur, and this partiality is certainly discernible in his concert programming. His programmes were carefully crafted: as befitting the author of the essay ‘Thoughts on the Different Styles of Music & comparison between the Ancient & Modern’ (Monthly Magazine, 2 (1796): 981–7), he strove to find a balance in his Chichester concerts in terms of style, genre, and forces, working within the practical constraints of his personnel. By far the larger portion of documented string-quartet performances occurred on private evenings, to which only subscribers were admitted. It is tempting to see this as a strategy for keeping such chamber repertoire for performance within a more intimate context. However, Marsh would have been well aware of the wide appeal of quartet performances on the London concert stage.17 Far more likely was his desire to experiment with such novel and exposed repertoire in a less formal setting, and so to prepare these difficult ensemble pieces for performance on the public nights.18 The most celebrated public concerts outside London were those of the provincial musical festivals, which were a vital and vibrant part of eighteenthcentury musical life. Typically, miscellaneous concerts were scheduled in the evenings, ‘the items being chosen to display the abilities of the principal vocalists and instrumentalists’.19 As early as 1770, quartets were included in a programme from the Salisbury Festival of St Cecilia, at which ‘Mr Malchair, Simpson, Richards and Lates displayed their taste and execution in playing two elegant quartettes, composed by Mr Bach’.20 Of the festival performances featuring 15 Information from Roz Southey. 16 Robins, ‘John Marsh and Provincial Music Making in Eighteenth-Century England’, RMARC, 29 (1996): 96–142 (p. 97). 17 See McFarlane and McVeigh, ‘The String Quartet in London Concert Life’, pp. 166–7. 18 As Robins points out, ‘it was Marsh’s practice throughout his directorship to use private concerts as a rehearsal for new or more complex pieces to be played in the succeeding concert, and it would therefore be reasonable to suggest that many private concert listings equally apply to the following public concert’: ‘John Marsh and Provincial Music Making’, p. 107. 19 Brian W. Pritchard, ‘The Provincial Festivals of the Ashley Family’, Galpin Society Journal, 22 (1969): 58–77 (pp. 61 and 75). 20 Douglas J. Reid and Brian Pritchard, ‘Some Festival Programmes of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 1. Salisbury and Winchester’, RMARC, 5 (1965): 51–67 (pp. 57–8).

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a string quartet in the towns under discussion, the highlight must surely be ‘The First Grand Music Festival in the Theatre at Oxford’ in 1791: a three-day event marking the Commemoration – the annual celebration in memory of the University’s founders and benefactors – at which Haydn was presented with an honorary doctorate. Advertisements announced that ‘the Powers of several eminent Professors will be displayed in a great Variety of admired Compositions from the Works of Handel, and many [of] the most approved Masters of the present Day’21 – remarkably, the string quartet performed was not composed by the honorary master himself, but by his former pupil, Ignaz Pleyel. Pleyel’s string quartets had previously been showcased at the Norwich Grand Music Festival of September 1790: one was performed at each of the three miscellaneous evening concerts by ‘Messrs. Cramer, F. Cramer, Hague and Smith’.22 Apart from Charles Hague, the Cambridge musician and university professor,23 the quartet was made up of prominent London instrumentalists, well-accustomed to performing stringquartet repertoire together in fashionable West End concerts.24 The intense competition among professional string players in London’s public concerts – striving to gain employment in the fastest-growing music market in Europe, let alone to establish and maintain a reputable career – meant that chamber music tended to be reserved for orchestral section leaders.25 Amateur string-quartet performance in public was thus confined to the provinces, but even here it appears to have been somewhat marginalized; it was far more likely to occur in the context of musical society concerts (for example, in Manchester and Chichester), than those of a more commercial orientation (the extreme examples being Bath, which was as professionalized as the metropolis, or the festivals which relied on imported talent). Amateur concertizing came into its own on Chichester’s private nights, when the involvement of the town’s non-professional musicians was required; professionals were only employed when the prospect of a large audience justified the expense.26 Apart from Marsh, who only occasionally (and then with some reluctance) relinquished his position as first violinist in a bid to appear even-handed, the regular quartet line-up among the Chichester string amateurs remains obscure. Indeed, 21 Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 11 June 1791, quoted in Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, p. 229. The concert was held at the Sheldonian Theatre on 6 July 1791. 22 Norfolk Chronicle, 14, 21, and 28 August 1790; The Grand Miscellaneous Concerts, as they will be performed, on Wednesday Evening the 8th, Thursday the 9th, and Friday the 10th of September, 1790, at the New Hall, St. Andrew’s (Norwich, 1790). See also Fawcett, Music in Eighteenth-Century Norwich and Norfolk, pp. 19–20. 23 Joseph Doane, A Musical Directory for the Year 1794 (London: Doane, 1794; repr. RCM, 1993), p. 29; and William Gardiner, Music and Friends (3 vols, London: Longman; Leicester: Combe & Crossley, 1838–53), vol. 1, p. 30. 24 For discussion of London performers, see McFarlane and McVeigh, ‘The String Quartet in London Concert Life’, pp. 167–72. 25 Ibid. 26 As Robins indicates, ‘expensive professionals and soloists were not hired on such occasions (and if they did agree to play it was for a reduced fee)’: ‘John Marsh and Provincial Music Making’, p. 98.

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Marsh appears to have capitalized on the constant stream of musical visitors and new residents to keep the pool of amateur chamber musicians fresh and interesting. Nonetheless, from his accounts of frequent quartet parties in the homes of fellow musical enthusiasts in Chichester,27 the main string players who seem likely to have extended such activities by appearing in the town’s private concerts would include Revds Kinleside (cello), Toghill (cello), and Moore (viola) – the latter two being vicars choral of the Chichester Chapter; the violinist or violist Mr C. Smith, chosen as a steward for the 1796–97 season; and the composer and organist Dr Theodore Aylward (viola), who published a set of quartets (op. 4) in 1794.28 For the public nights, one of the most important sources of professional string players was the Sussex Militia Band kept by Charles Lennox, third duke of Richmond and Lord-Lieutenant of the county, at his nearby estate, Goodwood House. The band was not made up exclusively of wind and brass; indeed, the duke’s foresight in engaging the teaching services of string virtuosi such as Luigi Borghi, Giovanni Salpietro, and John Crosdill, assured a worthy string contingent, which, Marsh noted, enabled them ‘to form a band by themselves for playing symphonies concertos or quartettos together’.29 Among the militia string players likely to have contributed to public quartet performances in the Chichester concerts were the one-time master of the band, Clark; the younger (but stronger, according to Marsh) second violinist, Cramer; the violist Hardy; and principal cellist Hyler. (All of these men also played clarinet in the army band.30) Indeed, Marsh records having been ‘assisted by Hyler, Clark & the 2 horns of the Sussex Band’ in an informal concert in July 1787, at which three of his works were performed, including his ‘Quartetto in B . (No. 40)’.31 And Hyler’s performance in a Pleyel quartet with a ‘rather obligato’ bass became a lynchpin in negotiations for further remuneration at the subscription concerts.32 Along with other local professionals, the militia string players were often engaged



27 See The John Marsh Journals: the life and times of a gentleman composer (1752–1828), ed. Brian Robins (Stuyvesant NY: Pendragon, 1998), pp. 404, 405, 409, 418, 426, 431, 519, 529, 569, 577, 635, and 732. For discussion of Marsh’s activities in the domestic sphere, see Meredith McFarlane, ‘The String Quartet in Late EighteenthCentury England: a contextual examination’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, RCM, 2002), pp. 102–8. 28 Aylward worked as a professional organist (at St George’s Chapel, Windsor). However, at the concerts in Chichester (where he had a house for many years and continued to visit annually after moving to Windsor), he appears to have been accepted by the musical community on amateur terms. 29 John Marsh Journals, p. 404. The violinist Borghi and the cellist Crosdill were well known from regular appearances on the London concert platform, where both performed string quartets. Salpietro performed in the orchestra of the King’s Theatre, the Pantheon (1790–91), and at the Professional Concert, Hanover Square. 30 See John Marsh Journals, pp. 404–5, for Marsh’s descriptions of key members of the military band. It remains unclear whether this Cramer was related to the family of musicians of that name who were active in England. 31 Ibid., p. 409. For further discussion, see p. 143 below. 32 Ibid., pp. 508–9.

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to make up quartets and other chamber-music groupings in the constant round of musical parties at the homes of Chichester amateurs.33 During the Napoleonic Wars, regiments were frequently shuffled around the country. Although the Chichester musical community sorely missed the Sussex Militia Band when it was stationed elsewhere, they benefited from the participation of musicians from visiting companies posted at Goodwood. For example, Captain Quist of the Lancashire Fencibles Regiment, whose playing Marsh found ‘eminent’, guest-led the opening subscription concert of the 1794–95 season. That his chosen programme unusually included two string quartets by Pleyel is not surprising, given that he ‘played a quartetto almost ev’ry evening […] in his tent’ with members of the Lancashire Band.34 Major Goodenough, ‘a capital fiddle player of the old school’,35 who led the Duke of Richmond’s private band in London performances, was another, more regular musical visitor to Chichester. In their many quartet sessions together,36 Marsh much admired Goodenough’s playing of Haydn quartets, ‘the 1st. fiddle of w’ch the Major was reckon’d to excell in’.37 He was understandably dismayed, therefore, when Goodenough opted for an entirely ancient programme when given free rein on his night as guest leader in December 1788.38 Goodenough’s subsequent guest nights, however, included string quartets such as Haydn’s op. 1, no. 4, and ‘the 10th of the miscellaneous quartettos (made from old airs [published by William Napier in 1776]) of all w’ch Lady Louisa [Lennox] was very fond’.39 In addition to members of the Sussex Militia Band, various other professional string players were employed during Marsh’s tenure as manager, including the violinists ‘old’ Mr Payne (who had previously led the concerts) and Stephen Sibly (a local organist and choirmaster, who also directed the Portsmouth concerts);40 33 For example, see ibid., pp. 411, 418, 506, 519, 635, and 732. 34 Ibid., p. 563. 35 Ibid., p. 421. 36 For example, see ibid., pp. 421, 441, and 506. 37 Ibid., p. 421. 38 ‘He however it seem’d was determin’d to be master this evening & wo’d hearken to no proposal in favor of a little modern music, in w’ch I did not think he altogether behaved very civilly in regard to me, who had usually had the principal management of the Concert & went thro’ all the drudgery of attending rehearsals, settling with the performers etc.’, ibid., p. 443. The programme included Handel’s overtures to Samson, Arianna, and Otho; Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D op. 6, no.1; and Stanley’s Concerto in B flat op. 2, no. 6; see Robins, ‘John Marsh and Provincial Music Making’, p. 113. 39 John Marsh Journals, p. 463. 40 Quartets were also performed in the Portsmouth concerts; for example, Marsh and Sibly played in quartets by Pleyel on 16 January 1793 and 14 April 1794 – the former being ‘Pleyel’s 2d. Quartetto of the 7th. sett’ dedicated to the Prince of Wales, B. 347; see John Marsh Journals, pp. 532 and 548. Sibly’s ‘rasp[ish]’ playing was the cause of considerable concern: ‘Mr. Hindmarsh complain’d much of Sibly’s manner of playing the 2d. fiddle at the concert of the even’g before, particularly in the quartetto, w’ch he played throughout so loud that Hindmarsh co’d not as he said play his part with any pleasure or effect. This is a matter I had often had reason to complain of at Chichester, where

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and cellists Charles Hill from Winchester, and Joseph Reinagle, previously employed by the Oxford Musical Society (both of whom also performed in London). While such professionals were likely to have participated in stringquartet performances, they were paid to support, rather than eclipse, the local Chichester amateurs.41 And, as Robins notes, ‘Marsh makes it clear on a number of occasions that some of the gentlemen players were unquestionably of a calibre fully equal to their professional colleagues’.42 Such amateur performance was relatively shortlived, however, and gradually phased out with the growing technical challenges of increasingly soloistic chamber repertoire towards the end of the century. As Robins argues, ‘the original function of music societies to provide playing opportunities for gentlemen performers increasingly [gave] way to non-participatory audiences whose demand for higher standards resulted in an ever-growing necessity for professional stiffening’.43 Indeed, even under Marsh’s careful direction, string-quartet performance in Chichester was often contingent upon the interaction and combined forces of amateurs and professionals. The forces required for string-quartet performance matched the basic string complement required for much of the repertoire of this period (constituting, for example, the core concertino group), and this may have encouraged the inclusion of quartets in provincial programmes where resources were often limited. Nonetheless, the availability of personnel was still an important consideration: this repertoire was unlikely to be performed by players inexperienced in the idiom, whether professional or amateur. The high proportion of flute quartets in the Oxford concerts, for example, was almost certainly influenced by the presence of the leading flautist Paul Jackson.44 Conversely, the deliberate establishment of a string contingent in Chichester must have contributed to the regularity of stringquartet performance in concerts there. Apart from festival concerts, in which string quartets were performed by touring virtuosi from the capital, provincial string-quartet performance tended to operate independently of concert life in London in terms of personnel. In Bath, for example, concert advertisements in newspapers confirm that quartets were performed by a remarkably stable ensemble of local professionals – James Brooks, William Rogers, John Loder, and Alexander Herschel – whose ensemble remained unchanged from 1788 until

it generally seem’d as if it was the drift of the 2d. violin to overpower the first’: ibid., p. 608. 41 For details of the terms by which these musicians were engaged, see Robins, ‘John Marsh and Provincial Music Making’, pp. 105–6; and Brewer, Pleasures of the Imagination, p. 566. 42 Robins, ‘John Marsh and Provincial Music Making’, p. 105. 43 Ibid., pp. 97 and 102. 44 Paul Jackson is often named in Oxford’s concert advertisements, and was described by Philippe Jung, a violinist and fellow band member, as ‘un des premiers joueurs de Flute traversière’. See Jung, Guide d’Oxford (1789), p. 90, quoted in Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, p. 197.

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at least 1795.45 Both Brooks and Rogers, first and second violinists respectively, were contracted to the New Assembly Rooms from 1771, and Brooks’s status as a virtuoso is apparent both from his surviving violin concerto,46 and his solo performances in the Bath concerts. He was, for example, one of two violinists engaged to perform solo concerti in the sacred subscription concerts, the other being Viotti. Brooks is also known to have performed and directed music at Bath’s pleasure-garden concerts, and was secretary to the Catch Club from 1794. The violist (and violinist) John Loder was described in his Bath Herald obituary of 1795 as ‘a respectable Musician of the Pump Room band’, but he also performed regularly at the New Assembly Rooms and Spring Gardens. The benefit concert held for his widow, at which ‘the whole Band obligingly offered their assistance’, confirms the regard in which Loder was held. The cellist, Alexander Herschel, was likewise a prominent local musician and leading performer in Bath’s subscription concerts.47 In addition to their string-quartet performances, Brooks, Rogers, and Herschel also performed together in the many oboe, flute, and clarinet quartets that featured in Bath’s programmes.48 Perhaps their enduring collaboration might have been encouraged by financial incentives? The increased fees often received by prominent instrumentalists (as distinct from rank-and-file players) may certainly have applied in the context of Bath’s prosperous musical industry; but while the string quartet may have been viewed as a market opportunity by some enlightened concert promoters, in general it would be some decades before they were rewarded at a commensurate level. While Bath’s concerts were ‘characterized by the frequent appearance of pre-eminent musicians from elsewhere in Britain […] or abroad [… who] usually stayed only a short time in Bath’,49 it is telling that all of the quartet performers were local professionals whose livelihood depended on the regular income provided by Bath’s prolific concert season. Visiting string players included Salomon, Pieltain, Crosdill, and Cervetto, all of whom were familiar with the quartet repertoire from their London engagements, 50 but none of whom appear to have performed such music in Bath where they were received as celebrities. Bath’s proximity to London allowed such distinguished performers to

45 One later concert advertisement which lists the same four names has been uncovered (Bath Journal, 4 January 1797), but seems unlikely in view of the death of the violist, John Loder, in 1795. Alexander was the brother of William Herschel, on whom see Rachel Cowgill’s chapter (Chapter 4) in this volume. 46 James Brooks, A Concerto for the Violin in Nine Parts […] No. 1 (London: for the author, [1792]). 47 Information on the Bath quartet members comes from Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 115, 118, 119, 125, 127, 135, 151, 159 and 160. 48 The oboe and flute parts were performed by Josiah Ashley and Andrew Ashe respectively. 49 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, p. 123. 50 See McFarlane and McVeigh, ‘The String Quartet in London Concert Life’, p. 170, for a table listing advertised string-quartet performers, including concert dates and ensemble combinations.

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make lucrative overnight appearances,51 but short visits of this nature would have precluded the rehearsals required to ensure tight ensemble playing in technically challenging string-quartet repertoire. Clearly, such chamber music was most suited to players who regularly performed together, and were therefore familiar with each other’s playing, as exemplified by the Bath quartet. There may also have been reluctance on the part of celebrated performers to play string quartets publicly with local musicians; apart from in festival concerts, players were rarely available in the provinces to form an all-star chamber ensemble. Moreover, the overwhelming desire of audiences, and therefore concert organizers, was to hear these leading performers in the overtly virtuosic concerto repertoire. Burchell has observed a link in Bath and Oxford between the frequency by which chamber music was included in the subscription concerts, and the presence in these towns of visiting virtuosi.52 However, the implication that chamber music featured more prominently when celebrity string players were on hand to perform such exposed repertoire publicly (alongside their standard fare of concertos and other solos) is not borne out with regard to string-quartet performance at least; such works appear to have been performed by resident professionals rather than touring soloists. London’s prosperous concert life attracted the most important Continental musicians of the day, and, with the exception of Boccherini and Mozart, most of the leading quartet composers had a place in the repertoire performed there. In addition, London’s concert milieu provided the impetus for a new, theatrical style of chamber music, best exemplified in the brilliant and virtuosic quartetwriting of Pleyel and Haydn. But the capital was not the be-all and end-all. An independence and progressiveness is evident in provincial concert life not only in its more open attitudes towards local native composers, but also in the fact that (as will be discussed later) it was outside London that the first known English performances of Haydn took place. The early reception history of his quartets is particularly fascinating in the light of his later canonic status. Premières of works by less renowned but still significant quartet composers, such as Boccherini, also took place in the provinces. The dominance of Pleyel and Haydn suggests that the concertante style of quartet, so favoured by London audiences, was similarly popular in provincial concerts. But the inclusion of quartets by local musicians, alongside those which might be suitable for amateur participation and thus not usually heard outside the domestic setting – for example, the Miscellaneous Quartettos, a series of medleys of popular tunes compiled by the publisher and

51 ‘Bath musicians were protected by distance from London, sufficient to preserve their catchment area but close enough to allow such eminent soloists as Fischer, the oboist, to visit overnight. Since the Bath and London seasons roughly coincided, a musician had to make his base in one place or the other’: Cyril Ehrlich, The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century: a social history (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), p. 25. 52 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 131 and 205.

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string player William Napier53 – reveals the greater stylistic variety of quartets in provincial concert repertoire. Table 6.1 A comparative list of string-quartet repertoire in provincial centres by composer, 1768–99 Composer

London

Abel Barthélemon Boccherini Callcott Cambini Davaux Davy Distler Filtz Giardini Giordani Gyrowetz Haydn Hummel Kammel Kelly Kozeluch Mahon Marsh Miscellaneous† Noëlli Pieltain Pleyel Pugnani Raimondi Rauzzini Rawlings Sacchini Salomon Schwindl Shaw Stamitz Toeschi Vanhal †

Bath

* *

Newcastle

Oxford

*

*

Norwich Manchester Chichester

* * * * *

*

*

* *

* *

* *

* * * * *

* * *

*

*

*

*

*

* * * *

* * * * * * * * * *

*

*

*

*

*

*

* * *

*

* *

*

*

From William Napier, Miscellaneous Quartettos (see footnote 53 below).

53 Miscellaneous Quartetto[s] for two Violins a Tenor and Bass, or a Flute, Violin, Tenor and Bass, Consisting of The most favourite Airs selected from the English, Scotch, Irish, German, Italian, and French Musick; Composed Adapted and Arranged By the most Eminent Writers […] N.B. There will be a Quartetto of this kind Published every fortnight (London: for William Napier, [1776]).

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Table 6.1 surveys the string-quartet composers heard in the provinces compared with London. The choice of repertoire ultimately rested with individual concert organizers, and it is clear that such arbiters of taste did not feel the need to tread the same path as their London counterparts in concert programming. Of the 33 composers cited in Table 6.1, roughly two-thirds were featured in provincial concerts, and over half of them did not have quartets performed in London. In each of the towns discussed above, premières of quartets by at least one composer whose chamber music was otherwise unknown to English audiences have been uncovered. We have already mentioned the inclusion of a quartet by the highly individual, yet influential, Italian composer and cellist Luigi Boccherini,54 whose output of string quartets and quintets was prolific. Boccherini’s chamber music (composed mainly in Spain) was frequently published in London, and yet his string quartets appear not to have reached English concert audiences prior to 1800, with the exception of a single quartet performance in Norwich in 1777.55 Boccherini’s opp. 1 and 6 string quartets do appear, however, in a manuscript list of quartets belonging to the Oxford Musical Society (see Figure 6.2). Towards the end of the century, the son of John Reeve (a stalwart among the Norwich string players) programmed a recently published quartet by the Austrian violinistcomposer, Johann Georg Distler. Distler was a former pupil of Haydn, who also never visited England in spite of his works attracting some interest in the market for Continental chamber music.56 More surprisingly, among the quartet composers featured in Oxford’s concerts are the Bohemians Anton Filtz and his pupil Carl Joseph Toeschi; both were leading representatives of the Mannheim school, but neither visited England, and no performances of their quartets have been uncovered in London concerts or elsewhere in England. Similarly unusual was the Chichester performance of a quartet by Friedrich Schwindl, whose instrumental music also circulated well beyond his own sphere of activity – that is, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.57 In contrast, Tommaso Giordani, whose quartet was featured in Newcastle, had lived in the British Isles for much of his career. And, a quartet by ‘Master Hummel, only seven years old, and just arrived in Bath from Windsor’, was performed at the Bath subscription series in 1788.58 It seems doubtful that this was the renowned pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who, then aged ten, had just embarked on a European tour with his father and apparently did not arrive in Britain until 1790.59 A more likely 54 Boccherini had planned a visit to London in 1768, but instead went to Spain where he eventually settled; see Christian Speck and Stanley Sadie, ‘Boccherini, Luigi’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007). 55 The Norwich performance took place at ‘Mr. Reeve’s Concert of Music’ on 25 July 1777, in the Great Assembly Room (Norwich Mercury, 12 July 1777). 56 Johann Georg Distler, Three Quartettos for two Violins, Tenor and Violoncello. First Set (London: Corri, Dussek, & Co. [1795?]). See also ‘Distler, Johann Georg’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007). 57 Annaliese Downs, ‘Schwindl, Friedrich’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007). 58 Bath Chronicle, 12 November 1788. 59 Joel Sachs, ‘Hummel, Johann Nepomuk’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007).

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candidate is the ‘native prodigy, F.L. Hummell’,60 who was active in provincial concert life at this time. Also represented in the provincial quartet repertoire was the Portuguese composer, Georg Noëlli – the ‘only surviving’ exponent of the multi-stringed pantaleon (a large dulcimer)61 – a quartet by whom was performed at his benefit in Manchester, 1768. He was cited in the Manchester Mercury as the ‘Late Composer of Music to the Court of Brunswick’, where he had worked as a musician in 1765 before touring England for a second time.62 Of the quartets which were only featured in provincial concerts, almost all appear to have been heard in just one town. This reflects the relative autonomy of provincial concert life; it is telling that quartets by individual composers could be featured locally in spite of their chamber music achieving little or no recognition among audiences at a national level, other than having been published in the capital. In the case of native composers, the more supportive provincial context facilitated the promotion of their compositions. Burchell claims, for example, that a relatively high percentage of works by British composers was featured across all genres in Newcastle’s concerts.63 A performance of a quartet by Thomas Shaw, the violinist-composer who also worked as a musician in Bath and London, took place while he was still a young man, in 1778. This was programmed for the first of the 1778–79 Newcastle subscription series, for which ‘Mr Shaw (leader at Vauxhall)’ had been engaged ‘as principal Violin’.64 Unfortunately, none of Shaw’s quartets appear to have survived.65 In Oxford, quartets were included by the composer Mahon, most likely John Mahon (c. 1749–1834), better known for his virtuosic performances on the clarinet. It is certainly possible that these works were for clarinet and strings (as specified in another concert advertisement of 1778 and again in Norwich in 1786). However, it should be noted that John Mahon, like his brothers William and James, also played the violin and viola professionally and thus would have been familiar with the string-quartet repertoire.66 Indeed, in a journal entry for June 1778, John Marsh recalls a one-off string-quartet party 60 Ibid. 61 Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill, Music and Theatre in Handel’s World: the family papers of James Harris 1732–1780 (Oxford: OUP, 2002), p. 840. See also Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, p. 234. 62 Robert Stevenson, ‘Noëlli, Georg’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007). Both Gerber and Fétis refer to his quartets, but they are no longer extant. 63 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, p. 285. 64 Newcastle Courant, 7 November 1778. For Shaw, see Roz Southey’s chapter (Chapter 5) in this volume, at p. 120 and 123. 65 The only known extant piece of chamber music by Shaw is a trio for strings, apparently a ‘seriously intentioned work in G minor that would merit revival’: Roger Fiske/ Kenneth E. James, ‘Shaw, Thomas’ in GMO (accessed 16 December 2006). 66 Part of a large and celebrated family of English musicians, all four of the brothers – John, William, James, and Ross – were at one stage members of the Dorset Militia. John and William, at least, were also members of the Oxford Volunteers’ Band and gave their debuts at the Oxford Music Room in 1772 and 1774 respectively. James Mahon, otherwise little known, was a leading violinist employed in concerts of the Oxford Musical Society. He later sang bass and was also known as a cellist. See John Marsh Journals, pp. 180–81,

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in which he played Andreas Lidl’s quartets with John Mahon (as first violinist) and Ross Mahon (primarily a horn player, but also a cellist), following one of the brothers’ Salisbury appearances.67 And, on a return visit to Salisbury many years later, in 1791, Marsh again played under John Mahon’s leadership, on this occasion in a concert performance of ‘Giardini’s 3d. Quartetto’,68 possibly from his op. 29 string quartets, published in 1790. It is to be expected that Marsh’s own quartets featured among those known to have been performed in Chichester prior to 1800. Marsh was an able and dedicated composer, and travelled widely, usually with his violin and some of his own works; he was keen to take advantage of any musical opportunity, especially the chance to hear a newly composed score. Such efforts were not in vain: his music was not only played in the homes of friends and acquaintances, but also, on occasion, at the meetings of music societies throughout the land – even in London, at a meeting of the illustrious Anacreontic Society.69 However, of the ten string quartets written by Marsh, the only one known to have been given a public concert performance in Chichester, was his last quartet in B flat, which he identified as no. 40, also known as his op. 5.70 This was also the only one to have been published: Marsh himself arranged for the work to be printed by Preston in 1785, one year after its composition.71 Sadly, the rest of Marsh’s considerable chamber-music output – spanning over 20 years of composition from 1777 to 1799 and including a number of duets, trios, quintets, and divertimenti – is lost. Remarkably, the first known concert performance of the op. 5 quartet (28 January 1791) took place many years after its composition. Another performance has also been noted, again some and 744; Pamela Weston, ‘Mahon’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007); Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, p. 55. 67 ‘After this, chancing to go to Banks’s, I met with J. Mahon & his bro’r Ross, the 1st. horn, who also played a good violoncello, on w’ch with Mr Woodyear’s assistance, who took the 2nd fiddle, we made up a quartetto (Mr Mahon playing the fiddle & I the tenor) & tried Liddell’s 6. then lately come out & now 1st. produced by Banks w’ch pleased so well that I imediately bought them & frequently play’d them afterwards’: John Marsh Journals, p. 181. The set of quartets played on this occasion would have been Lidl’s op. 2, published in London in 1777. 68 ‘The next day [28 September 1791] being that of the Subscription Concert at any of which I had not been since we left Sarum in 1783, we all went to it when I played with Mr Mahon the leader & played the tenor of Giardini’s 3d. Quartetto’: John Marsh Journals, p. 505. Marsh recorded one further quartet performance by John Mahon in Chichester – in 1798, when Mahon led ‘an obligato quartetto’ on the occasion of a benefit for the cellist Reinagle; see John Marsh Journals, p. 675. 69 Marsh’s Symphony no. 19 in F (no. 45), published by Longman in 1789 as his op. 12, no. 4, was performed at the Anacreontic Society in February 1792, under the leadership of Cramer. Marsh had specifically requested the performance when Cramer attended the Salisbury music meeting in 1788; see ibid., p. 511. 70 See ‘A Catalog of the Compositions of John Marsh’, John Marsh Journals, pp. 765–6. 71 John Marsh Journals, pp. 346–9. See also McFarlane, ‘The String Quartet in Late Eighteenth-Century England’, p. 176, for discussion of the practice of private publication by individual composers.

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years later, on 27 February 1794. If nothing else, such delays point to a continued interest in the work among the Chichester concert fraternity. Interest in a composer’s work was, of course, more likely to have been stimulated if the composer himself was present; there are many examples of such local recognition proving vital for quartet performance. Antonín Kammel’s stay in Bath, in 1769, elicited at least one performance, most likely from his op. 4 quartets published in London the following year.72 The leading operatic composer Antonio Sacchini also featured among Bath’s quartet composers, perhaps not unexpectedly in view of his ill-fated friendship with Rauzzini, the leading Bath impresario.73 The timing of this performance points to his op. 2 set of six quartets, published in London in 1778, the same year as the only known London performance of one of his quartets and a year earlier than the Bath performance. Where a composer’s quartets were played in both provincial and London concerts, his works were usually heard in more than one of the provincial centres. This indicates that exposure at the London concerts was significant for wider dissemination, the capital thus functioning as a hub for composers and their chamber works destined for a broader national or even international reception. However, concerts outside London were still important in the case of nationally acclaimed composers, the most dominant in terms of chamber music being Pleyel, and, less pervasively, Haydn: many quartets by these composers were presented in all the localities selected for this study. Most significant is what appears to be the first documented performance of a Haydn string quartet in England, which took place in Manchester in 1769. This was most likely from Haydn’s op. 1, first published in England by Bremner in 1765. Op. 1 was the first of Haydn’s music to be introduced to the English market; no further Haydn quartets were made available to the London market until some years later, in 1771.74 The Manchester performance was not an isolated occurrence: Haydn quartets were featured in Manchester concerts at least once a year from 1769 to 1772. Charting the reception of Haydn’s instrumental music prior to his first English visit, David Wyn Jones has argued that he remained ‘a peripheral figure in English musical life’ until the 1780s, pointing out that ‘when Haydn’s Op. 1 quartets first became available in 1765 the genre was a comparatively new one for the English public’.75 He cites a symphony performed in a London benefit concert in 1773 as ‘the earliest reference to a performance of a Haydn work’.76 However, the four known Manchester quartet

72 ‘Mr. Kammell [sic] and Mr. Fischer’s Benefit’, Gyde’s Room, 14 December 1769 (Bath Chronicle, 14 December 1764). Antonín Kammell, Six Quartettos for two Violins, a Tenor and Violoncello obligato […] Opera IV (London: Welcker, [1770]). 73 ‘Sacchini’s dissolute life created many enemies […] His former friend, the singer Venanzio Rauzzini, went so far as to claim many of the composer’s most famous arias as his own’: David DiChiera, ‘Sacchini, Antonio’, in GMO (accessed 17 January 2007). 74 David Wyn Jones, ‘Haydn’s Music in London in the Period 1760–1790: Part One’, Haydn Yearbook, 14 (1983): 144–72 (pp. 153–6). 75 Ibid., p. 157. 76 Ibid., p. 164.

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performances substantially pre-date this. Another provincial town to feature an early Haydn quartet performance was Oxford, in 1773, whereas no performances are known in London before 1778;77 Haydn quartets were perhaps not heard in concerts there again until 1784.78 The progressiveness suggested by the early Haydn quartet performances in Manchester is further highlighted when considered against Jones’s statement: ‘[i]n 1770 […] even the most assiduous musician in England would barely have heard of Joseph Haydn, and had he managed to secure the two available publications would not have been in a position to form a fair evaluation of the composer’s style’.79 Such programming was clearly not mere fancy on the part of the concert organizers: the Manchester organist and music-dealer Edward Sudlow reminisces about how ‘Mr. Richard Entwisle (who was in the foreign trade) got music for the society from Germany’.80 Did Entwisle’s efforts expedite the early performance of such works? Certainly, the Leicester stocking-maker, William Gardiner, claimed that ‘the taste for music in Manchester may be traced to the intercourse of the principal manufacturers with the Germans, through whom the first copies of the great masters found their way to this country’.81 Provincial musicians, even in those cities a long way from the capital, could evidently obtain recent publications by European composers (whether or not they were living in England) relatively quickly. The acquisition and collection of chamber music was no doubt a more challenging activity for provincial music lovers than those residing in the capital, though the growing number of local music shops and circulating libraries allowed for the more effective dissemination of new music,82 as did the constant travels of both amateur and professional musicians. For example, the gifted amateur musician Christian Ignatius Latrobe is known to have brought Haydn’s op. 20 quartets and Stabat Mater, which he had scored up for personal study, with him when he returned from Germany to England in 1784.83 Newcastle music-sellers, for example, boasted in advertisements that

77 McVeigh, Calendar of London Concerts 1750–1800. Both the Oxford and 1778 London performances are referred to in Jones, ‘Haydn’s Music in London in the Period 1760–1790’, pp. 164–5. 78 Two performances of Haydn quartets have been uncovered in this year, leaving a six-year gap from the previous known performances. See McVeigh, Calendar of London Concerts. 79 Jones, ‘Haydn’s Music in London in the Period 1760–1790’, p. 155. 80 Quoted in Harland (ed.), ‘The Earlier Days of the “Gentlemen’s Concerts”’, p. 80. 81 Gardiner, Music and Friends, vol. 1, p. 404. 82 Alec Hyatt King’s preliminary study of the circulating library in British musical life lists six provincial music-lenders operating at the end of the eighteenth century; ‘Music Circulating Libraries in Britain’, MT, 119 (1978): 134–8 (p. 134). 83 As a Moravian minister, Latrobe travelled widely around England and the Continent, visiting Leeds, Manchester, Derby, and elsewhere. See Rachel Cowgill, ‘The Papers of C.I. Latrobe: new light on musicians, music, and the Christian family in late eighteenth-century England’, in David Wyn Jones (ed.), Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 234–58 (esp. pp. 241–2).

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‘they could obtain all new music within four days of publication in London’.84 And advertisements for recent publications in the local Bath press extended to Mozart’s quartets – notably neglected in English public concerts in the late eighteenth century.85 The private collections of musical societies and catch clubs must also have contributed to the ability of local musical communities to feature more varied and up-to-date concert programmes. The subscription list in Pieltain’s Six Quartettos for Two Violins, a Tenor and Violoncello […] Op. 2d (Figure 6.1) includes the musical societies at Manchester and Salisbury, alongside nine individual provincial subscribers whose place of residence is noted alongside their names. A further insight into the quartet repertoire that was known, or at least available, to late eighteenth-century performers in Oxford Musical Society concerts can be gained from a list of printed quartets in a nineteenth-century manuscript catalogue held in the Bodleian Library (see Figure 6.2). The only surviving eighteenth-century list of ‘The music belonging to the Society’ is a printed catalogue dating from the early 1760s, which is slightly too early for the quartet genre to be represented. Burchell claims that the early entries in the manuscript catalogue represent a cumulative list of works as they were acquired by the society in the eighteenth century. Those works in the first hand (that is, items 1–33) seem ‘to correspond to works in the possession of the Society when the volume was begun’, the watermark of the catalogue paper revealing that this might be as early as 1807. She suggests that these items were copied from another cumulative catalogue, not extant, which superseded the printed catalogue around 1763.86 Corresponding performances of quartets in Oxford concerts have only been uncovered for a handful of the composers represented in this list (Abel, Filtz, Haydn, Davaux, Lidl, and Toeschi), but obviously this does not mean that many more did not occur. Performances of quartets by the majority of those included have certainly been uncovered elsewhere in England. Strangely, only one set of Pleyel quartets (his op. 1 for strings) is listed, in spite of many known performances in Oxford, particularly of his flute quartets. Op. 1 seems to have been a later acquisition, appearing in a different hand towards the end of the catalogue. Only two composers whose quartets were performed in Oxford concerts do not appear in the catalogue: Mahon and Jackson. As leading instrumentalists, they were likely to have provided manuscript parts for the players. Of particular interest is a group of obscure composers for whom no quartet performances have been uncovered – in Oxford or anywhere else in England. The composers of string (rather than wind) quartets in this category are Ignaz Holzbauer, François-Joseph Gossec, Giuseppe Demachi, and Reinagle, the first two of whom never visited 84 Information from Roz Southey; see also Southey, ‘Biographical Data on Eighteenth-Century Musicians from Northern Newspapers: 1700–1805’, in Philip Olleson and Mark Humphreys (eds), A Handbook for Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Music, 11 (Oxford: Burden & Cholij, 2000), pp. 1–65 (p. 3). 85 Ian Woodfield, ‘John Bland: London retailer of the music of Haydn and Mozart’, ML, 81 (2000): 210–44 (p. 224). 86 Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?, pp. 210–11.

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Figure 6.1 Subscription list from Pieltain’s Six Quartettos for Two Violins, a Tenor and Violoncello […] Op. 2d (London: for the author, [1785]), Cambridge University Library, MRS.1.99, reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library

Figure 6.2 Oxford Musical Society, list of quartets (nineteenth-century manuscript catalogue), Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. Misc.C.374, pp. 20–21

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England. The string quartets of Reinagle appear as a later entry (like Pleyel’s, written in a different hand). They were most likely the quartets of the Oxford string player, Joseph Reinagle, published (and probably performed) in the early nineteenth century.87 The earliest documented performance of a quartet (by Noëlli) in England took place in Manchester in 1768, but its instrumentation was not specified. The Haydn première of 1769, referred to above, marks the first known performance outside the capital of a quartet which was definitely for strings, only months after the earliest such performance (of a Kammel quartet) in London. The strikingly early dates for the inclusion of quartets in concerts outside the capital reveal that local organizers and performers were not slow to incorporate the latest musical idioms into their concert programmes. The traditional view of provincial culture as insular or subsidiary – operating as a second tier to that of the metropolis – is not borne out by what we know of the vibrant provincial context in which the string quartet was performed and received.

87 2007).

Frank Kidson/Simon McVeigh, ‘Reinagle’, in GMO (accessed 20 January

Chapter 7

John Baptist Malchair of Oxford and his Collection of ‘National Music’1 Susan Wollenberg

The artist and musician John Baptist Malchair (1730–1812) was a much venerated figure on the eighteenth-century Oxford scene, but on the whole has remained unknown since then, except to a few specialists. He is featured in both editions of New Grove, but otherwise literature pertaining to him is patchy.2 Malchair hailed from Cologne, where his father was a watchmaker; he was baptized Johann Baptist Malscher and became a chorister at the cathedral in 1744. Moving to Nancy, and then to England in 1754, he spent some years as a violinist and drawing master in London, Hereford, and Bristol, before being appointed leader of the Oxford Music Room (later the Holywell Music Room) band in 1760. He settled in Oxford, where he spent the rest of his life, leading the band until his sight began to fail in 1792.3 As far as my topic here is concerned, the clues to Malchair’s activity were planted for all to see in Crotch’s Specimens;4 but while Crotch himself emerged from that publication, quite justifiably, as a collector of repute, Malchair remained in the shadows. Crotch’s prefatory remarks to the Specimens make it clear that Malchair’s work was no mere passing interest, but a sustained investigation: he 1 Dedicated to the memory of Dr Hélène La Rue, ethnomusicologist and organologist, curator of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Music, from 1995 until her death in July 2007. My thanks are due to Peter Horton (RCM) and Malcolm Taylor (Cecil Sharp House) for their assistance during the research and preparation of this chapter, and to Jonathan White, who prepared digital versions of the musical examples. 2 Robert J. Bruce, ‘Malchair, John’, in NG, vol. 11, pp. 567–8; revised version in GMO (accessed 4 February 2007). I am grateful to Robert Bruce, who generously shared his biographical notes on Malchair with me. I am also indebted to Colin Harrison, who originally invited me to contribute the chapter on ‘Malchair the Musician’, referred to below, for the volume he edited in connection with the Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition, John Malchair of Oxford: artist and musician (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1998), and who kindly provided information on sources. 3 See Bruce, ‘Malchair’, and T.B. Healey, ‘Malchair, John’, in ODNB (accessed 17 January 2007). 4 William Crotch, Specimens of Various Styles of Music, referred to in a Course of Lectures read at Oxford and London (3 vols, London: Robert Birchall, c. 1808–09). I am grateful to Philip Olleson for providing information on the revised dating of this publication.

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paid generous tribute to the work of ‘Mr. Malchair of Oxford (who has made National Music his study)’ and acknowledged himself ‘indebted’ to him ‘for most of the national and other curious music’ which he was ‘about to offer to the Public’ in his Specimens.5 So eager was the German-born Malchair in his activities as a collector, and so devoted, that, as he himself worded it in his idiosyncratic English, ‘the leasure howers of many years were employed in forming this collection, ney, necessary busness was at times incrotched uppon when the fitt of collecting Grew Violent’,6 an admission which, as well as conveying the strength of his commitment to research, arouses a great deal of sympathy for its author’s predicament. From Crotch’s references to Malchair in the Specimens and elsewhere, and from Malchair’s own writings, it is possible to assemble quite a detailed picture of this unusual and enterprising figure, and of his work. In what follows I will focus primarily on aspects of his collecting of tunes, although other areas will be touched on also as they arise. If asked what music would have been heard in eighteenthcentury Oxford, we might think most readily of items drawn from the concert and ceremonial repertoire, from the choral tradition, and from the compositions of the Oxford professors of music and their colleagues, as well as those of the Oxford degree candidates. To hear these, if we were to travel back in time, we would have to enter the portals of the Holywell Music Room, the Sheldonian Theatre, the various college chapels, and the Music School – Schola musicae – in the Bodleian Library quadrangle. (Incidentally, only the last-named of these is no longer used for musical performances.) But as we walked through the streets en route to these venues, we might, if we were alert to it, hear another music. Again, to quote Malchair himself: ‘I heard a Man whistle this tune in Magpey Lane Oxon Dbr. 22. 1789. came home and noted it down directely’ (see Example 7.1).7 5 Ibid., vol. 1, preface, p. 3. Besides the items specifically mentioned by Crotch as deriving from Malchair, the two musicians’ history of working closely together suggests that other items in the Specimens (and therefore in Crotch’s lectures themselves, to which they were the illustrations) may owe their origins to Malchair. He would have been a useful source, for example, when Crotch was penning the first series of 13 lectures he gave at Oxford (Music Room, February–March 1801), which included a ‘Lecture 3rd. On Jewish Scotch and Irish National Music’ and ‘Lecture 4th. on National Music, viz Welch French etc etc’. See Crotch, ‘General Acct of all the Courses of Lectures’, Norfolk Record Office, MS 11,230, f. 1. I am grateful to Rachel Cowgill for this suggestion. See also the printed syllabus of his Oxford lectures (Music School, Oxford, 1800–04) held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Top. Oxon d. 22/11 and G.A. Oxon b. 19 (265), and the discussion in Susan Wollenberg, ‘Music in Eighteenth-Century Oxford’, PRMA, 108 (1981–82): 69–99 (pp. 91–2). 6 J.B. Malchair, RCM, MS 2,091, f. 3. The manuscript’s cover title reads: ‘The Arrangement / Being an Extract of / the Welsh, Irish, and / Scotch Tunes, contain’d / in the foregoing Vols, & pla / -ced in seperate [sic] Classes’. On the inside title-page it is described as: ‘A Collection of Welsh, Irish and Scotch Tunes. / Part the First. Selected & arranged / by J.B. Malchair / Oxon. 1795.’ The preliminary pages (originally unnumbered) have been foliated in pencil; the main contents have original pagination. Of the presumed set, only this volume and the manuscript volume in Cecil Sharp House (see below) appear to be extant. 7 J.B. Malchair, Cecil Sharp House Library, Malchair MS (QM), p. 88 (the cover of the manuscript bears the title: ‘Vol. 3 / The Third / Collection of / Tunes’). This and

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Example 7.1 ‘Magpey [Magpie] Lane’, Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 88. Reproduced with permission of the English Folk Dance and Song Society Malchair’s description of his activities on this occasion provides one answer to the question of what such enthusiasts did to record their finds before the invention of the phonograph. Evidently Malchair had trained his ear and the consciously retentive part of his memory to serve him as recording agents, and as soon as he heard a tune they sprang into action. But on many occasions he may well have carried some form of manuscript notebook about with him, just as, in his activities as an artist, he became accustomed to taking a sketchpad with him on his wanderings. After his arrival in England and brief spell in London, Malchair had followed an acquaintance, Captain Bonfield, to Sussex where he was introduced to Robert Price of Foxley (1717–61), ‘one of the most cultivated squires in England’.8 Price had undertaken the Grand Tour in 1738–41, studying art and music. He had then journeyed to Paris in the early 1740s, where ‘he met the engraver, Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, who “was just come from walking … it is his custom when he walks out, to take his book with him, and in case he sees anything picturesque, to sketch it out”’.9 Price toured Wales in 1758 and 1759 (as Malchair was later to do) ‘keeping a diary and making sketches as he went, one of the first to undertake such an expedition’. At Foxley Malchair adopted his patron’s ‘habit of using a sketchbook’, as Malchair himself noted in his first sketchbook of 1757: The first lot of drawings after Nature. The few attempts I made before this were on single papers. The method of drawing in a book was adopted from Robert Price, Esqr. of Foxley in Herefordshire […] an excellent artist as well as patron.

Also notated in this first sketchbook are the detailed inscriptions on the backs of drawings which were to become a characteristic feature of Malchair’s work; they typically refer to dates, places, and circumstances. Malchair’s recording of street tunes was the musical equivalent of drawing ‘after Nature’, and these too bear his other Oxfordshire tunes have been recorded by the group ‘Magpie Lane’; see The Oxford Ramble: songs and tunes of Oxfordshire, produced by Tim Healey (Beautiful Jo Records, BEJOCD-3, 1993). 8 Colin Harrison, ‘Malchair the Artist’, in Harrison (ed.), John Malchair of Oxford, pp. 9–31 (p. 10). The remaining quotations in this and the next paragraph, unless otherwise indicated, are from that source. 9 Harrison, ‘Malchair the Artist’, p. 10, quoting William Coxe (ed.), The Life and Work of Benjamin Stillingfleet (2 vols, London, 1800), vol. 2, p. 123.

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detailed inscriptions. In both spheres Malchair’s activity seems somewhat unusual for its time. Margaret Dean-Smith suggested that ‘as he went about the country painting[,] he collected out of interest such “folk-music” as he came across’,10 and the same statement could be applied to his walks through the city. It is clear that on these occasions Malchair paid close attention to the human sources of the tunes he collected as well as to the tunes themselves, observing with his eyes and ears, and documenting what he saw as well as what he heard. Historically, the music heard in the streets of Oxford that has been documented has tended to be of the formally organized type: city waits were established from an early period, and in the eighteenth century references to the ‘City Music’ and ‘City Drum’ occur in the Lord Mayor’s account books. There are, for example, descriptions of ‘the Mayor and his Brethren’ in procession from the Town Hall to Magdalen Bridge, ‘attended by a band of music’.11 But Malchair documented the more informal happenings, such as the itinerant musicians and the ‘accidental’ musicians whistling as they passed. Thus he developed the habit of collecting tunes ‘on location’, which was later to become such a signal element in the folksong movement. (Incidentally, ‘folk music’ is a term unlikely to have been used by Malchair or his disciple Crotch. What they collected and documented so painstakingly was regarded, and described, as ‘national music’.12) Malchair’s influence on Crotch in this sphere, as in the artistic sphere, was clearly crucial.13 When Crotch admitted in the preface to his Specimens that ‘some of the most eminent writers on the art have been inclined to disregard this species of music’ precisely ‘because it was preserved by tradition’, it was surely under Malchair’s influence that Crotch then proceeded to elevate ‘national music’

10 Margaret Dean-Smith, letter to Gerald Abraham (then Gramophone Director, BBC), 4 November 1943, concerning preparations for a radio programme, BBC Written Archives Centre, R 21/70/2 File 1B (Grams.). Brian Trowell kindly drew my attention to this document. Dean-Smith went on to say, ‘I think it is not generally realized that there were “collectors” before the days of the folk-movement, nor that any collection was made while what are now museum-pieces were still living things’. 11 G. Thewlis [Notes on the History of Music in Oxford], several vols, unpublished (Oxford, c. 1955), Bodleian Library (Modern Papers), vol. 3, p. 509. On Oxford’s musical traditions in general, see Susan Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Oxford: OUP, 2001). 12 On the eighteenth-century cultivation of such music in Britain, see Thomas McGeary, ‘Music Literature’, in H. Diack Johnstone and Roger Fiske (eds), The Eighteenth Century, Blackwell History of Music in Britain, 4 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), pp. 397–421 (pp. 415–16). On the definition of the genre (which ‘continues to be the source of controversy and heated debate’), see Carole Pegg, ‘Folk Music’, in GMO (accessed 21 January 2007), esp. paragraph 1. 13 For example, Malchair introduced Crotch to the writer, aesthetician, and rural improver Uvedale Price (1747–1829), who was the eldest son of his patron Robert Price of Foxley. It was from Uvedale Price’s writings that Crotch would partly derive his theorization of the sublime, the beautiful, and the ornamental in music; see William Crotch, ‘Memoirs’, Norfolk Record Office MS 11,244, f. 87 (11 June 1798). I am grateful to Rachel Cowgill for this reference.

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explicitly to a status of importance.14 He would have absorbed Malchair’s view that ‘many of these melodies of “great antiquity and of Various Nations” were “uncommonly beautyful” and deserved to be saved from oblivion’.15 It is evident that Malchair found a depth in the tunes he collected which he was eager to encourage others to share. As he put it: Let not the ingenious Musician withdraw his consideration from this Cunning Music too soone, for altho Manny of this admirable tunes seem for a long while intractable, yet by perseverance and heard [sic] studdy he will at last detect in them a most beautyfull disposition to Harmony and his labour will amply bee repayd[.]16

Crotch, with his strong sense of aesthetic enquiry, stressed in his preface to the Specimens the innate qualities he perceived in these tunes: ‘No. 21, Strachen Variga’, which was ‘written from the playing of an Irish blind piper by Mr. Malchair’, he characterized as possessing a ‘wild sweetness’17 (see Example 7.2 and Figure 7.1).

14 Crotch, Specimens, vol. 1, preface, p. 2. 15 RCM, MS 2,091, f. 4. 16 Ibid., folded sheet inside front cover. 17 Crotch, Specimens, vol. 1, preface, p. x. Interestingly, Malchair, in his unpublished treatise ‘Observations on Landskipp Drawing’ (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, without shelfmark at present), expressed his ‘horror of systems and formulae for drawing natural objects, believing that […] it is impossible to “bend the beautiful wildness and fantastic irregularity of trees to stiff mechanic[al] rules”’; quoted in Colin Harrison, ‘Malchair the Artist’, p. 22. (Crotch was Malchair’s artistic, as well as musical, disciple: see ibid., Plates 100–102, pp. 140–42.) I am grateful to Sinéad O’Neill, formerly of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, for the following remarks on the image of the piper reproduced in Figure 7.1: she suggests (in a personal communication) that he was playing the uilleann (elbow) pipes – an Irish variation on the Scottish pipes in which the air is taken in using a bellows, rather than blown in with a pipe. Barra Boydell and Nicholas Carolan have kindly provided further elucidation (also in a personal communication): ‘this is the third-earliest recorded image of an Irish piper, earlier examples being a painting by Joseph Tudor, “View of Dublin from Chapelizod”, c. 1750, which includes a piper (private collection: see Brendan Rooney (ed.), A Time and a Place: two centuries of Irish social life (Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, 2006), pp. 27–9), and a sketch of “Blind Daniel the Piper” from a sketchbook of “The Cries of Dublin” by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, 1760 (private collection: see William Laffan (ed.), The Cries of Dublin: drawn from the life by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, 1760 (Dublin: Irish Georgian Society, 2003), pp. 134–5). There is documentary evidence for Irish travelling pipers working in England in the late eighteenth century, including Irish pipers playing at Covent Garden.’ They assess the details of the Oxford image as being virtually all ‘authentic for the period’. I am further indebted to Barra Boydell for the following information on the tune ‘Strachen Variga’: the tune can be identified as an Irish tune known in its modern form as ‘Stáca an Margaidh’ (‘The Idler/Lounger of the Marketplace’) and is in line with other tunes documented from the eighteenth century – for example some of those attributed to Carolan. This version from Crotch is not recorded by Aloys Fleischmann in his Sources of Irish Traditional Music c. 1600–1855 (2 vols, New York and London: Garland, 1998).

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Example 7.2 [No.] 21 ‘Strachen variga’, William Crotch, Specimens of Various Styles of Music, referred to in a Course of Lectures read at Oxford and London (3 vols, London: Robert Birchall, c. 1808–09), vol. 1, [no.] 21

Figure 7.1 A Blind Irish Piper, sketched by J.B. Malchair. ‘From this man I noted some beautiful Irish Tunes as he played them on the Bag-Pipe’, 15 May 1785. Reproduced with permission of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

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Besides the Irish piper, Malchair’s direct sources of tunes included the ‘Piedemontese Girl’ who played the tune ‘La Rochelle’ ‘on a Cymbal in Oxford Streets December 22. 1784’ (see Example 7.3a),18 and the ‘Poor Woman and two femal Children [sic]’, who yielded the untitled tune resembling ‘Early One Morning’ which Malchair transcribed from their singing on 18 May 1784 (see Example 7.3b). Also in the category of street music, but in a rather different class of tune, was the topical item ‘The Budget for 1785. Sung in the Streete July 21 – 1785 – Oxon A Political Balad on Mr. Pit’s Taxes’19 (see Example 7.4); this is a prime example of the ‘overlapping categories of oral songs, street ballads, and the work of singer/song-writers’ noted by Roy Palmer in his The Sound of History.20 In another category were the tunes Malchair culled from his Oxford acquaintances; among these, inhabitants of the various colleges represented a rich potential source of ‘national music’. Thus ‘Rothemurches Rant. a Strathspey’ is inscribed in the Royal College of Music manuscript as ‘From the Honble Mr Linsey of Baliol Coll: Oxon: Noted down from his singing the Tune’, while ‘Kellekranky’ is annotated ‘from the Singing of Mr. Cunningham. of Christ: Ch[urch]: Oxon:’, and ‘Pen Rhaw’ (given in two variant versions) is glossed as ‘From the old M.S. Book of Mr. [John] Jones of Jesus [College] Oxon where it is cal[l]ed. John Come Kiss me’21 (see Examples 7.5a–d for all of these tunes). Crotch remarked in his Specimens: ‘I find some airs in Jones’s [that is, Edward Jones’s] second volume, or Bardic Museum, which I received from Mr. Malchair […] before it was published’;22 and there are cases where Malchair seems to have been the first person to have collected a particular tune.23 18 Use of the word ‘cymbal’, here, probably indicates accompaniment from a hurdy-gurdy. The first of two definitions of ‘cymbal’ given by William Tans’ur in his ‘A New Musical Dictionary’, is ‘A Wire, or Gut Instrument play’d by Keys, and a Friction wheel’; see The Elements of Music Display’d (5 vols, London: Stanley Crowder, 1772), vol. 5, pp. 190–226 (p. 194). Cymbal was still being used in this sense in the 1850s, when Henry Mayhew wrote about ‘Old Sarah’, the well-known hurdy-gurdy player, in London Labour and the London Poor (4 vols, London: Woodfall, 1851), vol. 3, p. 160. My thanks to Peter Holman for this information. 19 For these tunes, see Cecil Sharp House Library, Malchair MS (QM), pp. 60, 42, and 73; further on the ballad ‘The Budget’, see Roy Palmer, The Sound of History: songs and social comment (Oxford: OUP, 1988; repr. 1996), pp. 238–9. 20 Palmer, ibid., foreword. 21 RCM, MS 2,091, pp. 105, 98, and 13. The reference is to the Revd Dr John Jones of Jesus College. On p. 13, ‘Pen Rhaw’ also bears a cross-reference, ‘See another page 10’; the version on p. 10 has a note added in pencil, ‘The Corruption of John Come Kiss me now’, and a footnote in ink records that it came ‘From Jones’s Coll. p. 72. Gruffydd Ben Rhaw is the Name of a Bard who livd at the beginning of the fifteenth Century’. 22 Crotch, Specimens, vol. 1, p. 7. Edward Jones, The Bardic Museum […] forming the second volume of the Musical, Poetical, and Historical Relicks of the Welsh Bards and Druids (London: for the author, 1802). 23 For an early estimation of Malchair’s collecting, see Margaret Dean-Smith, ‘The Preservation of English Folk Song and Popular Music: Mr. Malchair’s collection and Dr. Crotch’s Specimens’, Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, 7 (1953): 106–11.

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Example 7.3a ‘La Rochelle’, Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 60. Reproduced with permission of the English Folk Dance and Song Society

Example 7.3b [Untitled tune], Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 42. Reproduced with permission of the English Folk Dance and Song Society

Example 7.4 ‘The Budget for 1785’, Cecil Sharp House, MS (QM), p. 73. Reproduced with permission of the English Folk Dance and Song Society

Example 7.5a ‘Rothemurches Rant[,] a Strathspey’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 105 (by kind permission)

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Example 7.5b

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‘Kellekranky’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 98 (by kind permission)

Example 7.5c ‘Pen Rhaw’, ‘From the old M.S. Book of Mr. Jones of Jesus Oxon’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 13 (by kind permission)

Example 7.5d ‘Pen Rhaw’, ‘From Jones’s Coll. p. 72’, RCM MS 2,091, p. 10 (by kind permission) From the sources it is possible to infer the principles and practices of Malchair’s approach to collecting tunes. At the front of the Royal College of Music manuscript he explained how what he called his ‘labour’ was pursued in comparative terms: thousands of tunes were ‘examined repeatedly and compared […] in order to Mature the Choice’. Where duplicates were given, this was ‘on purpose for the sake of difference among them’ and for the reader to compare them, or to show ‘how differently the same tune is often played in one province of the Same Country, to […] another’.24 He applied a similarly sustained comparative 24 RCM, MS 2,091, f. 3. I am currently assembling a catalogue of the tunes in Malchair’s collections, collating the various sources and tracing concordances.

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analysis to Playford’s English Dancing Master (which constituted another important source of tunes for Malchair, and therefore for Crotch); Malchair pursued bibliographical researches, comparing the different editions of Playford (and hunting through the London street stalls for copies); the Ashmolean Library in Oxford contained a copy of the 1652 edition.25 As Margaret Dean-Smith observed of Malchair’s work on Playford’s collections, this was ‘probably the first time the tunes [they contained] had been scrutinized, compared and generally subjected to musical examination and study’.26 And as Colin Harrison has suggested, Malchair’s work in this field may also have been motivated by the wish to conserve (thus to record before it vanished) the national heritage, that same urge which informed some of his topographical drawings, including his ‘Merton Tower from Magpie Lane’ (see Figure 7.2): It seems that, in some respects, he was the epitome of the modern liberal, lamenting the passing of the old order after the Highways Act of 1771 and therefore keeping records of mediaeval buildings before they were pulled down, and of ancient trees before they were felled. I am sure that his collections of folk songs sprang from similar feelings.27

Malchair’s ‘Collection of Welsh, Irish and Scotch Tunes’, from 1795,28 bears on its title-page the following quotation from Shakespeare: – Give me some Music – Now good Cesario; but that Piece of Song, That old and antique Song we heard last night; Methought it did relieve my passion much; More than light airs, and recollected terms, Of these most brisk and giddy-pated times – –– – O fellow, come, the song we had last night, Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain: The spinsters and the knitters in the Sun And the free maids that weave their thread with bones, Do use to chant it. –– Shakesp. Twelft Night [sic] Act 2 – Scene 5.

The choice of this passage as an introduction to his work establishes expressively Malchair’s view of the music he collected. 25 John Playford, The English Dancing Master (London, 1651); see Jeremy Barlow (ed.), The Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford’s Dancing Master (1651–ca. 1728) (London: Faber, 1985). See also Cecil Sharp House Library, Malchair MS (QM), annotation to p. 61. 26 Margaret Dean-Smith, ‘The Preservation of English Folk Song’, p. 110. 27 Personal communication from Colin Harrison (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), 6 March 1998. 28 RCM, MS 2,091.

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Figure 7.2 Merton Tower from Magpie Lane, by J.B. Malchair, pencil and grey wash, inscribed on verso ‘The Tower of Merton College Chapel Oxford from Magpie Lane, July 24. 1776’. Reproduced with permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Crotch’s friendship with Malchair,29 and his awareness of the ethos of Malchair’s work on ‘national music’, doubtless led him to the conclusion that this was a subject ‘wherein much remains to be discovered’.30 Malchair’s efforts had already shown the way towards an appreciation of a music that lay outside the usual repertoire of church, chamber, and concert hall (a repertoire in which Malchair, as leader of the Holywell Band, was also actively involved over a long period of time). Indeed, paradoxically, as an ‘outsider’ in his origins (although most warmly taken in by his adopted home),31 the émigré Malchair – rather like Nikolaus Pevsner in the twentieth century, with his remarkable devotion to British architectural studies – may have been all the better placed to appreciate keenly the importance of the heritage of national song. 29 Documented by Crotch, in his compilation ‘Malchair’s Tunes’, Bodleian Library, MS d. 32. 30 Crotch, Specimens, vol. 1, Preface, p. 14. 31 The obituary in the local press (see Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 19 December 1812) testifies to the esteem and affection in which Malchair was held.

Chapter 8

Music of Rural Byway and Rotten Borough: A Study of Musical Life in Mid-Wiltshire c. 1750–1830 Christopher Kent

In the context of Georgian England, one might be forgiven for assuming that Wiltshire, with its thriving agricultural economy and notorious ‘rotten boroughs’, would have little to offer the study of music in society. Yet its situation, between the great cultural cities of Salisbury to the south, and Bath to the west, was one of several factors that rescued it from its otherwise lowly status as an inconsequential rural backwater. Based on extensive archival and fieldwork investigations, this chapter offers a documentary profile of musical activities in the area, encompassing the music composed and directed by a former chorister of Salisbury Cathedral at the Parish Church of the market town of Chippenham; widely differing attitudes to church music among the clergy of nearby villages; thriving instrumental and vocal music at Lamb’s Acre, the Moravian settlement at East Tytherton; and further south, aristocratic patronage from the Lansdowne family at Bowood; the philanthropy of the Flower family at Potterne, whose colonial activities made possible the gift of an organ to the church, and an endowment for an organist’s salary. To set the tone, we begin with an extract from the Salisbury Journal of 13 March 1820: On Tuesday last died aged 52 [recte 51] Mr. James Morris Coombs, bookseller and printer of Chippenham. Mr. Coombs was in early life instructed in the science of music in Salisbury Cathedral, and, as a skilful master & ingenious composer he always displayed considerable taste and science; whilst his good humour, integrity of a tradesman, and domestic affections obtained him general esteem. His loss is most sincerely felt and lamented. Mr. Coombs held this year the office of High Bailiff of Chippenham: and had his life and ability been protracted but one day; it would have been his duty to return two new members of Parliament for that borough.

At the General Election of 1820 the North Wiltshire town of Chippenham was one of the ‘rotten boroughs’, and would remain so until the second Reform Act of 1867. As such, it returned two MPs to Westminster with a franchise limited to male householders whose estates placed them in or above the ‘forty shilling freeholder’ bracket. Numerically, this meant that, at the time of the first Reform Act of 1832,

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voting rights were granted to just 129 householders of a total population of 4,411.1 For a fuller picture of the borough bailiff and returning officer Mr James Morris Coombs – particularly his roles as town organist, composer, and musician, which were rather neglected in his Salisbury Journal obituary – we need only refer to his entry in Sainsbury’s Dictionary of Musicians (1824), an article that also served in abridged form for Brown and Stratton’s British Musical Biography (1897), and the first two editions of Grove’s Dictionary.2 Coombs was born in Salisbury in 1769, and was admitted to the cathedral choir on 21 December 1776, aged seven.3 Here he was taught by John Stephens, organist and instructor of the choristers until his death in 1780, and Robert Parry, who succeeded Stephens the following year.4 The liberal regime of general education at the cathedral choir school included music, reading, writing, arithmetic, Latin, and Greek. The choristers were also drawn into Salisbury’s flourishing secular musical life through the concert directorships held by the cathedral organists – concerts were given twice-monthly in winter and monthly in summer – and they gained additional experience by performing in the annual Salisbury festivals. So conducive was this environment that even a century earlier the Wiltshire historian John Aubrey could remark: ‘The quire of Salisbury Cathedral hath produced as many able musicians, if not more than any quire in this nation.’5 A rich cultural and social life radiated out from the cathedral close during the eighteenth century, described as the ‘Polite Century’ by Dora Robertson in her book Sarum Close,6 but this affluence and stability jarred horribly with the condition of the Cathedral itself and its immediate surroundings: The close is comfortable, and the divines well seated, but the house of God is kept in sad order … The churchyard is like a cow common … and thro’ the centre stagnates a boggy ditch … I hope when the new Bishop arrives, who is a scholar and a gentleman; he will be shocked at the delapidations of the beautiful old Chapter House; and the

1 Joseph A. Chamberlain, Chippenham: some notes on its history (Chippenham: Chippenham Charter Trustees, 1976), p. 62. 2 [John Sainsbury], A Dictionary of Musicians from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time (2 vols, London: J. Sainsbury, 1824), vol. 1, p. 173; James Duff Brown and Stephen Samuel Stratton, British Musical Biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors and composers born in Britain and its colonies (Birmingham: S.S. Stratton, 1897), p. 99; George Grove, ‘Coombs, James Morris’, in George Grove (ed.), Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (4 vols, London: Macmillan, 1879), vol. 1, p. 398, and W.H. Hadow, ‘Coombs, James Morris’, in J.A. Fuller Maitland (ed.), Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn (5 vols, London: Macmillan, 1904–10), vol. 1, p. 597. 3 Dora H. Robertson, Sarum Close: a picture of domestic life in a cathedral close for 700 years and the history of the choristers for 900 years, 2nd edn (Bath: Firecrest, 1969), p. 249. 4 See Betty Matthews, The Organs and Organists of Salisbury Cathedral, 3rd edn (Salisbury: Salisbury Cathedral, 1983), p. 27. 5 John Aubrey, material relating to his ‘Natural History of Wiltshire’, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS: Aubrey 2, f. 28. 6 Dora H. Robertson, Sarum Close, pp. 224–57.

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Cloisters; thro’ the rubbish of which they are now making a passage for his new Lordship’s installation.7

Nevertheless, Coombs’s domestic life in the close was comfortable and lawabiding, to an extent, and he was spared the adventure of one of his predecessors of two centuries earlier, who was compelled to leave the Cathedral during divine service by his enraged choirmaster, the infamous John Farrant, to join him in an unsuccessful excursion to the Deanery to assassinate the Dean, after which they returned in time to render the Anthem.8 Coombs’s voice broke in 1784, and, reflecting considerable care and social responsibility shown towards the choristers, the customary premium of £20 was paid by the Chapter the following year to place him in a trade apprenticeship, in his case with a printer.9 After completing his apprenticeship in 1788, Coombs joined a mortgage syndicate to secure a house, orchard, and garden in the village of Redlynch, near Salisbury, where he was also granted a licence to shoot game.10 Nevertheless, he continued composition and keyboard studies with Parry, and travelled with him to Christchurch, Hampshire, to perform at the opening of a new organ in the Priory Church on 6 January 1789.11 Coombs was appointed organist of Chippenham the following September. This was either a contrived or most fortuitous occurrence, since only six weeks after his arrival he married Elizabeth Forty, a widow whose deceased husband had operated a printing business.12 Music of Rotten Borough Documented musical activity in the ‘rotten borough’ of Chippenham started on St Cecilia’s Day 1752, when an organ assembled by Brice Seede of Cirencester was opened in the Parish Church. The occasion was enhanced by performances directed by Robert Broderip of Bristol ‘at the head of a choice band of musick’, and by an ‘eloquent and persuasive’ sermon on the propriety of instruments in worship by the Revd Mr Christopher Holland. It was also marked by social 7 Citing the notes of John Byng’s visits to Salisbury in 1782, ibid., p. 249. 8 Ibid., pp. 146–58. I am grateful to the former diocesan archivist who drew on the primary source materials now in Wiltshire County Record Office (hereafter WCRO) in response to my query. 9 WCRO, Salisbury Cathedral, Chapter Act Books, D/1/39/3/12: ‘Saturday 21 December 1776 James Coombes and John Hayward were respectively chosen Choristers in the Room of Henry Haynes and George Lamborne’; ‘Thursday 6 January 1785 William Wakefield and William Biddlecombe were admitted Choristers of the said Church in the Room of James Coombs and Wyndham Earl Elkins out of Service of the choir. ORDERED That Premiums be advanced out of the Choristers Fund of twenty pounds each of them the said Coombes and Elkins to place them out Apprentice.’ 10 WCRO, 906: 36–7. 11 Letter to the author from the late Betty Matthews, 29 August 1980, based on research in the Salisbury Journal and Winchester Journal. 12 WCRO, Parish Registers of St Andrew’s, Chippenham, 811/15.

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events, with balls held that evening at the Angel and White Hart Inns.13 It is clear from church records that this organ was not acquired through parish funds.14 As a town prosperous from the profits of the wool and cloth trades, external funding was available from public subscription either with or without stiffening from the ranks of the local gentry and MPs. Indeed, for the organ to have been paid for in this way would have matched the national pattern described by Nicholas Temperley, as did the employment of a professional musician trained at the local cathedral as the organist, who also coached a choir of young girls, often known as ‘charity children’; and the delivery of an ‘eloquent and persuasive’ sermon, reflecting the need to counter the opposition that existed in many provincial societies to the use of instruments in church worship.15 This quasi-Calvinistic attitude prevailed in some rural areas until well into the Victorian era, as recorded in the diary of the Revd Francis Kilvert. On asking Samuel Ashe, the autocratic squire of Langley Burrell, for a donation to the church harmonium fund, Kilvert was told that ‘neither he nor any of his household should give a farthing for he disapproved of any music in church beside the human voice’.16 And another of Kilvert’s parishioners observed, ‘How strange [it is] that the Squire is such a distant man about music’.17 For secular concerts in Chippenham, the Angel Inn was elevated to the status of ‘Assembly Rooms’ from time to time, as the occasional venue for performances by visiting musicians from Bath. At the concert given there on 7 September 1773, for example, the performers included Thomas Orpin (harpsichord, Orchard Street Theatre Band, Bath); Benjamin Milgrove (violin, Pump Room Band, Bath); and the composer-astronomer William Herschel (clarinet, then organist of the Octagon Chapel, Bath, and also a member Orchard Street Theatre Band).18 Within a year of Coombs’s arrival in Chippenham, his first composition was published in London by Thomas Preston: a setting of the canticles Te Deum and Jubilate for the service of Matins according to the Book of Common Prayer. We might view it today as competent but dull – something perhaps worthy of an average church musician’s ‘apprentice work’ – and it is puzzling as to why it

13 See Christopher Kent, The Organ of St Andrew’s Church, 2nd edn (Chippenham: The Vicar and Churchwardens, 1982), and ‘Brice Seede, Organ Builder of Bristol: some further findings’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 17 (1993): 4–17. 14 Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre: Chippenham, Charter Trustees MS 1,312/21, p. 51. 15 Nicholas Temperley, The Music of the English Parish Church (2 vols, Cambridge: CUP, 1979), vol. 1, p. 129ff. 16 William Plomer (ed.), Kilvert’s Diary 1870–1879: selections from the diary of the Revd Francis Kilvert (London: Reader’s Union, 1944), 8 November 1874. 17 Ibid., 16 November 1874. 18 Bath Chronicle, 2 September 1773, cited in Ian Woodfield, The Celebrated Quarrel between Thomas Linley (senior) and William Herschel: an episode in the musical life of 18th-century Bath (Bath: University of Bath, 1977), p. 3. Orpin was an organist and harpsichordist, and Herschel also played other keyboard instruments, the oboe, and the violin. See also Rachel Cowgill’s chapter (Chapter 4) in this volume.

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should have been once ‘much admired for its originality’.19 Of interest in terms of social context, however, is its subscription list: in addition to clerical dignitaries and established London-based musicians such as Dr Samuel Arnold, the name ‘Edward Chiffence, Organist of Potterne’ has been written (on my own copy at least). Potterne is on one of the two rural byways we shall shortly be visiting. Coombs’s next published piece was a march – issued a decade later, again from the press of Thomas Preston – reflecting a less stable social and political situation both nationally and internationally. In England the consequences of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had brought rampant inflation, social unrest, and a particularly savage penal system. (There were no provincial police forces before the County Police Act of 1839, with which Wiltshire was among the first counties to comply.20) In response to the threat of a French invasion, local volunteer militias had been formed, among which was the ‘Armed Association of Chippenham’, and it was to this body that Coombs’s new march was dedicated.21 Coombs was able to facilitate musical interaction between Chippenham and Bath in two ways. Firstly, he did so as a composer, through his friendship with J.W. Windsor, the organist of St Margaret’s Proprietary Chapel, Bath. Coombs made several manuscript copies of his compositions for Windsor, some of which are still extant. A two-volume organ-book in the library of the Royal College of Music, for example, includes the first movement of a piano sonata.22 Secondly, he encouraged contact in his role as piano teacher. In this capacity his pupils included Henry Ibbott Field (1797–1848), the son of Thomas Field, organist of Bath Abbey. Henry Field’s career peaked when he became one of the few provincial pianists of his day to play at the London concerts of the Philharmonic Society, where he gave acclaimed performances of Hummel’s Concertos in A minor and B minor in 1822 and 1840 respectively.23 Coombs’s own repertoire as an organist was relatively progressive and included, for example, the voluntaries of William Russell. He appears in the extensive subscription list for Russell’s first set of 1804, totalling 227 names, as ‘Mr Coombe[s] organist of Chippenham’.24 In common with his contemporaries, secular songs, ballads, glees, and canzonets form the largest part of Coombs’s output as a composer. The details of the title-pages and subscription lists of the published items give insights into the music’s dissemination through a particularly broad section of society. Among 19 J.M. Coombs, A Te Deum and Jubilate, as performed at Salisbury Cathedral (London, [1790]). Quotation from [Sainsbury], A Dictionary of Musicians, vol. 1, p. 173. 20 Chamberlain, Chippenham, p. 167. 21 J.M. Coombs, March Composed and Inscribed to the Armed Association of Chippenham (London, [1800]). Coombs might well have been a member of the Armed Association himself, but no evidence has been found to confirm this. 22 RCM, London, MSS 674–5. See Appendices 8.1 and 8.2 for the full contents of these manuscripts. 23 George Grove, ‘Field, Henry Ibbot’, in J.A. Fuller Maitland (ed.), Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn, vol. 2, p. 34. 24 William Russell, Twelve Voluntaries, for the Organ or Piano forte (London, 1804). As yet, no personal connection between Coombs and Russell has been established.

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the subscribers to Preston’s publication of the Eight Canzonets, for example, are musicians, music dealers, clergy, gentry, and members of the medical profession.25 The profile of these songs might well have been raised locally by Coombs’s daughter, Elizabeth, a soprano who made her Bath debut at Herschel’s benefit concert in May 1816, and was described in a review in the Bath Chronicle as: a pupil of Miss Sharpe[,] handsome in person & unaffected in manner[. H]er voice is rich and flexible, and of extensive compass; her songs were executed in a finished style and were warmly applauded.26

Stylistically, Coombs’s secular vocal writing has a certain lyrical appeal, and his word setting is invariably congruous and not without moments of sensibility. He has a secure grasp of the grammar and structure of Classical harmony, in which the deft chromatic inflections are seldom cloying. These qualities are present in the first of the Eight Canzonets, ‘Oh, cast ev’ry care to the wind’ (see Figure 8.1), which sets words from a ‘The Harp of Hoel’, a poem by the Revd William Lisle Bowles of Bremhill, to whom we shall shortly turn our attention. Coombs’s other sacred music, in terms of its musical quality and interest, represents some advance on the published Te Deum and Jubilate. Much of it is in manuscript, including two four-part verse anthems with strings, which were included in a volume dating from 1814 entitled ‘Henry Baker’s Book’, currently in a private collection. The anthems are ‘I have loved the habitation of thy house’ (Psalm 26) and ‘Seek the Lord’ (Isaiah); the latter has moments of suave melodic elegance (see Example 8.1). Two other settings of psalm texts, ‘Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord’ (Psalm 112) and ‘Out of the deep’ (Psalm 130), were noted by Foster among manuscripts at Gloucester Cathedral and in the Bumpus Collection.27 Coombs’s only other published item of sacred music is the edited anthology entitled Divine Amusement, again published by Preston, which saw two editions.28 It contains psalm and hymn tunes, many by Coombs and his WestCountry colleagues, and some short anthems. It is characteristic of the urban collections of the early nineteenth century in terms of the increasing stylistic diversity shown in the hymn tunes, which were gradually achieving numerical superiority over metrical psalm tunes. For the two-part anthem, ‘Give ear unto me Lord I beseech thee’, he adapted music by Marcello (see Figure 8.2), and the fluent and often gracefully ornamented melodic contours of Coombs’s own hymn tunes suggest there was a creditable standard of parochial music in Chippenham during Coombs’s regime. (A checklist of the compositions of James Morris Coombs I is given in Appendix 8.1.)

25 J.M. Coombs, Eight Canzonets with an Accompaniment for the Pianoforte (London, [?1810]). 26 Bath Chronicle, 15 May 1816. 27 Miles Birkett Foster, Anthems and Anthem Composers (London: Novello, 1901), pp. 116–17. 28 J.M. Coombs, Coombs’s Divine Amusement (London, 1819; 2nd edn 1825).

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Example 8.1 J.M. Coombs I, four-part verse anthem, ‘Seek the Lord’ (Isaiah), no. 19 from ‘Henry Baker’s Book’ (privately owned manuscript), p. 102, reproduced by permission When George III died, in 1820, the widely circulated setting of Pope’s funeral hymn, ‘The Dying Christian to his Soul’, by Edward Harwood (1786), and an anthem, ‘How are the mighty fallen’, were sung at the evening service held at Chippenham on the day of his funeral, 16 February.29 Within a month Coombs himself died, and he was succeeded as organist by his son, James Morris Coombs II (1799–1873). Coombs junior appears to have been a capable successor to his father, judging from the handbill from his own printing press, which details the music performed at a service dedicated to a collection for the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in the Autumn of 1820 (see Figure 8.3). The performance of the concerto by Paradies (probably that published by Welker in London around 1768) as the middle voluntary suggests that Coombs junior had acquired reasonable keyboard fluency from his father, and support from Bath musicians is again evident, in the appearance of Mr A. Loder on the programme, one of an extended musical clan of the city. Two years later, Coombs junior invited the same performers and many more to participate in a substantial oneday musical festival under the patronage of the aristocracy, clergy, and gentry of the district (see Figure 8.4).

29

Handbill, author’s collection.

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Figure 8.1 ‘Oh, cast ev’ry care to the wind’ (words from Revd William Lisle Bowles, ‘The Harp of Hoel’), from J.M. Coombs I, Eight Canzonets with an Accompaniment for the Pianoforte (London, [?1810])

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Figure 8.2 J.M. Coombs I, two-part anthem, ‘Give ear unto me Lord I beseech thee’, adapted from Marcello, from Coombs’s Divine Amusement (London: Preston, 1819)

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Figure 8.3 Handbill from the press of J.M. Coombs II, for music at a service dedicated to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1820. Author’s collection

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Figure 8.4 Handbill for Chippenham Musical Festival, 7 August 1822, Wiltshire Archive Services, Devizes, D77/3A. Reproduced by permission

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Music of Rural Byways Turning from ‘rotten borough’ to rural byway, we discover among the patrons of the 1822 Chippenham Musical Festival someone whom we have already encountered as the author of texts set by Coombs senior: Revd William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850), MA Trinity College, Oxford, endowed Vicar of the parish of Bremhill, minor poet, amateur musician, local historian, pamphleteer, and, in short, a typical example of that indispensable inhabitant of rural byways, the English country parson. Bowles’s The Parochial History of Bremhill (London: John Murray, 1828) is a rich assemblage of reflections on a fascinating spectrum of subjects, including music. He was familiar with the critical and historical writings of Dr Charles Burney, for example, and of particular interest to us, because descriptions of this sort are surprisingly rare, is the wide-ranging section headed ‘Some Observations on Parochial Psalmody’: In country churches, singing to the ‘praise and glory of God,’ in general, is little better than singing to the annoyance of all who have any ear or heart for harmony. Two clarionets, out of tune, and a bassoon, which hurtles one note most sonorously, whilst three abortive blasts succeed; a man, for treble, with long hair, and eyes out of his head; a tenor higher than the treble, which completely mars the harmony; and a quavering bass, quavering for his life; and all those voices only agreeing in one point, as to which shall be heard longest and loudest; such voices, and such instruments, not infrequently make up the musical part in country churches, of the church service. An organ, though on an humbler scale, unites the voices, and by the least attention, the clergyman, unless entirely destitute of musical knowledge, may so regulate the manner of singing, that a common parochial-quior [sic], unless the members are very conceited, as ignorance usually is, may be easily drilled into something like cultivated and interesting singing.30

That bassoons could be a potential parochial problem is reinforced by a document from the neighbouring village of Langley Burrell, mentioned above, which show that the rector-cum-squire, Samuel Ashe, having purchased such an instrument for the singers, imposed strict conditions on its use and custody: Memorandum. The Bassoon given by me to the Singers of the Parish of Langley Burrell is intended for their use in the Parish Church, only, the case of Practising excepted. I wish it to be kept in the house of the Parish Clerk, that if the Singers should at any time discontinue their Singing, there may be a proper person to preserve, the said Instrument for the use of any Future Quire that may be established and, I know of none, so fit as the Clerk for the time being. I would have it clearly understood, that it is intended for the use of the Parish Church of Langley Burrell aforesaid, and never to become the property of any individual. July Tenth. One Thousand, Seven Hundred & Ninety Six. Samuel Ashe. Rector.31 30 Bowles, The Parochial History of Bremhill (London: John Murray, 1828), pp. 203–27. We need to acknowledge here, of course, that many Anglican clergy were aiming to ‘refine’ local traditions of church singing, which affected their descriptions of such music-making. 31 WCRO 118:146, deposit of St Peter’s Church, Langley Burrell.

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The hidden agenda here was perhaps to keep the instrument from being used at convivial village merry-makings, or just to ensure that it would not be lost sight of if the church group were to be disbanded. Bowles was a country clergyman who was far from destitute of musical knowledge and sympathies. In addition to possessing critical and historical knowledge, he performed, composed,32 and also owned a small mid-seventeenthcentury box organ (now in private ownership in London),33 and collaborated with Coombs senior over settings of his poetry.34 These particular attributes of Bowles are confirmed in the notebooks of the Revd John Skinner of Camerton, which contain an account of a visit paid to Bremhill vicarage on 31 October 1812: Dined with Mr. Bowles. Met Mr. West, the Moravian clergyman. In the course of the evening, heard him (West) sing and play a variety of pieces of sacred music with great spirit and effect; Mr. Bowles accompanying him with the Violincello [sic] and his lady with her voice.35

The Moravian minister mentioned here can be identified as the Revd Lewis Renatus West (1753–1826), who was born in London, educated at the Moravian settlement of Fulneck, near Leeds, and, along with Christian Ignatius Latrobe, became one of the leading musicians of his denomination.36 West’s acquaintance with Bowles dates from shortly after his arrival in his parish as minister to the Moravian congregation at Lamb’s Acre, East Tytherton, in 1812.37 Lamb’s Acre, the Moravian settlement at East Tytherton, had been founded in 1748, and comprised a religious community with accommodation and a school, in addition to the chapel. (The present chapel building dates from John Cennick’s rebuilding of the site in 1792.38) From other aspects of his writings Bowles may appear to have been a somewhat partisan Anglican, but he seems to have enjoyed a close friendship with West and his family. Music was a significant catalyst in this, since West established monthly concerts at his parsonage, which probably 32 In his Anthems and Anthem Composers, p. 65, Foster lists the following anthems under Bowles’s name: ‘Grant we beseech thee’ and ‘Haste thee, O God’. The BL holds copies of the following printed secular compositions by Bowles: ‘Come to these senses’ (1802); ‘Adieu’ (1808); and ‘Go, beautiful and gentle dove’ (1822). 33 Andrew Freeman and John Rowntree, Father Smith (Oxford: Postif, 1977), p. 184. 34 J.M. Coombs, Eight Canzonets – see text at note 25 above. 35 BL, Add. MS 33,645, f. 36. 36 For more on Moravian musicians in England, see Rachel Cowgill, ‘The Papers of Christian Ignatius Latrobe: new light on musicians, music, and the Christian family in late eighteenth-century England’, in David Wyn Jones (ed.), Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 234–58. 37 On West, see Brown and Stratton, British Musical Biography, p. 441. His compositions include the anthems ‘Have mercy, Lord’ and ‘Save me O Lord’, service settings, and the hymn tune Tytherton. 38 Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 2nd edn, rev. Bridget Cherry (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), p. 234.

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included Moravian musicians among the performers.39 Bowles was present at West’s funeral, and refers in particular to the performance of a setting of the opening sentences of the service: ‘“I heard a voice from Heaven” finely set for four voices by C.B. Wollaston accompanied on the organ’, and to the anthem sung at the afternoon service that followed.40 The music-making at the Tytherton Moravian settlement is quite extensively documented (at the Moravian Church Archives, Moravian Church House, Muswell Hill), and Bowles’s interactions with West and his co-religionists give the impression, as for other musicians in towns and villages situated close to Moravian settlements, that the Moravians offered an attractive alternative to the enervating picture he portrays of rustic church music in Bremhill.41 Moving to the south of Devizes, towards the fringe of Salisbury Plain – known as ‘The Great Plain’ in the novels of Thomas Hardy – we reach the village of Potterne. The musical history of the village’s Anglican church is a further exception to local traditions of church bands and unaccompanied ‘lining-out’, in that it possessed an organ as early as 1723.42 It was, or rather is (since parts of the original case and pipework survive in the present instrument), the gift of Mr Thomas Flower of the nearby hamlet of Worton, who also endowed the church generously with communion plate and so on. Flower was from an established family of local gentry, who, in the words of a document in the collection of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, ‘in his youth made a pile

39 Bowles, The Parochial History of Bremhill, pp. 153ff. 40 Ibid., p. 155. 41 On the progress of Moravianism in Wiltshire, particularly the impact of Cennick’s conversion, see Colin Podmore, The Moravian Church in England, 1728–1760 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), pp. 88–95. For discussion of the Moravian influence on music-making in the West Riding of Yorkshire, for example, including their input in the early repertoire of the Halifax Quarterly Choral Society, see Rachel Cowgill, ‘“The most musical spot for its size in the kingdom”: music in Georgian Halifax’, Early Music, 28 (2000): 557–75 (pp. 568–73), and ‘The Halifax Judas, an unknown Handel arrangement by Mozart?’, MT, 143 (Spring, 2002): 19–36. 42 British Library, Loan 79.9/3, p. 103: ‘Presented by Mr. Thomas Flower Great GGG to f in alt. Sw[ell]. to fiddle g 1. Open Diapason 1. Stopt Diapason 2. Stopt Diapason 2. Dulciana 3. Principal 3. Principal 4. Flute 4. Hautboy 5. Twelfth 6. Fifteenth 7. Sesquialtera 8. Cornet 9. Trumpet *German pedals 1 1/2 octaves Coupler Swell to Great’ The swell, German pedals, and coupler date from work carried out at the instigation of Revd George Edstone in 1833; see Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 3 October 1872.

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of money in the West Indies, and coming home began his benefactions’.43 Not only did Flower pay for the organ, he also had the foresight to endow a trust fund to cover its future maintenance, and the salary of the organist and choir trainer. From the parish records relating to the trust, it is clear that, for the first century of its life, this organ required little attention other than tunings. When repair work was required, thanks to Flower’s legacy, the vestry meeting could be incisive, as on 12 October 1827: At a vestry held this day in pursuance of a notice given in Church on Sunday last[,] a letter was received from a Mr. Matthew Chivers [Organ Builder of Devizes?] – proposing (before he received the remainder of the money due to him for repairing the organ-) to ‘renovate the action of it altogether’ – and for this purpose to come over immediately and complete it by the end of the week. This proposal was taken into consideration, & unanimously agreed to. M’ Chivers was accordingly ordered to be written to & to proceed immediately with the work. It was agreed to give the Organblower 20 sh[illings] per year but to deduct 6d on any & every willful absence without permission of the Vicar & Churchwardens.44

For our final location, we visit the estate of another figure from among the patrons of the 1822 Chippenham Musical Festival: Bowood, seat of the Marquis of Lansdowne. Bowood House, famous for being the place where Dr Priestley of Calne is said to have ‘discovered oxygen’, and for its literary connections, has more modest musical connections. These stem from the chapel, which was dedicated by Canon Bowles on 21 December 1823.45 The details and identity of the maker of the first organ are as yet unknown, but the first organist, appointed in 1823 at the instigation of Bowles, was James Morris Coombs II. His main publication, A Collection of Sacred Music (which was dedicated to the Marchioness of Lansdowne), was issued by Alfred Novello in 1830.46 Unfortunately, Coombs made no attempt as editor of the volume to distinguish between his own compositions and those of his father. (Details of this and of other compositions by Coombs II are given in Appendix 8.2.) The decade following the close of the period under survey here saw the beginnings of rapid change in the Wiltshire area. The opening of the Great Western Railway through Chippenham in May 1841 accelerated the onset of urban industrialization, particularly in Swindon. Rural change and unrest had already

43 Notes on Flower of Potterne, Library of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Devizes, no shelfmark as yet. 44 WCRO, Potterne Parish Church Deposit, 1,172:76. 45 Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 1 January 1824. 46 It contains 51 psalm chants by Dr Sainsbury (Corsham), Coombs senior or junior, William Linley, Vincent Novello, Christopher Tye, and J.W. Windsor; the Christmas hymn ‘O come all ye faithful’, and settings of the Sanctus, Kyrie, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and Jubilate.

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sparked the ‘Langley Riots’ of 1822.47 Seede’s organ in Chippenham Parish Church deteriorated, despite some attention and slight modernization either by Bishop or Eagles in the 1840s, and it would grow increasingly obsolete in its westgallery location as the ideals of the Oxford Movement impinged on the Anglican church. The music-making of the area would soon gravitate towards the urban choral societies and corporate festivals that characterized the Victorian era.

47

Kent, The Organ of St Andrew’s Parish Church, Chippenham, p. 13.

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Appendix 8.1

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Checklist of compositions by James Morris Coombs I

Published (by Preston, London, unless otherwise stated): 1790 1800 1805 1805 1806 1806 1810 1810 1815 1819 1820 n. d.

A Te Deum and Jubilate as Performed in Salisbury Cathedral A March […] Inscribed to the Armed Association of Chippenham To her I love oh waft that sigh Rural Content: a pastoral glee We meet no more, oh think on me Haste let the roses, a favourite glee Mary’s grave Eight Canzonets with Accompaniment for the Pianoforte Grand Chorus (arr. from C.H. Graun’s Te Deum). Coombs’s Divine Amusement. A second edition appeared in 1825. Oh! Henry! Why with doubts like these? The Banks of the Dee, a favourite air […] arranged as a rondo for pianoforte, Colliford, Rolfe, & Barrow.

In manuscript: RCM, MS 157 Te Deum and Jubilate in G for 4 voices and figured bass. 6 chants: 1 in E flat; 2 in E; 3 in D; 4 in E flat; 5 in C minor; 6 in D. 8ff. The sixth chant has a note in Coombs’s hand, to J.W. Windsor: ‘I send you this chant, merely as a curiosity, I have no idea that it ever will be sung.’ RCM, MS 158 ‘I like to behold the bright stream’, song with pianoforte accompaniment. 2ff. RCM, MS 159 Sonata in C for Pianoforte, ‘Presented to Mr. Windsor by the composer.’ RCM, MS 674 ‘Organ Book. / St. Margaret’s Chapel / Bath, 1814 / J.W. Windsor organist 1798.’ Contains the following psalm and hymn tunes by J.M. Coombs: No. 23 No. 41 Psalm 9 No. 57 Psalm 4 No. 63 Psalm 119 No. 93 Psalm Tune 4 voc. RCM, MS 675 A further organ volume: ‘This book was bought at the expense of the Proprietors of St. Margarett’s [sic] Chapel.’ Contains the following chants by J.M. Coombs:

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No. 24 Psalm 105 No. 49 Psalm 13 Henry Baker’s Book 1814 (manuscript in private ownership) Contains the following verse anthems by Coombs for SATB, strings, and organ: No. 18 ‘Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house’, Psalm 26, p. 96 No. 19 ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found’, p. 102

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Appendix 8.2

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Checklist of compositions by James Morris Coombs II

Published (by J. Alfred Novello, London): 1830 You told me once my smile had power 1835 Musical Sketches for the Pianoforte, no. 1 1830 Compilation: A Collection of Sacred Music, containing psalm chants by James Morris Coombs I and II (see p. 177 and note 46 above) In manuscript: RCM, MS 1,067 Transcriptions of anthems by James Coombs of Chippenham ‘presented to J.W. Windsor by his friend James Coombes of Chippenham July 21st 1835’. f. 1 W. Croft ‘The souls of the righteous’, composed for the funeral of Queen Anne f. 14 J. Blow, P. Humfrey, and W. Turner ‘I will always give thanks’ ‘The Club Anthem’ f. 18 P. Humfrey ‘By the waters of Babylon’ f. 23 P. Humfrey ‘Lord, teach us to number our days’

Chapter 9

Mr White, of Leeds Robert Demaine

High on the south wall of the nave of Wakefield Cathedral, a handsome marble tablet commemorates the life of ‘John White, Professor of Music’, who died on 24 August 1831 at the age of 52. The full text, as it was engraved on the face of the tablet, reads as follows: Sacred / to the Memory of / JOHN WHITE. / Professor of Music, / Who was Born at York on the 8th of January, 1779. / Died 24th August, 1831, / Aged 52. / He was for many years / ORGANIST OF THIS CHURCH, / And of that of St. Paul, at Leeds, as well as of the / Church at Harewood. / Which appointments he continued to hold, with great credit to / himself and / with unvarying satisfaction to the respective Congregations, / until the close of his earthly career. / His musical attainments were of the highest order as a Violinist, / and more especially as a / CONDUCTOR OF ORATORIOS / He stood almost unrivalled. / To his judicious and persevering zeal and diligence may be ascribed / much of the extensive and successful cultivation of / CHORAL MUSIC / for which this County is now so distinguished. / No Admirer of Sacred Music, who recollects the performance of the / Grand and Solemn Choruses, which have resounded / through this District, / will withhold his Tear of Regret, as he recalls to mind, / in the Record of this Tablet / The Master Spirit which so ably directed them. / HIS REMAINS / lie interred at Harewood, / a spot which had been long endeared to him by many interesting / associations. / His children, / in grateful remembrance of one of the best and kindest of Fathers, / have erected this Monument to his Memory, / which will long be deservedly cherished, for the amiable and / benevolent qualities of his heart, by his Relatives / and numerous Friends.1

The memorial might be regarded as just another florid tribute in keeping with the spirit of the age; but the man who, according to the inscription, ‘stood almost unrivalled’ as a conductor of oratorios, did indeed play a significant part in the development of musical life in Yorkshire in the early decades of the nineteenth century. In the context of this volume, White can be seen as one of a new breed of professional musicians, for whom viable new markets and potentially lucrative opportunities began to proliferate with the rapid expansion of provincial centres in late eighteenth-century Britain. Towns such as Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham were increasingly able to challenge the centripetal pull of the capital, creating eddies 1 See John W. Walker, The History of the Old Parish Church of All Saints, Wakefield, now the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Wakefield (Wakefield: W.H. Milnes, 1888), pp. 224–5.

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in the nationwide movement of musicians and offering alternative forms of musical career for those with the right talents, connections, and entrepreneurial flair.2 As we shall see, John White has much to tell us of the ways in which these broader demographic and socio-economic changes played out in individual lives. Notwithstanding his considerable reputation at the time of his death, White is now largely forgotten – a fate shared by many who chose to practise their art on the provincial, rather than the metropolitan, concert platform. Some modest recognition of White’s importance may be inferred from the retention of his entry in successive editions of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, up to and including the fifth edition of 1954.3 The piece, scarcely changed from its first appearance in the second edition (1904–10), was the work of the Leeds antiquarian Frank Kidson (1854–1926), and for much of it Kidson appears to have drawn heavily on John Sainsbury’s Dictionary of Musicians, published in 1824.4 Sainsbury himself had not been averse to plagiarism of the most blatant kind, and also gathered material for his dictionary by writing directly to musicians requesting biographical information.5 Some, perhaps out of modesty, chose to reply through an intermediary, and the respondent in the case of John White was the Revd Thomas Johnstone of Wakefield (1768–1856). Happily, Johnstone’s reply, which forms the most complete account we have of White’s life, has been preserved as part of the Euing Collection at Glasgow University Library.6 Although customarily referred to in concert programmes and newspapers as ‘Mr. White of Leeds’, White was not a Leeds man by birth. It was not until some time after his marriage to Mary Sharp, in 1803, that he was induced ‘at the invitation of numerous & respectable friends’ to move to the town.7 Born in York on 8 January 1779, the son of a cordwainer,8 White had shown such musical 2 On these developments, see Cyril Ehrlich, The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century: a social history (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), esp. pp. 19–29, and Deborah Rohr, The Careers of British Musicians, 1750–1850: a profession of artisans (Cambridge: CUP, 2001), passim. 3 A condensed version appeared in NG in 1980, but White was omitted from NG2 in 2001. 4 [John Sainsbury], A Dictionary of Musicians from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time (2 vols, London: J. Sainsbury, 1824), vol. 2, pp. 536–8. 5 For detailed discussion of Sainsbury and his background, see Leanne Langley, ‘Sainsbury’s Dictionary, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Rhetoric of Patriotism’, in Christina Bashford and Leanne Langley (eds), Music and British Culture, 1785–1914: essays in honour of Cyril Ehrlich (Oxford: OUP, 2000), pp. 65–97. 6 Letter from Revd Thomas Johnstone to John Sainsbury, postmarked Wakefield, 18 December 1823, Euing Music Collection, R.d.88/196, Glasgow University Library (hereafter referred to as Johnstone Letter). 7 Ibid. 8 Marriage certificate of George White and Martha Fearnley, St Maurice, York, 23 August 1778. Microfilm, Borthwick Institute for Archives (BIA), York, MF 858. A cordwainer was a shoemaker or worker in cordovan leather.

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ability as a child that any thoughts of the medical career planned by his parents, George and Martha White, were soon abandoned. His passion for the violin was apparently such that ‘neither marbles, the hoop, nor cricket, nor indeed, any other juvenile amusement, possessed any charm for him’.9 Nothing is known of his earliest music teachers. One source suggests that White may have been a chorister at the Minster,10 but no archival evidence has been located to confirm this. Some indication of his precocious musical talent may be gleaned, however, from his appearance at the age of nine at the York Musical Society, under the direction of John Camidge senior.11 Moreover, the Revd Johnstone recounts how by the age of 12 White was capable of performing a violin concerto by Luigi Borghi (?1745–c. 1806), presumably from his op. 2 set of 1775,12 then regarded a daunting technical challenge. Precisely how the youthful White began his beneficial association with the Lascelles family, of Harewood House near Leeds, remains unclear. A rather fanciful account from many years later suggests that White was employed initially as a stable boy, and, upon discovery of his abilities, received musical tuition paid for by Lord Harewood.13 This is at variance with Johnstone’s version, however, and also with the evidence cited above of White’s appearances as a child prodigy in York. It seems more probable that White was already enjoying something of a local reputation by January 1795, when Edward Lascelles (1740–1820) became the second Lord Harewood, and was seeking a private musician for the household. A cultured man with a strong interest in music, Lascelles proved a generous patron, as the Harewood account books clearly show. By the close of 1795, John White had been engaged at a salary of £50 per year; but more importantly, his lordship’s largesse had extended, earlier that year, to paying for him to visit London, where he had received violin lessons from the Neapolitan composer Ignazio Raimondi (c. 1735–1813), who had settled in the English capital in 1780.14 From then until his marriage in 1803 and subsequent removal to Leeds, White visited London regularly with the Lascelles family, and, thanks to their generosity, was able to complete a remarkable musical apprenticeship which brought him into contact with many of the leading musicians of the day. 9 Johnstone Letter. 10 Yorkshire Gazette, 12 September 1835. 11 White made this claim in an address at the York Musical Society Annual Concert, reported in the Yorkshire Gazette of 8 May 1830. York Musical Society (1767– c. 1855) is described as a ‘gentleman’s club, members being admitted as either performers or non-performers’, in David Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of institutional music-making in York, c. 1550–1990 (York: York Settlement Trust, [1994]), p. 146. 12 John A. Parkinson and Simon McVeigh, ‘Borghi, Luigi’, in GMO (accessed 12 January 2007). 13 This account was related in 1869 by John Turney, in a speech given at the jubilee dinner of the Halifax Choral Society; see Halifax Guardian, 8 May 1869. 14 Entries for 29 April, 14 June, 28 August, and 3 December 1795, Lascelles personal and travelling accounts 1790–1797, WYAS (Leeds), WYL250/3/212. Guido Salvetti, ‘Raimondi, Ignazio’, in GMO (accessed 13 January 2007).

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In addition to lessons with Raimondi, Johnstone informs us, White also became a pupil of J.L. Dussek on the piano, of John Ashley for the organ and singing, of Meyer on the harp (presumably P.J. Meyer (1737–1819) or one of his sons), and of J.A. Dahmen (1766–1813) on the cello.15 Indeed, his abilities as a cellist were recognized by no less a judge than J.P. Salomon (1745–1815), who would engage him on occasion to deputize for Dahmen or Robert Lindley when they had other commitments.16 Other than this, few details are known of White’s activities in the capital. He is not listed among the soloists at the concert series directed by his teacher Raimondi at Willis’s Rooms in 1800; nor is he to be found among the performers at the Concerts of Antient Music.17 However, one reference to White may have been located: among the music performed at a concert given at the King’s Theatre Room, Haymarket, on 25 April 1799, was a quintet by Dussek, with the composer himself at the piano, joined by Wilhelm and Franz Cramer, a Mr White, and the double-bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti. The work in question appears to have been the Quintet in F minor op. 41 (scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass), with White taking the cello part.18 The importance of these London visits as formative musical experiences can hardly be overstated. After several years of regular exposure to some of the finest instrumentalists and singers in the land – as pupil or colleague, or through personal acquaintance – it would seem that White was equipped formidably, by the turn of the century, to play a leading role in shaping the musical life of the north of England. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that when the oboist John Erskine took over the faltering York Subscription Concerts in December 1801, he turned to John White to fill the post of Leader of the Band.19 His first concert took place in the Assembly Rooms on 19 February 1802, and this connection with his native city continued for a further six seasons, by which time White’s career in Leeds was well under way.20 According to his marriage certificate, White was still resident in Harewood when he married Mary Sharp of Gildersome at Batley Parish Church in March 15 Though London-based, Dahmen worked in Leeds in 1793 and 1794, which is where White might have received his lessons; see E. Hargrave, ‘Musical Leeds in the Eighteenth Century’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, Miscellanea, 28 (1923–28): 320–55 (pp. 348–9). 16 Johnstone Letter. 17 The John White discussed here should not be confused with the alto singer of the same name, who was associated with the New Musical Fund and is listed as living at 4 Prince’s Street, Westminster, in Joseph Doane, A Musical Directory for the Year 1794 (London: R.H. Westley, 1794; repr. RCM, 1993), p. 69. 18 Personal communication from Simon McVeigh, Goldsmiths’ College, London, based on a search of his Calendar of London Concerts 1750–1800. This work was receiving its first performance, in manuscript; see Howard Allen Craw, ‘A Biography and Thematic Catalog of the Works of J.L. Dussek (1760–1812)’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1964), p. 320. 19 York Courant, 14 December 1801. 20 White ended his tenure of office with a benefit concert on 8 April 1808; see ibid., 4 April 1808.

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1803.21 The couple took up residence in Leeds some time thereafter, however, and the opportunities for teaching and performing in this rapidly expanding and prosperous town must have seemed attractive. Leeds was by this time the sixth largest town in England, with a population over three times the size of York.22 Harewood was within relatively easy reach, just eight miles to the north of Leeds, and indeed the following year, almost certainly thanks to his Lascelles connections, White was appointed organist at All Saints Church, Harewood, at a salary of £21 per year.23 One of his first duties was the opening, in July 1804, of a rebuilt Father Smith organ, which had been presented to the church by Lord Harewood.24 Later that year, White, whose address was now given as Templar Street,25 began preparations for a subscription series for the benefit of Leeds General Infirmary, under the patronage of Lord and Lady Harewood, and Viscount Irwin from nearby Temple Newsam.26 This venture marked the beginning of White’s efforts over many years in support of the General Infirmary and other charitable causes in Leeds. Fred Spark and Joseph Bennett examined the Infirmary’s account books for their History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, published in 1892, and revealed White’s success in raising funds through concerts, oratorios, and assemblies.27 The first concert series of 1805 realized the sum of £151 18s. 6d., while a single oratorio or concert might raise anything between £20 and £80.28 White’s greatest achievements in this field, however, would not come to fruition until the 1820s, when his organizational and musical expertise

21 WYAS (Wakefield), D37/15. 22 According to the 1801 census the population of Leeds was 53,276; see C.J. Morgan, ‘Demographic change, 1771–1911’, in Derek Fraser (ed.), A History of Modern Leeds (Manchester: MUP, [1980]), pp. 46–71 (pp. 47–8), and P.M. Tillott (ed.), A History of Yorkshire: the City of York, The Victoria History of the Counties of England (London: OUP, for the Institute of Historical Research, 1961), p. 254. 23 Churchwardens’ account book, 1743–1822, Harewood Parish Records, WYAS (Leeds), RDP31/21. 24 The organ was originally installed in the former Lascelles family home of Gawthorp Hall. In 1803, Edward, second Lord Harewood, commissioned John Donaldson of York to add two further stops and a new case before presenting the instrument to the church; see John Jewell, The Tourist’s Companion, or the History and Antiquities of Harewood in Yorkshire (Leeds: Christopher Pickard, 1822), pp. 47–8. 25 Situated on the east side of North Street, Templar Street was a new housing development at this time. A contemporary guide commented that ‘to judge from the style of the houses that are already built, [it] will make a very respectable addition to this TownEnd’; see J. Ryley (attr.), The Leeds Guide (Leeds: Edward Baines, 1806), p. 81. 26 Leeds Mercury, 10 November 1804. 27 Fred R. Spark and Joseph Bennett, History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, 1858–89 (Leeds: F.R. Spark; London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1892), p. 379. The Treasurer’s cash account books of Leeds General Infirmary 1767–1850 are in the custody of the LGI Special Trustees, but may be viewed by special arrangement with the WYAS, Leeds. 28 A three-day festival in Sheffield the same year raised £306 7s. 2¼d. for the local Infirmary, see [Frederick George Edwards], ‘Sheffield Parish Church’, MT, 50 (July 1909): 437–45 (p. 440).

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would be put to use on a larger scale in the great Yorkshire Musical Festivals. We will return to these later. The move to Leeds proved a turning point for White’s career. His teaching connection flourished – he is said to have enjoyed the patronage of most of the leading families of Leeds and the surrounding district29 – while his activities as soloist, leader, and concert promoter began to extend to places such as Wakefield and Doncaster. His prospects advanced yet further when he was appointed successor to David Lawton, organist since 1792 at St Paul’s Church, Leeds, who had died in April 1807.30 This was a prestigious appointment, for St Paul’s was no ordinary church: built in 1791, at a cost of £10,000 and in the fashionable West End of Leeds, it could seat over a thousand people; but all the pews were reserved with an annual rent of 16 shillings each.31 Such was the social cachet attached to attendance at St Paul’s that pews which fell vacant were sold by auction.32 White’s workload must have increased considerably with this additional post, for in August he advertised in the local press for an apprentice to start work immediately.33 At the beginning of 1808 White put on a benefit concert at the Music Hall in Albion Street. John Erskine and Philip Knapton came from York as principal oboe and cello respectively, while the vocalist was Mrs Ashe from the London, Edinburgh, and Bath Concerts.34 This must have been successful, for ‘White’s Annual Concert’ was an established event in the Leeds musical calendar thereafter.35 An increasingly distinguished array of musicians of national reputation came to the town to perform, some for the first time. Among them were the vocalists Eliza Salmon, William Knyvett, and Thomas Vaughan, the violinist John Loder, and the cellist Charles Jane Ashley. It seems evident that, with time, White had been able to develop an extensive network of contacts – some from his London days, some through his wealthy patrons, and others through his ever more frequent participation in oratorio performances across the North of England. The local oratorio tradition was gathering impetus during this period, with many smaller townships and villages staging regular musical festivals, typically based around the sacred music of Handel and Haydn. Their names will be familiar to natives of Yorkshire: Wortley, Birstall, Almondbury, and Sherburn are just some of the locations where White appeared as Leader of the Band, in addition to much larger gatherings in places such as Doncaster, Halifax, Hull, Wakefield,

29 Johnstone Letter. 30 G.D. Lumb, ‘Burials at St Paul’s Church, Leeds’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, Miscellanea, 15 (1909): 56–70 (p. 58). 31 Maurice Beresford, ‘East End, West End: the face of Leeds during urbanisation, 1684–1842’, Publications of the Thoresby Society, 60–61 (1985–86): 1–562 (p. 156). 32 See, for example, Leeds Mercury, 23 January 1813. 33 Ibid., 15 August 1807. 34 Ibid., 16 January 1808. This singer was the wife of the flautist Andrew Ashe. 35 A further indication of White’s rapid progress in establishing himself in Leeds was his move, probably during 1808, to a house on Park Row, a fashionable and highly desirable part of town; see The Leeds Directory for 1809 (Leeds: [E. Baines], 1809), p. 75.

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and Chester.36 Through these engagements, he would have had the opportunity to judge the merits of vocal and instrumental performers at first hand, and also on occasion to assimilate new ideas about repertoire and performance. At the Chester Festival held in September 1814, a ‘New Occasional Oratorio’ based chiefly on Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus was performed, into which was interpolated Ignazio Raimondi’s famous ‘Battle Piece’, which had been performed repeatedly in London in the 1780s and published in a piano arrangement in 1791;37 later in the year, the Raimondi symphony found its way onto the programme of White’s annual concert in Leeds,38 perhaps in tribute to his former teacher, but probably also capturing the mood of general celebration inspired by the defeat of Napoleon and the initiation of the Congress of Vienna. During 1815 White’s activities as a performer were curtailed for a time, presumably because of the death of his wife Mary, aged 34, on 21 April 1815.39 White remarried just over a year later, at the church of St Michael-le-Belfry in York.40 His new bride was Maria Sarah Noke, the musically gifted only daughter of Mr Noke of York, the proprietor of a concert room in Minster Yard.41 Like White, she had received musical training in London, as a pupil of the composer and virtuoso pianist Joseph Wölfl (1773–1812), and she must have been an accomplished musician: Johnstone comments particularly on her polished performance of two of Wölfl’s most demanding works, the Piano Concerto in G op. 36, known as ‘The Calm’, and his Piano Sonata op. 41, subtitled ‘Non plus ultra’.42

36 For a list of music festivals conducted by White between 1798 and 1832, see Brian W. Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival and the Choral Society in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: a social history’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1968), pp. 260–62. I am grateful to Philip Scowcroft for information relating to White’s activities in Doncaster; White was leader of the band in 18 concerts given by the Hull Oratorio Society between 1812 and 1820. See Norman Staveley, Two Centuries of Music in Hull (Beverley: Hutton Press, 1999), p. 222. 37 Leeds Mercury, 24 September 1814; Giudo Salvetti, ‘Raimondi, Ignazio’, in GMO (accessed 12 January 2007); The Favourite Grand Piece called the Battle, adapted for the Piano Forte, by the Author, with Accompaniments for Violin, & Violoncello ad libitum (London, [1791]). On the London reception of Raimondi’s ‘Battle’ Symphony, see Simon McVeigh, Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn (Cambridge: CUP, 1993), p. 116. 38 Leeds Mercury, 12 November 1814. 39 York Courant, 24 April 1815. White’s only known musical publication is believed to date from this time: The Celebrated Irish Melody, Fly not yet newly Adapted for the Piano Forte or Harp. by J. White, The words by a Lady (Leeds: J. Muff, n.d.), copy in Leeds Local History Library; see Frank Kidson, British Music Publishers, Printers and Engravers (London: W.E. Hill & Sons, 1900), p. 165. 40 Leeds Mercury, 13 July 1816. 41 See Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place’, p. 123. 42 Johnstone Letter. Ewan West, ‘Wölfl, Joseph’, in GMO (accessed 13 January 2007).

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In the year of his marriage to Maria, White organized for his patron, the Earl of Harewood, a musical event of some magnificence; the occasion was a visit to Leeds of the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia (later Tsar Nicholas I) who was making a tour of England and Scotland.43 On 10 December, after visiting the mills and foundries of Leeds, the grand duke and his entourage stayed overnight as guests of the earl. A lavish dinner was given, served upon gold plate.44 Afterwards White directed a band and chorus of some 50 performers in the gallery, in a full programme consisting chiefly of choruses and songs by Handel, but also including a manuscript ‘Grand Symphony’ by Adalbert Gyrowetz (1763–1850).45 ‘The glee of the evening’, we are told, ‘was maintained with uninterrupted eclat’, while the grand duke ‘expressed his surprise at meeting with so complete a performance’.46 From around 1818 White began to give fewer public performances, although his services were still very much in demand. When, for example, Richard and Charles Jane Ashley conducted their final, spectacular ‘Grand Musical Festival’ tour through the provinces that year, they engaged White as leader for the threeday festival held in Huddersfield, on 7–9 October.47 It seems likely that White’s teaching commitments account for his reduced activity as a performer, especially if we are to believe Johnstone’s claim that he had about 150 regular pupils at that time.48 With the death of Henry Clemetshaw, the organist of Wakefield Parish Church, in May 1821, a further opportunity presented itself. White was awarded and took up the post a month later at a salary of £45 per year, the same as his predecessor.49 The Vicar of Wakefield was the Revd Samuel Sharp, brother of White’s first wife, Mary, and it is conceivable that this family connection may have been of some advantage; White’s standing was such by now, however, that it is equally likely that the appointment was based on merit. The great Yorkshire Musical Festivals held in York in the 1820s provided the perfect platform for White to demonstrate his skill as a choral trainer. Conceived on a grand scale and performed in the largest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps, the Yorkshire Festivals employed choruses far larger than those seen at the more

43 See Leeds Mercury, 7 and 14 December 1816. The Grand Duke and his party had arrived from Chatsworth and were on their way north to Inverary, the seat of the Duke of Argyll. 44 Jewell, Tourist’s Companion, pp. 72–3. 45 John Jones, The History and Antiquities of Harewood (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Leeds: J. Buckton, 1859), p. 189. 46 Jewell, Tourist’s Companion, p. 73; Jones, History, p. 189. 47 See Brian W. Pritchard, ‘The Provincial Festivals of the Ashley Family’, Galpin Society Journal, 22 (March 1969): 58–77 (pp. 71–3). Festivals were produced by the Ashleys in Peterborough, Market Harborough, Newark, Huddersfield, Rotherham, and Lincoln. 48 Johnstone Letter. 49 Walker, The History of the Old Parish Church of All Saints, Wakefield, p. 199; Churchwardens’ accounts, Wakefield Parish Church, WYAS (Wakefield), D3/22/8.

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established events such as the Three Choirs and Birmingham.50 Thomas Greatorex (1758–1831) was appointed conductor, with Philip Knapton, John and Matthew Camidge, and White as assistant conductors. To White fell responsibilities for selecting and supervising the chorus, in addition to performing as principal second violin.51 His almost unrivalled experience and knowledge of northern choral forces produced a body of singers which elicited much favourable critical comment, especially at the festivals of 1825 and 1828. In preparation for these, White had travelled to various districts of Yorkshire to rehearse groups of choralists, raising the standard of performance as a result.52 The Leeds General Infirmary received £1,800 as its share of the profits from the 1823 Festival.53 With his achievements at these nationally prestigious events, White’s reputation was probably at its zenith. While not a wealthy man, by about 1826 he had sufficient means to move to an elegant house, 5 Park Square;54 though it should be borne in mind that, by this time, many of the more affluent inhabitants of that area had fled to the higher ground of Woodhouse and beyond, to escape the smoke of nearby mills.55 Sadly, the ‘harmonious alliance’ spoken of by Johnstone ended in March 1826, with the death of White’s wife, Maria, at the age of 30.56 She had produced a number of musical compositions, one of which had been issued by the music-publishing firm established by White in 1820 with Samuel and Philip Knapton.57 Despite the loss of Maria, however, the White household remained strongly musical. Two of White’s daughters performed with him at his annual concert in the Music Hall, Albion Street, in November of that year, and one of them had a canzonet published later by Chappell.58 His son Edward was

50 On the Yorkshire Musical Festivals, see Griffiths, A Musical Place, pp. 83–102, and for a table of comparative instrumental and vocal forces, p. 99; also Catherine Dale’s chapter (Chapter 16) in this current volume. 51 [John Crosse], An Account of the Grand Musical Festival, held in September 1823, in the Cathedral Church of York (York: John Wolstenholme, 1825), pp. 145 and 168; minute book of the Festival Management Committee 1827–1828, YML, D10/R/M. 52 York Herald, 5 July 1828. 53 Spark and Bennett, History, p. 379. 54 General and Commercial Directory of the Borough of Leeds […] Compiled under the Direction of William Parson (Leeds: Edward Baines, 1826), p. 136. 55 Beresford, ‘East End’, pp. 288–94. 56 ‘A Record of Monumental Inscriptions at Harewood Churchyard, Harewood, Yorkshire’, WYAS (Leeds), Acc. 2,950. 57 The Favorite Scotch Air, We’re a’noddin, the variations for the piano forte […] composed by Mrs White of Leeds (York: Knapton, White, & Knapton, [1820]), copy in BL, h.726.d.(2.); see York Courant, 22 August 1820. A review of another of her works may be found in the Harmonicon, 2 (July 1824): 137. 58 Leeds Mercury, 11 November 1826; ‘There is a thought,’ the words by A. Watts, Esq., adapted to a favourite movement of Beethoven, by Miss White (of Leeds) (London: Chappell, [1826]), copy in BL, H.2831.c.(6.); see Harmonicon, 13 (February 1830): 90.

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also a musician, and in due course succeeded his father as organist at Harewood and Wakefield.59 With his reputation and position secure, White chose to devote some of his time to supporting the cause of the musical amateur in the West Riding. When Joseph Bottomley, leader of the strictly amateur Halifax Choral Society, left after being refused payment for his services, White stepped in and led the band without fee.60 During the 1820s he regularly directed the Leeds Amateur Musical Society, and would lead the band whenever the annual Yorkshire Amateur Musical Meeting took place in Leeds.61 His health was failing by the time the twenty-third such meeting took place in June 1831 – the two-day event was ‘attended by persons of rank and fashion, as well as by many of the principal amateurs and professors of the county’62 – and ‘after a painful illness of three weeks’, he died at his Park Square home on 24 August 1831.63 Obituaries may not always offer the most reliable or impartial evidence of a person’s character or achievements, but there is a reassuring unanimity in the assessments of White which appeared after his death. As a leader he was ‘much liked in the orchestra for the urbanity of his manners’, while his ‘admirable tact and frank good temper’ were seen as invaluable in securing the best results from a chorus.64 His abilities as a conductor of oratorio were universally recognized, as were his industry and diligence as a teacher.65 An exceptionally accomplished musician, who had visited the capital frequently in his youth, he preferred to live and work in the provinces. Perhaps one of White’s greatest gifts was the capacity to bring the best out of lesser talents; as one writer put it, ‘no one knew so well the capabilities of the materials on which he had to work: no one could better direct the energies and talents which were placed at his disposal, to the accomplishment of the purpose for which they were designed’.66 To all of this, White added an enviable ability to forge and maintain the very best social connections, a potent combination which placed him at the heart of musical life of Leeds and the West Riding for nearly three decades. Fittingly, he was buried in the churchyard of All Saints, Harewood, close to the place where his career had first blossomed.

59 Vestry Minutes 1828–66, Harewood Parish Records, WYAS (Leeds), RDP31/22; Walker, The History of the Old Parish Church of All Saints, Wakefield, p. 199. 60 Halifax Guardian, 3 April 1869. On the early history of the Halifax Choral Society and this particular incident, see Rachel Cowgill, ‘“The most musical spot for its size in the kingdom”: music in Georgian Halifax’, Early Music, 28 (November 2000): 557–75 (p. 569). On Bottomley as festival director, see Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival’, pp. 262–3. 61 The Yorkshire Amateur Musical Meeting, founded in 1809, was held alternately at Leeds, York, Hull, and Sheffield; see E.D. Mackerness, Somewhere Further North: a history of music in Sheffield (Sheffield: University of Sheffield, 1974), p. 31. 62 York Herald, 25 June 1831. 63 Yorkshire Gazette, 12 September 1835. 64 Ibid., 27 August 1831 and 12 September 1835. 65 Leeds Mercury, 27 August 1831. 66 Yorkshire Gazette, 27 August 1831.

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The Wakefield tablet, erected in his memory by the White family, remains the only tangible reminder of a musician who showed how it was possible in the early nineteenth century to establish a successful musical career outside the orbit of the metropolis. The burgeoning industrial towns of Yorkshire were creating a market for musical enterprise, as their wealthier inhabitants chose to support festivals and subscription series (particularly those events with charitable intent),67 and to satisfy a desire for musical accomplishments within the circle of family and friends. It is his response to these socio-economic changes, not least his skill in cultivating both the landed gentry and the merchant and professional classes of the West Riding, which makes Mr White of Leeds a deserving case study in the evolving role of the professional musician in the provinces.

67 R.J. Morris, ‘Middle-class Culture, 1700–1914’, in Fraser (ed.), History of Modern Leeds, pp. 200–222 (pp. 200–203).

Chapter 10

The Larks of Dean: Amateur Musicians in Northern England Sally Drage

The Larks of Dean were an informal group of singers and instrumentalists from Rossendale in east Lancashire, who were connected with local Baptist churches and flourished between about 1740 and 1870. They were enthusiastic amateurs, and some of them, at least, seem to have achieved a high level of musical literacy. Although such groups of musicians were not uncommon, the Larks are of particular importance today because of the survival of an exceptionally large number of their sacred and secular music-books, both printed and manuscript: the latter include many of their own compositions. This chapter aims to evaluate their place in the history of music-making in northern England. It is not known when the name, the Larks of Dean (or, as they were also called in local dialect, the Deighn, Deyghn, or Deyn Layrocks) was first used. In 1842 William Cooke Taylor, the Irish historian and journalist, observed that the predominantly Nonconformist public worship in Rossendale included a ‘disproportionate amount of congregational singing’, but he did not mention the Larks.1 The first specific reference to them seems to have occurred 20 years later, in 1862, when the Lancashire poet Edwin Waugh described how the inhabitants of the Dean valley in Rossendale were ‘so notable for their love of music, that they are known all through the vales of Rosendale [sic] as “Th’ Deighn Layrocks,” or “The Larks of Dean”’.2 Most descriptions of the Larks of Dean were written by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century amateur historians, who, as Jean Seymour comments, copied from each other indiscriminately.3 The most extensive account is by Samuel Compston, a JP, who wrote a series of articles for the Rossendale Free Press between September 1904 and January 1905, based on interviews with local people.4 His most 1 William Taylor, Notes of a Tour in the Manufacturing Districts of Lancashire, 3rd edn (London: Frank Cass, 1968), p. 92. 2 Edwin Waugh, Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk During the Cotton Famine (London: [n.s.], 1867), p. 199; reprinted from the Manchester Examiner and Times (1862). 3 Jean Seymour, ‘The Larks of Dean and their Music’, West Gallery, 6 (Spring 1994): 14–21 (p. 14). 4 Samuel Compston, ‘The Music and Men of the “Deighn Layrocks,” Rossendale – 1750 to 1860’, Rossendale Free Press, 17 September 1904–7 January 1905.

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important source was Moses Heap (1824–1913), a mill worker from Rossendale, who had sung with the Larks on special occasions as a young man (see Figure 10.1). In 1876 ill health forced Heap to change jobs, and he became an itinerant salesman of yeast and drapery. Travelling regularly over the moors, he met some of the last generation of the Larks, and recorded their stories in his manuscript reminiscences, ‘My Life and Times’, completed in 1904.5 Excerpts from Compston’s articles can be found in ‘The Deighn Layrocks Story 1750–1890’, compiled and edited by Jon Elliott,6 and in Roger Elbourne’s Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire, 1780–1840 (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1980), which also includes a study of the Larks’ place in working-class culture. Compston discussed the family history of the Larks in some detail, so for the purpose of this study it is sufficient to note that many of them were handloom weavers, and most belonged to four families: the Nuttalls, the Hudsons, the Hargreaves, and the Ashworths. By the end of the nineteenth century, whimsical tales of how the Larks of Dean wrote hymn tunes with strange names, how they practised into the early hours of the morning, and how they loved Handel most of all, had become part of Lancashire folklore.7 Their musical achievements were even celebrated in a penny ballad, written ‘bi one o’th breed on ‘em’, and to be sung to the tune ‘Bocking Warp’, which was composed by James Nuttall, a second-generation Lark. It includes the immortal lines: Ther singing wur so true un grand, Id made fooaks yure on end to stand,8

But whilst such anecdotes and ballads are entertaining, the humour can create a false impression of unsophisticated rustic musicians that needs redressing today. Origins It is uncertain whether the Larks originally met together to perform sacred music, secular music, or both, and they may never have been formally established. It is probable that there were far more musical societies like the Larks in England 5 Moses Heap, ‘My Life and Times’, typescript by Jon Elliott (1962), Rawtenstall Library, RC 942 ROS, pp. 51–2. The autograph manuscript is held at Rawtenstall Library (RC 942 CRA) but is now too fragile to be handled. 6 Jon Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks Story 1750–1890[,] edited from the notes of Samuel Compston, Moses Heap, Edwin Waugh and others’, typescript (1961 and 1984), Rawtenstall Library, RC 785 ROS. 7 See, for example, Thomas Newbigging, Lancashire Characters and Places (Manchester: Brook & Chrystal, 1891), pp. 87–92. 8 Anon., ‘Th’ Deighn Layrocks’ (Stacksteads: J.W. Hewitt, [n.d.]), leaflet pasted inside Moses Heap’s manuscript book, ‘Manuscript Tunes, formerly in use at Goodshaw, Lumb and the Dean Valley, From the Year of our Lord, 1750 to 1860, from the Compositions of Nuttalls’, Ashworths’, Hudsons’ and others of the surrounding Neighbourhood [sic]’, Rossendale Museum, SM 10.

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Figure 10.1 Photograph of Moses Heap, seated by a waterfall, inserted into opening pages of Moses Heap, ‘My Life and Times’, typescript by Jon Elliott (1962), Rawtenstall Library, RC 942 ROS. Reproduced by permission than existing evidence might suggest, because making the necessary arrangements for their activities could easily have been done face-to-face, without relying on postal communication or notices published in the press. As will be seen, the names of societies that were wealthy enough to purchase new music can be found in subscription lists, but others, like the Larks, copied music into manuscript, or bought it secondhand. In 1868 Thomas Newbigging, a Lancashire historian, surmised that the Larks were the musical descendants of the ‘Rossendale players’ who performed for Sir Ralph Assheton, at Christmas 1676; but the term ‘players’ could equally have referred to actors.9 Newbigging also claimed to have seen ‘records more than a century and a half old’ of the early music meetings of the Larks of Dean, which would imply that they began in 1717 or even earlier,10 and Annie Buckley referred to ‘definite information’ that the Larks were ‘already in existence’ by the mid-

9 Thomas Newbigging, History of the Forest of Rossendale (London and Bacup: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1868), p. 190. 10 Newbigging, History, pp. 191–2.

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1700s;11 but neither noted where such evidence might be found, and later authors do not mention it. It is usually thought that in the 1740s a group of Rossendale musicians were influenced by the conversion of their leader John Nuttall, a handloom weaver, to concentrate on sacred music and to include Bible readings in their rehearsals.12 The Larks were not directly connected with a local church at first, apparently, but they soon joined with the Particular Baptists at Bacup, and Compston described how John Nuttall and Richard Hudson, a farmer, travelled round the district as missionaries: ‘Nuttall did most of the Scripture reading and exhortation [and] Hudson led the music: thus they anticipated Moody and Sankey by more than a hundred years.’13 Their success led to the building of a Baptist meeting house next to Lumb Parish Church in 1750; John Nuttall was ordained as minister in 1753, and in 1760 the Baptists transferred to a new, less isolated chapel at Goodshaw. The Larks remained associated with Goodshaw Chapel until its closure in 1860, and with a later Baptist chapel at Lumb, which had opened in 1831. However, after an organ was purchased by Lumb Chapel in 1858, orchestral instruments were only used on special occasions, and ‘finding themselves without any useful function to fulfil in the church, [the Larks] gradually died out’.14 Instruments Most stories about the Larks emphasize how they sang and played in Lumb and Goodshaw Chapels, but it is likely that when they first began to participate in worship they sang unaccompanied. The use of instruments was uncommon even in parish churches until the latter part of the eighteenth century, and early Baptists were not sure whether there should be any music in services at all. In Yorkshire, singing during Baptist worship was not officially sanctioned until 1719, when the first meeting of the Association of Baptist Churches decided that it was ‘a moral duty to be continued in the churches of Christ to the end of the world’.15 As late as 1826, at Machpelah Baptist Chapel in Accrington, just north of Rossendale, there was still concern about the suitability of instrumental music. As the chapel minute book stated: It had been the practice with the singers to bring instruments of various descriptions[,] which was complained of as not comporting with the pure worship of God, in consequence of which they be desired not to introduce them any more, excepting the 11 Annie Buckley, History of the Providence Baptist Chapel, Lumb (Rawtenstall: Rossendale Free Press, 1928), p. 11. 12 Annie Buckley, ‘The “Deighn Layrocks”’, Baptist Quarterly, New Series, 4 (1928–9): 43–8 (p. 43). 13 Samuel Compston, ‘Quaint Rossendale Music of “t’ Deyn Layrocks,” a Century ago’, Bury and Rossendale Historical Review and Notes and Queries, 1/3 (1909): 65–9 (p. 65). 14 Buckley, History, p. 48. 15 Robert Wylie, Old Hymn Tunes: local composers and their story (Accrington: Accrington Gazette, 1924), p. 8, reprinted from the Accrington Gazette (n.d.).

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violoncello, which was considered less objectionable; but clarinets and small violins were not consistent with the pure worship of the Christian church.16

At Rossendale Museum there are instruments which are supposed to have been played by the Larks. A violin and a cello are likely candidates, and two clarinets are possible, although one is only ‘reputed’ to have belonged to the group. There is also a serpent, but the number of serpents remaining in museums may be linked more to their novel appearance than to their popularity in church bands. They are difficult instruments to play accurately, and were most commonly used in military bands. One of the Larks did apparently play the serpent, although not necessarily in chapel. Compston wrote how in 1819 a clarinettist, Thomas Shenton of Goodshaw Chapel, had gone to Manchester to play the serpent in a band during the anti-Corn Law demonstration that ended in the Peterloo Massacre. His serpent is said to have been cut in two by the sword of a Hussar;17 the Rossendale Museum serpent has been conserved extensively in recent years, however, and it is no longer possible to tell if it has ever been split and mended. Once instruments were introduced, it is probable that a cello and perhaps one or two violins accompanied ordinary chapel worship, with other instruments reserved for special occasions, such as charity sermons and anniversary services. ‘Charity sermon’ was quite a common term for a special church service which aimed to raise funds for charitable institutions, such as hospitals, Sunday schools, and so on. The sermon was supposed to be the main item, but the congregation often preferred the special music. Moses Heap recorded how, when William Gadsby, the founder of the Strict or Particular Baptists, preached at Goodshaw Baptist Chapel, extra efforts were made to augment the choir and to use wind as well as string instruments; but Gadsby was displeased by this, apparently, complaining that ‘it was more like a theatre or play-house than a place of public worship’.18 As was usual elsewhere, none of the Larks women seem to have played an instrument, but most of the men played either the violin, cello, or double bass, and a few of them even made their own instruments.19 A copy of Handel’s Samson preserved in the Lark’s collection of printed music carries the inscription ‘James Nuttall Book[,] (Fiddle-maker)[,] Dean’ (see Appendix 10.1). According to Compston, when Robert Ashworth, a cellist and lay preacher, was leading a service at Waterbarn Chapel, he would give out a hymn from the pulpit and then move to the singing pew to play his cello.20 John Nuttall, grandson of the Revd Nuttall, played the cello at Lumb Chapel into old age, and would transpose tunes if he thought they worked better in another key, which upset the other string players. 21 16 Quoted in Robert Wylie, The Baptist Churches of Accrington and District: their formation & gradual development with numerous character sketches of Baptist worthies (Accrington: Wellington Press, 1923), p. 118. 17 Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 27. 18 Quoted in Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 18. 19 Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, pp. 25–8. 20 Elbourne, Music and Tradition, p. 121. 21 Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 25.

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Although most church bands consisted of any available combination of wind and string instruments, tenor instruments were extremely rare, and there is only one reference to the viola in the accounts of the Larks: John Bury played the ‘tenor fiddle’ at the Lumb charity sermons.22 Whereas normal chapel services would include congregational hymns and metrical psalms, with perhaps an anthem sung by the choir at festivals such as Easter or Christmas, the music for charity sermons and anniversary services was much more elaborate. Compston listed the music, all by Handel, that was performed at Goodshaw Chapel during a charity sermon for the benefit of the Sunday school in 1812. The service started at 1.30pm and must have lasted for most of the afternoon: Before the service: Song, ‘Comfort ye my people’, and chorus, ‘And the glory of the Lord’, Messiah Before the sermon: Chorus, ‘To the cherubim’, Dettingen Te Deum Song, ‘He shall feed his flock’, and chorus, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’, Messiah After the sermon: Duet and chorus, ‘How beautiful are the feet’, air, ‘But thou didst not leave his soul in hell’, and chorus, ‘Worthy is the Lamb’, Messiah After the service: A selection from the works of Handel.23

Although it was not listed separately, ‘Ev’ry valley’ may well have been sung after ‘Comfort ye’, and the service would probably also have included some congregational hymns. By 1824 the charity sermons at Goodshaw Chapel were so popular that three services were held on the same Sunday, 6 June, during which 16 special musical items were performed; six at the first service and five each at the other two.24 Handel’s music still predominated, but there were fewer choruses: seven pieces were solos, of which all except one were sung by a guest soloist, Tom Parker from Haworth. There may have been less time to rehearse choral items, for, as Roger Elbourne has suggested, the increase in factory work probably led to a decline in music-making and ultimately, therefore, to the demise of the Larks.25 The Music The real legacy of the Larks of Dean is their extensive collection of music-books, which is detailed in Appendices 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3. There are 64 volumes in the public domain, and more may still be in private hands. Eight boxes, containing 22 23 p. 15. 24 25

Ibid., p. 28. Extrapolated from Compston’s recollections in Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 15. Elbourne, Music and Tradition, p. 43.

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53 books, are held at the Lancashire Record Office, together with four books in two other deposits. They have not yet been properly catalogued, however, and are on permanent loan from Rawtenstall Library, where microfiches of all the originals, except one copy of Messiah, and bound photocopies of 48 of them, are available (see Appendices 10.1 and 10.2).26 The collection includes 24 printed volumes – 22 music-books, one theoretical work, and one libretto – and 33 music manuscripts, 17 of which are grouped together by the library under the generic heading ‘Miscellany’ (see Appendix 10.2). A further six manuscript books and another printed volume are kept at Rossendale Museum, and have also been photocopied to assist researchers (see Appendix 10.3). The condition of the bindings varies – indeed, some of the books are gatherings of manuscript sheets, rather than volumes per se – but many of the items, especially the small manuscript part-books, show signs of extensive use, and successive owners’ inscriptions suggest that they were valued possessions (see, for example, Figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2 Inscriptions from ‘John Heyworth’s Book’ of psalm tunes, hymn tunes, and an anthem, manuscript, Rossendale Museum SM 12. Reproduced by permission Although it is claimed that all the music-books belonged to the Larks, we do not know how many were actually used by them, as only some of them carry 26 Lancashire Record Office (hereafter LRO), DDX 1,468 Acc. 4,986, DDX 1,468 Acc. 6,709, and DDX 1,468/9/3. The photocopies at Rawtenstall Library are stored (currently on the open shelf) under one accession number – Deighn Layrocks RC 785 ROS – and the microfiches are numbered individually (see Appendix 10.2).

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inscriptions. Three volumes in Rawtenstall Library are of particularly doubtful provenance, because they appear to post-date the Larks’ existence: according to an inscription, the copy of William Gardiner’s Sacred Melodies was not presented to the library until 1932, when its owner, Ja[me]s Pickup, stated that he had ‘received it from some friends at Leicester about 30 years ago’;27 and the contents of two secular song manuscripts, labelled ‘Songs’ and ‘Miscellany 13’, are similarly of late nineteenth-century origin. In addition, there is no evidence that the Larks sang opera, so perhaps the presence of a French edition of Halévy’s La Reine de Chypre among their purported repertoire should also be questioned. For the reasons given, these four items can probably be disregarded. Except for the items just discussed, and one book of psalmody (The Hallelujah), all the printed music is by Handel and most of it is in full score. The only theoretical work, the ninth edition of Christopher Sympson’s A Compendium; or Introduction to Practical Music (London, [c. 1775]), could have been used by the Larks as a composition tutor, although they may not have found it very helpful: another north-west psalmody composer, John Fawcett of Kendal and Bolton, whose music appears in the Lark manuscripts, attempted to teach himself composition from Sympson, but apparently found it of little use – it is described in his obituary as a ‘blind book for a young composer’.28 Because printed music was so expensive, even when bought secondhand, most musicians spent many hours compiling their own manuscript books, and these would often be passed on to new owners. A copy of Joshua in the Larks’ collection is missing all except the first 13 printed pages, so more was added in manuscript, and an incomplete manuscript copy of Alexander’s Feast includes at least four owners’ inscriptions: ‘John Nuttall His Book 1797’, ‘Now it is Sarah Law’, ‘Sally Nuttall Whitewell Terrace 1890’, and ‘Richard Rostoran’. At times it could be difficult to acquire music in order to copy it, and singers would go to considerable lengths to increase their repertoire: Moses Heap recalled how some young men broke into the Wesleyan Chapel to obtain ‘a copy of a new tune someone had brought from a distance’.29 Most of the Larks’ manuscript music is sacred: there are 21 tune-books of metrical psalms, hymns, and a few anthems, set pieces (through-composed settings of metrical texts used by Nonconformists in preference to anthems), and oratorio excerpts, covering a period of 142 years, which include many tunes of their own composition. Wylie, although not referring specifically to the manuscripts, listed 85 hymn tunes by Henry Nuttall, a son of the Revd John Nuttall,30 and according to Heap, Robert Ashworth, the cellist already mentioned, composed around 50 psalm tunes.31 The earliest manuscript is inscribed ‘John Heyworth Book Living at Derpley 1752’ (see Figure 10.2), with ‘and now is James Nuttalls’ added on the second 27 28 29 30 31

See his letter of presentation in the front of vol. 1. ‘Death of Mr John Fawcett’, Bolton Chronicle, 2 November 1867. Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 16. Wylie, Old Hymn Tunes, p. 14. Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 40.

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page; it is possible that it may have changed denomination when ownership was transferred.32 Nearly all the contents are metrical psalm tunes, which suggests that the manuscript might have originally been used in a parish church. Until 1820 Anglicans, unless evangelical, did not generally sing many hymns, as the words, unlike Biblical texts such as the psalms, were not directly inspired by God.33 The only exceptions were a few hymns used at special services, such as Christmas and holy communion, which were added to the back of the Old and New Versions of the metrical psalms. Nonconformists, like the Larks, were free to choose any text, so their manuscripts and printed collections tend to include more hymns than metrical psalms, and the latter are more likely to be in the version by Isaac Watts. The largest and most recent sacred manuscript in the Larks’ collection was compiled by Moses Heap: the handwritten title-page describes it as ‘Manuscript Tunes, formerly in use at Goodshaw, Lumb, and the Dean Valley, from the Year of our Lord, 1750 to 1860, From the Compositions of Nuttalls’, Ashworths’, Hudsons’, and others of the surrounding Neighbourhood [sic]’, and a printed title (added later) reads ‘255 Tunes as Sung by the Deighn Layrocks’.34 Heap probably acquired many of the tunes during his travels over the moors as a salesman, at the same time as he was collecting stories about the Larks. Apart from hymn tunes by Larks such as Abraham, James, and Robert Ashworth, Henry, James, and John Nuttall, and Reuben Hudson, there are also some by other northern composers, including John Chetham of Skipton, Israel Holdroyd of Halifax, and Alexander Reed of Liverpool. The majority of the Larks’ compositions are short hymn tunes, but James Nuttall’s Salvation – a through-composed setting of Watts’s ‘Salvation, O the joyful sound’, for chorus, with treble, alto, and bass solos – is reputed to last for half an hour.35 Compston described it as having ‘parts for horns and other orchestral instruments’, but these do not seem to have survived.36 The instrumental range and some two-part chords in the version in Moses Heap’s other manuscript, ‘The Occasional, or, A Collection of Anthem’s, and Choruses [sic]’,37 suggest that it was accompanied by strings, which would have doubled the vocal lines when there were no independent parts. There is a separate instrumental bass throughout, but, unconventionally, the treble solo is also accompanied by a second bass instrument. The solo is introduced by a short symphony for one treble and two bass instruments, but two other three-part symphonies, including the one at the end of the solo, use treble, alto, and bass clefs, so violas were presumably required. As discussed above, the Larks most commonly played the violin or cello, and this seems to be confirmed by their manuscript instrumental music, much of which 32 Rossendale Museum, SM 12. 33 See Nicholas Temperley, The Music of the English Parish Church (Cambridge: CUP, 1979), p. 208. 34 Rossendale Museum, SM 10. 35 Wylie, Old Hymn Tunes, p. 18. 36 Quoted in Elbourne, Music and Tradition, p. 118. 37 Rawtenstall Library, microfiche 17.

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is scored for two treble instruments and a bass. A volume owned by John Nuttall in 1814, identified by the title of the first piece, ‘The Duke of York’s March’, includes three-part settings of 13 marches, two minuets, and a gavotte, as well as some two-part pieces and a few airs.38 Of course, other individual parts may well be lost, but, apart from Moses Heap’s ‘The Occasional’ manuscript, there are only four other items which contain viola parts: there is a separate untitled viola part in a gathering;39 and ‘Miscellany 11’,40 a book owned by John Hargreaves,41 and another belonging to Henry Whitaker,42 all include anthems with four-part instrumental accompaniment – although, as will be seen, the latter may not be directly linked to the Larks. There are also very few references to wind instruments. For instance, Whitaker’s manuscript contains Boyce’s anthem ‘O be joyful in God all ye lands’, which is scored for two oboes and strings.43 Heap’s ‘The Occasional’ includes three orchestral choruses by John Fawcett,44 and two pieces in ‘Miscellany 10’ have parts for trombone and ophicleide, though it is perhaps significant that there are none anywhere in the collection for a serpent.45 Heap told Compston that the Larks at one time formed a ‘Quadrille String Band’,46 and Compston recorded elsewhere that the Larks made up a band of violins, cello, and an occasional trombone,47 which was presumably the same ensemble.48 This band may account for some of the music in their secular manuscripts: ‘Miscellany 12’ includes violin parts for anonymous pieces including ‘Symphoni Victoria’, ‘Prince Alberts Symphoni’, and ‘Overture Composed for James Nuttall[,] Water 1857’ (the village of Water is approximately half a mile north of Lumb);49 and a gathering entitled ‘Overture to Apollo etc.’50 includes 38 Ibid., microfiche 45. 39 Ibid., microfiche 31. 40 Ibid., microfiche 43. 41 Ibid., microfiche 41. 42 Ibid., microfiche 1. 43 This is the second item in An Ode Perform’d in the Senate at Cambridge on the First of July, 1749 […] to which is added an Anthem Perform’d ye following Day, at St. Mary’s Church, being Commencement Sunday ([Cambridge]: [n.s.], 1752). It was originally scored for two trumpets ad lib., two oboes ad lib., strings, and continuo. 44 ‘But thine O Lord’ includes two trumpet parts in C; the chorus ‘Great is the Lord’ includes two trumpet parts in D; and ‘Worthy is the Lamb’ includes two flutes doubled by clarinets, two horns in D, and two trumpets in D. The sources of these have yet to be found, however, so they cannot be checked with the original scoring at present. 45 Ibid., microfiche 29. 46 Quoted in Elbourne, Music and Tradition, p. 127. 47 Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 26. 48 According to the bookplate on the copy of Messiah […] with Mozart’s additional Accompaniments, a Crawshawbooth Sacred Harmonic Society existed between 1845 and 1851. No further evidence of this organization has been found, as yet, but it may have included instrumentalists as well as singers, as, for example, did the Stalybridge Harmonic Society, discussed in Rachel Milestone’s chapter (Chapter 15) in this volume, at pp. 304–5. 49 Rawtenstall Library, microfiche 28. 50 Ibid., microfiche 37.

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some string parts for an ‘Overture to Apollo’ by Mullins, and an ‘Overture Oz Whirlwind’ by the Larks cellist Robert Ashworth, who is known to have composed 20 overtures and some hornpipes, quadrilles, and waltzes, as well as hymn tunes.51 Besides instrumentation, instances of the allocation of vocal parts can also be found in the Larks’ manuscripts. In rural psalmody during the eighteenth century, metrical psalms were tenor-led, with the tune doubled an octave higher by women or boys. But this practice had largely died out by 1800, and research suggests that the last printed collection to use this arrangement was A New Set of Sacred Music by John Fawcett, published in London around 1811.52 By the nineteenth century, the tune was normally placed in the treble, and doubling would only occur when men in the congregation sang an octave lower. However, most printed books put the tenor or alto part on the top stave, with the tune placed on the stave directly above the bass, to aid keyboard players. As all the parts except the bass were written in the treble clef, with the alto as well as the tenor an octave higher than sung, and as many tunes had equally melodic lines for soprano and tenor, it can be difficult to decide which part was meant to predominate unless the voices are clearly named. Even then, confusion can still occur if the music was copied without any voice allocations. Some of the Larks’ manuscripts include a variety of clefs and part allocations, which probably relate to the sources from which the pieces were transcribed. In ‘Miscellany 17’, which belonged to John Hudson of Crawshawbooth in 1840,53 the tune seems usually to be written on the line above the bass, whether treble or C clefs are used for alto and tenor. For instance, the tune ‘Little Salvation’ uses C clefs with the tenor clearly marked ‘air’. This evidence of tenor-led hymn tunes is supported by Samuel Compston, who wrote that Sally Nuttall and Betty Pilling were leading tenor singers who sang the melody part, which was written in the tenor clef.54 It could be argued that they were altos and sang at pitch, but elsewhere Compston commented that Sally Nuttall told him that she was a ‘tribble’ singer,55 and in ‘Miscellany 2’, owned by Sally Nuttall in 1836,56 the tune is placed above the bass, whichever clef is used. There is some evidence to suggest that the Larks singers may have learnt to sight-sing using the old form of four-note ‘Lancashire’ sol-fa, so called because it was used extensively within the county, as well as elsewhere.57 ‘Miscellany 6’ includes sol-fa in an introductory gamut and also under a scale on the last page, and a tune ‘St Georgiers’ [?] in ‘Miscellany 7’ has sol-fa under some notes. However,

51 Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 40. 52 Sally Drage, ‘John Fawcett of Bolton: the changing face of psalmody’, in Jeremy Dibble and Bennett Zon (eds), Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies, 2 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp. 59–69 (esp. pp. 62–3). 53 Rawtenstall Library, microfiche 2. 54 Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 26. 55 Quoted in Elbourne, Music and Tradition, p. 129. 56 Rawtenstall Library, microfiche 47. 57 See John Fawcett’s treatise, The Lancashire Vocalist (London, [1854]).

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the number of scores in their collection suggests that they were also proficient at reading standard stave notation. There are no obvious indications of dynamic and tempo markings in the Larks manuscripts, as, together with ornamentation, these would have been left to the discretion of the performers. Heap told Compston that he often saw the cellist John Nuttall, ‘on the Sunday in Lumb Chapel, sitting on the pew back, wearing a black skull cap on his head’, and he thought Nuttall ‘must have known harmony well, for whilst playing the most simple Psalm tune, he would keep dropping variations in’.58 Similarly Compston described how another of the Larks, Henry Whittles, took liberties with the tunes he sung, putting in numerous ‘turns’ and ‘grace’ notes. Indeed, he was told that if all his twirls were written, and he were required to sing them from copy, he could not do it. Besides, occasionally they were more graceless than graceful.59

A few references to tempi and dynamics can be found in Heap’s memoir. He observed how, at a charity sermon at Deerplay Baptist Chapel, Handel choruses were sung at a ‘fine tilting speed’;60 and at a Primitive Methodist charity sermon held in a woollen mill at Irwell Vale in 1846, the singing was rapid and ‘neither in the tunes nor the choruses was any power lost, but all kept up to double forti [sic]’.61 The orchestra on the latter occasion consisted of violins, clarinets, trombones, cello, and basses, and the omission of violas is consistent with the Larks’ practice. Northern Connections Moses Heap thought that the Larks’ tunes ‘were often more florrid than refined, and their renderings more robust than elegant’, for ‘learning was at a very low point; so that their music must be entirely home-made’.62 Local performances of Handel’s Te Deum, and selections from Judas Maccabeus and Messiah, were ‘simply meetings of old musical friends’ at which ‘no great singers were engaged’.63 The Larks were amateurs and may have been self-taught, but they must have been competent musicians even to consider attempting such works, and far from existing in rural solitude, it seems that they had links with a wider musical network in the north of England. South Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire were the cradle of Anglican psalmody, the term given at the time to all types of church music, not

58 59 60 61 62 63

Quoted in Elbourne, Music and Tradition, p. 119. Quoted in Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 25. Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 13. Ibid., p. 25. Ibid., p. 77. Ibid., p. 31.

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just to psalm settings. Apart from John Playford’s London-based collections, most of the early psalmody books originate from this area. For instance, Abraham Barber, Parish Clerk of Wakefield, produced A Book of Psalme Tunes in Four Parts, published in York in 1687; and The Psalm Singer’s Necessary Companion (London, [1699]) was compiled anonymously at Standish, near Wigan. Itinerant psalmody teachers would visit a parish for a few weeks to train singers and then move on. In 1716, Elias Hall of Oldham recorded in his manuscript autobiography how he had taught at least 400 singers in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire over a ten-year period.64 Although the psalmody movement spread south, it remained important in the north of England, especially among Nonconformists, when new dissenting chapels were built in the rapidly growing mill towns; the Larks of Dean were part of this continuing musical tradition. By the early nineteenth century, there was a wealth of musical talent in both parish churches and Nonconformist chapels throughout the region. As the psalmody composer John Foster of High Green, Sheffield, wrote in the preface to his Sacred Music: The extraordinary diligence and success with which Choral Music has been cultivated in the western parts of Yorkshire, and the adjacent borders of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, present a peculiar feature in the local history and habits of that part of England. Almost every Village has its Choir, accompanied by Instruments; which in some cases, both in respect of numbers and efficiency, may be said to approach the dignity of an Oratorio. From amongst the numerous voices that every where abound, the Metropolis, and most of the Cathedrals in the Kingdom, derive their best Choristers.65

Women singers from Hey and Shaw chapels, near Oldham, were famous nationwide. As the ‘celebrated female singers from Lancashire’, they regularly boosted choruses in the London concerts and oratorios,66 as well as music festivals throughout England – for example, in Birmingham in 1774 and 1778, Newcastle in 1778, 1781, and 1796, and Derby in 1810.67 The oratorios of Handel were especially popular in the north of England. The Larks’ collection of music includes scores of Acis and Galatea, Alexander’s Feast, The Choice of Hercules, Esther, Jephtha, Joshua, Messiah, The Occasional Oratorio, An Ode or Serenata for the Birthday of Queen Ann, Samson, and the Dettingen Te Deum, and they may also have owned others which are now lost. According to Jenny Burchell’s gazetteer, the subscription lists for 13 Handel oratorios show 64 See Sally Drage, ‘Elias Hall, “the faithful chronicler” of Oldham psalmody’, Early Music, 28 (2000): 621–34 (p. 625). 65 John Foster, Sacred Music (York, [c. 1820]). 66 See, for example, the Times advertisements for Veronica Cianchettini’s benefit performance of Mozart’s Requiem, in memory of her brother J.L. Dussek, at the Opera Concert Room, London, on 28 May 1812. For more on the Hey and Shaw chapel singers, see Rachel Cowgill’s chapter (Chapter 4) in this current volume. 67 Brian Pritchard and Douglas J. Reid, ‘Some Festival Programmes of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: 4. Birmingham, Derby, Newcastle upon Tyne, and York’, RMARC, 8 (1970): 1–33.

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that the majority of music societies which purchased copies were from the area around Rossendale and further to the east: Blackburn, Ecclesfield, Halifax, Hey, Kirkheaton, Mosley, Oldham, Ossett, Saddleworth, Shaw, Sheffield, and Wigan.68 Societies may have bought them for private use, but Giles Shaw lists at least 31 public performances of Handel oratorios around the north of Manchester in a 12-year period, 1765–77, as well as various other concerts.69 Working-class Nonconformists, such as the Larks, would probably have been unable to afford tickets for these performances, but they may well have taken part. Compston relates how when the official soprano soloist at a concert in Haslingden Church failed to sing an aria competently, one of the Larks, Betty Nuttall, took over.70 James Lightwood, in an article on the Larks in the Choir and Musical Journal of 1924, noted that some of them sang at the Handel Commemoration in Westminster Abbey in 1784.71 Lightwood, a writer on Methodist music, is notorious for never giving references, but it is possible that he is correct in at least one instance: Burney’s list of performers at the Commemoration includes among the trebles a ‘Miss Hudson’,72 who could have been a descendant of Richard Hudson, one of the Larks’ founders. Two other singers may also have been from the area around Rossendale: ‘Miss Harwood’, one of the principal trebles, is thought to have been Mary Harwood from Darwen,73 the sister of Edward Harwood, who composed the most popular funeral piece of the period, ‘Vital spark of heav’nly flame’; and ‘Mr Leach’, one of the counter tenors, was probably James Leach of Rochdale,74 another Nonconformist psalmody composer, who was one of the first to write extended set pieces with instrumental accompaniment. Music by Harwood and by Leach can be found in the Larks’ manuscripts, and, like them, they were handloom weavers, though they later became professional musicians – Harwood in Liverpool and Leach in Salford. Heap wrote how weavers sang ‘to the click of the shuttle’,75 and perhaps the rhythm of the loom helped composition. There are copies of both sets of James Leach’s Hymns and Psalm

68 Jenny Burchell, ‘Musical Societies in Subscription Lists: an overlooked source’, in Michael Burden and Irene Cholij (eds), A Handbook for Studies in Eighteenth-century English Music, 9 (Oxford: Burden & Cholij, 1998), pp. 6–42. Hey is often spelt ‘Hay’ in early subscriptions lists. 69 Giles Shaw (ed.), Annals of Oldham and District (2 vols, Oldham: Standard Office, 1904), vol. 2, pp. 141–239. 70 Elliott, ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, p. 15. 71 James Lightwood, ‘The Deighn Layrocks, or the Musicians of the Rossendale Valley’, Choir and Musical Journal, 15/169 (1924): 3–26 (p. 3). 72 Charles Burney, An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey, and the Pantheon, May 26th, 27th, 29th; and June the 3d and 5th, 1784. in Commemoration of Handel (London: T. Payne, G. Robinson, 1785), ‘Commemoration’, p. 19. 73 Wylie, Old Hymn Tunes, p. 25. This might have been the same ‘Miss Harwood’ from Yorkshire who was booked for the Newcastle Subscription Concerts in 1780–81; see Roz Southey’s chapter (Chapter 5) in this volume, at p. 124. 74 Newbigging, Lancashire Characters, p. 60. 75 Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 53.

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Tunes at Rawtenstall Library;76 evidence that these belonged to the Larks is lacking, but a copy of his Second Sett was donated to Rossendale Museum, together with Adam Nuttall’s Tunebook, which may well have been owned by them. There is a possible family connection with Leach, which may also support the notion of a network of northern musicians. The two founder Larks, Richard Hudson and John Nuttall, both married women with the surname Grindrod, who came from west Yorkshire and were excellent singers.77 According to the International Genealogical Index,78 which retains non-standard spellings in the original parish registers, Richard Hutson married Anne Grindred at Whalley on 24 April 1740, and John Nuttall married Elizabeth Grindered at Haslingden on 11 September 1744. About 40 years later, James Leach married an Esther Grindrod, who could have been a member of the same family, at Rochdale, on 7 August 1786. The Larks may also have had links with another north-west psalmodist, John Wainwright of Manchester, who is remembered as the composer of the tune to the Christmas hymn, ‘Christians, awake, salute the happy morn’. Among their manuscripts is an immaculately copied book of anthems, already mentioned, containing music by Croft, Boyce, Purcell, and others. It belonged to Henry Whitaker, whose name is not found anywhere else in connection with the Larks. However, the handwriting matches that of a small music notebook in Chetham’s Library, Manchester, which contains secular and sacred music, including psalm tunes and dances for keyboard, and which was once owned by a local school and writing master, Henry Whitaker.79 There is a tenuous link between Whitaker and the Larks. Caleb Ashworth, who was principal of the Independent Academy at Daventry, originally came from Rossendale and was related to some of the Larks. He compiled two books of psalmody, one of which – A Collection of Tunes [Part 1], published in London in 1761 – includes the first known printing of the tune by John Wainwright which was later used for ‘Christians, Awake’; and in the fourth edition of the same volume (London, 1775) there is a tune called ‘Mr Whitakers’. Whitaker married Anne, the widow of John Wainwright, a year before the fourth edition was published. It is possible, therefore, that Ashworth may have known John and Anne Wainwright, and subsequently may have met Henry Whitaker. Moses Heap’s collection of anthems, ‘The Occasional’, contains another possible connection with John Wainwright: a set piece, ‘Great God I own thy sentence just’, is headed ‘First part, By Wainwright. Chorus, By James Nuttall’. The first part is similar to other four-part psalm tunes by John Wainwright, although it does not seem to match any printed tune by him or his sons, Robert and Richard, nor indeed, on checking the Hymn Tune Index, a tune by any other composer prior to 1821.80 Further investigation is required. 76 Rawtenstall Library, H24 LEA. 77 Compston, ‘Quaint Rossendale Music’, p. 65. 78 IGI (accessed 27 January 2007). 79 Chetham’s Library, MS A2.2. 80 Nicholas Temperley, The Hymn Tune Index: a census of English-language hymn tunes in printed sources from 1535 to 1820 (4 vols, Oxford: OUP, 1998). On Wainwright, see also p. 95 above.

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Moses Heap Without Moses Heap’s two substantial manuscript books, many of the compositions of the Larks of Dean would have been lost, and without his diary we would know far less about their story, and about other musical events around Rossendale. On Whit Sunday 1852, Heap walked 14 miles in order to attend morning service at Stonyhurst College. He was pleased to hear the ‘Twelfth Mass’ then attributed to Mozart (K.Anh. 232), which he knew, but he was unimpressed by ‘all the Mummery and Tingling of bells’, and indignant that he was expected to pay silver at the door and to contribute to a further collection, especially when there was no opportunity to sit down throughout the service.81 He also recalled musical highlights, such as the ‘Friendly Gatherings’ of local Baptist choirs that began in 1891,82 and an outdoor memorial concert in 1871, when 32 pieces by Handel, Mornington, Verdi, Danby, Pelton, Haydn, Stevens, Root, Seward, Bradbury, Krugh, and Mozart were performed by a thousand musicians from many local choirs and Tonic Sol-fa classes, the 17th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Band, two other bands, Burnley handbell ringers, and four ‘harmoniumists’.83 Although the heyday of the Larks of Dean had passed by the middle of the nineteenth century, Heap, writing in 1904, believed that their legacy lived on, for: now twenty day and Sunday Schools contain classes of fledgling Layrocks, and there are scores of compact choirs, string-bands, brass-bands, and other groups, to some of whom prizes have fallen, […] the Lumb and Crawshawbooth valleys have something to be proud of in the musical achievements and status of the Layrocks of the present as well as those of the past.84

And today the Larks are still not totally forgotten. Some of their pieces have been revived by members of the West Gallery Music Association, and a few of their hymn tunes remain in print in Companion Tunes to Gadsby’s Hymnbook – for instance, Milford by Henry Nuttall, and Earlstown and Evolena by Moses Heap.85 Heap’s diary deserves an article of its own, if not a critical edition, and this chapter remains only an initial foray into the musical world of the Larks and their rich collection of manuscripts; what it demonstrates, however, is that they are worthy of at least an honourable mention in histories of music-making in the British Isles that seek to give due credit to the strength and vitality of amateur traditions such as theirs. As Heap himself wrote:

81 Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 33. 82 Ibid., pp. 59–64. 83 Ibid., p. 17. 84 Ibid., p. 77. 85 Companion Tunes to Gadsby’s Hymnbook, 9th edn (London: Companion Tune Book Trust, 1999).

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Let no one despise the simple life, rustic manners, or old-time music […] no true Lancashire or musical soul can scan the Layrock manuscripts, and consider the work of the men and women of that period without pride.86

86

Heap, ‘My Life’, p. 77.

Appendix 10.1 Printed books associated with the Larks of Dean, held by Rawtenstall Library (originals on permanent loan to Lancashire Record Office [LRO], ref: DDX 1,468 Acc. 4,986, boxes 1 to 8, unless listed otherwise) Composer/ author

Title

Date / place of publication

Inscriptions and other evidence of provenance / use. Also any additional manuscript items bound into volume.

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

*Gardiner, W.

Sacred Melodies, from Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, Adapted to the best English Poets, and Appropriated to the use of the English Church. Vols 1 and 2

London, [c. 1815]

Letter from Ja[me]s Pickup, Crawshaw-booth, dated 1932, 4 stating he received the volume from friends in Leicester ‘about thirty years ago’ (glued into the front of the volume).

*Halévy, J.F.

La Reine de Chypre

Paris, [1841]

–

DDX 1,468 19 Acc. 6,709

Handel, G.F.

Acis and Galatea[,] A Mask As it was Originally Compos[‘d] with the Overture, Recitativo’s, Song[s,] Duets & Choruses for Voices and Instruments. [title-page damaged] [full score]

London, [c. 1785]

‘James Hargreaves’s’; ‘Jeremiah Hargreaves’s Book’ [crossed out]; ‘James Nuttall’. Added ms item: ‘A Dictionary Explaining Such Grek Lating italian and French’ musical terms.

1

7

Handel, G.F.

Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Musick. An Ode Wrote in Honour of St. Cecilia By Mr Dryden […] With the Recitativo’s, Songs, Symphonys and Chorus’s for Voices & Instruments

London, [c. 1750]

‘James Nuttall Book’; ‘Yours for Ever’; ‘1847’.

1

6

Handel, G.F.

The Choice of Hercules, In Score; Composed in the Year, 1745. [Bound with Joshua and An Ode or Serenata]

[Arnold, complete edition]

‘Richard Nuttalls Book[,] Bought at Liverpool August 13th 1813’. Added ms items: pieces from Joshua, Belshazzar, Esther, Susanna, Solomon, and Saul.

DDX 1,468 13 Acc. 6,709

18

Composer / author

Title

Date / place of publication

Inscriptions and other evidence of provenance / use. Also any additional manuscript items bound into volume.

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

Handel, G.F.

Eighteen Songs […] Adapted for a Violoncello Obligato, with a Figured Bass for the Harpsichord; By Henry Hardy. Books 1 to 3

Oxford, [1795?]

‘Moses Heap’. A printed picture of Paganini is glued into the front of the volume.

4

5

Handel, G.F.

Esther, A Sacred Oratorio, In Score, Composed in the Year, 1720

[Arnold, complete edition]

‘robert ashworth[,] lumb Chu[…] 1828’.

7

9

Handel, G.F.

Jephtha, A Sacred Oratorio, In Score, Composed in the Year, 1751

[Arnold, complete edition]

‘James Nuttall Book’. Added ms item: a 3-part instrumental piece ‘Out of Joseph’.

2

16

Handel, G.F.

Jephtha, A Sacred Oratorio, In Score, Composed in the Year, 1751. [With frontispiece, ‘The Apotheosis of Handel’]

[Arnold, complete edition]

‘John o John Dawson’; ‘John Nuttall[,] Water’.

5

8

Handel, G.F.

Joshua, A Sacred Oratorio, In Score, Composed in the Year; 1747

[Arnold, complete edition]

‘£1-11-6’; ‘John Wilkinson Book in Rossindall R[…]’.

1

15

Handel, G.F.

Joshua [first 16 pages only] [bound with [Arnold, The Choice of Hercules and An Ode or complete Serenata] edition]

[see above]

DDX 1,468 13 Acc. 6,709

*Handel, G.F.

L’Allegro, Il Pensieroso ed Il Moderato, London, composed in the year 1740; with the 1843–44 Additional Songs composed in the year 1741. [libretto only]

–

DDX 1,468 25 Acc. 6,709

Composer / author

Title

Handel, G.F.

Date / place of publication

Inscriptions and other evidence of provenance / use. Also any additional manuscript items bound into volume.

LRO Box no.

Messiah, An Oratorio in Score As it was London, Originally Perform’d. […] To which are [1767?] added His additional Alterations

‘Betty Nuttall’; ‘Sally Nuttall[,] W[ater?] D[ean?] R[ossendale?]’; ‘James Nuttall is My Name England is my nation fathersbentbarn is my dwelling place’; ‘James Nuttall’; ‘I am John Nuttall[,] W[ater?] R[awtenstall] R[ossendale?,] Son of James Nuttall’; ‘Sarah Law Book[,] Whitewell Terrace’.

7

40

Handel, G.F.

Messiah, An Oratorio in Score As it was London, [1800?] Originally Perform’d […] To which are added His additional Alterations

‘This book is the property of the singers’ overwritten with ‘This Book was used by the Deighn Layrocks’; ‘[…] property of the […] to the Baptist Chapel […]’; ‘S Nuttall[,] 15 Weir Lane[,] Bacup’; label: ‘Full Score Copy of “The Messiah” Used by the “Deighn Layrocks” 1742 to 1816’.

DDX 1,468 / 9 / 3

–

Handel, G.F.

Messiah, A Sacred Oratorio in Score With all the Additional Alterations Composed in the Year 1741 […] Dr Arnold’s Edition

‘John Wilkinson[,] Lower Barn[,] Rossendale’; ‘Goodshawfold[,] Crawshawbooth’; various dates the earliest of which is: ‘May 30 1816’; ‘Tim Hudson’; ‘Reben [?] Hudson’. Added ms items: ‘Angels ever bright and fair’, and pieces from Jephtha, The Occasional Oratorio, and L’Allegro; text of ‘A Hymn composed by the Revd Jno Nuttall at the Death of his Wife’.

4

12

Handel, G.F.

Messiah, An Oratorio in Score As it was London, Originally Perform’d. […] To which are [1800?] added His additional Alterations

‘Richard Nuttall Book[,] Dean[,] Rossendale[,] October 7 16th 1813’; ‘Richard Nuttalls Book[,] Dean[,] Rossendale[,] Lancashare[,] October 17th 1860’. Added ms items: ‘Chorus let their Coelestial Con[…]’; ‘A Dictionary Explaining wich Greek Latin & Italian & French Words as Generally Occur in Music’.

14

London, [c. 1825]

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

Composer / author

Title

Date / place of publication

Inscriptions and other evidence of provenance / use. Also any additional manuscript items bound into volume.

LRO Box no.

Handel, G.F.

The Messiah, An Oratorio Composed in the Year 1741 […] with Mozart’s additional Accompaniments. [bass part only]

London, [n.d.]

Printed bookplate: ‘Crawshawbooth Sacred Harmonic Society’ with added ms: ‘No.3’, ‘Commenced Nov. 1845’, ‘Dissolved July 17, 1851’, ‘Bass Copy’.

1

21

Handel, G.F.

The Occasional Oratorio in Score Composed in the Year 1745

[Arnold, complete edition]

2 ‘This Book belongs to Dean Singers Rossendale in the county of Lanchasire’; ‘Edward Ashworth[,] Lumb Bank’; ‘John Nuttall[,] Lower Mill[,] Rosendale[,] Lanchire’; ‘1813’ subtract ‘1745’ total ‘68’.

11

Handel, G.F.

The Complete Score of the Ode for St London, Cecilia’s Day the Words by Mr Dryden. [1771] [bound with Thirteen Chamber Duetto’s and Twelve Cantatas]

Bookplate: ‘MA. & L. Lettsom’ ‘Moses Heap 1855’

5

10

Handel, G.F.

An Ode or Serenata for the Birth Day of [Arnold, Queen Ann Composed in the Year 1743. complete [bound with The Choice of Hercules edition] and Joshua]

[see above]

DDX 1,468 13 Acc. 6,709

Handel, G.F.

Samson, an Oratorio, The Words taken from Milton

‘James Nuttall Book[,] (Fiddle-maker)[,] Dean’

5

4

*Handel, G.F.

London, Handel’s Oratorio, Saul, Composed in the Year 1740, in Vocal Score, With a [1854] Separate Accompaniment for the Organ or Piano Forte, by Vincent Novello

1

20

Handel, G.F.

Te Deum Composed in the Year 1743 For the Victory at Dettingen

1

3

London, [1763?]

[Arnold, complete edition ]

Well-used copy: first page of score mended with paper strip and part allocations replaced in ms

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

Composer / author

Title

Date / place of publication

Inscriptions and other evidence of provenance / use. Also any additional manuscript items bound into volume.

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

Handel, G.F

Thirteen Chamber Duetto’s and Twelve Cantatas [bound with The Complete Score of the Ode for St Cecilia’s Day]

[Arnold complete edition]

[see above]

5

10

*Hummel, J.N.

Hummel’s First Mass in B flat, Op.77, For Four Voices and a Separate Accompt for the Organ or Piano Forte, Arranged from the Full Score […] By Vincent Novello [from] A Periodical Collection of Sacred Music

London, [1835?]

3

23

*Sympson, C.

A Compendium or Introduction to Music, in five Parts. 9th edn

London, [1775?]

Owner’s label: ‘Frank Trickett Law[,] 8 Nelson Street[,] Barehill[,] Littleborough’

6

53

Waite, J.J., and H.J. Gauntlett

The Hallelujah; or Devotional Psalmody London, […] Figured Vocal Score. Part 2 1849

‘Moses Heap June 29 1849’

6

24

*

These books may have a connection with the Larks, but the nature of this is at present unclear.

Appendix 10.2 Preliminary list of manuscripts associated with the Larks of Dean, held by Rawtenstall Library (original manuscripts on permanent loan to Lancashire Record Office [LRO]) Titles given to photocopies Inscriptions and provenance in Rawstenstall Library

Summary of contents

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

[no library photocopy]

–

Sacred: mostly hymn tunes – treble parts; a few set pieces and anthems

3

39

[no library photocopy]

‘[…] Book 1780’ on cover of first book

2 books paper-clipped together: 1) Secular: keyboard dances, etc. 2) Secular: treble tunes, and sacred: keyboard and voice

3

51

[no library photocopy]

‘James […] 1838’ on cover; ‘Sarah’ ‘George[?,] Greenwood[?,] Windy Bank’

Sacred: four hymn tunes (includes proverbs, and two lists of Bible readings)

3

52

[no library photocopy]

‘John Hargreaves Book 1822’

Sacred: hymn and psalm tunes Secular: marches

3

44

[no library photocopy]

‘Henry Heyworth Book 1786’; ‘Guss Ashworth’; ‘John Nuttall his Book Price one 1s Bought of Robert Heyworth’; ‘Sally Nutta[ll?,] Watt[er?]’

Sacred: hymn tunes – alto parts (includes a list of names, e.g ‘Thomas Cooper’, possibly of singers)

3

46

[no library photocopy]

‘John Nuttall His Book[,] Water’ on cover; Sacred: mostly hymn tunes – tenor parts; oratorio choruses, ‘Johathan Greenwood you must attend and anthems – tenor and a few treble parts Singing Meetings Every Monday at 5 o Clock’

3

36

[no library photocopy]

‘Richard Nuttall’ on 4-page sheet

3

31

Gathering: Sacred: including hymn tunes – mostly tenor parts; printed ‘Gloria’ from Three Favourite Masses, no. 198 (Novello)

Titles given to photocopies Inscriptions and provenance in Rawstenstall Library

Summary of contents

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

[no library photocopy]

‘Henry Whitaker his Book’

Sacred: anthems – mostly instrumental accompaniment

8

1

The Duke of York’s March

‘John Nuttall Book at the Water in the Forest of Rossendale in the County of Lancashire May 23d Day 1814 year’

Secular: marches, minuets, etc. (includes a page of accounts, e.g. ‘Paid at New Church flesh and spices 2 9 4’)

3

45

Handel, Alexander’s Feast ‘John Nuttall His Book 1797’ on cover; ‘Now Incomplete full score; extended set piece Salvation, by James Nuttall; tune, ‘New Club Feast’ it is Sarah Law’; ‘Sally Nuttall[,]Whitewell Terrace’, ‘1890’; ‘Richard Rostoran’; ‘Cropper’

6

32

John Hargreaves: Music Scores

‘John Hargreaves Book[,] house […] Watter […] April 29 1824’

Sacred: mostly solo anthems with instrumental accompaniment

6

41

Miscellany 1

–

Sacred: hymn and psalm tunes; three anthems Secular: two marches; some traditional tunes

3

37

Miscellany 2

‘Sally Nuttall[,] Wit tery June 2 Li 19 1836’

Sacred: hymn tunes Secular: one solo (includes a drawing of a woman in a bonnet)

3

47

Miscellany 3

‘John Greenwoods Book’ on cover

Sacred: hymn tunes – mostly bass parts

3

54

Miscellany 4

‘James Nuttall’; ‘Townsend […] Lancaster[,] Britton’

Sacred: hymn tunes

6

38

Miscellany 5

‘James Greenwood Book 1832 Windy Bank’ on back cover

Sacred: hymn tunes

3

49

Miscellany 6

‘James Greenwood James Windy Bank’ on cover

Sacred: hymn tunes

3

48

Titles given to photocopies Inscriptions and provenance in Rawstenstall Library

Summary of contents

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

Miscellany 7

‘James Nuttall’; ‘John Nuttall Book’; ‘Betty Nu[ttall?]’

Sacred: hymn and psalm tunes; an anthem; some chants

3

55

Miscellany 8

‘James Greenwoods Book’ on cover

Sacred: hymn tunes; a set piece

3

35

Miscellany 9

‘James Greenwood Book March 23rd 1835’ on Sacred: hymn and psalm tunes; an anthem back cover

3

50

Miscellany 10

–

Gathering: Sacred: an anthem; four set pieces Secular: two marches; ‘A Lesson for the Violencello and Vilins 1 and 2’

3

29

Miscellany 11

–

Sacred: mostly solo anthems with instrumental accompaniment

6

43

Miscellany 12

‘Overture Lodoiska’, ‘James Nuttall’, ‘Violino Gathering: Secondo’ on front cover label Secular: mostly violin parts to overtures and symphonies by local composers

*Miscellany 13

–

Secular: mostly American songs c. 1870s

3

26

Miscellany 14

–

Gathering: Sacred: hymn tunes; two set pieces; a collect

6

56

Miscellany 15

–

Gathering: Sacred: mostly oratorio violin parts

3

30

Miscellany 16

‘Tune Book’; ‘Chorus Book’

Sacred: hymn tunes; a set piece

3

34

28

Titles given to photocopies Inscriptions and provenance in Rawstenstall Library

Summary of contents

Miscellany 17

‘This book belongs to the Kings […] Sunday Sacred: hymn tunes School’ deleted; ‘This Book Belongs to John Hudson of Crawshawbooth (Rossendale) Rawtenstall Lancashire 1840’; ‘R. Ashworth 3/0[,] A. Heap/9[,] Jas Pickup/9’

James Nuttall, Salvation

–

The Occasional: Anthems and Choruses. This book belonged to Moses Heap

‘Moses Heap’s Book, Crawshawbooth. May Sacred: anthems and set pieces 8th, 1845’ on bookplate. ‘The Occasional, or, (includes presentation letter to Rawtenstall Library from A Collection of Anthem’s, and Choruses, by Moses Heap’s son, James) different Authors’

Overture to Apollo, etc.

‘Mr Rich Bridge, Water Mill, Newchurch, Rossendale[,] to be left at No 6 York St Manchester’, and ‘Violin 1’ on cover

Psalms

‘John Peggy’ and ‘Jonathan Greenwood’s Book November 1832’ on cover

*Songs

*

LRO Box no.

Rawtenstall Library Microfiche no.

6

2

Extended set piece for chorus with treble, alto, and bass solos 4

42

5

17

Gathering: Sacred and secular string parts

6

27

Sacred: hymn tunes; two set pieces

3

33

Secular: two songs by Darnley Rigg

3

22

These books may have a connection with the Larks, but the nature of this is at present unclear.

The Larks of Dean: Amateur Musicians in Northern England

221

Appendix 10.3 Manuscripts associated with the Larks of Dean, held at Rossendale Museum Shelfmark

Inscriptions/museum title

Summary of contents

SM 8

‘Mr. James Nuttall Watter’

Secular: mostly dance tunes Sacred choruses, including items from Messiah and the ‘Twelfth Mass’ attributed to Mozart K.Anh. 232

*SM 9

Adam Nuttall’s Tunebook [title conveyed in person by donor]

Sacred: hymn tunes

SM 10

‘Manuscript Tunes, formerly in use at Goodshaw, Lumb and the Dean Valley, From the Year of our Lord, 1750 to 1860, from the Compositions of Nuttalls’, Ashworths’, Hudsons’ and others of the surrounding Neighbourhood’; Internal label: ‘Moses Heap, Crawshaw Booth’

Sacred: hymn tunes Includes dates of Larks of Dean composers, and loose-leaf ms ‘short sketch of their Lives and Works’ by Moses Heap

SM 11

‘John Nuttall’s Book’; ‘John Hargreaves’ Book’; ‘1814’

Sacred: excerpts from oratorios Secular: two marches

SM 12

‘John Heyworth Book Living at Derpley 1752’; ‘and now is James Nuttalls’

Sacred: psalm tunes, a few hymn tunes, and an anthem

ZA 208

‘Richard Pickup’

Sacred: mostly excerpts from oratorios Includes ‘A Receipt How to make Malt’.

* The museum also holds a copy of J. Leach A Second Sett of Hymns and Psalm Tunes (London, [1789–94]), which was deposited at the same time as this, and so is thought to have belonged to the Larks (shelfmark: SM 13).

Chapter 11

Finding Themselves: Musical Revolutions in Nineteenth-century Staffordshire Sarah E. Taylor

In April 1917, a man by the name of Daniel Heath wrote to his son, Thomas Wood Heath, in Australia. His letter, entitled Some Recollections of Musical Instruments, and Those Who Played them in the Stoke-on-Trent Area, provides a rich and detailed firsthand account of music-making in the Potteries over the preceding seven decades.1 Among descriptions of his many musical undertakings, Heath reveals that he was one of the founder members of the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir, a group of amateur singers that surfaced in Staffordshire in the middle of the nineteenth century. And what emerges most strikingly in his letter, and has implications for our understanding of the development of amateur musicmaking in provincial Britain, is the extent to which the Tonic Sol-fa notation and method of teaching could be regarded as having catalysed musical improvement in that area. This chapter seeks to investigate that question, and to consider Heath’s experiences of the Tonic Sol-fa movement in their appropriate contexts, both local and national. Tonic Sol-fa was developed, improved, and promoted by the Revd John Curwen (1816–80) in the early 1840s, a crucial period in the history of music education in Britain. A number of methods of musical instruction emerged around that time, such as the one adapted from the mass sight-singing techniques of the Frenchman Guillaume Louis Bocquillon Wilhem, by John Hullah (1812–84), and the numbersubstitution system devised by the Revd J.J. Waite.2 However, of the methods 1 Daniel Heath, Some Recollections of Musical Instruments, and Those Who Played them in the Stoke-on-Trent Area (date of text given as c. 1917), typed transcription (1988), Stoke-on-Trent City Archives, SP 192 H. The title was probably added by the transcriber, since the document is otherwise presented as a letter, with appropriate salutation and closure. The content indicates that Heath was born in 1839. 2 See John Hullah, Wilhem’s Method of Teaching Singing adapted to English use under the superintendence of the Committee of Council on Education (London: John W. Parker, 1842); Bernarr Rainbow, The Land Without Music: musical education in England, 1800–1860, and its continental antecedents (London: Novello, 1967), pp. 147–50; Bernarr

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Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

that surfaced during these years, it was John Curwen’s Tonic Sol-fa that seems to have proved the most popular. Curwen was not a music teacher, nor was he a musician: he was a Congregationalist minister who believed that choral singing and appreciation of sacred music could lead to the moral edification of the populace. He rediscovered a system of notation that had been devised by the Norwich schoolteacher Sarah Glover (1786–1867), which she had codified in her Scheme for Rendering the Psalmody Congregational (Norwich: Jarrold, 1835).3 Glover had taught her schoolchildren to sing successfully using sol-fa syllables, rather than notes, hand movements, and gentle, patient teaching. Curwen took over and adapted this method, renamed it Tonic Sol-fa, and promoted it widely; many major choral works were printed in Tonic Sol-fa notation, including established choral staples such as Messiah and Elijah (see Figure 11.1). Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Tonic Sol-fa movement involved tens of thousands of people of all ages, aided by the establishment of a national association, a monthly journal – the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter (1853–89) – and a college, which Curwen founded in 1869, offering many courses in musical instruction (see Figure 11.2).4 The aims and benefits of the movement, which Curwen professed to those gathered at the second conference of Tonic Sol-faists held at Plaistow in 1851, were as follows: 1. The cheapness with which the music can be printed in this method, and the readiness with which it can be taught, opening the gates of musical pleasure to lower but not less important classes of society. 2. The adoption of this method to congregations, enabling the poorest to join in the song of the sanctuary. 3. Its adaptation to schools, diffusing cheerfulness and learning, sacred, moral, and religious impressions. 4. The importance of multiplying music in the new notation, in connexion with The Tonic Sol-fa Reporter.5

At the heart of the Tonic Sol-fa movement, reflecting its founder’s own values, was the notion of moral improvement, an important consideration for many Victorians. Throughout the century, amateur music-making blossomed in an environment where desires for self-improvement, moral salvation, and Rainbow, ‘Wilhem, Guillaume Louis Bocquillon’, ‘Hullah, John’, and ‘Waite, John James’, in GMO (accessed 16 January 2007). 3 See Bernarr Rainbow, The Land Without Music p. 150, and Peggy Bennett, ‘Sarah Glover: a forgotten pioneer in music education’, Journal of Research in Music Education, 32 (1984): 49–65. 4 Bernarr Rainbow, John Curwen: a short critical biography (Sevenoaks: Novello, 1980). 5 Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, 3 (October 1851): 45. In an attempt to ‘bring music to the lower classes’, the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, the journal of the Tonic Sol-fa movement, was sold for a penny. It cost considerably more than this to produce and did not show any sort of profit until 1861, almost ten years after its first publication. See Herbert Simon, Songs and Words: a history of the Curwen Press (London: Allen & Unwin, 1973), p. 23.

Musical Revolutions in Nineteenth-century Staffordshire

225

Figure 11.1 ‘For unto us a child is born’ from Tonic Sol-fa edition of Handel’s Messiah, edited by John Curwen (London: Curwen, 1891), bars 1–8. Author’s collection respectability predominated in almost every community. Certain forms of leisure activity were thought to promote personal and possibly national improvement, commonly known as ‘rational recreation’. Within this climate of improvement, music, and especially choral singing, with its perceived relationship to God and the church, came to be regarded as one of the most important means of achieving moral elevation. As Joseph Lawson observed, with a debt indirectly to Plato: That man has a curious soul who has no taste for music. A world without music would be a blank to such as have proper feelings and whose nervous system is properly strung. But a world without music is impossible. The universe is full of it. We could not exist without some music or harmony, and to one whose eyes are open, and whose soul is not corrupted by the vices of the age, there is music everywhere, – in the sweet and many songs of the birds, the humming of the bees, the cooing of the dove. […] Without music or harmony all is jargon and discord.6

Tonic Sol-fa enabled greater proficiency in choral singing: its representation of music was relatively easy to learn; and people were able to gain the competencies required to join a choral society more easily than before. Moreover, the compact 6 Joseph Lawson, Letters to the Young on Progress in Pudsey During the Last Sixty Years (Leeds: J.W. Birdsall, 1887), pp. 107–8.

226

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Figure 11.2 Presentation bookplate from a Tonic Sol-fa edition of Handel’s Messiah (pictured in Figure 11.1) size of Tonic Sol-fa music and its consistently lower price made the prospect of purchasing printed choral music a more attractive one.7 As the earlier chapters in this volume underline, amateur music and choral societies were in existence well before the proliferation of Tonic Sol-fa – choral societies were formed in Halifax and Huddersfield in 1817 and 1836 respectively, for example. But on the basis of Heath’s letter, cited above, and other evidence presented below, it seems that the Staffordshire area had its musical fortunes transformed by the introduction of Tonic Sol-fa, an event to which the development and success of

7 Until the early nineteenth century, printed music was prohibitively expensive for many, so a lower price was truly a motivating factor in this particular mode of rational recreation. See Sarah Kaufman, ‘Easy, Cheap and True: Tonic Sol-fa in print and in the concert hall’, Brio, 40 (2003): 8–23. Vincent Novello’s explanation of his company’s motivation for reducing the price of printed music, and the ways in which this could be done, presented a more commercially oriented perspective on the price of printed music in general. See Vincent Novello, The reasons which have determined J. Alfred Novello to reduce the price of his musical publications; the majority of them to the full extent of fifty per cent (London: Novello, 1849).

Musical Revolutions in Nineteenth-century Staffordshire

227

local music-making in that region during the nineteenth century has never been explicitly attributed. Burslem, a small town that officially became part of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, was not regarded as home to any significant musical activity. Indeed, Reginald Nettel has observed that musical activities in early nineteenth-century Staffordshire as a whole were extremely rare.8 A high level of illiteracy and poverty precluded many inhabitants from participating in such activities,9 and at a time when other locations were developing a strong musical identity (for example, Birmingham and Manchester), no such identity emerged in the Potteries. Not only were there reportedly few people with even the most basic musical skills, there was also a lack of ‘influential citizens who stinted neither time nor money to make their cities famous for music’.10 The musical landscape was not completely barren, however, and Nettel’s account of the region as a land without music is not entirely accurate. A single musical festival was held in Staffordshire in 1854. It was a grand occasion for which six choral ensembles were mustered, accompanied by the Orchestral Union of London.11 Despite the apparent importance of the event, it failed to establish itself as a regular calendar fixture, but in the years that followed, the musical void perceived in this particular part of the British provinces began to be filled, and in ways that few would have anticipated. In 1858 Josiah Wolstencroft Powell (1819–91), the Town Clerk of Burslem and formerly Registrar of Births and Deaths, took it upon himself to find ways in which he could improve congregational singing and evoke a passion for music among his fellow citizens. Civil duties aside, Powell was what the Musical Times later described as ‘an enthusiastic amateur’.12 He concluded quickly that, for many, mastering staff notation might prove too challenging, and so he sought other means of teaching singing and the rudiments of music. In this, he was fortunate to be starting at a time when various methods of musical instruction had already been subjected to thorough investigation and debate at a national level. He was, therefore, able to experiment with a number of methods, including those of Hullah and Waite.13 During his investigation, Powell came across Curwen’s Tonic Sol-fa, 8 Reginald Nettel, Music in the Five Towns (London: Novello, 1944), p. 5. 9 On the demographics of working-class areas in Victorian England, see Asa Briggs’s Victorian Cities (London: Odhams, 1963), and A Social History of England (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983). See also Paul Johnson, ‘Small debts and economic distress in England and Wales, 1857–1913’, Economic History Review, 46 (1993): 65–87. 10 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 5. 11 The singers came from a number of locations in and around Staffordshire, including Hanley and Newcastle-under-Lyme, as well as further afield, including Birmingham. See Percy Scholes, The Mirror of Music, 1844–1944: a century of musical life in Britain as reflected in the pages of the Musical Times (2 vols, London: Novello, 1947), vol. 1, p. 159. 12 [Frederick George Edwards], ‘Music-Making in the Potteries’, MT, 444 (April 1903): 236. 13 Ibid.

228

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

and is reputed to have been persuaded instantly that Tonic Sol-fa was the most suitable method for the purpose he intended.14 Having mastered Tonic Sol-fa, Powell initiated his own singing class. He had not anticipated that this idea would appeal much to the people of Burslem, so must have been gratifed when 124 pupils came to the first meeting in 1858. It was clearly successful, for the second meeting was attended by 170.15 Shortly after its inception, the aims and activities of his singing class began to change. Teacher and pupils became more ambitious, a number of choral works were studied, and several public performances took place. Instead of being simply a vehicle for musical instruction, therefore, Powell’s class became, in essence, a choral society. It is not known exactly when the class began to call itself the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir, although the Staffordshire Sentinel refers to a group of this name from around 1862. The Musical Times makes references to the group from around 1866.16 It was to Powell’s singing class that Daniel Heath had belonged, a man who by his own account considered himself lucky to have had some musical experience in early life.17 Born in 1839, his first musical recollections were of attending, with his father, the Wesleyan Chapel in Tunstall – a congregation that made up for its lack of organ and organist by, according to Heath, enjoying the services of a double-bass viol as accompaniment.18 His interest in practical music-making was apparently first aroused by the visit to Staffordshire of a popular travelling group known as Wombell’s Menagerie, founded in the 1840s by the showman George Wombell. It toured through Britain and was regarded as one of the best groups of its kind at the time, despite a reputation for charging high fees.19 Essentially it was a travelling circus, whose main attractions were the wild beasts it exhibited; Heath describes his awe at seeing extremes of animal ‘from the giant Elephant to the diminutive Armadillo’. However, the young boy was mainly interested in the band which accompanied the action, playing a selection of Handel choruses.

14 Reginald Nettel, North Staffordshire Music: a social experiment (Rickmansworth: Triad, 1977), p. 13. 15 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 15. 16 The name of this choir varied frequently. ‘Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choristers’ was used most often in the MT and Staffordshire Sentinel, but the MT displays the greatest variance in this respect: the Choir is referred to as the Potteries Tonic Sol-fa Choristers, the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir, and the Potteries Tonic Sol-fa Choir on a number of occasions. The Staffordshire Sentinel occasionally refers to them simply as the ‘Tonics’. A separate group known as the Potteries and District Choral Society appeared in the late nineteenth century. 17 Heath, Recollections, p. 5. 18 This would not literally have been a gamba. The word was often used in the vernacular idiom at this time to mean the cello, or, as it would appear here, a double bass. 19 Trevor Herbert, ‘Cyfarthfa Reborn’, Trombonist Online: the online magazine of the British Trombone Society (accessed 27 August 2006).

Musical Revolutions in Nineteenth-century Staffordshire

229

In his letter, Heath declared that he had ‘found his voice’ at the age of 18 and joined the choir of Wesley Place Chapel. He recalled: I was associated with the late Thomas Hulme, during the whole time he was Organist. His method did not suit some of the old stagers, who left their seats. They were not missed for the coming of Tonic Sol-fa soon enabled Mr Hulme to fill up the vacancies with young voices whose possessors could read at sight. The Handel choruses and Anthems by the best composers were mastered quickly and sung in a style not heard before.

Having learnt music via Hulme’s Tonic Sol-fa instruction, delivered in the form of lessons, Heath went on to become a music teacher. On 9 July 1865 he joined the choir of St Mary’s Church, Stafford, an event that he felt illustrated his development as a musician. He was confident that Hulme’s Tonic Sol-fa instruction had given him a sufficient grounding in music, but, none the less, he also felt he would benefit from attending further musical classes. These classes were conducted by Revd J.J. Waite, whose work John Curwen would later claim had influenced him in his development of the Tonic Sol-fa system.20 Heath documents his encounter with Waite as follows: Before joining the Chapel Choir I attended a course of lessons in Psalmody conducted by the Rev. J.J. Waite of Hereford. The meetings were held in the Wesley Place Chapel, Tunstall, the Wesley Chapel, Burslem, and the Bethesda Chapel, Hanley. The Rev. Gentleman was blind, but was able notwithstanding to conduct the classes admirable [sic]. We sang from his ‘Hallelujah’ and a choice selection of psalm tunes. The Old Notation was used, the notes of the scale being numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. This was of course the tonic principle of the Moveable Note, the key-note always marked ‘1’. The result was soon manifest in the improvement of ‘Service of Praise’ throughout the entire district.21

To further his musical development, Heath decided to join another choir. It was then that he came into contact with a certain town clerk. He continues: About this time I was a member of a choir conducted by J.W. Powell before the introduction of the Sol-fa system. We sang part songs at the ‘Penny Readings’ (at St Paul’s) then at the height of popularity. Then came Sol-fa. I attended the first meeting along with some Tunstall singers (old notation) most of whom stuck to the class in spite of the bitter opposition of the Staff Notationists. […] In a very short time the class increased in number and a concert was held in the ‘New Town Hall’. The large audience were evidently pleased and applauded every number.

Heath describes this audience as ‘sympathetic’, and the encouragement afforded to Powell’s choir on this occasion was gratifying to all who had taken part. With a degree of caution, therefore, the choir held further public rehearsals, where attendees could hear demonstrations of the lessons and exercises from 20 21

Rainbow, The Land Without Music, p. 150. Heath, Recollections, p. 5.

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Curwen’s Standard Course of Lessons on the Tonic Sol-fa Method of Teaching to Sing (London: J. Curwen, 1858). Other public concerts followed, and Heath reported that they were well received. Indeed, these events attracted attention from observant Tonic Sol-fa supporters in London who were eager to see the movement spread, and were reported in the Staffordshire Advertiser and the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, the latter recognizing the national importance of such activities.22 At one of Powell’s choral meetings, Curwen himself attended and gave a Tonic Sol-fa lesson.23 Powell’s choir – and amateur singing in the area – came to national prominence after the Tonic Sol-fa Association Festival at the Crystal Palace in 1860. This was an annual event that formed the pinnacle of the devoted Tonic Sol-fa followers’ year, and the climax of the festival was the finale, at which John Curwen himself conducted ‘God Save the Queen’. Powell took 60 voices to the capital, joining 1,300 others from London and other provincial locations. The competition itself involved a sight-singing test and the performance of two set pieces – the Kyrie from a mass by Victoria, and Michael Cavendish’s madrigal ‘Come Gentle Swain’.24 Powell’s choir – the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir – displayed ‘a great richness and harmonious blending of voices’, according to the Staffordshire Advertiser of 8 September 1860, and was awarded third prize, the orange banner. The second prize, a purple banner, went to a choir from Finsbury; and the first prize, a crimson banner, was awarded to the West Riding Choir. The prestige of being placed at this event was reward enough in Tonic Sol-fa circles; the only monetary prize was a token £5 to cover costs. (All three choirs, along with non-placed but highly commended choirs from Edinburgh and Brighton, were awarded £5 each for expenses.)25 The purpose of the 1860 Tonic Sol-fa Association Festival at the Crystal Palace, and indeed all Tonic Sol-fa Association festivals, was expressly to attain pride, honour, and glory, matching the ethos of the Tonic Sol-fa movement as a whole. The Times noted that the 1860 event was a ‘novel and interesting musical display’,26 and the final public rehearsal, focusing on items for the concluding concert, was reputed to have been attended by over 10,000 people.27 Having been awarded a prize, Powell’s choir achieved considerable pride and honour. Its success was reported not only in newspapers local to Staffordshire, but also nationally, both in the Musical Times and The Times. The choir’s new goal, therefore, was to improve on this placing in future years. Competing again, 12 months later, the

22 Reports in both the Staffordshire Advertiser and Tonic Sol-fa Reporter are numerous. Although we must necessarily place emphasis on national recognition, it is important not to lose sight of the value of these events to the community and subsequent local reporting. 23 Heath, Recollections, p. 5. 24 Staffordshire Advertiser, 8 September 1860. 25 Ibid. 26 Times, 3 September 1860. 27 Ibid., 4 September 1860.

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choir was awarded second prize, and at the 1862 Festival it left the proceedings with the coveted crimson banner – first prize.28 Shortly after its 1860 success, the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir held its inaugural May Festival of Flowers and Song.29 The Festival was quickly established as an annual event, and was reported consistently in considerable detail by the Staffordshire Sentinel. In May 1861 the newspaper observed that the choir numbered between 160 and 170, and that the services of an orchestra had been employed. The choir had also been particularly well presented at the Festival, apparently, with choristers reported to have worn floral buttonholes.30 By March the following year, the choir had grown in size to around 200, and for the 1862 May Festival of Flowers and Song it also included a semi-chorus of 21 voices. The 1862 Festival was more lavish than the first, it seems, the stage of the town hall having been decorated with seasonal flowers. By 19 July 1863 the Staffordshire Sentinel felt justified in declaring that Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir had ‘taken rank as the first Tonic Sol-fa choir in the Kingdom’; and it was affectionately known in the local area as the ‘Tonics’, further supporting the notion that involvement in the Tonic Sol-fa movement was deemed to be ‘improving’ (a tonic being something both beneficial and uplifting). Powell was a proud, if somewhat exacting chorus master. Keen for Curwen and followers of Tonic Sol-fa to be made aware of his choir’s activities, he wrote to the journal of the movement, the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, with details of concerts, rehearsal techniques, and general choir news. Powell’s earliest correspondence appeared in 1862, and within a matter of months he had become a regular contributor, with updates of his choir’s activities appearing in the monthly ‘Local Intelligence’ column. Here, Powell described the high expectations he had of his choir, in particular his strict attendance regime – all choristers were compelled to attend if they were to contribute fully. In the six weeks before a performance of Messiah, for example, Powell insisted that all choir members attend a minimum of four rehearsals in order to be permitted to sing in the concert, and to be admitted to the final rehearsal and Choir Tea. He outlined his reasons for imposing such requirements: At any rate, the regulations will leave us all the really diligent and earnest, and thereby secure a more efficient performance of this greatest of all earthly Songs of Praise than if the indolent and careless were there.31

28 Heath, Recollections, 4. 29 There is some confusion as to the exact date of the first May Festival of Flowers and Song. In both 1861 and 1862 the Staffordshire Sentinel describes the May Festival of Flowers and Song held in that year as the ‘second’. The MT gives no indication when the Festival started. 30 Staffordshire Advertiser, 9 September 1861. 31 Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, 133 (January 1864): 197.

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This illustrates Powell’s belief in the necessity of musical study. Not only was he keen to improve musical standards, he was also driven by the desire to engage in an activity deemed so effective in the pursuit of moral improvement. Although successful musically, both locally and nationally, the choir suffered from acute financial difficulties in 1864. A performance of Messiah, which many choral societies regarded as capable of assuring financial salvation in a particularly lean season, incurred a loss of £15. An additional variety concert was held in an attempt to compensate, with the choir numbering around 200 and the audience 300; and one individual, a Dr Armstrong, felt so badly for the choir that he donated £2 at the end of the concert.32 The trials of the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir of 1864 were certainly not unique – finance was always a major concern for choral societies – and, though serious, these difficulties do not seem to have hampered the Choir’s activities. Heath recalled that in the same year the Choir entered the Welsh National Eisteddfod and won first prize.33 Having built a successful choir, Powell retired from active conducting service in the late 1860s. His successor was William Docksey, a former Tonic Sol-fa pupil of his. During Docksey’s time as conductor, membership of the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir grew to over 300.34 Audience numbers as well as choir numbers increased: the Staffordshire Sentinel stated, on occasion, that the audience was ‘numerous and highly respectable’, and in places it denoted attendees as ‘connoisseurs’.35 In its activities, the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir was typical of nineteenthcentury choral societies. Rehearsals were weekly and concerts were held at regular intervals. The choir seldom broke new musical ground, offering its audiences the usual diet of Messiah, Elijah, a selection of Mozart masses, some other Handel oratorios, and a limited number of other, mostly sacred, works. It seems clear, therefore, that the choir’s repertoire was chosen with the preferences of a particular potential audience in mind, and that the adoption of this programming strategy was for the most part successful. The choir performed works they enjoyed to audiences that enjoyed hearing them; therefore both choristers and audiences gained from the choir’s operations. With all the characteristics the term implies in the nineteenth century, there can be no doubt that the choir, formed from a Tonic Sol-fa class, was truly a choral society – one of the mixed competitive choir type that Dave Russell identifies, along with oratorio choirs and cantata choirs, among the three different models of choral society in nineteenth-century Britain.36

32 Staffordshire Sentinel, 5 March 1864. 33 There is no mention of this in either the MT or Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, but Heath is clear that the Choir was successful at this event. 34 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 26. 35 Staffordshire Sentinel, 5 March 1864. 36 See Dave Russell, ‘Music in Huddersfield, c. 1820–1914’, in E.A. Hilary Haigh (ed.), Huddersfield, a Most Handsome Town: aspects of the history and culture of a West Yorkshire town (Huddersfield: Kirklees Cultural Services, 1992), pp. 653–79 (pp. 659–60); also his Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: a social history, 2nd edn (Manchester: MUP, 1997), passim.

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There are other aspects of the choir’s activities that define it as a traditional choral society by the end of the nineteenth century. In 1886 the choir took a trip to Nottingham. This was not a performing tour; it was a non-obligatory, purely recreational activity. Members could take either half-day or four-day trips on specially arranged trains, leaving on 22 January, which was a Friday.37 On arriving in Nottingham, parties could enjoy concerts or see a pantomime. Other recreational aspects of choir membership included the serving of tea and buns, which was also an integral part of most rehearsals for Bradford Choral Society, for example, where an outcry was reported when it was suggested that the practice should stop due to financial pressures.38 So did responsibility for musical development in the area rest solely with the activities of the Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir? There is much to suggest not, and indeed that musical developments in the Potteries continued throughout the nineteenth century. To illustrate this, two further choral personalities are worthy of special mention. James Garner (1851–1905) and James Whewell (1852–1910) enjoyed similar musical experiences in their youth; both had mastered music through the study of Tonic Sol-fa, and Garner had been taught by Powell. Both men came to be regarded as leading choir directors in Staffordshire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Garner had a shortlived career as a potter, which ended after he decided to devote his life to music. He directed two choirs: the Eastwood Vale Choir, and the Potteries and District Choral Society. The first of these groups was formed in 1879 to take part in a competition. Though unsuccessful on that occasion, the choir competed again the following year and was awarded a prize, thus assuming the name the Eastwood Vale Prize Choir.39 The Potteries and District Choral Society surfaced at around the same time. Both choirs would become renowned for their high musical standards, and Garner came to be regarded as an expert chorus master. On his musical success, John Spencer Curwen (1847–1916), the son of the movement’s founder, commented as follows: How did he get his ideals and models of style? What help had he – a working man whose only training had been in a Tonic Sol-fa choir – in advancing his choir to a degree of excellence? The answer is that he had none. He never heard other choirs except those that happened to come after him at a competition. He might have gone to Manchester to study other choirs, but he didn’t. ‘Polish […] was my motto. Work! Work! Work! Whatever I do, I do thoroughly.’40

37 Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir’s trip to Nottingham 1886: Timetable, Stoke-onTrent City Archives, SP 138. 38 George Francis Sewell, A History of the Bradford Festival Choral Society (Bradford: G.F. Sewell, 1907), p. 35 39 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 16. 40 See ibid., p. 30.

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Whewell was a miner before a serious accident in a mineshaft curtailed his employment. He then became an insurance collector. It was through this work that he made contact with adults who, like himself, had learned music as children and were interested in taking part in some sort of musical activity.41 His first choir, the Talke and District Male Voice Choir, proved to be successful locally, as reported in newspapers such as the Staffordshire Advertiser. Whewell was an ambitious man, however, and in 1900 he took it upon himself to enter his choir into a major festival, choosing the Welsh National Eisteddfod. Whewell’s Choir competed in a class for small choirs and was highly commended by the judges. Garner entered the Potteries and District Choral Society in the same festival. His choir won first prize in the main competition class, putting the Staffordshire area, at least momentarily, at the forefront of musical excellence.42 Whewell was rather less than satisfied to have a rival within the same locality. Additional choristers – particularly women – were invited to join his choir, and the newly enlarged choir, which Whewell renamed the North Staffordshire District Choral Society,43 took part in the 1901 Eisteddfod. Whewell’s choir was awarded the first prize of £200 and a gold mounted baton.44 At the following year’s Eisteddfod, Whewell forbade lady choristers to wear corsets, presumably to free up their breathing, for, as Nettel elaborates, ‘this was in the days of tight lacing’.45 The North Staffordshire District Choral Society was again awarded first prize. Brief mention must also be made of Carl Oliver, whose successes offer tangible proof of the ways in which Tonic Sol-faists and the music they used became fully integrated into musical life. Carl Oliver – his birth and death dates unknown – was a Staffordshireman, and a competent organist as well as a Tonic Sol-faist. Oliver was an influential member of the North Staffordshire Tonic Solfa Association, responsible for administering a scholarship to the Tonic Sol-fa College in London. This scholarship allowed a number of Staffordshire people to engage in musical study at the Tonic Sol-fa College. In 1892, he was awarded the Tonic Sol-fa College’s President’s Prize – a Tonic Sol-fa vocal score of Messiah. The bookplate of this edition of Messiah, now in my possession (see Figure 11.2), has been signed by John Spencer Curwen.46 By the early twentieth century, there was arguably as much amateur choral singing in the Potteries area as there was in locations with long-established choral traditions, such as Huddersfield, Halifax, and Birmingham. In 1903 the Musical Times published an article about the Potteries and District Choral Society, confirming that this was indeed the case: 41 Ibid., p. 57. 42 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 58. 43 Nettel, North Staffordshire Music, p. 35. 44 MT, 444 (April 1903): 237. 45 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 58. 46 This outline of Carl Oliver’s career has been gleaned from the MT and the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, where news of Tonic Sol-fa College activities, among them prize-giving ceremonies and details of scholarships, were reported.

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Its members (about 200 in number) are all working folk in the Potteries – the tenors and basses being artisans following the various avocations of the district. The sopranos and altos have also to earn their living in various occupations. The ladies pay a subscription of one shilling for the season, the gentlemen put down one shilling and sixpence, and all have to find their own music. Two-thirds of the choir sing from the Tonic Sol-fa notation. The rehearsals are held at Tunstall, as a convenient centre in a group of towns which includes Burslem, Hanley, and Stoke-on-Trent, and all the members come from within a radius of five miles. Attendance at rehearsals is regarded as a duty of a very enjoyable nature, and any man who has to work on a ‘night shift’ experiences a sense of keen disappointment at his compulsory absence.47

From the Crystal Palace Tonic Sol-fa Association Festival of 1860 through to the successes in Wales in the early twentieth century, the Potteries area was able to boast several successful choral groups – ones that earned the admiration and respect of many throughout the country. Four men in particular can be held truly accountable for this: Josiah Powell, William Docksey, James Garner, and James Whewell. The four had much in common. They were relentlessly ambitious, placed great demands on their choirs, and had an undiminishing passion for making the people of Staffordshire a musical people. Above all else, they were committed Tonic Sol-faists. By following the tenets of Tonic Sol-fa, a sound musical development was encouraged, and people felt they were participating in a national quest for moral improvement through active engagement in music. To that end, it can be argued that Tonic Sol-fa, and the musical and educational ideas that the system introduced, was absolutely crucial in defining the musical character of Staffordshire. As Reginald Nettel stated, simply and honestly, in his assessment of the changes in the area: ‘Truly, a lost people had found themselves.’48

47 MT, 444 (April 1903): 237. It was common for ladies to pay less to join choral societies, as they did here; see, for example, the rules of Huddersfield Choral Society (Huddersfield Choral Society Archives, Revised Rules and Regulations 1886, WYAS (Kirklees), KC200 2/1), and Bradford Old Choral Society (Rules of the Bradford Choral Society (Bradford: Squire Auty, 1865)). 48 Nettel, Music in the Five Towns, p. 11.

Chapter 12

Lost Luggage: Giovanni Puzzi and the Management of Giovanni Rubini’s Farewell Tour in 1842 E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer

The facilities of communication between London and the Provincial towns have destroyed the monopoly of all that was new in music and the drama – formerly almost the exclusive privilege of the metropolis.1

When the impresario Willert Beale published these words in 1867, a network of opera performance in the provinces was already well established, and England had ‘not ineptly been compared to one large town with iron streets’.2 The advent and expansion of railway travel had alleviated many of the uncertainties of provincial touring. Liberated by the railway, performers were no longer dependent on prolonged, arduous, and sometimes treacherous coach travel, such as this journey, endured by the soprano Giulia Grisi and her party in the early 1840s: Grisi and Mario, Lablache and Tamburini, during one of the early tours, were lost for a day and night in the Derbyshire hills, the postilions having missed their way owing to a dense fog. The singers suffered serious privation and were greatly alarmed.3

When Grisi and her companions finally reached their destination, the audience had dispersed and could not be reassembled. Despite the possibility of such hardships, Grisi’s party was just one of many small groups of singers that toured the provinces outside of the London season prior to the establishment of a rail system. Dublin, because of its prominence as a city of social and governmental importance, had been a particular magnet for touring singers of Italian opera since the eighteenth century, who capitalized on its lack of a resident opera company. Angelica Catalani’s first appearance in the city in 1807 is well documented and was followed by regular visits from 1 Willert Beale (as Walter Maynard, pseud.), The Enterprising Impresario (London: Bradbury, Evans & Co., 1867), p. 99. This was Beale’s memoir of his own career as an impresario. 2 Ibid., p. 99. 3 Willert Beale, The Light of Other Days Seen Through the Wrong End of an Opera Glass (2 vols, London: Bentley, 1890), vol. 1, p. 20.

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skeleton companies organized by London impresarios such as Benjamin Lumley.4 These rudimentary companies generally consisted of a quartet of singers, an accompanist, and possibly a violinist who could lead an orchestra of local players. For the more lavish touring productions that became common in the second half of the nineteenth century, a well-developed railway network was required. The foundations for this network were laid during the first ‘railway boom’ in the years 1836–37, during which 44 companies and 1,498 miles of track were sanctioned; by 1843, over 2,030 miles of track were in use.5 The magnitude of the sweeping change and excitement sparked off by the burgeoning rail network during this decade was captured by John Bourne in his lavishly illustrated guidebook to the Great Western Railway: ‘Railways are now so general throughout England, and have so completely, upon the great lines of communication, superseded the old methods of conveyance’.6 For the musician and impresario, these developments translated into quicker, easier, and more predictable travel that redefined the parameters of touring, so much so that 30 years after the first railway boom, Beale could observe how productions: are transplanted boldly from one theatre to another, no matter how far apart; and the scenery, properties, and dresses that have delighted thousands in the metropolis are exhibited on the boards of Manchester Theatre Royal to excite the admiration of thousands more. A new soprano makes her début in London, and will most likely, the same week of her first appearance, be judged by the critical audiences of the Liverpool and Dublin Philharmonics, as well as by the Manchester conoscenti [sic].7

Musicians and impresarios were quick to realize the potential benefits that rail travel presented to touring parties. With the expanding rail service connecting them to the pocketbooks of more and more listeners, with greater speed, comfort, and, above all, reliability, an increasing number of London-based musicians responded to the lure of the provincial tour. This spurred the development of organizational hierarchies and methods designed to help those involved in these undertakings to maximize their potential profit. Poised to take advantage of this opportunity during the early days of rail travel were the singers of the Italian Opera and their associated managers, agents, and 4 For a detailed discussion of opera in Dublin by touring performers, see Paul Rodmell, ‘“The Italians are coming”: opera in mid-Victorian Dublin’, in Rachel Cowgill and Julian Rushton (eds), Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 97–112. See also T.J. Walsh, Opera in Old Dublin, 1819–1838 (Wexford: Free Press, 1952), Opera in Dublin, 1705–1797: the social scene (Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1973), and Opera in Dublin 1798–1820: Frederick Jones and the Crow Street Theatre (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1993). 5 Asa Briggs, A Social History of England (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983), p. 210. 6 John C. Bourne, The History and Description of the Great Western Railway, including its geology, and the antiquities of the districts through which it passes (London: David Bogue, 1846), p. 1. 7 Maynard (Willert Beale), The Enterprising Impresario, pp. 99–100.

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‘men of business’. One of the most celebrated and lucrative singers, the tenor Giovanni Rubini, was due to depart from the English stage in 1842, and Benjamin Lumley, then manager of Her Majesty’s Theatre, was soon to be bereft of his leading attraction.8 Both he and Rubini were keen to capitalize on a final chance to profit from English audiences, and so preparations commenced for the farewell tour of the ‘King Tenor’. Consideration of the performers who made up Rubini’s party, their repertoire, itinerary, and contemporary accounts of their progress, offers an insight into the workings of an early Victorian provincial tour. It also reveals something of the intricacy and extent of the network of managers and local ‘professors’ that was necessary for it to be a success. Aided by the speed and ease of rail travel, Rubini gave his adieu in at least 16 different places (see Appendix 12.1). Like the majority of provincial musical events that depended on London performers, the tour was planned to take place outside the musical season of the metropolis – during the last week of August and the first three weeks of September. As concert announcements and programmes reveal (see Figure 12.1), it was designed to exploit the immense popularity of Italian opera. Listeners in the provinces were eager to see for themselves the musicians who had been monopolizing the stages and drawing-rooms of London, and filling the pages of the musical press. The most fashionable extracts from the London season formed the cornerstone of the touring party’s repertoire. Selections from Rossini’s Stabat Mater, revised by the composer in 1841 and first performed in London in 1842, occupied the first half of the programme. Interest had been sufficient in London to support a run of performances by two separate companies, one at the St James’s Theatre and the other at Her Majesty’s Theatre.9 The second half of the programme consisted of a selection of opera arias, songs, and virtuoso fantasias similar to those which these particular performers tended to present at benefit concerts. Rubini’s solos mirrored the selections he had performed for his farewell at Her Majesty’s Theatre, at the close of the opera season, and included his acclaimed rendering of the cavatina ‘Tu vedrai’ from Il pirata, one of several Bellini operas for which Rubini had created the tenor role. Sophie Ostergaard’s performance of an unspecified ‘melodie’ by Schubert reflects the growing popularity of German song in England during this period. The horn-player Puzzi frequently appeared with Rubini as an obbligato accompanist, and occasionally played in vocal ensemble pieces, such as Rossini’s preghiera ‘Dal tuo stellato soglio’ from Mosè in Egitto, which was a perennially popular concert finale because of its vaudeville

8 The Haymarket theatre, known either as the King’s Theatre or Her Majesty’s Theatre according to the gender of the reigning monarch, was London’s principal venue for Italian opera for most of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, until 1847, when the Royal Italian Opera was established at Covent Garden. 9 The solo quartet at the St James’s Theatre comprised Jenny Lutzer, Mademoiselle Pacini, Giovanni Mario, and Joseph Staudigl. Fanny Persiani, Madame Graziana, Giovanni Rubini, and Luigi Lablache appeared in the performances at Her Majesty’s Theatre. MW, 17 (7 July 1842): 212.

Figure 12.1 Concert programme for Reading performance, Rubini’s 1842 farewell tour, Covert Collection (private ownership). Reproduced with permission

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style. Horn solos by Puzzi and piano solos by Nigri provided variety and resting points in the programme for the singers. Performances on the tour occurred in a wide variety of public venues, including concert halls, assembly rooms, theatres, and hotels. Despite the prominence of performers such as Rubini and the focus on Italian operatic repertoire, ticket prices were moderate when compared to the guinea per head charged for London benefit concerts given by Puzzi and Rubini, and were the same for all the locations for which documentation has been traced: prices have been ascertained for Brighton, Canterbury, Reading, and Maidstone, namely 6s. for a single ticket, and 21s. for a family ticket (admitting four people).10 The concerts appear to have been popular with listeners even when ‘puffing’ is taken into account: reviewers often commented that venues were ‘literally crowded’; the Plymouth performance ‘attracted all of the rank, beauty and fashion within a morning’s ride of this place’;11 and the appearance of Rubini and his entourage in Cheltenham on 5 September was reported to have attracted an audience numbering 800.12 Taking into account gaps in the sequence of dates and locations which can be reconstructed from the surviving documents, the tour could have included more than 16 stops (see Appendix 12.1). The speed and relative reliability of rail travel enabled a tight schedule with little rest between concerts: between 3 and 10 September, for example, Rubini’s entourage gave six concerts in nine days. Members of the party were also able to incorporate performances that were not part of the farewell tour into their travels during the same period. This might appear to be a generous gesture of managerial latitude, but it more likely reflected the need to schedule tour dates around previously arranged engagements. The fact that Lumley was willing to accommodate these other commitments confirms his desire to tour the most prestigious artists. Mid-tour, three members of Rubini’s party appeared at the 1842 Norfolk and Norwich Festival: newspaper reviews record that Rubini, Pacini, and Puzzi performed there on 13, 14, and 15 September, and Puzzi’s contract for the Festival also stipulated attendance at a rehearsal in Norwich on 12 September.13 Two days after the last Norwich performance, the group resumed their tour concerts some 200 miles south-west, in Bath. Although the selection of an appealing programme and ease of travel were important elements in planning a tour, even more critical to its success was the composition of the touring group and its efficient management. While Rubini’s 10 Puzzi’s London benefit concerts of the 1820s and 1830s were targeted at a very different audience to those he encountered on the provincial tours he participated in. The repertoire, performers, venues (often private homes), and ticket prices (a guinea) for Puzzi’s London benefits indicate that these were among the most prestigious and exclusive of benefit concerts, whereas the provincial concerts on tour were clearly pitched at a more general audience, such as might have attended the London oratorio concerts, for example. 11 MW, 17 (29 September 1842): 310. 12 Ibid., p. 309. 13 Printed contract between Edward Taylor and Giovanni Puzzi, 27 April 1842, Covert Collection (private collection, London). Puzzi was offered 25 guineas to appear as first horn in the festival orchestra, and an additional five guineas to play a solo fantasia.

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presence was unquestionably the primary appeal of the tour for audiences, the ensemble had to be assembled from performers – particularly singers – who would complement the ‘King Tenor’ and work together compatibly. The operatic repertoire that was typical of the tour required a strong quartet whose members were also capable of competent solo performances. The soprano Ostergaard was a pupil of Rubini and a protégé of his wife, and was most likely chosen at his behest. Her previous London performances seem to have been limited to benefit and private concerts, so for her the tour appears to have been a public trial of sorts. Pacini was already a well-established performer in London concerts and provincial festivals; regular references to her in the musical press described her singing as ‘efficient’ and ‘correct’. Her wide range allowed her to sing both mezzo-soprano and contralto parts. Nigri was a particularly flexible member of the touring party, appearing as a bass and serving as a piano accompanist and occasional soloist. He was also billed as a conductor in some of the concert programmes from the tour. The horn virtuoso Giovanni Puzzi was also a much-publicized member of the touring party. At first glance, Puzzi would seem to be somewhat of an anomaly in a small touring party comprised primarily of opera singers. Musically and logistically, a horn player is a departure from the usual constitution of a travelling ensemble – an exotic luxury in a group where versatility and stamina were important attributes. In his description of an ideal operatic touring party, Beale states that ‘A concert party should consist of soprano, tenor, contralto, and bass; and if the programme is to be perfect, a pianist and violinist should be included as the morceaux de resistance’.14 As well as soloists, these two instrumentalists would have been an ideal and practical accompanying ensemble, whereas a horn player would have been much less flexible: the endurance and range of brass players is limited in comparison with that of a string player. Horn and voice shared an affinity, however, that was particularly pronounced during the era of bel canto singing and hand-horn playing (see Figure 12.2). Although horns with valves were slowly gaining acceptance during the later part of his career, Puzzi only ever played the natural horn, and was an exponent of virtuoso hand-horn technique which rendered the instrument fully chromatic throughout its solo range. The aesthetics of bel canto singing and hand-horn technique paralleled each other, both prizing pureness of tone, but also the ability to produce a variety of tone colours and shadings (to which hand-horn technique was particularly well suited). Indeed many of Puzzi’s arrangements of opera arias for solo horn are basically transcriptions of the vocal line.15 Puzzi may have been included in the touring party because of his status as England’s most celebrated horn virtuoso. He was well known to the aristocracy as a soloist at benefit concerts in the metropolis, and was also a fixture of the lucrative private concert circuit during the 1820s and 1830s. Planning concerts at his various residences, the Duke of Wellington once remarked ‘if they want the horn I’ll have 14 Maynard (Willert Beale), The Enterprising Impresario, p. 116. 15 On Puzzi’s career, artistry, and environment, see E. Bradley Strauchen, ‘Giovanni Puzzi: his life and work. A view of horn playing and musical life in England from 1817 into the Victorian era’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford, 2000).

Figure 12.2 Cover inscription, and excerpt from horn and voice parts, from ‘La potenza d’amore’, a canzonet written for Rubini by Tadolini, with horn obbligato by Puzzi. Copyist’s MS, Covert Collection. Reproduced with permission

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Puzzi’.16 Audiences in the provinces would have had an opportunity to hear Puzzi perform in major provincial festivals during the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s, where he appeared as a soloist and as principal horn in the festival orchestras. He had also travelled with touring parties from London during the late 1830s, including some that appear to have been organized by the notorious harp-player Nicholas Bochsa, and the violinist and music-publisher Nicolas Mori.17 Clearly, then, Puzzi’s name would have lent celebrity appeal to the tour programme, but this need was more than amply filled already by the presence of Rubini himself. Although Puzzi’s stature as a celebrity was eclipsed undeniably by that of Rubini, a cursory examination of the mechanisms by which he had achieved such success in London reveals his full value as a member of Rubini’s farewell tour party. From the repertoire that he played and the performers with whom he appeared, to the woman he married, every aspect of Puzzi’s career was intimately linked to the Italian Opera. Like many of his colleagues, Puzzi’s virtuoso solo repertoire consisted of countless fantasias and so-called ‘concertos’ based on fashionable opera arias. Puzzi linked himself more intimately with the opera, however, by adding horn obbligato parts to an extensive range of arias and songs; and the singers with whom he played these were none other than the season’s most popular performers from the Italian Opera (see Figure 12.2).18 While other instrumentalists struggled to obtain the services of these singers to ensure the success of their annual benefit concerts, Puzzi could count on the presence of the ‘entire strength of the Italian opera’ at his concerts.19 (Grisi, Persiani, Garcia, Tamburini, Luigi Lablache, Rubini, Mario, Dobler, Ivanoff, Federico Lablache, and Begrez were all regular performers at Puzzi’s benefits.) Puzzi’s artistry as a horn player was unrivalled, but it was his involvement with Italian opera off-stage that set him apart from his colleagues and helped him gain this coveted position. Puzzi began his life-long association with the King’s Theatre as principal horn of the opera orchestra.20 He relinquished this post in 1827, when John 16 Letter from the Duke of Wellington to Priscilla, Lady Burghersh, 26 July 1839, in Lady Rose Weigall (ed.), Correspondence of Lady Burghersh with the Duke of Wellington (London: John Murray, 1903), p. 113. 17 The embellished press accounts of the merits of participants in these tours were the subject of a sardonic article in Musical World entitled ‘How to do the provinces; or, the travelling musician’s best companion’, MW, 13 (20 December 1838): 238–46. 18 Surviving music from Puzzi’s library includes some 35 arrangements he derived from Italian vocal music. Examples can be found in the Covert Collection (private collection, London) and in the manuscript collections of the BL. This repertoire is discussed in depth in Strauchen, ‘Giovanni Puzzi: his life and work’, which includes a catalogue of all known music written or arranged by or for Puzzi. 19 See review of Puzzi’s benefit in the Morning Post, 29 June 1839. 20 On the nature and organization of the orchestra at the King’s Theatre at this time, see Rachel Cowgill and Gabriella Dideriksen, ‘Opera Orchestras in Georgian and Victorian London’, in Niels Martin Jensen and Franco Piperno (eds), The Opera Orchestra in 18th- and 19th-century Europe. Vol. 1: the orchestra in society, Musical Life in Europe, 1600–1900: circulation, institutions, representation (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, forthcoming), pp. 259–321.

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Ebers, then manager, sent him to the Continent to engage singers, partly on the recommendation of Rossini, ‘who justly characterized Signor Puzzi as possessed of great intelligence in theatrical affairs, active and zealous’. While in Turin on an early scouting venture, Puzzi penned an enthusiastic letter to Ebers about the young soprano who would become his wife – Giacinta Toso, whom he described as ‘belle comme un ange’.21 Giacinta was brought to England in 1827. Although she retired from regular appearances on the London stage after just one season, she became a favourite singer at private concerts and a much sought-after teacher of singing; she continued to appear in various productions in Italy, including the premiere of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda with Maria Malibran in 1835. Giacinta’s absence from the stage of the King’s Theatre belies her importance to the Italian opera company based there: she occupied a position of great influence among singers and managers alike, and her tireless efforts to facilitate negotiations between these two groups earned her the title ‘Mamma Puzzi’.22 The Puzzis’ home, largely through Giacinta’s efforts, was considered ‘the rendezvous, and second home, of all the Italian operatic stars’ in England.23 Giacinta was acknowledged as an expert on singing, and theatre managers sought her judgement on the merits and potential of new voices.24 Puzzi himself also had practical experience as an opera singer, having appeared as a bass in several performances in Parma.25 During Benjamin Lumley’s management of Her Majesty’s Theatre (1841–52), both Giovanni and Giacinta Puzzi were ‘intimately connected’ with operatic affairs, and Wilhelm Ganz records that the couple was active in recruiting singers for the theatre: ‘For many years she and her husband, Signor Giacomo [sic] Puzzi, made the engagements for Benjamin Lumley.’26 Lumley himself described Puzzi as his ‘coadjutor’, whom he ‘retained to conduct negotiations with the artists, and to superintend the details of the enterprise’.27 One of the artists Puzzi negotiated with in this capacity over the course of many years was Rubini. Lumley petitioned Rubini repeatedly but unsuccessfully to return to London, often via Puzzi. Entreating the tenor to come to Her Majesty’s for the 1846 season, Puzzi wrote: ‘Put your hand on your heart, think of your friendship with Lumley, with me […] I repeat to you, come to rescue this enterprise, come to make your friend Puzzi glorious, come to make the Queen and the English audience happy.’28 Puzzi appears to have served 21 John Ebers, Seven Years at the King’s Theatre (London: William Harrison Ainsworth, 1828), p. 318. 22 Beale, The Light of Other Days, vol. 1, p. 74. 23 Wilhelm Ganz, Memories of a Musician (London: Murray, 1913), p. 286. 24 ‘Obituary’, MT, 30 (1 September 1889): 547. 25 During the 1835 carnival season, Puzzi appeared as Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, and as Conte Rodolfo in Bellini’s La sonnambula. 26 Ganz, Memories of a Musician, p. 286. 27 Benjamin Lumley, The Earl of Dudley, Mr. Lumley, and Her Majesty’s Theatre: a narrative of facts (London: Bosworth & Harrison, 1863), p. 6. 28 Letter from Giovanni Puzzi to Giovanni Rubini, 24 November 1846, in B. Cassinelli et al., Rubini: l‘uomo e l’artista (Calcio: Cassa rurale ed artigiana di calcio e di Covo, 1993), p. 657. I am grateful to Marina Caruso for the translation of this correspondence from Italian to English.

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as Rubini’s ‘man of business’ in his dealings with Her Majesty’s Theatre. Beale notes that tenors were typically attended to by such a person: ‘The primo tenore is king of the theatre […] He is attended by a shadow that may be his valet or man of business’.29 The two performers were also linked by their frequent appearances as a duo (see, for example, Figure 12.2), and Rubini’s musical affinity for Puzzi may have stemmed in part from the fact that Rubini’s father was a horn player. When Puzzi’s extensive involvement with the Italian Opera, his relationship with Rubini, and his connection with Benjamin Lumley are considered as a whole, it is apparent that Puzzi’s duties on Rubini’s tour extended beyond his performances on the horn. Puzzi’s ability to serve as an on-the-road manager for the tour presents itself as one of the most compelling reasons for his presence, and surviving material relating to the tour supports this conclusion. The Musical World reveals that Lumley was the tour’s principal guarantor in reporting that he had realized £1,800 from the ‘tour and farewell of the “king tenor”’.30 In view of Lumley’s close business relationship with Puzzi at Her Majesty’s Theatre, it seems logical that he would depute him to act as a manager and tend to the business transactions that arose while travelling with the tour. The most interesting corroborating evidence for such activity presents itself in the form of lost luggage (see Figure 12.3). The date and location given for the disappearance of Puzzi’s portmanteau on the railway fits with the movements of Rubini’s farewell touring party: the group had just given a concert in Preston, and was making its way to Birmingham for another performance. Some of the contents of the portmanteau, particularly the papers and the large amount of money, indicate that Puzzi was acting as the tour’s travelling manager. A letter from Sophie Ostergaard to Rubini’s wife during the tour provides a more detailed account of the losses: ‘When we arrived [in Birmingham], Mr. Puzzi had lost his wallet with 200 francs and other things as well. Mr. Negri [sic] lost his bag with his clothes and Mr. Puzzi’s servant lost his bag with all the music scores for the concert. What a misfortune!’31 The lost luggage episode occupied the thoughts of the touring party for several days and appears to have been surrounded by confusion and even scandal, as illustrated in a letter from Rubini to his wife: You must know that Puzzi has lost his suitcase where he kept 200 golden pounds and all his personal belongings. Therefore, Puzzi’s wife wrote me a letter begging me to sing in a concert at the Theatre in London to recover at least part of the loss caused to her husband. You understand that I could not say no to him, but this is a nuisance for me, as you can imagine, especially because the suitcase was found and, to tell you

29 Beale, Light of Other Days, vol. 1, p. 65. 30 MW, 17 (20 October 1842): 337. 31 Letter from Sophie Ostergaard to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 11 September 1842, in Cassinelli et al., Rubini, p. 578, translated by Marina Caruso. There was some confusion over the type and amount of currency lost, as detailed in various letters and the railway announcement.

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Figure 12.3 Railway passengers’ announcement appealing for information concerning the luggage lost by the Rubini touring party, reproduced in P.B. Whitehouse (ed.), Railway Relics and Regalia (London: Country Life, 1975). The details given there of the source have proved not to be accurate, and it has not been possible to trace either the original or the copyright holder the truth, I believe that there is some kind of swindle in this matter. Anyway, I gave my word and I will have to sing.32

It is not known if the proposed concert took place.33 Lumley must have been grateful not to have to attend to the details of this incident himself, and, indeed, not to have to deal with all the needs of a touring party that would have required managerial input on a daily basis. It would have been a waste of Lumley’s resources not to have employed Puzzi to manage the tour 32 Letter from Giovanni Rubini to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 21 September 1842, in Cassinelli et al., Rubini, p. 582, translated by Marina Caruso. 33 Brewer notes the occurrence of a concert at Her Majesty’s Theatre in midOctober of 1842 in his table of performances by Rubini, but does not provide a source for this information; see Bruce Brewer, ‘Il cigno di Romano – Giovan Battista Rubini: a performance study’, Donizetti Society Journal, 4 (1980): 117–65 (p. 158). At the time of printing, no mention of such a concert has been found in the contemporary press, but the date and venue of the concert given in Brewer’s table correspond with the information in Rubini’s letter to his wife, above.

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on the road, and thus save himself the time, expense, and hassle of accompanying the party himself. Appointing someone to act in this capacity would have been in keeping with contemporary methods of tour management. The existence of a separate travelling manager as a clearly defined role is described by Willert Beale, with reference to his participation in the 1848 provincial tour of the contralto Marietta Alboni: he writes of the necessity of a ‘personal conductor’ to superintend all business matters arising during the travels.34 A tour of the magnitude of Rubini’s would have presented Puzzi, or any manager, with a considerable range of logistical tasks and responsibilities, including arranging a conflict-free schedule; organizing concert venues, transportation, and accommodation; and dealing with financial matters relating to the tour. In describing some of his duties as a touring manager in 1848, Beale records that he was charged with handling ‘hotel bills, railway fares and every other outlay for all the party’. He states that Cramer and Co. ‘instructed me as to remitting the proceeds of the concerts, gave me a list of the towns we were to visit, and confided the artists to my care’.35 A party of celebrity singers would have been welcome in the provinces, since professional music-making in outlying areas still lagged behind London in quantity and quality. But even with such an attractive product, a London impresario could not possibly know all the intricacies of musical life in an unfamiliar town or city to the extent required to ensure the success of a concert. Vital details – such as obtaining a venue, arranging an appropriate concert date, hiring any local musicians needed for the performance, and selling tickets – were undertaken most effectively by a resident professor with local knowledge. Such a person also had the power to endorse the concert, thus promoting it to his patrons and colleagues. For these reasons, the manager of a tour often made arrangements for local professors to present the concerts in their region. The manager would proceed by sending proposals to the so-called ‘correspondent in the country’, and the local professor would reply with possible dates; negotiations would begin, and the manager would try to assemble a tour schedule from these contacts.36 This process is described in the Musical World, in reference to a touring party which included Sigismond Thalberg, and Signor and Madame Ronconi: the gentlemen who secured the services of the party for a six weeks’ tour, wrote to the principal professors in the various towns in the provinces, offering them the ‘lot’ at a certain price, before they decided on performances on their own account. This was

34 Beale, The Light of Other Days, vol. 1, p. 95. Beale filled this role on Alboni’s tour, which was managed by the London music publishers and piano manufacturers Cramer and Co., of which Thomas Frederick Beale was a partner with the pianist J.B. Cramer. Organizing provincial tours was an important sideline of this business. Willert Beale was often dispatched to help his father Thomas in this undertaking, and in this manner gained his training as an impresario. 35 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 96. 36 Maynard (Willert Beale), The Enterprising Impresario, pp. 107–10.

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fair and courteous, for it gave the resident musician an opportunity of giving patrons a musical treat, or not.37

This deference would have been expected, and in most cases accepted, as provincial professors were happy to procure the services of a ready-made group as opposed to incurring the risk of engaging performers separately and trying to bring them together for a concert. It is also likely that performers found undertaking extensive travel for a single performance less profitable than organized touring, and may have refused such one-off invitations. Handbills, advertisements, and concert programmes produced for a specific tour will often reveal the name of the professor hosting the touring party. Rubini’s farewell concert in Brighton on 29 August, which the Brighton Gazette reported was ‘given in the Town Hall by Mr. Carrol [sic], a resident professor’, illustrates this close link with local musicians.38 The Gazette informed the audience that tickets for reserved seats were ‘to be had only at McCarroll’s Music Library’,39 and McCarroll had probably been deputed, therefore, to handle the local business transactions relating to the tour. A fee would have been exacted for this service. Beale estimated that ‘You will have to allow the local Manager, music-seller, or professor, one-third of the gross receipts, for which he undertakes to pay all local expenses, such as room [venue], printing, and advertising’.40 This local service also had a musical price. The programme would have to meet with the approval of the local professor. Objections might be raised, for example, if it was proposed that singers perform the same selection of war-horse arias they had on their last visit, or the local correspondent might have inclusions of his own to suggest, such as a ‘quartett composed by a celebrated professor (unknown in any other part of the country)’.41 On the Brighton stop of Rubini’s tour, McCarroll took advantage of his position to display the musical talents of his family: the core musical selections and performers in the tour seldom varied from stop to stop, but in Brighton the programme was lengthened to include performances by the two McCarroll daughters on harp and piano – clearly part of the arrangements made with their father in return for expediting local matters. The presence of the local professor in some of the concerts on Rubini’s farewell tour was so strong that provincial newspapers gave him the most prominent billing in their coverage of the event. The performance in Tunbridge Wells on 27 August was recorded as ‘Mr. Charles Goodban’s concert’ in the Brighton Gazette.42 Again, the programme consisted of the touring party’s stock repertoire with additions by local performers and Charles Goodban, who ‘accompanied the performance of the Stabat Mater in a musician-like manner, and in our hearing was highly

37 38 39 40 41 42

MW, 17 (10 November 1842): 362. Ibid., 17 (1 September 1842): 276. Brighton Gazette, 25 August 1842. Maynard (Willert Beale), The Enterprising Impresario, p. 107. Ibid., p. 116. Brighton Gazette, 1 September 1842.

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complimented by Rubini and the other artistes’.43 The Gazette’s final comments reveal the degree of the commitment and responsibilities of the local professor in hosting a touring party: ‘The gratifying result of this concert will, we trust, encourage Mr Goodban to persevere in these spirited speculations.’44 Touring parties that failed to take advantage of the knowledge and facilities of local professors and who did not consult them when planning their itineraries did so at their peril. Luigi Lablache and his son Federico joined forces with Giulia Grisi and Giovanni Mario to mount a tour during the same period as Rubini and Puzzi, but their efforts were hampered by a lack of local knowledge. The irony of their choice of repertoire and their ill-fated circumstances were not lost on the correspondent of the Musical World: I Puritani! – When Grisi, Mario, Lablache, &c. &c. &c. arrived in Edinburgh with a view of performing operas, and giving concerts; they were informed that nothing of the sort could take place during Her Majesty’s sojourn in the city; so they posted and boated over to Belfast, and from there proceeded to Dublin.45

Not surprisingly, the correspondent reported subsequently that ‘the late tour [of Grisi, Lablache, and Mario] has been anything but a profitable speculation to the parties who have to pay the pipers’.46 The organization of a tour of the magnitude of Rubini’s farewell tour of 1842 depended on the contacts, negotiating powers, goodwill, and skills of numerous people. As manager of the theatre to which Rubini was engaged and as the underwriter of the tour, Lumley presided over the organizational and financial hierarchy. Through his position as manager of London’s principal venue for the performance of Italian opera, Lumley would have exercised a large degree of influence over singers when arranging their contracts for the London season. Thus he would have had easy access to singers and leverage in negotiating provincial tours at the end of the London season. A letter in which Puzzi negotiated with Rubini on behalf of Lumley illustrates something of this power. In it, Puzzi broaches the possibility of provincial touring as part of Rubini’s contract for the season at Her Majesty’s Theatre: ‘I would like your commitment to come during the same period as last time [the 1842 season], to tour in the provinces for Lumley’s sake and, for your interest, Lumley should pay you 3,000 pounds.’47 As such letters indicate, Puzzi assumed an important intermediate role in this hierarchy. As Lumley’s ‘coadjuctor’, Rubini’s ‘man of business’, and the patriarch of the ‘second home of the Italian operatic stars’, he was endowed with the authority of theatre management and was well-disposed to exert his personal influence and powers of persuasion among the singers of the touring party. Puzzi’s

43 Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 MW, 17 (15 September 1844): 294. 46 Ibid., 17 (29 September 1842): 310. 47 Letter from Giovanni Puzzi to Giovanni Battista Rubini, 24 November 1846, in Cassinelli et al., Rubini, p. 657, translated by Marina Caruso.

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managerial capability freed Lumley from the necessity of accompanying the party, and his status as a celebrity performer was an added bonus that enhanced the popular appeal of the concerts. At the base of the hierarchy were the provincial professors. These contacts would have been indispensable in catering for the local practicalities of the tour. As the musical proprietors and gatekeepers of their locale, they played a powerful role in determining the ultimate success of the concert. This hierarchy of intricate relationships would have paved the way for the ever larger and more ambitious operatic touring ventures of the second half of the nineteenth century. By autumn 1861, Adelina Patti and a cast of touring principals and lead chorus members were mounting complete performances of La sonnambula, La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Don Giovanni with local orchestras and choruses.48 The growing network of London-based and provincial managers, agents, and correspondents that has been explored here, together with the revolution in transport represented by the expansion of the railway system, enabled the international musicians who had always been drawn to London to reach new audiences across England more regularly, effectively, and efficiently.

48

Beale, The Light of Other Days, vol. 1, p. 355.

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Appendix 12.1 Schedule and sources for the farewell tour of Giovanni Battista Rubini through the English provinces, 1842 Personnel: Giovanni Rubini (tenor), Sophie Ostergaard (soprano), Pacini (mezzosoprano/contralto), Nigri (bass, piano), Giovanni Puzzi (horn) All tour stops and events indicated below have been drawn from concert programmes, contemporary periodicals, and correspondence, as indicated. Stops with no known dates have been placed in the sequence where it seems logical that they might have occurred. Concerts given as part of the farewell tour are preceded by a bullet. Other events that took place during the tour are shown in italics. RCM = Royal College of Music, Centre for Performance History • Maidstone: Corn Exchange Room, 23 August 1842 (programme, RCM) • Canterbury: Assembly Rooms, 24 August 1842 (programme, RCM) • Tunbridge Wells: Assembly Room, 27 August 1842 (Brighton Gazette, 1 September 1842) • Brighton: Town Hall, 29 August 1842 (advertisement with programme, Brighton Gazette, 25 August 1842) • Reading: The Hall, 3 September 1842 (programme, Covert Collection, see Fig. 12.1) • Cheltenham: Assembly Rooms, 5 September 1842 (MW, 17 (29 September 1842): 309) • Liverpool: Royal Assembly Rooms, 6 September 1842 (programme, RCM) • Preston (letter, Sophie Ostergaard to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 11 September 1842, see note 31 above) Suitcases belonging to Puzzi and Nigri lost on the railway (see Fig. 12.3) • Birmingham (letter, Sophie Ostergaard to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 11 September 1842) • Leamington: Royal Music Hall, 10 September 1842 (advertisement, Royal Leamington Spa Courier and Warwickshire Standard, 27 August 1842) London, meeting with Benjamin Lumley (letter, Sophie Ostergaard to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 11 September 1842) Norwich: 12 September 1842, general rehearsal for the Norwich Festival (printed contract between Edward Taylor and Giovanni Puzzi, 27 April 1842, Covert Collection) Norwich: 13, 14, and 15 September 1842, Rubini, Puzzi, and Pacini perform at Norwich Festival (MW, 17 (22 September 1842): 298–300)

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• Bath: Theatre Royal, 17 September 1842 (programme, Covert Collection) • Clifton (letter, Sophie Ostergaard to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 11 September 1842) • Taunton (Sophie Ostergaard to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 11 September 1842) • Plymouth: theatre, 22 September 1842 (MW, 17 (29 September 1842): 310) • Torquay (letter, Giovanni Rubini to Adelaide Comelli Rubini, 21 September 1842) • Exeter (see Bruce Brewer, ‘Il cigno di Romano – Giovan Battista Rubini: a performance study’, Donizetti Society Journal, 4 (1980): 117–65 (p. 157)) London, Her Majesty’s Theatre, 26 September 1842, proposed benefit concert for Puzzi in recompense for the funds and items lost in his luggage.

Chapter 13

Outside the Cathedral: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Local MusicMaking, and the Provincial Organist in Mid-Nineteenth-century England Peter Horton

Today the organist of a cathedral or major parish church invariably plays a leading role in local musical life, but 200 years ago the situation was very different and many restricted themselves to their professional duties, teaching (to augment their generally inadequate salaries), and participation in the activities of a local glee club or private concert society. There were exceptions, of course – notably in London and the ‘Three Choirs’ cities of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester – but in the main, cathedral organists (whose twice-daily duties kept them more fully occupied than their present-day counterparts) were primarily local church musicians, trained as articled pupils and content to follow in the footsteps of their masters. Such teacher-pupil successions were by no means unusual; at York Minster, for example, three generations of the Camidge family held the post of organist between 1756 and 1859.1 As the nineteenth century advanced, however, this situation began to change, due not least to easier and more reliable transport – so much so, in fact, that by 1900 it was becoming comparatively unusual for a vacancy for an organist to be filled by a ‘local’ candidate.2 In addition, the growth of local choral societies and provincial music festivals provided an incentive for 1 John Camidge (1734–1803), Matthew Camidge (1764–1844), and John Camidge (1790–1859), whose duties were taken over by his son, Thomas Simpson Camidge (1828–1912), when he was struck down by paralysis in 1848. On the Camidge dynasty, see Nicholas Temperley, ‘Camidge’, in GMO (accessed 14 January 2007), and David Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of institutional music-making in York, c. 1550–1990 (York: York Settlement Trust, [1994]), passim. See also p. 337 in this volume. 2 In a survey of vacancies at 35 English and Welsh cathedrals and collegiate churches (but excluding Eton and Winchester Colleges), 18 were found to have been filled by local candidates around 1800, but, a century later, only two were local appointments; see Watkins Shaw, The Succession of Organists (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), passim. There were exceptions, of course: at York Minster, for example, Edward Bairstow was succeeded by his assistant organist (and former chorister) Francis Jackson at his death in 1947.

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organists to broaden their horizons, although it long remained customary for the latter to import both conductor and orchestra. At Norwich, for example, the Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Musical Festival, established in 1824, was directed initially by Sir George Smart, and subsequently by other metropolitan musicians: Julius Benedict, Alberto Randegger, and Sir Henry Wood. The first Cathedral organist to be involved to any extent with music-making in the city – but not the Festival – was Frank Bates, appointed in 1886, who in 1902 founded a new Norwich Choral Society.3 Well before then, voices had been raised in complaint when it seemed likely that ‘local interest’ (as the Musical World put it) would be preferred at Worcester Cathedral in 1844.4 But William Done, assistant to and former pupil of his predecessor, Charles Clarke, received the appointment in preference to several established organists, among them Henry Ford (organist of Carlisle Cathedral), Frederick Gunton (organist of Chester Cathedral), William Marshall (organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford), and Samuel Sebastian Wesley (organist of Leeds Parish Church).5 Wesley was a much bigger talent than many of his contemporary organists. Both as an organist and as a composer he stood in the front rank, and should, by rights, have been in the vanguard of English music during the mid-nineteenth century. Fate, however, decreed otherwise, and he spent most of his career at provincial cathedrals, on the fringes of national musical life. He was born in London in 1810, the son of the celebrated organist and composer Samuel Wesley, and received his earliest musical education as one of the Children (choristers) of the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. William Hawes, the Master of the Children, exploited the choristers, hiring them out to sing at the many city dinners for which he made the musical arrangements, and taking the most gifted to supplement performances of such bodies as the Concerts of Ancient Music and the Vocal Concerts. Wesley, he declared, was the ‘best boy he had ever had’,6 and for several years, Wesley was one of only two choristers chosen to sing in the Chapel of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, when the King (George IV) was in residence. On one such occasion, 29 December 1823, he performed alongside Rossini in one of the King’s private concerts.7 On leaving the choir, in 1826, Wesley continued his association with Hawes and followed a typical freelance career, as rehearsal pianist and chorus conductor at the English Opera House; organist at various London churches and the Lenten Oratorio concerts; occasional recitalist; teacher; and budding composer of songs, dramatic, orchestral, choral, organ, and piano music. Looking back some 20 years later, he recalled with pride how he had moved in the highest professional circles in the capital: 3 See Nicholas Temperley et al., ‘Norwich’, in GMO (accessed 28 January 2007). 4 MW, 19 (1844): 195. 5 Ibid., p. 216. 6 George J. Stevenson, Memorials of the Wesley Family (London: Partridge, [1876]), p. 545. 7 Wesley’s presence at Brighton was noted in the Morning Post, 30 December 1823; for Rossini’s participation in ‘The King’s Grand Music Party’, see Francis Toye, Rossini: a study in tragi-comedy (London: Heinemann, 1934), pp. 115–16.

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I am a London Man & from a very early age was accustomed to trying efforts in Public such as playing in Public, Singing ditto with the first Singers, conducting operas at the English Opera House & extemporising before the first Men.8

All this came to an abrupt end in August 1832, however, when he left London for Hereford, where he had been elected cathedral organist. Initially Wesley still hoped for success as a composer in the capital, but the failure of an overture to progress beyond a ‘Trial’ night at the Philharmonic Society in January 1833 would surely have brought a realization that, as a provincial musician, his chances of achieving such a triumph were decreasing by the day.9 Thenceforth Wesley’s musical horizons were to be much more circumscribed, and, however much he chafed at the bit, he was destined never to return to London. Although the details of his career as organist, composer, and conductor of the Three Choirs Festival in 1834 and 1865–74 are well known, his work as an allround musician is entirely forgotten, be it chorus-master and accompanist in London, concert promoter, madrigal and glee-club singer in Exeter, or choral conductor and accompanist in Leeds and Manchester. Yet his involvement with local music-making in Devon and Yorkshire – and his successes and failures in this field – sheds fascinating light on a small, but not insignificant part of his career, and more broadly on the changing opportunities and roles open to the cathedral organist as the nineteenth century unfolded. The story begins in Hereford, where every third year the cathedral organist had the opportunity to take charge of the arrangements for the annual ‘Music Meeting’. By the early 1830s the Three Choirs Festival had been established for over a century, and its programmes had slipped into a familiar pattern, dominated by the oratorios of Handel. John Amott, newly appointed to Gloucester, was the first to challenge the supremacy of the eighteenth century, when in 1832 he introduced selections from Spohr’s still-unpublished Die letzten Dinge (1826) and Neukomm’s Mount Sinai (1832). Wesley continued this trend two years later: in addition to a complete performance of Die letzten Dinge, he included a selection from Spohr’s opera Azor und Zemira (a work he had heard at Covent Garden in 1831), a number of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn, and several from his own pen – settings for choir, solo quartet, and orchestra of the Sanctus, Osanna, and Benedictus, an overture, and Abraham’s Offering (described as a ‘sacred song’ for baritone and orchestra).10 The last piece left both soloist and critics somewhat bemused: one writer observed that it was ‘performed in a manner 8 Letter from Wesley to Henry Ford, 19 September [1858], Royal School of Church Music, Salisbury, Nicholson Scrap Book, f. 40. 9 Wesley’s approach to the Philharmonic Society is recorded in the ‘Minutes of the Directors’ Meetings, 1822–37’, in the entries for 15 and 19 January 1833, BL, Loan 48/2/2. 10 See playbill for the Hereford Music Meeting, 1834, in Hereford Public Library, without shelfmark at present.

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that seemed as if none of the parties engaged quite understood the composer’s meaning’.11 However, Wesley was widely praised for his direction of the festival, and was able to write to his mother with evident satisfaction that he had been ‘spoken very highly of in the newspaper’.12 But however stimulating these few days might have been, for the other 11½ months of the year Hereford was a somnolent backwater, isolated culturally as well as geographically, with little to appeal to an ambitious young musician. Moreover, standards of performance at the Cathedral left a great deal to be desired, and Wesley had to accept the fact that no less than 40 per cent of his meagre salary of £100 was docked to provide a pension for his predecessor.13 An opportunity arose to better himself on both counts, however, following the death of James Paddon, organist of Exeter Cathedral, in June 1835; and two months later, Wesley left Hereford for pastures new. Recently married to the Dean of Hereford’s younger sister – though apparently without her brother’s approval – and acquiring a reputation as one of the country’s leading organists, with a growing list of published works to his credit, the future must have looked promising to Wesley, and his arrival in Devon was enthusiastically welcomed in the local press.14 The changing nature of cathedral appointments can be gauged from the announcement of the organist’s post in Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: it was ‘more than probable [that] the situation will be thrown open to all England’.15 Wesley, as appointee, was the first organist for at least 80 years not to have been born and bred in the city.16 But the spirit of provincialism was far from dead: in many respects, as he soon found out, Exeter was no better than Hereford, without even the benefit of the triennial festival. Although Paddon had organized a festival in 1829 to commemorate the opening of the Devon and Exeter Subscription Rooms, this had lost £400, and was not repeated. The only regular local musicmaking, therefore, was that of the Devon and Exeter Madrigal Society and the Devon Glee Club, both under the patronage of the amateur composer Sir John Rogers (1780–1847).17 There were, in addition, visits by parties of touring musicians who regularly included the city in their itineraries. For several years, 11 Supplement to the Musical Library (March–December 1834): 79. 12 Letter from Wesley to his mother, Sarah Suter, postmarked 16 October 1834, BL, Add. MS 35,019, f. 22. 13 Hereford Cathedral Chapter Act book, 1813–34, Hereford Cathedral, MS 7,031/18, p. 365. 14 See, for example, the report of Wesley taking up his duties in Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette (17 October 1835), which noted that the anthem ‘was performed in such a masterly manner, as to prove this gentleman deserving of all which report had said of him as to his professional talent’. 15 Ibid., 20 June 1835. 16 Richard Langdon (organist 1753–77), William Jackson (1730–1803), and James Paddon (1803–35) were all born in Exeter; it is not known where John Silvester (1741–53) grew up. See Watkins Shaw, The Succession of Organists, pp. 113–15. 17 Rogers’s involvement with the two clubs was noted in the local press; see, for example, Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 26 September 1835 and 10 March 1838.

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the harpist Nicholas Bochsa, the Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, and his English counterpart Nicholas Mori were annual visitors. Both Thalberg, in 1839, and Liszt, in the course of a long tour of the West Country and Ireland a year later, also played in the city. (The appearance of the latter’s name among the subscribers to Wesley’s collection of Anthems indicates that the two men met, perhaps on this occasion.18) But Wesley was happier performing than listening, and he played a prominent part in the affairs of the Madrigal Society and Glee Club, regularly taking the chair at the monthly meetings of the former, and singing alto, tenor, or bass as required. Both were private bodies, however, and his subsequent involvement with three different ventures – a series of four subscription concerts for the 1836–37 season, a choral society, and a ‘Musical [that is, an orchestral] Association’ – suggest that he was keen to involve himself in music-making of a more public variety. Announcements for the subscription concerts appeared in the press at the end of October 1836 (rather late, given that the season was already underway), together with reports that the soprano Maria Caradori-Allan and the basses Henry Phillips and Luigi Lablache had been engaged. Phillips, an old acquaintance from Wesley’s London days, and Caradori-Allan had previously sung for him at the 1834 Hereford Festival, while Lablache had included Exeter in a recent concert tour.19 A list of subscribers was printed, and also survives in one of Wesley’s notebooks, headed by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, MP for Crediton, whose wife was one of Wesley’s private pupils.20 The list ran to 77 names, among them a variety of townspeople (several of whom were connected with the Cathedral) and a number from elsewhere in the county; but the hope that the ‘Subscription List will consist of every lover of music which Devon and Exeter possess’ was so far from realized that Wesley was forced to cancel the venture.21 In such circumstances, it must have been galling when a rival professional musician, Kellow J. Pye (1812–1901), took up the challenge, and announced his own series of concerts in June 1837. Like Wesley, Pye planned to draw on London musicians for the principal orchestral players, not least from among his former colleagues at the Royal Academy of Music, where he had been one of the original students in 1823.22 Pye engaged Wesley as solo pianist, but his (unnamed) contribution probably did not extend beyond the first and second concerts on 5 and 6 October. Although the first, which included Pye’s new septet for piano, strings, and wind, attracted an audience of over 400, the series was not a financial success, and

18 S.S. Wesley, Anthems, Vol. 1 (London: Addison & Hollier, [1853]). 19 See the advertisement in Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 29 October 1836. 20 S.S. Wesley, notebook, RCM, MS 2,141e. 21 Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 29 October 1836. Writing to William Hawes on 26 July 1840, Wesley observed that ‘I once endeavoured to give concerts here by subscription but could not get enough subscribers’: BL, Music Loan 79.10, vol. 3, not foliated. 22 Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 24 June 1837.

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closed in deficit; lack of support forced Pye to cancel a second series of concerts planned for the 1838–39 season.23 Playing second fiddle held little appeal for Wesley, and in addition to Pye, there was a potential rival in Henry Haycraft, organist of St Petrock’s Church and another former Royal Academy student. Not only did he encroach rather too closely upon Wesley’s chosen field of church music, but he also had a second string to his bow: as pianist, he appeared as ‘conductor’ of the ‘Devon and Exeter Quartett Concerts’ in 1840, which was doubtless one of the ‘little Quartet parties of “native talent”’ that Wesley referred to dismissively later that year.24 Wesley had nothing to do with these concerts, but three years earlier, in June 1837, he had embarked on a joint venture with the leader of the quartet, Mr Rice: the creation of a ‘musical society, for the practice of classical music’.25 This endeavour had been announced in September 1837, shortly before the advertisements for Pye’s first series of concerts appeared, and was clearly designed to ensure that Wesley kept a foothold in the city’s musical life: The Musical Association lately established in this city, for the performance of firstrate instrumental music, held its first meeting at Congdon’s Rooms, on the 11th instant [September], when Beethoven’s Symphonies, Nos. 1 and 2, were admirably gone through. This society is indebted for its existence to Mr. S.S. Wesley, organist of the Cathedral, who has been active in its success, and has accepted the post of its conductor; and to Mr. Rice, the talented violinist, who for a long period has kept together a clever party of instrumentalists. And the public may calculate on much of gratification from its formation.26

Once again details of the proposed membership survive, and reveal that, from among the local musicians and townspeople, Wesley had been able to find two flutes, clarinet, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, trombone, nine violins, five violas, four cellos, and two double basses (see Figure 13.1).27 But the society’s success appears to have been short-lived, and after this first meeting nothing more is heard of it. (It might not be purely coincidental that Pye’s first concert, some three weeks later, also included Beethoven’s Symphony no. 2.) However, Wesley was not one to admit defeat, and the following year he turned his attention to yet another musical undertaking, a new choral society. Although choral societies would come to epitomize an important aspect of Victorian music-making, most post-dated the ready availability of cheap octavo editions pioneered by the firm of Novello & Co. in 1846. Prior to that, singers had to rely on larger, more cumbersome – and more expensive – printed or manuscript formats, and frequently used separate vocal parts rather than vocal 23 Wesley also referred to Pye’s financial difficulties in his letter to Hawes: ‘another professor […] certainly gave excellent concerts, but lost much money’; see note 21 above. 24 Ibid. 25 Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 17 June 1837. 26 Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post, 20 September 1837. 27 RCM, MS 2,141e rev., ff. 18v–17. Among the few members it has been possible to identify are a barrister, bookseller, school proprietor, and surgeon.

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Figure 13.1 Proposed membership list for an Exeter musical society, 1837, S.S. Wesley, manuscript notebook, RCM, MS 2,141e rev., ff. 18v–17 scores. Yet despite such drawbacks, choral societies had the attraction of offering a musical outlet to a wider range of members than the more exclusive – and allmale – glee clubs. Indeed, as the newspaper advertisements noted, the proposed society would provide an ‘opportunity, so long wished for […] of performing in the city of Exeter, those noble works of the great writers which require a large choral body to make them really effective and to perform them according to the intentions of their authors’.28 Again, details of the potential – or perhaps actual – membership are preserved, and reveal that it was dominated by cathedral colleagues, acquaintances, gentlemen, and members of the professions, ranging from the choristers who were initially to supply the treble part (following Glee Club practice) to one of the assistants in the Chapter Clerk’s office. Needless to say Wesley’s two articled pupils, Harding and Franklin, were also roped in, but one wonders what he planned to do with those he listed as ‘Doubtful voices’.29 Were they perhaps to be encouraged to take some singing lessons? Mr. Wesley announces to persons desirous of joining the Society but who wish to attain previously a greater degree of proficiency in singing than they may now boast of, that, to them he will make a reduction in his usual terms for singing lessons, that they may in a short time, it is hoped, so far overcome the rudiments of vocal practice, as to sustain their respective parts with confidence and correctness.30

28 29 30

Western Luminary, 9 July 1838. S.S. Wesley, notebook, RCM, MS 2,141e, f. 7. Western Luminary, 9 July 1838.

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It seems the choral society, too, came to nought, and it was not until the foundation of the Exeter Oratorio Society some five or six years after Wesley had left the city, that his hopes of being able to perform those ‘noble works of the great writers which require a large choral body’ were finally realized.31 But what he still hankered after was a full-scale music festival, which would have allowed him to perform choral works without the challenges of dealing with an amateur choir on a regular basis. As late as January 1840, he informed Vincent Novello that he had been ‘striving hard to get a Festival in our fine roomy Cathedral but our Clergy are at present unfavourable to it’.32 It was not to be, however, and the people of Exeter had to remain content with occasional visits by touring parties of musicians. Opportunities for their local colleagues to participate were few, but in January 1839, Wesley and the gentlemen of the cathedral choir joined the harpist Amelia Elouis and her party – the soprano Mlle Lanza, the flautist Philip Ernst, and, again, Henry Phillips. While the vicars choral provided three glees, Wesley presided at the piano, which was a new grand – ‘one of Erard’s patents […] sent expressly from London for the occasion’.33 Among other pieces, he accompanied his song ‘There be none of beauty’s daughters’, which was given, we are told, ‘with much ease and feeling’.34 Ever since the election of a new dean in 1838, Wesley’s relationship with the Dean and Chapter had steadily deteriorated. Never an easy person to deal with and well aware of his own ability, he strongly resented having to defer to clerical superiors in musical matters. Events came to a head in September 1840, over the question of whether his permission or the dean’s was required before choristers could attend the Glee Club. In a fit of temper he launched an unprovoked attack on two of the boys in the song school and nearly lost his job as a consequence.35 Clearly Exeter offered little hope for the future, and it was doubtless with considerable relief that he accepted the offer of the post of organist at the newly rebuilt Parish Church in Leeds, in October 1841. ‘I am going to live in Leeds in Yorkshire’, he wrote to Henry Phillips, ‘Very cold I fear […] but in musical matters they are much warmer than we are in Devon.’36 Arriving in Leeds in February 1842, Wesley was faced with the challenge of developing a musical tradition at the Parish Church with a choir still only a few months old. Seemingly invigorated by his new post and surroundings, however, he was also keen to participate in a wider range of music-making, and in April 1842 31 ‘Music in Exeter’, MW, 25 (1850): 469, which refers to the society having been formed ‘some three or four years ago’ and now numbering ‘above two hundred of the most enthusiastic of the amateurs of the city’. 32 Letter from Wesley to Novello, dated 29 January 1840, BL, Add. MS 11,730, f. 228. 33 MW, 11 (1839): 120. 34 Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 2 February 1839. 35 See Peter Horton, Samuel Sebastian Wesley: a life (Oxford: OUP, 2004), pp. 117–19. 36 Letter from Wesley to Henry Phillips, dated 14 January [1842], Harvard University Libraries, bMS Thr 198 (147).

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he was invited to become president of the Leeds Parochial Choral Society.37 A month later he was present at the society’s dinner at the Scarborough Hotel, when William Crotch was elected an honorary member. By the autumn, as the Leeds Intelligencer reported, the society had begun to meet on a more formal basis: Formation of a Choral and Instrumental Society. Many of our readers are probably aware that for some time past an assemblage of nearly 200 musical performers, vocal and instrumental, has taken place at St. John’s School-room, under the direction of Dr. Wesley, at which many compositions of established reputation and beauty have been very creditably performed. The meetings were first proposed by Dr. Wesley with a view […] of calling forth and testing the musical taste and talent which has been generally supposed to exist in the North of England, and more especially in this district; and it is with much gratification we announce that so satisfactory has been the result, that there appears every possibility of a Choral and Instrumental Society being established on a more extended and judicious plan than has ever been effected in Leeds […] the Music Hall [in Albion Street] has been engaged for a term of years as the future place of meeting, and an extensive orchestra [that is, platform], on the newest and most approved principle, is now being erected.38

The new society was not the only such body in town, however. A Leeds Choral Society (henceforth known as the ‘old’ Leeds Choral Society) had been established in 1838, and was now directed by an ambitious young local musician, Robert Senior Burton. Ten years Wesley’s junior, he was organist of St George’s Church, Leeds, but later became choir master at the Parish Church, and in 1849 succeeded Wesley as organist. By then there was no love lost between the two men, with Wesley taking Burton to court over an unpaid debt, but one suspects that from the start each viewed the other – and their respective societies – as potential rivals.39 By November 1842 Wesley’s choir was already beginning to vie with Burton’s, and its first concert, a performance of Handel’s Messiah (‘Under the Patronage of the Rev. the VICAR and the PAROCHIAL CLERGY’), took place on 29 December 1842: ‘The manner in which the performance was conducted by Dr. Wesley augurs well for musical taste in this town’, declared the Leeds Intelligencer, ‘and the thanks of the public are eminently due to him for his invaluable exertions.’40 Subsequent concerts were by subscription, with Haydn’s Creation following on 16 January 1843, and the season closing on 28 February

37 Writing to Frederick George Edwards on 24 January 1906, Morris Hodson, Precentor of Leeds Parish Church, quoted from the Minute Book of the Society (no longer extant): ‘On 14 April 1842 Dr. Wesley was asked to be president’: scrapbook compiled by Edwards, formerly (c. 1985) in the private library of Novello & Co., Borough Green, current whereabouts not known. 38 Leeds Intelligencer, 12 November 1842. 39 Wesley was not Burton’s only rival: in 1845, he and the local violinist R.A. Brown directed parallel series of promenade concerts – Brown had previously served as leader for the ‘Old’ Choral Society. See MW, 20 (1845): 122. 40 Leeds Intelligencer, 31 December 1842.

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with a selection from Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Spohr’s Die letzten Dinge (which Wesley had conducted at Hereford in 1834). Although the orchestra was led for the first two concerts by the London violinist Henry Blagrove, his place was taken subsequently by a local player, Edward White.41 As in Exeter, the choral society was middle class in terms of its social profile, with the committee including several past or present members of the Parish Church Choir Committee – Martin Cawood, Samuel Smith, and J.M. Tennant – together with a number of prominent local businessmen. One can also be fairly certain that Walter Farquhar Hook, the Vicar of Leeds, would have done his best to ensure that it was very much a Church of England society, as befitting its original title.42 Its ultimate failure, however, was probably due to too much competition. As a glance at the local press reveals, in addition to Burton’s Choral Society, there were sight-singing classes by James Hill (whom Wesley was trying to oust as choir master at the Parish Church), and on 14 January 1843 the Leeds Intelligencer devoted consecutive paragraphs to reports on the ‘Leeds Choral Society’ (that is, Wesley’s), Hill’s classes, and the ‘Leeds Choral Society, Established 1838’ (that is, Burton’s).43 The reporter noted, significantly, that many of the ‘first families’ had refused to attend Burton’s previous concert because the price of admission was too low, something which would be remedied at future performances by having reserved seats. While Hill, who used Wilhem’s method of mass sight-singing training, aimed at a very different clientele, Wesley and Burton were clearly trying to attract a similar audience, as indeed their respective announcements demonstrate: LEEDS CHORAL SOCIETY. – The first Concert of the Leeds Choral Society, which will take place on Monday evening next, is, we are informed, expected to afford to the admirers of Choral Music the highest gratification […] and we anticipate a performance [of Haydn’s Creation] equal to any that can be heard out of London. This flourishing society has our best wishes, it has been established for the encouragement and cultivation of a pure taste in music, and proposes to bring out in succession the compositions of the great masters of the highest school […]

41 Ibid., 18 February 1843. 42 Hook had little sympathy for Nonconformists: in a proposed new agreement between the church and the lay clerks it was stated that the latter should ‘decline Playing or singing in any Place of Worship or School Room, unconnected with the Church of England’: Leeds Parish Church Subscriber’s Choir and Organ Fund minute book, September 1833–October 1847, minutes of the meeting of 2 January 1844, Leeds Parish Church choir archives, no shelf mark at present. 43 Leeds Intelligencer, 14 January 1843. Wesley’s pupil, William Spark, noted how ‘After a year or two the distinguished organist got across with Mr. Hill, the able and indefatigable choir-master – Wesley’s object being to get the whole business into his own hands. After some months of wrangling with Hill and interviewing the vicar and wardens, Mr. Hill had notice to leave, and Wesley then took the entire direction of the choir and the training of the boys’: William Spark, Musical Reminiscences (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1892), p. 167.

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LEEDS CHORAL SOCIETY, ESTABLISHED 1838. – We understand that the above Society is making rapid progress in the estimation of the public, and promises soon to rank high among the musical world; also that they are making very strenuous exertions, and are determined to produce such music as the inhabitants have never yet had an opportunity of hearing performed in Leeds.44

The following week, the paper carried reviews of Wesley’s and Hill’s performances and a further item on Burton’s plan to perform Mendelssohn’s St Paul, which had yet to be heard in the town. While the performance of Creation apparently had much to commend it, with the chorus being particularly praiseworthy, the orchestra was not without some ‘noticeable defects in the instrumental appointments, particularly in those difficulties of provincial orchestras, the horns, bassoons, and oboes’.45 But ultimately of more significance was the observation that the Society’s concert had been ‘fashionably but by no means so numerously attended as it deserved to be’. As the reviewer noted, such concerts were not cheap to mount, and he warned that ‘unless the public do support them more liberally, we are afraid they will again languish’.46 Given that the new society had still to establish itself securely – and was, moreover, in competition with the ‘old’ society for potential singers and audience – it was clearly not a good time to withdraw from the fray. But with the Music Hall now required to house the Leeds Public Exhibition, rehearsals of the ‘new’ society were suspended until February 1844, when Messiah was again put into practice for a performance on 15 April. The season continued with Haydn’s Seasons (16 December 1844) and Creation (17 February 1845), but crucial momentum had been lost; with the society now in serious financial difficulties, this concert was to be its last.47 Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of its demise, however, was the fact that, according to the Leeds Intelligencer, Wesley was ‘unavoidably prevented from being present’ at the final concert, although no hint was given as to who replaced him.48 Was there another, unpublicized reason – perhaps a rift between conductor and committee – which contributed to its collapse? With this in mind, it is perhaps significant that a few months earlier, when the society’s future was far from assured, Wesley had temporarily transferred his allegiance to Manchester: from the start of the 1844 season he had acted as organ accompanist for the Manchester Choral Society. Wesley’s first appearance in Manchester had been at performances of Haydn’s Mass no. 3 (the ‘Nelson’ Mass) and a selection from Handel’s Solomon, 44 Leeds Intelligencer, 14 January 1843. 45 Ibid., 21 January 1843. 46 Ibid. 47 Exactly this fear had been expressed in a letter to the Leeds Intelligencer: ‘When the Choral Meetings at the Music Hall were suspended […] Dr. Wesley expressed an opinion that, unless they [the members] were called together again before the close of the Exhibition the lost practice would be of great detriment to the members; others looking also to the difficulty which often attends the collection together again of a numerous body after long discontinuance of the meetings’: Leeds Intelligencer, 19 August 1843. 48 Leeds Intelligencer, 22 February 1845.

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on 26 September 1844. His playing on this occasion, including an extempore performance, was so well received that the Manchester Guardian urged his reengagement. He subsequently played for a programme of music by Beethoven, Croft, Handel (including a selection from Joshua), Leo, Rinck, and Romberg, on 14 November 1844; a selection from Messiah a month later (19 December); a selection from Handel’s Solomon and his own adaptation of Spohr’s ‘How excellent’ (27 February 1845); Haydn’s Creation (10 April 1845); and a selection from Handel’s Alexander’s Feast (22 May 1845). But the ill-luck which had blighted his earlier concert career struck again: this was to be the last concert given by the Manchester Choral Society before it too was dissolved.49 Back in Leeds, the ‘Old’ society continued under Burton’s direction and was joined in 1850 by a new ‘Madrigal and Motet Society’, established by Wesley’s former pupil William Spark.50 This quickly made its mark on local musical life. Indeed, to judge from the disparaging tone of a letter from the secretary to the Musical World in 1853, it was perhaps beginning to make too much of a mark;51 and an intense rivalry would develop between Burton and Spark, to such a pitch that it would almost wreck the Leeds Triennial Festival of 1861.52 Concurrently with his work with the Leeds Choral Society, Wesley also took part in a number of individual concerts in the town. In April 1843, for example, he acted as conductor at the farewell concert given by Mr Suffrein, ‘Flutist, and Master of the Band of the 17th Lancers’, whose services he had called upon earlier for the choral concerts. The programme included Beethoven’s Symphony no. 2 (a work he had conducted in Exeter), the overtures to William Tell by Rossini and Ahnenshatz by Karl Reissiger, and his own glee ‘I wish to tune my quivering lyre’. Two months later, on 21 and 22 June 1843, he ‘presided at the piano forte’ while his old acquaintance J.D. Loder led the orchestra, at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Amateur Musical Society (held in rotation in York, Hull, Leeds, and Sheffield). With no conductor being specified, one can only assume that the distinctly old-fashioned practice of sharing responsibility for the performances was adopted, with Loder directing the orchestral works from the leader’s desk and Wesley playing ‘continuo’ from a score, in addition to accompanying the solo items. The works played included Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, which was apparently receiving its first English performance outside London. It fell to Loder, who had played in its original performance by the Philharmonic Society in 1826, to say

49 Ten months later, the sale of the ‘sacred and miscellaneous musical library of the late choral society’ was announced in the Manchester Guardian, 21 March 1846. Information on Wesley in Manchester has been kindly provided by Rachel Gick. 50 MW, 25 (1850): 442. 51 As well as referring to it as the ‘Madrigal and Notes Society’, the author writes: ‘There are about six of the members of the Choral Society [who] generally assist the Madrigalians at their performances; for, being principally amateurs, they would not be able to go through anything without them, though they never attempt anything more that a few glees and such things’, MW, 31 (1853): 597. 52 See J. Sutcliffe Smith, A Musical Pilgrimage in Yorkshire (Leeds: Richard Jackson, [1928]), p. 33.

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a few words at the Society’s annual dinner. ‘The performance this morning’, he observed, ‘it would be absurd to call perfect; but I must say that the orchestra gave a very fine outline of that great work […] which is one of the greatest works ever achieved’. ‘To say the performance was excellent’, he continued, ‘would not be enough – it was wonderfully performed, considering that the band was composed of amateurs, and I have no hesitation in saying that out of London it could not have so much justice done to it, and up to the present time has not previously been attempted to be performed out of the metropolis’.53 Other works included in the first day’s lengthy programme were Spohr’s Symphony no. 2, extracts from Weber’s Euryanthe, and Wesley’s glee ‘I wish to tune my quivering lyre’, while the overture to Spohr’s Jessonda (a particular favourite of Wesley’s) and extracts from Weber’s Oberon were to be heard at the concluding concert, together with a ‘Grand Symphony’ by Reissiger. All in all the performances passed off very satisfactorily, and contributed to ‘as brilliant and satisfactory an anniversary of the Yorkshire Amateur Musical Meetings as is perhaps remembered’.54 During dinner, Loder proposed a toast to Wesley, recounting how he had first known him as a child. He was then, he recalled, ‘a talented singer, and his genius grew with him every year’. ‘No man’, he believed, ‘was more admired and esteemed in the profession, both for his talents and general good conduct, than his friend Samuel Wesley, whose health he begged to propose’.55 Yet for all Loder’s generous words, Wesley seems to have withdrawn from the forefront of public music-making during the next 18 months, and after the collapse of the Choral Society, confined himself almost solely to organ playing and his work at the Parish Church. Two of his rare later appearances took place in 1849, when on 28 April he returned to Manchester to accompany a performance of Haydn’s Creation at the Mechanics’ Institution, and two months later both ‘presided at the pianoforte and conducted’ at a concert at the Leeds Mechanics’ Institution (20 June); the latter programme included Mozart’s overtures to Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito, an overture by the popular Reissiger, and miscellaneous vocal and choral pieces. One of the highlights, however, was his performance with a local violinist of an unidentified Beethoven sonata, for which he was complimented by the press for ‘coming forward and giving gratuitously his invaluable aid for the gratification and improvement of the public taste in the elevating and refining art of music’.56 He had been listed as sharing the conducting of two similar concerts with Burton earlier in the season, but the comment that ‘We are glad to find that Dr. Wesley has been able to resume his direction of the musical department’57 suggests that this was, in fact, his first appearance. It is no doubt significant that on this occasion, Burton – who had been choir master at the Parish Church since 1846, and had stepped into the breach when a broken leg kept Wesley out of action for over six 53 54 55 56 57

Leeds Intelligencer, 24 June 1843. Ibid. Ibid. Leeds Mercury, 23 June 1849. Leeds Intelligencer, 16 June 1849.

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months in 1848 – was not listed as sharing the conducting: the evidence suggests that there was little love lost between these two strong-willed men. Disenchantment with musical life in general, and with the Choral Society in particular, had doubtless contributed to Wesley’s withdrawal, reinforced by the furore in 1844 and 1845 over the publication of his Service in E, with its outspoken preface, and the gradual deterioration in his relationship with the Vicar of Leeds, Dr Walter Farquhar Hook.58 But in severing his links with secular musical activity, Wesley not only brought to an end an era which had begun for him over 15 years earlier at the English Opera House, but also tacitly acknowledged that his attempts to fashion a career beyond the confines of church or organ loft had come to nothing. With a few isolated exceptions, he was not to return to this field until his appointment to Gloucester Cathedral, and renewed contact with the Three Choirs Festival, 20 years later. In conclusion, one is bound to ask whether Wesley could ever have made a real success of directing amateur music-making. From his childhood experience at the Chapel Royal, he had been used to working with first-rate professional musicians, and, given his abrasive personality and inability to suffer fools gladly, it is probable that he possessed neither the patience nor the enthusiasm to coax performances from those whose musical skills were generally so far below his own. Indeed, one of the features of his peripatetic career, which continued with appointments at Winchester (1849) and Gloucester Cathedrals (1865), is that each move was accompanied by an initial burst of enthusiasm which then quickly waned. Such is likely to have been the case had the Exeter societies and concerts got off the ground, and we can sense a similar sense of disillusion with the chequered history of the Leeds Choral Society. But while Wesley’s involvement with music-making outside the church at both Exeter and Leeds had a limited long-term effect, awareness of it sheds interesting light on an otherwise unknown part of the career of one of England’s most distinguished musicians.

58 William Spark observed that Wesley’s ‘great musical genius was [generally] fully recognised and encouraged, though strange to say less perhaps in Leeds than anywhere else’: William Spark, Musical Memories, 3rd edn (London: William Reeves, [1909]), p. 65.

Chapter 14

Music for St Cuthbert, ‘Patron Saint of the Faithful North’: The Musical Repertory of St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Durham, 1827–1910 Thomas Muir

[1] Dear Patron of the faithful North, Saint Cuthbert, hear thy children’s prayer; from thy bright throne in heaven look forth, on us bestow a father’s care.

[4] That to thy own dear Northern land a father and protector prove, where trod thy feet, where blessed thy head, look now in pity and love.

[2] Oh! By thy pure and gentle youth, a humble shepherd with thy sheep, secure within the fold of truth, thy sinful children deign to keep!

[5] In Durham’s pile thy body lies, by angels secretly preserved! and still that presence sanctifies the isle which nought but wrath deserved!

[3] God gave of old to thy good care his flock to foster and to warn, to rule the vales of Tyne and Wear, Hexham and holy Lindesfarne.

[6] In pity, as in days of old, guard this dear isle in every need; bring England back to Christ’s true fold, let Peter rule from throne to Tweed.

This hymn, so characteristic of Victorian Catholicism in north-east England, can be found in The Parochial Hymn Book of 1883,1 a copy of which still survives in the choir loft at St Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic Church, Durham, along with a 1 [F. Police (ed.)], The Parochial Hymn Book, containing Prayers and Devotions for all the Faithful including Vespers, Compline and all the Liturgical Hymns for the Year both in Latin and English, rev. edn (London: Burns and Oates, 1883), hymn no. 501.

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considerable quantity of uncatalogued nineteenth-century manuscript and printed music books.2 Such materials enable us to reconstruct the vibrant musical repertoire of St Cuthbert’s, and thus something of the character of a fairly substantial, but not untypical, Catholic community in nineteenth-century northern England. The text itself deserves attention, for it delineates several themes that recur in this chapter. First, and most obviously, there is the idea of ‘the faithful North’. From the Reformation to the early twentieth century, the north was the heartland of English Catholicism and did much to shape its sense of identity. In Northumberland and Durham that identity was symbolized by St Cuthbert (d. 687), and the hymn therefore asserts connections between the historical St Cuthbert, based at Lindisfarne, and Catholicism in late nineteenth-century England; Verse 5, for instance, refers to the translation of his body to Durham Cathedral. Just outside the City of Durham lies the great Catholic seminary of Ushaw, which was dedicated to St Cuthbert, and from there priests were despatched to recover England for the true faith, as they saw it, an ambition referred to in Verse 6. One of the new mission centres was St Cuthbert’s Church in Durham itself, which opened in 1827, the same year that the saint’s tomb was investigated up at the cathedral. Such connections were of comparatively recent origin, however. Ushaw was the lineal descendant of the Catholic seminary founded at Douai in 1568. The Douai community, fleeing anticlerical uprisings during the Reign of Terror, sailed for England in 1793, one group settling at St Edmund’s, Ware, the other, after first going to Crook Hall, eventually putting down roots at Ushaw in 1808. The patron saint at Douai was St Thomas of Canterbury; and it was only in 1839 that the College formally identified itself with St Cuthbert, mainly at the behest of its president, Charles Newsham (1791–1863).3 Why this might have taken so long is suggested by the reference to St Peter in the final line of the hymn: St Peter was associated with the drive for Roman uniformity so characteristic of Ultramontane Catholics like Newsham, but which could collide with a northern particularism that might have rallied round the figure of St Cuthbert.4 Fortunately for Ultramontanes, according to Bede’s A History of the English Church and People, Cuthbert had lived in the period after the Synod of Whitby, when the Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian Church decided to adopt the Roman calendar, and other Roman customs with it.5 Nevertheless, this could not obviate the embarrassing fact that Cuthbert’s body lay in a cathedral run by what was deemed to be an heretical faith.

2 A list is given in Appendices 14.1–3. I would like to thank Father Peter Leighton for allowing me to study and use this collection. 3 David Milburn, A History of Ushaw College (Durham: Ushaw Bookshop, 1964), pp. 167–8. 4 Ultramontanes were Catholics who emphasized the primacy of the Pope. One result of the Ultramontane movement was the declaration of Papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council, held in 1870. 5 The Venerable Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 185–92 and 259–70.

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Such tensions and incongruities could have a musical dimension, as becomes apparent on examining the tune (see Example 14.1). This purports to be ‘an old English air’, but from that point onwards all authentic connections with AngloSaxon England disappear: the tune is neither modal nor written in neumes, and it is not a piece of plainchant, despite the fact that many Ultramontanes were enthusiastic promoters of that style. The same disconnection is evident in other nineteenth-century Catholic music associated with St Cuthbert. Newsham’s Missa De Sancto Cuthberto, for example, which was published both separately and in Part IV of Henri Hemy’s hymnal, the Crown of Jesus Music, is in a thoroughly contemporary style.6 Similarly the ‘Hymn for the Patrimony of St Cuthbert’, which appears in Part I of the same collection, is supplied with a tune attributed to Mozart.7 Musically, then, questions arise concerning the balance struck between medieval and contemporary styles, as well as between local and Continental music, much of the latter having been refracted through the prism of London. Before we consider these, however, we need to establish some background to the Durham Catholic community, for which we draw mainly on J.M. Tweedy’s study of Popish Elvet (Elvet being the south-eastern part of central Durham wherein stands St Cuthbert’s).8

Example 14.1 The melody of ‘Dear Patron of the Faithful North’, from [F. Police, (ed.)], The Parochial Hymn Book, rev. edn (London: Burns & Oates, 1883), no. 50 6 Charles Newsham, Missa De Sancto Cuthberto (London: Novello, [n.d.]). St Cuthbert’s Church does not have a copy, but there is one at Ushaw and another in the music basement at the Jesuit-run Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. On Hemy’s collection, see note 7 below. 7 Crown of Jesus Music (4 parts, London: Burns and Oates, [n.d.]), part I, no. 109 (p. 120), and part IV, unnumbered (pp. 319–50). An earlier edition, containing Parts I–III only, was published in 1864 by Thomas Richardson & Son of London, Dublin, and Derby. A copy of this survives at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham. 8 J.M. Tweedy, Popish Elvet (2 vols, Durham: published privately, [1981]).

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St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Durham, in the Nineteenth Century In a formal sense a Catholic mission is known to have existed in Durham from the accession of King James II in 1685. However, as we have seen, it was not until 1827, two years before the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed, that the present church was built. At that time, under the provisions of the Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791, the church could not have a tower or a steeple, so, interestingly, an early ‘Gothick’ style was used.9 A later account in the Tablet states that a mass by Mozart was sung at its opening on 20 February 1827, accompanied by 15 musicians from Madame Tussaud’s exhibition, so a mixture of pseudo-medieval and near-contemporary styles is apparent.10 What is more, the near-Continental style represented by Mozart rubbed shoulders with local musical traditions; for the service was celebrated by Bishop Thomas Smith, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District, assisted by the Revd Richard Gillow from Ushaw and his brother Thomas Gillow from North Shields. Richard Gillow was the composer of a litany that survives in a manuscript copy at St Cuthbert’s.11 The next musical development was the purchase of an organ in 1842, which was built by J.C. Bishop of London for 200 guineas. This instrument is still used in the church, although it has undergone some modifications.12 Around this time, according to Tweedy, part-books began to be copied,13 and by the 1850s and 60s a full-blown choral tradition had emerged. The clearest evidence of this are three manuscript part-books, signed and dated in various places by J. Thompson and R. Dryden in 1855, and a third, unknown person in 1854. There is also a manuscript organ-book containing pieces copied in 1858, and possibly, judging by confusion in the page-numbering, some items of earlier provenance. This supports Tweedy’s assertion that copying began in the 1840s.14 Tweedy also refers to a book of rules for the choir prepared by William Fletcher, who was parish priest between 1831 9 For an early photograph of the interior, dated ‘Easter, 1909’, see Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 1, p. 148. 10 Tablet, 36 (30 July 1910), p. 181. No further information is given about the involvement of Madame Tussaud’s musicians, but we can perhaps assume that they were hired whilst on tour with the exhibition and in the vicinity. 11 This appears in the c. 1858 Organ Book (see Appendix 14.2 [2]). It is part of ‘Combination Litany no. 5’, put together by William Brown, and is in D minor and F major. The original source Brown used may well have been the Newsham/Richardson Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction. St Cuthbert’s has a copy of this (see Appendix 14.1, section B). Here it is Litany no. 25. Newsham’s collection had three other litanies by Richard Gillow which were not copied. These are no. 27 (in E), no. 26 (in B flat), and no. 31 (again in E). 12 For technical details, see the National Pipe Organ Register, NPOR: D04513 , and Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 2, p. 12. 13 Ibid. 14 The section marked ‘Chants’, for example, beginning with several by Frederick Lingard, has page number ‘14’ marked on the top left-hand corner; this appears just below the number ‘20’ in a different hand using different ink which corresponds to that used for copying chants by William Evance earlier in the book.

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and 1856, but this now seems to be lost. In the 1860s there are reports of mass being accompanied by an orchestra, and also the promotion of public concerts. At Christmas 1860, for example, the joint choirs of St Cuthbert’s and St Mary’s pro-cathedral, Newcastle, performed Weber’s ‘Grand Mass in G’ (probably Jähns 251) at Durham Town Hall.15 Such developments coincided with the mass Irish immigration triggered by the potato famine, which helped boost the congregation at St Cuthbert’s to its largest size ever: numbers grew from 320 in 1847–49, to 430 in 1852, and 540 in 1855; and in a parish census of 1861, 1,100 communicants were recorded out of an estimated Catholic community at that point of 2,425.16 Galleries were erected along the north wall and at the back of the church,17 and a tower was added at the same time. Even so, worshippers must still have been quite cramped, given that the present building can barely accommodate 200 persons. The ultimate solution to these difficulties was to split the mission; and in 1863 work commenced on St Godric’s Church. At the opening of the new church the following year, the choir of St Cuthbert’s, directed by the organist Anthony Wetherell, professor of music at Ushaw, performed the ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.18 Two years later the combined choirs of both churches performed Newsham’s Requiem Mass at the funeral of Fr James Hubersty, a respected Ushaw-trained priest who was active in Newcastle and various mission centres across County Durham. This was the first public Catholic interment in the city since the Reformation; manuscript copies of Newsham’s composition survive in the St Cuthbert’s collection. The clergy played a key part in these musical developments. Fr Fletcher’s rules, for example, apparently specified that no piece could be performed without the prior approval of the parish priest.19 His successors at St Cuthbert’s were Robert Smith (1856), Ralph Platt (1857–68), Edward Consitt (1868–87), and William Brown (1887–1924), both Platt and Consitt having trained at Ushaw.20 Musically, the most important of these was William Brown, who was an oboist, and the principal copyist and collator of the entire music collection from 1886.21 Also active as a composer and arranger, Brown produced a full-blown mass, the music for two of his children’s cantatas (written between 1892 and 1907), and ten ‘Combination Litanies’ – a ‘combination litany’ being three separate chants, often by different composers, strung together to form a single setting of the litany.

15 Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 2, p. 13. An undated ‘Novello’ edition of this work still survives in the St Cuthbert’s collection, so probably dates from before 1867, when Novello joined with Ewer. 16 Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 3 and 133. 17 Some of these had been removed by the 1870s; see ibid., vol. 1, p. 150. 18 Anon, The Church of Our Lady of Mercy and St Godric (Durham: published privately, 1964), pp. 6–7. 19 Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 2, p. 12. 20 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 140. 21 Brown’s copy of Herod’s Grande Méthode de Hautbois (2 vols, Paris: Schoenenberger, [n.d.]) survives in the old music room at Ushaw.

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As a copyist, Brown’s work seems to have been concentrated into three great bursts of activity. Firstly, there were the celebrations for the 12th centenary of St Cuthbert’s death on 10 March 1887, for which he began work on his Mass (see Table 14.1). Secondly, in 1897 he upgraded and indexed the 1850s organ- and part-books, and prepared a new gradual for the whole liturgical year. Many of the items he included here were plainchant settings, and, as Table 14.2 shows, Brown continued to add to this volume intermittently until 1915. Finally, he had to prepare for the consecration of the church on 20 July 1910, the long-standing building debt having been cleared. For this he copied a new set of part-books containing a mixture of printed and manuscript music. Three of these copies still survive; and although they are undated, the presence of items such as a ‘Two Part Mass’ by Simon Sechter (1788–1867) – probably his Mass in E flat for two treble voices, published in London, 1876 – which was performed at the consecration ceremony, confirm their intended purpose. Music at St Cuthbert’s Church: printed sources Having established something of its historical background, it is now possible to discuss the contents of the St Cuthbert’s collection (set out in Appendices 14.1–3). For convenience this can be divided into two parts: printed and manuscript sources. Their contents overlap but do not exactly coincide, suggesting that originally many more printed sources were available to be copied from, either at St Cuthbert’s itself or by drawing on the resources accumulating at Ushaw. The first point to note is the longevity of use. Works purchased early in the nineteenth century remained in service at its end. For example, William Brown added corrections to the Haydn mass in the volume marked ‘Masses No. 1’, but the table of contents is dated ‘May, 1863’, and some of the music was copied into the 1850s part-books. Second, something should be said about the three principal surviving hymnals.22 The Crown of Jesus Music is the musical companion to the Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction (1862), edited by Alban Groom, Raymund Palmer, and Robert Suffield. In the first four years of its circulation, 98,000 copies of this manual were sold;23 consequently, the Crown of Jesus Music was the first Catholic hymnal aimed at national circulation in England. However, the musical editor, Henri Hemy, worked in Newcastle, and was for a time a music professor at Ushaw.24 This explains the northern slant in the hymnal’s contents. The Parochial Hymn Book also has northern elements. Yet 22 For full publication details, see Appendix 14.1, Section A. 23 [Alban Groom, Raymund Palmer, and Robert Suffield (eds)], The Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction (London, Derby, and Dublin: Richardson, 1862). Tony Cross, ‘Robert Rudolph Suffield’s Dominican Decade (1860–1870)’, Recusant History, 28 (May 2006): 109–10. 24 D. Oates, R.A. Hemy, and D.H. Thomas, ‘Henri Frederick Hemy (1818–88) and his descendants’, Northern Catholic History, 36 (1995): 31–41.

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Table 14.1

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The dates when William Brown composed each part of his Mass

Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus Benedictus Agnus Dei

13–17 May 1884 April 1891 4 July 1886 17–21 August 1888 21–25 June 1888 25–28 February 1885

Table 14.2 Dates when particular compositions were copied into the Gradual book at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, by William Brown Advent, 7th tone Xmas to Septuagesima Septuagesima to Lent, 3rd tone Lent, 3rd tone Paschal time, 8th tone Ascensiontide, 8th tone Sundays after Pentecost, 5th tone Feasts of Our Lord, 6th tone Feast of Our Lady Christmas First Mass [deleted] Easter Sunday: Introit, Gradual, Sequence, Offertory Easter Sunday: ‘Domine salvum fac’ Easter Sunday: Caspar Ett, ‘Haec dies’ Whit Sunday: ‘Domine salvum fac’ Whit Sunday: Adapted from Shutky’s ‘Qui sedes Domine’ and the Offertory Antiphon ‘Confirma, hoc Deus’ St Cuthbert (20 March): R. Goodson, Gradual and Tract St Cuthbert: J. Stadler, ‘Ecce sacerdos magnus’ and ‘Domine salvum fac’ Feast for the translation of St Cuthbert (4 September) Dedication of the church: F.X. Witt, ‘Domine Deus in simplicitate cordi’ Assumption of the B.V.M. (15 August) ‘Asperges me’ and G. Pitoni, ‘Cantate Domino’

November 1899 9 November 1899 3 November 1899 [No date] 6 November 1899 2 December 1899 4 December 1899 4 December 1899 28 March 1900 6 January 1902 26 March 1902 2 January 1902 17 May 1912 20 August 1900 18 May 1902 18 May 1902 15 August 1900 15 August 1900 10 May 1910 22 July 1915 [No date]

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both hymnals were published in London, symptomatic of a musical shift of gravity in English Catholicism taking place from north to south from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. This point is supported by the fact that The Westminster Hymnal, published as ‘the only collection authorised by the hierarchy of England and Wales’ in 1912, contains no reference to Durham’s patron saint.25 The index of The Parochial Hymn Book is marked up in pencil, so it is possible to deduce the hymn repertoire of St Cuthbert’s Church that was drawn from it (see Table 14.3). The list is very limited, and there are three possible explanations for this. First, from 1838 onwards (and therefore well before Pope Pius X’s motu proprio decree Tra le sollectitudini of 1903), the singing of vernacular hymns at mass and the office had been discouraged by the Vicars Apostolic.26 This had not prevented Hemy from recommending certain hymns with English texts for mass in his Crown of Jesus Music, however.27 Second, St Cuthbert’s may have used hymns drawn from other sources; but, as has been seen, only 36 hymns can be found in its own manuscript sources. Third, although the Crown of Jesus Music might have been an additional source, the St Cuthbert’s copy belonged originally to St Godric’s Church. In addition, 22 out of the 87 numbered items in Part III are settings of the benediction service, and therefore extra-liturgical, and although this still leaves 182 items in Parts I and II, some of these are not hymns. Most telling, however, is the Roman numeral ‘IV’, which is marked on the first page of this very copy and followed by the note ‘for the use of the choir’. This suggests a fourth explanation: that this copy of the Crown of Jesus Music, together with three other volumes like it, was used by the choir. The inference is that hymns were treated like motets at St Cuthbert’s, rather than as a resource for congregational singing. Benediction and office music at St Cuthbert’s is represented by five volumes: Vincent Novello’s Evening Service, The Proper Choir Manual, Charles Newsham’s A Collection of Music Suitable for the Rite of Benediction, Albert Edmond Tozer’s New and Complete Benediction Manual, and Henry Farmer’s Fourteen Benediction

25 For further discussion of such demographic shifts, see Adrian Hastings, A History of English Christianity, 1920–85 (London: Collins, 1986), pp. 134–5 and 275–7. 26 For a translation of this text, see Richard Terry, The Music of the Roman Rite (London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1931), pp. 253–63. The prohibition on the use of the vernacular appears in clause 7. ‘Office’ is the daily round of services performed primarily by monastic and other religious communities, including those staffing cathedrals – that is, matins, prime, lauds, terce, vespers, compline. (In the Anglican Church, matins and lauds were combined by Cranmer to produce ‘matins’, and vespers and compline were combined to form ‘evensong’.) Each of these services consists of a reading, the recital of a quota of psalms, and some prayers. Vespers and (less frequently) compline were performed in most Catholic missions in the early to mid-nineteenth century, but then became less frequent and more exclusively associated with monastic communities as a result of the rise of extra-liturgical devotions, especially benediction. 27 See, for example, ‘What happiness can equal mine?’, and ‘Jesus, gentlest Saviour’, both of which are described as ‘hymn[s] of thanksgiving after communion’, part I, nos 22 and 46. The latter, though, appears in the section devoted to children’s masses.

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Table 14.3 Hymns used at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, taken from The Parochial Hymn Book of 1883 No. 96: No. 104: No. 288: No. 349: No. 352: No. 376: No. 377: No. 406: No. 449: No. 501:

‘O come and mourn with me a while’ ‘By the blood that flowed from thee’ ‘I rise from dreams of time’ ‘Daily, daily, sing to Mary’ ‘I’ll sing a hymn to Mary’ ‘Mother of help and bountiful love’ ‘Mother of mercy, day by day’ ‘This is the image of our Queen’ ‘Dear Angel! Ever at my side’ ‘Dear patron of the faithful North’

Services.28 The first thing to note is the competition between two different types of service. The Evening Service, published in 1822, contains a mixture of works for vespers, compline, and benediction. As has been seen, this is also true for Part III of the Crown of Jesus Music, albeit with a weighting towards benediction. On the other hand, The Proper Choir Manual, with a high proportion of plainchant, is almost exclusively intended for the mass and the office. By contrast, Newsham and Tozer’s publications move to the opposite extreme, giving priority to benediction and using hardly any plainchant at all. Such competition reflected tensions between local particularism and a centralizing hierarchy. For example, Tweedy thought that The Proper Choir Manual was introduced in response to the bishops’ demand in 1838 that vespers should only be sung in Latin.29 However, the Manual contains a work by Meyer Lutz, organist and choirmaster at Southwark Catholic Cathedral, who was not born until 1832; this suggests that the volume went on sale considerably later, confirmed by the fact that the copy at St Cuthbert’s was published by Burns, Lambert, and Oates, who amalgamated in 1867. In addition, some of the psalm chants used in the office and copied into the 1850s part-books have English titles, and Tweedy mentions that the parish priest, Edward Consitt, actively promoted the congregational singing of psalms in English. In 1875 Consitt even printed a 28 For full publication details, see Appendix 14.1, Section B. 29 Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 2, p. 14. For a wider discussion of this issue see Mary Heimann, Catholic Devotion in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), Ch. 2, esp. pp. 45–57, and table 1, pp. 176–82, showing the spread of benediction and other extraliturgical devotions across the country. No details of services at St Cuthbert’s survive in issues of the Catholic Directory before the 1880s, by which time benediction on Sundays at 6.30 pm and Thursdays at 8.00 pm was firmly established, and there are no references to office services. In the 1880s, 1890s, and 1900s, however, St Godric’s seems to have preferred an ‘evening service’, with ‘Rosary and Benediction’ only appearing on Tuesdays at 7.00 pm in the decade beginning in 1910. See Catholic Directory (London: C. Dolman, 1850), p. 67; ibid. (London: Burns and Lambert, 1860), p. 65; ibid. (London: Burns and Oates, 1870), p. 145; (1880), pp. 142–3; (1890), p. 145; (1900), p. 164; and (1910), p. 187.

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booklet entitled Evening Devotions for Sundays and Holidays.30 This demonstrates that St Cuthbert’s ignored episcopal demands to exclude the vernacular from the office for many years. At the same time, nonetheless, music for benediction services and other extraliturgical devotions, such as Stations of the Cross or the Rosary, began to gain ground. Many of the hymns in the Crown of Jesus Music and Parochial Hymn Book were designed for such purposes; and it will be observed that St Cuthbert’s had a copy of Newsham’s A Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction. This is in the version revised by John Richardson (1816–79), organist and choirmaster at Liverpool pro-cathedral, and is therefore likely to have been published in the early 1860s.31 It contains 32 litanies, 15 settings of ‘O salutaris hostia’, 19 settings of ‘Tantum ergo’, and Gregorio Allegri’s setting of ‘Adoremus in aeternum’. Newsham dedicated the work to his personal friend Nicholas Wiseman, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, who was a strong Ultramontane. As President at Ushaw, Newsham actively promoted extra-liturgical devotions like benediction,32 which were associated closely with the build-up of guilds and confraternities in Catholic mission centres. These were regarded by Catholic clergy, especially those of an Ultramontane persuasion like Wiseman, as essential instruments in the campaign to ‘rescue’ poor Catholic (and often Irish) immigrants from the temptations of Protestantism and secularism in the towns. As has been seen, the Catholic congregation at St Cuthbert’s represented a classic instance of this situation.33 Its adoption of new music designed for benediction, and other extraliturgical services like the Stations of the Cross or Rosary devotions, is therefore hardly remarkable. What is surprising is the fact that it took so long for such devotions, and the music that went with them, to displace the office services that had hitherto been staple fare. Printed editions of masses, antiphons, and motets can be found in eight volumes at St Cuthbert’s.34 These show that the dominant role in disseminating such genres was played by the Novello publishing company. Vincent Novello’s editorial work in particular helped to make London the prism through which Continental publications were refracted to Catholics in the provinces.35 And these publications also show the part played in this process by musicians working at London Catholic embassy chapels and their successors – Charles Baeteus, Samuel Webbe the elder, Henry G. Nixon, Vincent Novello himself, and Stephen Paxton,

30 Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 2, p. 14. 31 For further discussion of the dating, contents, and significance of this important work, see Thomas Muir, ‘Charles Newsham, John Richardson, and the rise of Benediction music in Catholic England’, Northern Catholic History, 47 (2006): 10–22 (p. 13). 32 Milburn, History of Ushaw College, pp. 175–6. 33 For details of the extensive array of guilds and confraternities founded at St Cuthbert’s in response to the socio-religious situation in Durham, see Tweedy, Popish Elvet, vol. 2, pp. 15–20. 34 See Appendix 14.1, Section D. 35 For discussion of Novello’s editing activities in general, see Fiona Palmer, Vincent Novello (1781–1861): music for the masses (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 139–82.

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who came from Durham and had worked in the cathedral there.36 What is most apparent, however, is the London weighting of the mass repertoire, in contrast with the much stronger local input for benediction, office services, and hymns. In addition to its choral items, St Cuthbert’s also possesses nine books (bound into a single volume) of The Amateur Organist: a collection of voluntaries for the organ or pianoforte, edited by Edward Travis. This is almost certainly a nonCatholic publication; indeed several items in it have been arranged by J. Henry Hiles, professor at the Manchester College of Music. Nevertheless the collection contains numerous works by Catholic composers, including several resident in England, testifying to the extent of musical cross-fertilization between rival denominations at that time. Of its 168 items, 47 are annotated; so, as with the hymns from The Parochial Hymn Book, it is possible to reconstruct the solo organ repertoire performed at St Cuthbert’s. Twenty of these 47 pieces are by nonCatholics, of which 11 are attributed to Handel. In terms of nationality, the ten British items are decisively overshadowed by 29 from German composers. And if the pieces are categorized by period of composition, we find 14 items written by composers active 1651–1750, six written by composers active 1701–1800, and nine written by composers active 1751–1800. Thus, there was clearly a preference for music from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Travis’s collection has one item attributed to J.S. Bach, but this has not been annotated and was therefore almost certainly not performed. Music at St Cuthbert’s Church: manuscript sources For convenience, it is best to divide the manuscript material into music copied into the 1850s part-books and works assembled from the 1880s onwards by William Brown (see Appendix 14.2). By definition, music that is copied is likely to have been performed, so this gives some idea of the repertoire at St Cuthbert’s in the late nineteenth century. In all there are 361 pieces. As Table 14.4 makes clear, most of these (331 items) belong to the collections assembled in the part-books from the 1850s (listed as [1] and [2] in Appendix 14.2). Each genre has different characteristics, which will be discussed in turn, beginning with psalm chants (listed in Table 14.4 under ‘Office Music’). The sheer quantity of psalm settings shows that regular afternoon or evening office services were sung throughout the year in the mid-nineteenth century. It also reflects the fact that Consitt encouraged the congregation to participate, which was highly unusual among Catholics in those days. In this context, the response 36 Brian Crosby, ‘Stephen and other Paxtons: an investigation into the identities and careers of a family of eighteenth-century musicians’, ML, 81 (2000): 41–64. For an account of music at the London embassy chapels, see Philip Olleson, ‘The London Roman Catholic Embassy Chapels and their music in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in David Wyn Jones (ed.), Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 101–18.

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Table 14.4 Musical compositions in the manuscript volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham Liturgical genre

Music in Music in the 1850s manuscript part-books copies Masses Requiem mass ‘Asperges me’ Responses ‘Domine salvum fac’† Subtotal

Other items (used at mass, office services, and benediction)

Antiphons Motets Responsories Tracts Miscellaneous Subtotal

Office music

Psalm chants Canticles Te Deum Subtotal

114 4 1 119

114 4 1 119

Benediction music

‘O salutaris hostia’ ‘Tantum ergo’ Litanies Subtotal

26 19 68 113

26 19 68 113

36 2 3 41

36 2 3 41

361

331

Hymns Carols ‘Stabat mater’ Subtotal General total † ‡

24 1 2 5 5 37

20 1 2 5 3 31

Mass music

35 11‡ 2 1 2 chants 51

13 10 ‡ 2 0 2 chants 27

‘Domine salvum fac’ is the prayer for the monarch which was introduced in all English Catholic churches and chapels after the first Catholic Relief Act of 1778. Including three ‘Adoremus’ settings and one ‘Ave verum’.

at St Cuthert’s to the promulgation in 1884 of a Papal decree encouraging Rosary devotions in place of office services is highly significant. At first St Cuthbert’s dutifully abandoned the singing of psalm settings; but then, some years later, it resumed them, although it did not advertise the fact in its entries in annual issues of the Catholic Directory from the 1880s onwards. What is more, there are indications that many psalm chants were sung to English texts, and this fact is confirmed by the presence of English as well as Latin text underlay for many of the hymns provided by Hemy in the ‘Vesper chants, Complin [sic] music and Latin

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hymns’ section of Part III of the Crown of Jesus Music.37 This helps to explain why many psalm chants in St Cuthbert’s manuscript collection were written by Anglican composers. Indeed, only 13 settings can be clearly assigned to Catholic composers.38 In addition, 42 settings are by identifiable local composers, and of these Frederick Lingard (1811–47), an Anglican lay clerk at Durham Cathedral, is the most important.39 Thirty-two copies of his Antiphonal Chants for the Psalter dedicated to the Dean, George Waddington, were subscribed to by the cathedral clergy.40 Since virtually all of Lingard’s chants at St Cuthbert’s come from this source, it is tempting to suppose that they were copied from volumes in Durham Cathedral’s possession. Unfortunately, however, only one of these survives,41 and the numbering system that was added later in ink does not correspond with that used in the St Cuthbert’s manuscript organ-book. Probably the furthest one can go is to suggest that the St Cuthbert’s manuscript was copied from a volume circulating in Durham during the 1850s. Nevertheless, a similar psalm repertory appears to have been sung at St Cuthbert’s and at the Cathedral.42 Moreover, Lingard’s compositions were supplemented with chants composed by William Evance, another Durham Cathedral lay clerk, and there are an additional 12 chants by one George Taylor. Given that a litany Taylor composed specially in 1854 appears in the manuscript organ-book, he may well have been another local composer and possibly a Catholic. Lingard’s publisher, Joseph Alfred Novello, was certainly a Catholic, but, as a businessman he had to adopt a very flexible attitude towards religious music

37 For example, written in pencil over a chant by Charles King is ‘Come let us praise the Lord with joy’. Apart from Lingard and King, the Anglican composers in question are John Alcock, John Arnold, G. Ashton, Jonathan Battishill, John Beckwith, John Blow, John Calach, Matthew Camidge, George Chard, William Crotch, Thomas Dupuis, William Evance, William Felton, William Jackson of Masham, R.P. Goodenough, John Goss, William Hayes, John Jones, Charles King, Thomas Morley, Thomas Randall, Thomas Tallis, James Turle, and Garret Wesley (Lord Mornington), father of the Duke of Wellington. 38 These are a chant by Charles Newsham and 12 chants by George Taylor. A chant adapted from Louis Spohr has not been included in this figure. 39 Thirty chants are by Lingard, in addition to the contributions by Newsham and Taylor mentioned above. 40 The full title is Antiphonal Chants for the Psalter as ordered at Morning and Evening Prayer and for the Proper Psalms, Hymns and Anthems appointed to be used in the Daily and Occasional Offices of the liturgy of the united Churches of England and Ireland (London: J.A. Novello, 1842). Special thanks are owing to Brian Crosby for drawing my attention to this composer. 41 Durham Cathedral Library, MUS E.53. This is not recorded in R. Alec Harman, A Catalogue of the Printed Music and Books on Music in Durham Cathedral Library (London: OUP, 1968), although the subscription list shows that 15 copies were ordered by the Dean and Chapter, including two by the dean himself and four by the bishop. 42 In addition, a chant setting by Tallis for the Athanasian Creed used at St Cuthbert appears in this volume.

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publishing. Among the subscribers to Lingard’s collection, however, was James Burns, founder of the exclusively Catholic publishing house that became Burns, Lambert, and Oates. Such evidence confirms, then, the impression conveyed by the St Cuthbert’s collection that, in psalmody at any rate, religious divisions were by no means impermeable at this time.43 It may also be surmised that the widespread adoption of Anglican chants by Catholics in Durham was necessary in the 1850s, because they were paying relatively little attention to plainchant. This implies that the Gregorian psalm tones provided for vespers by the Crown of Jesus Music were neglected.44 With the benediction settings there is a very different picture. One hundred and thirteen compositions survive in manuscript, which can be broken down into 68 litanies, 26 settings of ‘O salutaris hostia’, and 19 settings of ‘Tantum ergo’ (see Table 14.4). Only five of these use plainchant – three litanies and two ‘O salutaris’ settings – and the rest rely mainly on Anglican-style four-part harmony. There are also the ten ‘Combination Litanies’ put together from pre-existing chants by William Brown. In these respects the repertoire is similar to that for psalmody. However, as one would expect with an exclusively Catholic form of service, there is very little Anglican input, apart from five settings adapted from compositions by Lingard. One of these, copied by William Brown, is dated 1845 and is not among Lingard’s Antiphonal Chants, implying access to some other publication produced that year.45 The dominant influences are Charles Newsham and John Richardson: 14 compositions by Newsham and nine by Richardson can be found in manuscript form. In addition, a copy of Newsham’s A Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction survives at St Cuthbert’s, as has been seen, and from this several pieces were copied into part-books (see Table 14.5). These give a decidedly northern flavour to the St Cuthbert’s benediction repertoire, a feature which is reinforced by the presence in the manuscript collection as a whole of works by other local composers.46 On the other hand, the manuscripts also have some works by London embassy or ex-embassy chapel composers, as well as some by Continental composers: 11 are from Austro-German composers, one is Czech in origin (which was then within the Austro-Hungarian empire), two are French, seven are Italian, one is Spanish, 39 are by composers whose nationalities are not known, and 52 items are from British composers, including one by Vincent 43 Further confirmation of this phenomenon can be found in the fact that S.S. Wesley, the Anglican organist at Exeter Cathedral and illegitimate son of Samuel Wesley (organist at the Catholic Bavarian Embassy Chapel), also subscribed to a copy of Lingard’s work. Similarly, the collection of music from the Catholic Chapel at Everingham, east Yorkshire, includes a late eighteenth-century engraved copy of the New and Corrected edition of Dr Camidge’s Chants as used at York Cathedral (London: Preston, [c. 1830]). 44 Hemy (ed.), Crown of Jesus Music, part III, no. 183. 45 Another exception is a chant by Charles King, which was used by William Brown in his ‘Combination Litany’ no. 8. 46 These consist of single works by J.F. Knight of Hartlepool, Alexander Peckett of Scarborough, and two works by George Taylor. No dates of birth or death have been ascertained, though it seems fairly certain they lived during the first half of the nineteenth century.

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Novello. In some cases, though, these pieces were almost certainly copied from Newsham and Richardson’s A Collection of Music (see Table 14.5). Table 14.5 Compositions in part-books at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham, that were copied from A Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction, eds Charles Newsham and John Richardson Composer

Compositions

John Richardson (1816–79)

4 litanies, 2 ‘O salutaris hostia’, and 1 ‘Tantum ergo’ settings

Local composers Robert Gillow (1795–1830), who later worked in Liverpool Charles Newsham (1791–1863) Charles Youens (1798–1848), President at Ushaw before Newsham Compositions associated with London embassy and ex-embassy chapels Anonymous

Rowland Davies (1740–97) Samuel Webbe the elder (1740–1816) Samuel Webbe the younger (1770–1843) Thomas White (1764–1826) Other compositions by Continental composers Anonymous J. Cafferata (no information) C.H. Heneken (fl. eighteenth century) Nicolo Pascoli [Pasquali] (1718–57) Pierre Verdier (c. 1770–1846) Joseph Weigl (1766–1826)

1 litany 5 litanies, 5 ‘O salutaris hostia’, and 3 ‘Tantum ergo’ settings 1 litany

4 (including a ‘Maltese Litany’, a ‘Roman Litany’, a ‘Spanish Chorale’, and one other setting of the ‘Tantum ergo’ text). 2 1 1 ‘Tantum ergo’ setting 1

Litany arranged from a laudi spirituale of 1310 1 litany 1 litany 1 litany 1 litany 1 ‘O salutaris hostia’ setting

Different patterns are discernible for masses and, for that matter, motets and hymns (see Table 14.6). Among the masses there is local input, of course – notably Newsham’s Requiem, as well as the works by William Brown, J.F. Knight, and Lingard. However, British input is overshadowed by Continental compositions, especially those by Mozart and Haydn. Novello’s vigorous promotion of such composers, well represented in the printed publications held at St Cuthbert’s,

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reveals the influence exerted by the London embassy chapels and their successors,47 a fact confirmed by the presence of masses by Samuel Webbe the elder and Charles Baeteus, who were embassy musicians. There is a strong weighting in the repertoire towards the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, therefore; but on the other hand, the presence of masses by Sechter and Franz Xavier Witt (1834–88), as well as a three-part mass by Giovanni Asola (1532–1609), reflects the beginnings of an interest in the Renaissance polyphonic style promoted by the strongly Ultramontane Society of Cecilia from 1867 onwards, and enthusiastically taken up by Ushaw at the end of the nineteenth century.48 Against this, it should be noted that there is no plainchant, despite Cecilian support for this style. To summarize: of the masses represented in manuscript at St Cuthbert’s, Durham, one was composed 1501–1600; 14 were composed 1751–1850; and nine were composed 1801–1900. With motets and antiphons the picture is less clear. In terms of national origin, if one starts with the 23 items in the 1850s part-books, seven were written by English composers and four by Austro-Germans, and one came from the United States. For 11 others, however, there are no data, although, as with the masses, none uses plainchant. If the focus is widened to include all manuscript copies – that is, the 1850s part-books and later manuscripts – then a shift is discernible later in the century, in that the proportions are not dissimilar to those observed for the masses. There are eight works by British composers, six by Germans, one by an American, one by a Pole, and one by an Italian. Note, too, that with motets and antiphons Cecilian influence is moderate, and what there is probably came from 47 On the early dissemination among English musicians of Roman Catholic sacred music by Mozart, Haydn, and their Continental contemporaries, see Rachel Cowgill, ‘The Papers of C.I. Latrobe: new light on musicians, music, and the Christian family in late eighteenth-century England’, in Jones (ed.), Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain, pp. 234–58, and ‘“Hence, base intruder, hence”: rejection and assimilation in the early English reception of Mozart’s Requiem’, in Rachel Cowgill and Julian Rushton (eds), Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 9–27. 48 Note also the presence of music by Ignatius Mitterer, another Cecilian composer, in the volume marked ‘Masses’, indexed by William Brown in preparation for St Cuthbert’s Jubilee in 1887 (see Appendix 14.1, ‘D. Masses and motets’, no. [4]). The German Society of St Cecilia, founded in 1867 by F.X. Witt, was officially recognized by the Papacy in 1870, and several other national offshoots were established in other countries. In particular, the Irish Cecilian Society exerted some influence in English Catholic circles, where more localized societies were established, for instance at Oscott and in London. Their primary objective was the promotion of plainchant and Renaissance polyphony, and to this end, under the aegis of Franz Xavier Haberl, they played a major role in editing and publishing the great Pustet editions of plainchant from 1870 onwards, as well as complete editions of religious works by Palestrina and Lassus. They also promoted the publication of numerous new compositions based on plainchant materials and imitating the Renaissance polyphonic style. For a general survey of the Cecilian movement, see Sybille Mager, ‘“Music becomes a prayer”: the movement for the reform of Catholic Church music in late nineteenthcentury Germany and Austria’ (unpublished MPhil dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1994).

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Table 14.6 The nationalities of composers of masses copied into manuscripts held at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham Nationality

Composers

Number of mass settings

Anonymous

1 Agnus Dei 5 sets of responses

British

1 1 1 1 1 Requiem 3 1

William Brown (local) Samuel Henshall J.F. Knight (local) Frederick Lingard Charles Newsham (local) Samuel Webbe the elder Italian working in Britain Joseph Mazzinghi (1765–1844) Subtotal

9

Frenchman working in Britain

Charles Baeteus

1

Austro-German

Joseph Haydn

3 Masses (nos: 1 in B flat, Hob. XXII:10; 10 in C minor, and 13 in C (both spurious)

Bernhard Klein (1793–1832) W.A. Mozart

1 5 Masses (nos: 2 in C K257; 7 in B flat, KAnh. 233.C1.06; 9 in G, KAnh. C1.09; 10 in B flat, KAnh.275(272b); 12 in G KAnh.232. C1.04), and no. 3 in F (Gloria) K192

Simon Sechter (Cecilian) Franz Xavier Witt (Cecilian)

1 2

Subtotal

13

Giovanni Asola

1

Italian

Ushaw. Apart from 18 plainchant items, only three works conform to Cecilian values, all of which appear in William Brown’s gradual (see Table 14.2). These are: ‘Cantate Domino’ by Giovanni Pitoni (1647–1743), ‘Haec dies’ by Caspar Ett (1788–1847), and ‘Domine Deus meus in simplicitate’ by Franz Xavier Witt. The manuscript hymn collection shows both differences and similarities when compared with our findings for other genres. All 36 items appear in the 1850s part-books only, presumably because, as seen earlier, the choir at St Cuthbert’s had access to hymnals. Thus, late nineteenth-century Cecilian influence is not discernible. Moreover, unlike the motets and antiphons, which are all set in Latin, 21 of these hymns use English texts. For 18 compositions there are no

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data, although one is based on plainchant. The rest show a similar weighting by nationality to that of the motets and antiphons: 12 works are British, five are German, and one is Italian. Amongst the British composers, local influence is strongest, with seven works by Newsham, two by George Taylor, and one by J.F. Knight. To interpret such patterns is somewhat difficult. Clearly the hymn repertory at St Cuthbert’s was in a state of transition: the local and British weighting is not dissimilar to that found in its benediction repertoire. This may be significant because the ban imposed by the Vicars Apostolic on the use of vernacular texts at mass and the office, if it was obeyed, would have meant that English hymns would only have been sung at benediction and other extra-liturgical services. Yet this is not conclusive. We have seen how Consitt was prepared to defy this ban with the singing of English psalm settings in the 1850s and 1860s; and, in the same period, Hemy, in the Crown of Jesus Music, assumed that vernacular hymns could be used at mass. This would also fit in with the tendency to treat hymns as choral motets rather than items for active congregational participation. An exclusive affinity between hymn repertory at St Cuthbert’s and the benediction service in the mid-nineteenth century cannot therefore be assumed. To summarize: several different patterns emerge according to genre. Unlike anything else, the psalm chant repertoire suggests strong Anglican input. Benediction settings were written mainly by Catholics; yet both are witness to a vigorous local composing tradition. On the other hand, masses show the importance of Continental influences refracted through London; and later the beginnings of Cecilian influences are discernible. The repertory of motets, antiphons, and hymns is more ambivalent, partly because so many are anonymous. Nevertheless, it is possible to suggest tentatively that British and local influences were stronger here than with masses. In the case of motets and antiphons, the introduction of more plainchant items fits in with the arrival of Cecilian influences in the mass repertoire. However, the nature of the evidence precludes any such conclusion for hymns in the mid-nineteenth century. Early Twentieth-century Changes In the early twentieth century, the balances we have discussed were disturbed by the promulgation of Pope Pius X’s motu proprio decree Tra le sollectitudini. In effect this did three things. First, it gave primacy of place to Gregorian chant, and, below that, to Renaissance polyphony of the sort espoused by Palestrina. Second, by the same token, it attacked music that smacked of the secular, especially anything that was operatic in style. Third, as noted earlier, it required mass and the office to be sung in Latin.49 Thus in theory, all masses and motets by Mozart, Haydn, and other Viennese-style late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century classical 49 For further discussion of its legal status and implications, see Jan Michael Joncas, From Sacred Song to Ritual Music: twentieth-century understandings of Roman Catholic worship music (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1997), pp. 1–2, 13–15, 32–3, 51–2, 73–5, and 100–101.

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masters should have been eliminated from the repertoire. The resulting shortfall would then have been made up by expansion in the provision of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. What is more, following the promulgation in 1904 of Col nostro, another motu proprio decree, Gregorian chant would have been sung in the style of Solesmes, as revised by a Vatican commission.50 In addition all English psalm chants would have been excluded from the office, and English hymns would have been confined to extra-liturgical services like benediction. On top of that there was strong pressure from the English bishops to eliminate the use of Protestant texts and even music, as Richard Terry acknowledges in his Preface to the 1912 edition of The Westminster Hymnal.51 The issue here, then, is whether all or any of this happened at St Cuthbert’s. The answer is that we cannot really know, for it is striking that relatively little early twentieth-century music survives there in manuscript or printed form (see Appendix 14.3). In particular, nothing was copied into manuscript from an 1898 copy of Albert Edmonds Tozer’s New and Complete Manual for Benediction, Henry Farmer’s Fourteen Benediction Services, and a heavily used Westminster Hymnal of 1912. This suggests that an almost complete break took place round about that time. Assuming that more twentieth-century music was available, it seems likely that it was kept in a different place, and that when another set of major changes occurred after the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, it was lost sight of while the nineteenth-century material somehow survived. Another inference, supported by what can be observed in other collections (notably those at Ushaw and Stonyhurst), is that, because more copies of printed sheet music were generally available after 1890, there was little need for laborious hand-copying into manuscript part-books.52 Nevertheless there are some useful pointers. First, there is a copy of Alphonse Desmet’s Organum Comitans ad Graduale Romanum (Part 5) of 1906, with plainchant accompaniments for the Kyriale. What is more, it incorporates a letter of commendation by Joseph Pothier, one of the founding figures of the Solesmes movement and chairman of the Vatican Commission responsible for producing the ‘Typical’ editions of plainchant books after 1904. This suggests that some efforts were made to promote the new plainchant style at St Cuthbert’s. Indeed, the presence of copies of Plainsong for Schools, together with books of organ accompaniments by H.P. Allen and H. Potiron, shows that, in common with other

50 For the politics behind this, see Katherine Bergeron, Decadent Enchantments: the revival of Gregorian chant at Solesmes (London and Berkeley, LA: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 129–30, 143–61. 51 Richard Terry et al. (eds), The Westminster Hymnal (London: R. and T. Washbourne, 1912), title-page and p. ix. Note, though, that this section of the text is a verbatim transcription of Terry’s own memorandum proposing the hymnal to the bishops. This suggests that the extension of such a prohibition from texts to music was originally Terry’s idea. Westminster Diocesan Archives, ‘Bishops’ Acta 1907’, 10 October 1907, ‘Bishops’ Meetings 1864–1974’, in the folder marked ‘Bourne 1903–1908’. 52 For a survey of the music at Stonyhurst, see the author’s ‘Music for St Peter’s Church, 1811–1940’, Stonyhurst Magazine, 52 (2002): 277–91.

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Catholic churches at that time, the Solesmes plainchant style movement gathered momentum in the 1930s. Second, as noted above, there were symptoms of a trend towards Renaissance polyphony and plainchant in various aspects of the repertory at St Cuthbert’s during the later decades of the nineteenth century. Such pieces still constituted only a small part of the total repertory of Renaissance polyphony, or Cecilian imitations thereof, although it should be noted that some were prepared or obtained before Edwin Bonney, professor of music at Ushaw 1899–1917, set about promoting Cecilian works at that seminary.53 On the other hand, it might be noted that plainchant constitutes much of the music in The Proper Choir Manual and William Brown’s manuscript gradual. There are also 19 other identifiable items in the 1850s part-books (see Table 14.7). These include three arrangements by Samuel Webbe the elder, showing that even in the early nineteenth century, when the Viennese Classical style predominated, plainchant was performed.54 All except one, however, use a pre-Solesmes metrical chant with note-by-note harmonization. Such practices help to make plainchant compatible not only with Renaissance polyphony, but even with more contemporary styles. Plainchant of this sort was therefore a double-edged weapon, since it was used by Ultramontane Cecilians to promote Renaissance polyphony, and it also co-existed in the early nineteenthcentury with the despised ‘secular’ music propagated by Viennese Classical composers and their successors. For example, specimens of such plainchant can be found alongside works by contemporary composers in the St Cuthbert’s copy of Novello’s Evening Service. These perceived defects were not shared by the Solesmes variety of chant, because it used an equal indivisible note-length and was sung at a much faster rate. In other words, Solesmes chant differentiated itself sharply from more ‘modern’ styles of music. The use of this system – albeit with an organ accompaniment laid out with modern notation – in William Brown’s copy of the Introit for the Dedication of a church made on 9 May 1910, was thus highly significant. This chant was copied specifically for performance at the consecration of St Cuthbert’s Church, which was originally scheduled for the following day, but postponed until 20 July. It is the one manuscript example of music of this type in the entire collection. This fits in with other features of the big celebrations of 1909–10. On 27 October 1909, Bishop Richard Collins celebrated mass for the re-opening of St Godric’s Church after its refurbishment. The parish history states that the music included a ‘Largo’ by Chadfield, Johann Wilhelm Stadler’s ‘Ecce sacerdos magnus’, and William Seymour’s Mass of St Brigid. Stadler’s work, the only one to appear in the St Cuthbert’s part-books, belongs to the Viennese Classical tradition. The Mass of St Brigid, on the other hand, is an Irish Cecilian composition based on 53 At Ushaw there still survive several bound volumes stamped with Bonney’s signature containing numerous masses by Cecilian composers. Bonney also possessed three similar volumes containing over 100 Renaissance polyphonic publications edited by Charles Bordes, director of the Chanteurs de St Gervais in Paris. 54 For a definitive survey of plainchant in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England, see Bennett Zon, The English Plainchant Revival (London: OUP, 1999).

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Table 14.7 Plainchant compositions copied into part-books from the 1850s at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham Anon., Missa de Angelis: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei Anon., ‘Ad Te Levavi’ Anon., ‘Answers at Mass’, and a set of responses at the Preface Anon., ‘Asperges me’ Anon., ‘Gaudet excecitus angelorum’ Anon., Gregorian litany, arranged in the style of an Anglican chant Anon., Gregorian litany of the Saints arranged in the style of an Anglican chant Anon., versicle for benediction: ‘Omni delicta montem in se habentem’ Anon., setting of ‘O salutaris hostia’ Anon., setting of ‘O salutaris hostia’, using the 6th tone. Anon., ‘Salve regina’ Anon., ‘Veni creator spiritus’ Anon., ‘Stabat mater’ Arr. by Frederick Lingard, ‘Gregorian’ litany Arr. by Charles Newsham, Te Deum Arr. by Charles Newsham, ‘Roman’ litany taken from his A Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction Arr. by Samuel Webbe the elder, ‘Tantum ergo’* Arr. by Samuel Webbe the elder, ‘Veni creator spiritus’ Arr. by Samuel Webbe the elder, Adoro Te Devote *

In its original form this appears as a piece of plainchant in John Francis Wade’s manuscript Graduale Romanum (1765) and Cantus Diversi Pro Dominicis et Festi per Annum (1751) in the Arundell Library at Stonyhurst CVI.7.

plainchant themes. Nine months later a pontifical mass was celebrated for the consecration of St Cuthbert’s by the bishop of Hexham. According to the Tablet, the guests included the president and chief cantor of Ushaw – the Revd S. Laude and the Revd Dr Wheatley. The same source states that the music, directed by William Brown, was ‘chiefly Gregorian’. Given that the one surviving snippet uses the Solesmes system, it seems reasonable to suppose that the same style was used elsewhere. In addition, a Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei from Sechter’s ‘Two Part Mass’ were performed along with Witt’s ‘Domine meus in simplicitate’ at the offertory. The contrast between this essentially Cecilian picture and what had been performed at the opening of the church in 1827 is striking. What is more, there is no sign of any non-Catholic input. Under the full glare of publicity and the official hierarchy, this scene marks the end of a fruitful and vigorous musical era for what was a prominent northern Catholic community in nineteenth-century England.

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Appendix 14.1 c. 1800–1914

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Printed volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham,

A. Hymnals Hemy, Henri (ed.), Crown of Jesus Music (3 parts, London: Thomas Richardson, 1864). [Police, F. (ed.)], The Parochial Hymn Book, containing Prayers and Devotions for all the Faithful including Vespers, Compline and all the Liturgical Hymns for the Year both in Latin and English (London: Burns and Oates, 1883) (in vocal score). Terry, Richard, et al. (eds), The Westminster Hymnal (London: R. and T. Washbourne, 1912). B. Benediction and office music Novello, Vincent (comp. and arr.), The Evening Service (2 vols, London: Novello, [1822]), vol. 2, books 7–12. Anon. (ed.), The Proper Choir Manual. A Complete Collection of Music for the Morning and Evening Offices of the Church during the Course of the Ecclesiastical Year (London: Burns, Lambert, and Oates, [n.d.]), probably dating from the 1870s, after the amalgamation between Burns, Lambert, and Oates in 1867. Newsham, Charles (ed. and comp.), A Collection of Music suitable for the Rite of Benediction containing a Variety of Compositions for the ‘O Salutaris’, Tantum Ergo and Litany of Loreto, rev. John Richardson (London: Burns and Lambert, [n.d.]), probably early 1860s. Tozer (1857–1910), Albert Edmonds (ed.), New and Complete Manual for Benediction (London: Alphonse Cary, 1898). Farmer SJ (1849–1928), Henry, Fourteen Benediction Services (Richmond: T. Petch, The Catholic Repository, [n.d.]). C. Organ works Travis, Edward (ed.), The Amateur Organist. A Collection of Voluntaries for the Organ or Pianoforte (nine books bound as one, London: Brewer, [n.d.]). D. Masses and motets [1] A volume marked ‘Masses No. 1’, containing works by Vincent Novello (1781–1861), Stephen Paxton (d. 1787), Peter von Winter (1754–1825), Samuel Webbe the elder (1740–1816), Joseph Haydn, William Knight (1808–74), Ferdinand Schmid (c. 1694–1756), and William Jackson of Masham (1815–66).

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[2] A volume marked ‘Masses’, containing works by J.N. Hummel (1778–1837), W.A. Mozart, Carl Maria Von Weber, Joachim de Natividad (fl. late eighteenth century), and D. Techter (fl. late eighteenth–early nineteenth century). [3] A volume containing masses by Joseph Haydn and W.A. Mozart, ed. Vincent Novello, Cheap Musical Classics series (London: J.A. Novello, [n.d.]). [4] A volume marked ‘Masses’, indexed by William Brown ‘for the Jubilee day’ (presumably 1887, 50 years after the opening of St Cuthbert’s Church). It contains music by Giovanni Casali (1715–92); Joseph Murphy OSB (1834–77), director of music at Douai Abbey in France and later organist at St Mary’s Church, Warrington; Charles Baeteus (fl. late eighteenth century), organist at the French Embassy Chapel in London; Ignatius Mitterer (1850–1924); Henry G. Nixon (1795–1849); and Vincent Novello. [5] A volume marked ‘Weber-Hummel’, indexed and stamped by William Brown, containing masses by Weber and J.N. Hummel, ed. by Vincent Novello (London: Novello, [n.d.]). [6] A volume marked ‘Hayn’ [sic], signed by ‘W. Burns’, containing undated editions by Vincent Novello of masses by Haydn. [7] An undated volume containing: Kelly, William Nugent (fl. early-mid nineteenth century), Sacred Music Dedicated to the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God (London, Dublin, and Derby: J. Richardson, 1847); Anon. (ed.), Catholic Music Books for Lent, Holy Week and Easter. No other publication details supplied. [8] A volume marked ‘Masses, Motets’, indexed in 1900 by William Brown, containing music by J.N. Hummel, Samuel Henshall (fl. mid-nineteenth century), Henry Farmer, Ferdinand X. Schmid, Henry G. Nixon, S. Perez, Richard A. Brown (1850–1902), who worked at Ushaw, and Michael Costa (1808–84).

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Appendix 14.2

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Manuscript volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham

[1] Three treble part-books, copied in various hands, mainly in the period 1853–54, but with numerous additions in later decades. Some of these were made by William Brown. The contents of each book overlap, but are not identical. [2] An organ-book (marked ‘Organ’ on the cover) put together around 1858, but with later additions, including some by William Brown. Some confusion in the page numbering system at the start, together with changes in the hands, suggests that parts may have been copied separately before 1858. The existence of the aforementioned three treble part-books confirms this, and suggests that an earlier organ-book may have existed. [3] A volume containing William Brown’s Mass for the celebration of the 12th centenary of St Cuthbert’s death (20 March 1887), copied by the composer. [4] Graduals for each Ecclesiastical Season, compiled by William Brown with additions up to 1915. [5] Three part-books with identical contents for ‘Soprano 1’, ‘Soprano 2’, and ‘Bass’, prepared by William Brown. These contain a mixture of masses and motets, some in print, others in manuscript.

The Musical Repertory of St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Durham

Appendix 14.3 1920–62

293

Printed volumes of music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham,

Allen, H.P., Accompaniments to Plainsong for Schools (2 parts, Liverpool: Rushworth and Dreaper, 1930; repr. 1934), parts 1 (revised edition) and 2. Bainbridge, William [and Murray, Anthony Gregory] (eds), The Westminster Hymnal: new and revised edition (London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1940). Bévénot, Laurence OSB, Four settings of the Proper of the Mass (London: Cary, 1948) (organ edition). Puyat, O., and Desmet, Alphonse (ed. and arr.), Organum comitans ad graduale Romanum (St Laurent Sur Sèvre: Librairie St Joseph, 1906), part V, ‘Kyriale’. O’Driscoll, James, et al. (eds), The Catholic Schools Hymn Book (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1921), two copies. Farmer, Frank C., A Collection of Original Hymn Tunes Composed and Harmonised by Frank C. Farmer 1881–1931 (Ramsgate: private publication, 1931). Potiron, Henri, Accompagnement du Chant Grégorien pour les bénédictions du T.S. sacrament d’après les ‘Cantus selecti’ et les ‘Varii cantus’ (Paris, Tournai, and Rome: Desclée et cie, 1934), stamped ‘Feb. 5th, 1960’. Willson, Dominic, OSB (ed.), Plainsong for Schools (Liverpool: Rushworth and Dreaper, 1930; repr. 1934), parts 1 and 2.

Chapter 15

‘That monstrosity of bricks and mortar’: The Town Hall as a Music Venue in Nineteenth-century Stalybridge Rachel Milestone

The notion of ‘progress’ was a driving force in British culture in the nineteenth century, an age characterized by rapid change in intellectual, social, and material environments. Increasing industrialization and urbanization, linked with revolutionary developments in the textile industry, drew labour from the countryside into new and expanding towns, encouraging a developing consciousness of local and civic pride. The repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (1828–29) made it possible for Nonconformists, many of whom were already significant members of their local community, to take part in government, and the Reform Act (1832) enfranchised even more of the new industrial elite. The Municipal Corporations Act (1835) further encouraged a change towards more democratic administration from within the town. Such civic independence encouraged town and city rivalries, normally between places that were part of a wider urban area, such as Manchester and Salford or Leeds and Bradford, but echoed in smaller communities. Politicians placed great emphasis, therefore, on community projects, buildings, and celebrations as part of the creation of local traditions that would consolidate the community, and give a sense of longevity and import. Many civic buildings were erected as a result of municipal patronage, made possible by the constitutional and economic changes of the time. In 1845 The Builder described architecture as: ‘The monumental representation of history and civilisation – a reflection of the sentiments, manners and religious belief, of the people practising it’, and further, that ‘the architectural embellishment of a city is of much greater consequence in forming the character of the people than some hasty thinkers now-a-days recognize’.1 Town halls were at the forefront of the public building that fuelled the often intense rivalry between urban centres: a town hall was seen as a monument to the glory, abilities, and achievements of

1 Builder, 131 (9 August 1845): 373, quoted in Tristram Hunt, Building Jerusalem: the rise and fall of the Victorian city (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004), p. 98.

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the community, and, according to the librarian and antiquary W.E.A. Axon, it symbolized not only ‘the opulence of the city, but also the great principle of selfgovernment’.2 In the opinion of the architect Sir Charles Barry: A Town Hall should […] be the most dominant and important of the Municipal Buildings of the City in which it is placed. It should be the means of giving due expression to public feeling upon all national and municipal events of importance. [It should serve,] as it were, as the exponent of the life and soul of the City.3

However, the town hall was not new to the nineteenth century: it had been the symbolic centre of the power, prosperity, and pride of European cities since the Middle Ages.4 During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the number of town halls increased dramatically in Britain, and those newly built were mostly small buildings, normally including a ground-floor hall, possibly with a small room at each end, and commonly raised on pillars to accommodate a market space below. The political motivation behind this building was the need to mark the new status of towns, many of which had obtained Royal Charters of Incorporation, and the town hall was seen as a focus of the newly self-governing local community, ‘symbolic of civic authority, power and legitimacy’.5 With the development of new towns and changes in local government in the nineteenth century, town halls were built for the same symbolic purpose – the ultimate representation of a new age of urban consciousness, and of a future age of wealth and progress. The idea of progress through improvement had pervaded the cultural life of the eighteenth century: piety and philanthropy were attractive ideals for those who enjoyed ‘fashionable culture’, partly due to the widespread acceptance of Methodism, a central feature of which was self-improvement. This had little meaning for the lower classes, however, since it operated as a tool of social exclusivity, appealing to ‘all those who perceived themselves as successful, or aspired to be so’.6 The evolution of this culture was the impetus for the dynamic moralizing of the nineteenth century. Samuel Smiles, for example, argued in 1860 2 W.E.A. Axon, An Architectural and General Description of the Town Hall, Manchester (Manchester: A. Heywood, 1878), quoted in R. Dixon and S. Muthesius, Victorian Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 1978), p. 168. Axon was influential in discussions of the murals for the new Manchester Town Hall, completed in 1877, and is referring here to what the Town Hall symbolized to the people of Manchester. 3 Quoted in Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (London: Odhams, 1968), p. 159. Barry made this statement in 1859, when discussing plans for the building of Halifax Town Hall with the Halifax Corporation. 4 One of the earliest forms of public building was the medieval moot hall, which was connected with the organization and local administration of the town, and therefore a precursor to the town hall. For more on the origins of town halls, see Colin Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), pp. 1–7. 5 R. Tittler, Architecture and Power: the town hall and the English urban community, 1500–1640 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), p. 96. 6 Peter Borsay, ‘The Culture of Improvement’, in P. Langford (ed.), The Eighteenth Century: 1688–1815 (Oxford: OUP, 2002), pp. 183–210 (p. 185).

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that ‘The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength’.7 Nineteenth-century notions of improvement were aimed towards the lower classes of society, encouraged by increasing numbers of social reformers. The values of progress and improvement were reflected in the musical environment of the time. It was said repeatedly in the early part of the nineteenth century, that the only real form of recreation available to working men in the new urban setting was that connected with the consumption of alcohol: Frederick Engels, writing in 1844, observed that ‘Liquor is almost their only source of pleasure, and all things conspire to make it accessible to them’.8 Since the Restoration there had been ‘free-and-easy’ musical performances in taverns and tea gardens, which increased greatly in variety and number as taverns and public houses became larger, and more lavish and commercial. With landlords increasingly acting as social and cultural entrepreneurs, marketing musical entertainments in their drinking houses, social reformers were anxious to break the link between music and the public house, and to limit the place of alcohol in working-class culture.9 At first, this was attempted through repression, but soon there was a movement to provide alternative, ‘rational’ recreation:10 It has […] been generally agreed among moralists, that all public sports and entertainments should be so regulated, as to have a tendency to the encouragement of virtue, and the discountenancing of vice and immorality.11

The most popular form of ‘rational’ recreation was music, encouraged greatly by Nonconformists; but in the opinion of many such reformers and church leaders there was both good and bad music. Songs sung in pubs were generally regarded

7 Samuel Smiles, Self-Help: with illustrations of character and conduct (London: John Murray, 1860), p. 1, quoted in J.M. Golby (ed.), Culture and Society in Britain 1850–1890 (Oxford: OUP, 1986), p. 106. 8 Frederick Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1892), quoted in J. Walvin, Leisure and Society 1830–1950 (London: Longman, 1978), p. 2. 9 From the beginning of the eighteenth century, inns were developing as the prime venue for entertainments such as balls, assemblies, plays, lectures, and concerts; see Peter Clark and R.A. Houston, ‘Culture and Leisure, 1700–1840’, in P. Clark (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: Vol. 2, 1540–1840 (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), pp. 575–613. 10 The efforts of such reformers in the second quarter of the nineteenth century did have some effect, persuading parliament to pass legislation which would potentially support and improve the cultural lives of the working classes; see J.M. Golby, and A.W. Purdue, The Civilisation of the Crowd: popular culture in England 1750–1900 (Stroud: Sutton, 1999), p. 107. On nineteenth-century notions of ‘rational’ recreation, see pp. 92–110 in Golby and Purdue, and also Sarah Taylor's chapter (Chapter 11) in this current volume. 11 Thomas Herring, Letters […] to William Duncombe (London: J. Johnson, 1777), p. 179, quoted in E.D. Mackerness, A Social History of Music (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966), pp. 101–2.

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as obscene, but music that was uplifting and improving was encouraged – that is, mostly sacred music and hymn singing. Music was seen as more than a form of amusement or aesthetic experience; it was ‘an object of social utility and balm for society’s many evils’.12 As George Hogarth reflected: The experience of the present day has shown, and is showing more and more, that even the classes who earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, may find in music a recreation within their reach, full of innocent enjoyment, and pregnant with moral and social benefits.13

Whilst the use of music as a tool for morality was not a nineteenth-century idea,14 it was during this time that it reached its apotheosis. Not only was it encouraged by the overtly religious society of the early Victorian period, it also emanated from direct attempts at political control by the newly enriched middle classes, particularly in the 1840s when, according to Russell, ‘continuing industrialisation was producing an environment which was hostile and frightening to many middle class observers’.15 Because of this, alongside the provision of music expressly for the working class, an avid involvement in the performance of sacred music as a form of ‘rational’ recreation also became a means whereby the middle classes could distance themselves from lower-class entertainment. As the century advanced, halls designed specifically as suitable venues for popular, though culturally respectable, activities were increasingly in demand, and it became a necessity for towns to provide performance spaces other than those traditionally provided, and restricted, by the church. Music was only a force for the good if it was heard ‘in an atmosphere of moral purity suitable to the proper enjoyment of such a gift’.16 In many places the new town hall presented the ideal venue. Although theatres throughout the nineteenth century gradually became more respectable, for many people, often from Nonconformist backgrounds, they were seen as unacceptable because of their perceived immorality.17 There was also 12 Dave Russell, Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: a social history (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1987), p. 17. 13 George Hogarth, ‘Music – Art of Singing’, in Chambers’s Information for the People (2 vols, [Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers,] 1842), vol. 2, p. 769, quoted in Mackerness, A Social History of Music, p. 132. 14 For example, in Birmingham, from about 1750, musical societies such as the Musical and Amicable Society were formed by enthusiasts to raise money for charity and to promote music as rational recreation. This was the case in many other large towns, such as Hull, Liverpool, Leeds, and Bristol. See Mackerness, A Social History of Music, p. 114. 15 Russell, Popular Music in England, pp. 23–4. 16 Revd G.M. Conder, in a letter to the Leeds Intelligencer, 1 May 1852, quoted in ibid., p. 29. 17 This is a complex issue. Opinions varied on the morality of the theatre, and often differed between metropolitan/provincial and religious/atheistic affiliations. For a useful summary, see Gillian Russell, ‘Theatre’, in Iain McCalman (ed.), An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British culture 1776–1832 (Oxford: OUP, 1999), pp. 223–32.

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serious doubt as to whether such performances of music were appropriate in a church: ‘A Christian sanctuary is a place far too sacred to be used as a place of intellectual entertainment’,18 was the view of many. No town hall was considered complete without its great hall, and so the use of this space for concerts provided an important direct link between the citizens and the municipality, achieving a political, as well as a moral and artistic, mission. In the words of Dr J.D. Heaton of Leeds: If a noble municipal palace […] were to be erected in the middle of their hitherto squalid and unbeautiful town, it would become a practical admonition to the populace of the value of beauty and art, and in course of time men would learn to live up to it.19

To illustrate some of these themes, and to explore how the changing role and status of the town hall influenced the musical life of its community, the northern cotton town of Stalybridge provides a useful case study. Stalybridge Town Hall, which was built comparatively early in 1831, fell in and out of favour with the musicians and audiences of the town. The musical life of the building can be seen in three distinct periods. In its first 30 years, the original town hall was generally treated with respect as a public building, and was frequently used for performances by musicians from within and outside of the town. The beginning of its second phase, a musically desolate period, coincided with the opening of the Mechanics’ Institution in 1862, after which the Town Hall was no longer in favour either as a public building or performance space. In the third period, however, after the renovation of the building (1881–83), Stalybridge Town Hall once again became one of the town’s principal performance venues. Phase I: A Prestigious Venue for Music Stalybridge was one town in an area consisting of small cotton towns supported industrially by their proximity to Manchester. Though close geographically, they were quite separate in terms of their administration. The four largest towns expressed their independence by building new town halls – Stalybridge (1831), Ashton-under-Lyne (1840), Hyde (1885), and Dukinfield (1901) – whilst smaller towns converted buildings from other uses – Droylesden, converting a building used by Droylesden Education Institute (1858), and Mossley, converting a private house (1892). As can be seen, Stalybridge Town Hall was the first in this area, and when this is compared with other town halls across the country (see Table 15.1), Stalybridge is seen to have been one of the earliest nineteenth-century town halls on the national scale. 18 L. Tyerman, in his book, The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley (3 vols, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1870), vol. 2, pp. 499–500, quoted in Mackerness, A Social History of Music, p. 124. 19 T. Wemyss Reid (ed.), A Memoir of J.D. Heaton, M.D. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1883), p. 142, quoted in Briggs, Victorian Cities, p. 162.

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Table 15.1 The building of town halls in England, 1820–34, based on Colin Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), pp. 254–6* Town Kington Ryde Bourne Devonport Guisborough Margate (town hall and market) Manchester Macclesfield (town hall and assembly rooms) Salford (town hall and market) Bolton (Little) Droitwich Derby (town hall and market) Sudbury St Albans (town hall and courts) Brighton Chorlton-on-Medlock Haddington (town hall with spire) Stalybridge (town hall and market) Warminster Leamington Birmingham Settle Upton-upon-Severn Basingstoke Ellesmere Stoke-on-Trent *

Date of building of town hall 1820 c. 1820–25 1821 1821–23 1821 1821 1822–25 1823–24 1825–27 1826 1826 1828–30 1828 1829–33 1830–32 1830–31 1830–31 1830–31 1830 1831 1832–46 1832 1832 1833 1833 1834

Taking our cue from Cunningham, town halls have been included here if they combined three functions: municipality, magistracy, and meetings.

At some point in the 1820s, leading citizens of Stalybridge began a movement to petition Parliament for a self-governing body to be established. In 1828 the Stalybridge Police and Market Act, known within the town as the Stalybridge Improvement Act, became law, enabling Stalybridge to become an independent, self-governing town. As laid down in the Act, 21 town commissioners were elected ‘for lighting, watching, and otherwise improving the town of Stalybridge’, and for ‘regulating the police and erecting a Market Place within the said town’.20 20 Extract from Act, quoted in S. Hill, Bygone Stalybridge (Leeds: M.T.D. Rigg, 1907), p. 126.

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In 1830 the commissioners compiled a proposal for the building of a market hall, built through joint stock; the granting of a market charter was often the first liberty of a borough, making the public market one of the most important displays of independent township. It was the opinion of many that the site chosen was not a suitable position for the town’s first secular public building, the shape making it difficult to build a classically styled structure (see Figure 15.1), but it seems ‘civic dignity or architectural composition must not have been sufficiently important to the commissioners to outweigh the financial advantages of the site’.21 During the construction of the market, changes were made to the original design in order to provide water closets, committee rooms, and a public hall, thus changing the building into a town hall with the market underneath.22

Figure 15.1 Ground plan of Stalybridge Town Hall, taken from the Ordnance Survey Map, 1852. © Crown Copyright 1852 Stalybridge was one of the last town halls to incorporate a market, this being more of an eighteenth-century model, but the hall was built for purely functional reasons, before any real sense of civic pride affected the architecture. Stalybridge Town Hall was not at the forefront of ornamental design. Indeed, Cunningham 21 F.R. Stott, ‘Town Hall Buildings in Tameside’ (unpublished MA dissertation, University of Manchester, 1983), p. 3. 22 See ‘Town Hall Buildings in Tameside’, pp. 22–3.

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states that it ‘is built in a straightforward way against the slope, and only avoids being mistaken for a mill by the provision of a careful Doric portico at the level of the lower ground floor and pedimented gable two floors above’.23 Between 1800 and 1830 the fashion amongst architects, particularly in the north, was for the Greek Doric style. Architects of the Greek school designed buildings that were bare and functional in every aspect except for the façade, where decoration was often concentrated on a large Grecian portico. Many early town halls gained distinction by such Classical ornament, which could be added to otherwise plain buildings to achieve some form of splendour. Stalybridge Town Hall was built at the end of the Greek period, so displayed none of the symbolic decoration we associate with later Italianate or Gothic town halls such as Leeds or Manchester (see Figure 15.2).

Figure 15.2 Photograph, taken before 1905, of the renovated town hall from the back. The middle portion of this elevation was part of the original building, with wings added at either side. Tameside Image Archive, t10992 The Manchester Guardian of 7 January 1832 concluded its announcement of the opening of Stalybridge Town Hall as follows: Thus has the once little village of Staley Bridge been raised, through the extension of trade and commerce, within a few years, to a market town containing fifteen thousand 23

Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls, p. 127.

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inhabitants, with a splendid market hall where the necessaries and comforts of every class of people can be plentifully supplied.

The new building is referred to with pride, but not as a town hall. The emphasis on Stalybridge having been raised in stature through the trade and commerce of the market, rather than through the building of a town hall, illustrates the fact that the hall was built before the erection of buildings symbolizing the civic pride of the town. The town halls and other civic buildings of previous centuries, such as the eighteenth-century assembly rooms, may have been built to express a town’s status, but the expression of this civic pride was often subdued by the lack of money. Although many of these buildings were built by subscription, as often happened in the nineteenth century, ‘they exhibit[ed] an emphasis on utility rather than on aesthetic considerations’.24 Such buildings, of which Stalybridge Town Hall was one, were very different from the large, symbolic municipal palaces of the Victorian era. The Manchester Guardian also mentioned that the upper portion of the building was not reserved solely for official business. Above this story is a large handsome public room, 67 feet long, 38 feet wide, 23½ feet high; with small and convenient ante-rooms, and an orchestra. The room will consequently be very well adapted for concerts, balls, assemblies, public meetings and public exhibitions.

This large assembly room in the town hall would become integral to the musical life of the community. The first reference to entertainment in Stalybridge Town Hall was during a commissioners’ meeting, when it was decided, probably for financial reasons, ‘that the large room be let for public purposes so as to be made productive’.25 The first letting was to the proprietors of the Leeds Theatre, after which the large room was used for all manner of community events including balls, lectures, and concerts. An integral part of the musical life of Stalybridge was the concerts given by the choral societies, whose membership in the nineteenth century tended to be drawn predominantly from chapel choirs and for whom singing offered a means of self-improvement through music. As George Hogarth observed on the concerts of choral societies in general:

24 Tittler, Architecture and Power, p. 42. The independent assembly rooms built in the eighteenth century, as places for the higher social classes of both sexes to gather, often consisted of a main room and several subsidiary rooms, such as tea and supper rooms. The emphasis on entertainment makes them an important precursor to the nineteenth-century town hall, and many survived well into the next century. See Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls, p. 3. 25 Taken from the minutes of a Commissioners’ Meeting, 25 April 1832, quoted in J.W. March (ed.), Stalybridge Centenary Souvenir 1857–1957 (Stalybridge: Stalybridge Corporation, 1957), p. 100.

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Choral singing was an important pastime in both Lancashire and Yorkshire textile districts, and Stalybridge certainly reflects that pattern.27 The town’s first recorded independent choral society was formed in 1824, not long after the founding of what is reputed to have been the first choral society nationally, in Halifax in 1817, and only a few years behind Bradford Choral Society, which began in 1821. Stalybridge was therefore an early contributor to the choral movement. The earliest reported concert given by this choral society was a performance of Messiah at Stalybridge Town Hall, in January 1837. William Farrington was the conductor of the society and Thomas Norton led the band ‘with much ability’.28 There is no record as to the occupation or status of these two men, which suggests that they were not prominent figures in the town. This society, for which there is no recorded name, dissolved around 1840. Stalybridge’s most consistent performer of music in the town hall was founded in 1844 as the Stalybridge Harmonic Society, presumably after the largest of the London choral societies, the Sacred Harmonic Society, which had begun just over a decade earlier. The Stalybridge Harmonic Society grew out of a chapel choir, and, according to the Stalybridge Reporter, ‘the determination of this little band of singers and players was to learn something higher than simply psalm tunes’, implying an aspiration to perform oratorio (see Figure 15.3).29 The following indicates that the society’s membership – and therefore those who performed in its town hall concerts – was drawn largely from mill workers:

26 George Hogarth, Musical History, Biography and Criticism: being a general survey of music, from the earliest period to the present time (2 vols, London: J.W. Parker, 1835), pp. 430–431. 27 See the chapters by Rachel Cowgill, Sally Drage, and Catherine Dale in this current volume (Chapters 4, 10, and 16 respectively). 28 From a retrospective report on the historical background to Samuel Garlick’s testimonial concert, published in the Stalybridge Reporter, 15 September 1883. From 1855 Stalybridge shared a weekly newspaper with Ashton-under-Lyne. The bulk of the newspaper reported on Ashton, but Stalybridge had its own section, apparently written by a correspondent from the town. The reports are unsigned, but seem accurate. (It was not until 1883 that Stalybridge had its own full newspaper, the Stalybridge Reporter.) 29 Report on the Jubilee of the Stalybridge Harmonic Society, Stalybridge Reporter, 24 March 1894. Most of the early choral societies included a small orchestra. Although reports of the Stalybridge Harmonic Society do not often refer to instrumentalists, they are present in a photograph of the society from c. 1865–85 (see Figure 15.3, Tameside Image Archive, t08601). Instruments in this photograph are a cello, violin, clarinet, oboe, flute, piccolo, tenor horn, timpani, double bass, and harmonium.

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Figure 15.3 Photograph of Stalybridge Harmonic Society, c. 1865–85. Tameside Image Archive, t08609 At this period the mills worked until half-past seven o’clock in the evening, yet the rehearsals were arranged for a quarter to eight, because the members, particularly upon these nights, had their teas in the mills, and went direct to the place of meeting upon leaving work.30

Many of those listed as original members were involved in retail and related professions: Robert Crossley was a ‘Shopkeeper and Dealer in Groceries and Sundries’, Ralph Whitehead was a ‘Corn and Flour Dealer’, Joseph Norman was a pawnbroker, and Edward Hilton worked for a company that made cotton spinning machinery.31 The conductor, Samuel Garlick, who had played the oboe in the 1824 choral society, was a self-taught musician. He had worked in the mills all his life, but ‘like many of his contemporaries, he [had] found time, despite the long hours of labour usual in his youth, to acquire and cultivate a taste for the art of which he is locally so distinguished an exponent’.32 Although the first public performances by the Harmonic Society were given in the Foresters’ Hall,33 it was decided in 1854 that the tenth annual oratorio, Samson, should 30 Stalybridge Reporter, 24 March 1894. 31 Slater’s Alphabetical and Classified Trade Directory of Manchester and Salford, and their Vicinities (Manchester: Isaac Slater, 1855), pp. 1,062–5. 32 Stalybridge Reporter, 15 September 1883. 33 In 1836, members of the Foresters’ Lodges in the Stalybridge District erected a substantial building – the Foresters’ Hall. Night schools in connection with the Order

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take place in Stalybridge Town Hall. Table 15.2, taken from the accounts of the Stalybridge Harmonic Society that year, shows the expenses incurred for this town hall performance.34 The table of accounts in Table 15.2 shows items normally associated with putting on a concert – the hire of the room or the buying of music, for example – but there are items that appear to raise questions about the condition of the room. If the room in the town hall was in a condition ready for performance, why would the society have had to pay William Clay for fixing gas pipes and fittings, and for replacing the town hall platform? This suggests that although the room seems to have been considered as a possible venue for concerts from the opening of the town hall, no provision for the needs of performance was considered. In order to perform an oratorio in the town hall, quite fundamental changes to the room had to be implemented and paid for by the performers themselves. Despite the amount of money spent in order to perform Samson in the town hall – £25 15s. 8d. in total – the Stalybridge Reporter of 24 March 1894 recalled that ‘the enterprise was a great success both musically and financially, the result being a gain to the society of £20’; and the society’s account books support this statement. Stalybridge Harmonic Society was the principal performer of oratorio in the town hall during this period, also performing miscellaneous concerts of mainly sacred music. Stalybridge had another choral society at this time, known as the Stalybridge Philharmonic Society. Local organists played important roles both in the spread of the choral movement and in local musical education in nineteenth-century textile towns,35 and John Marsden, the organist of St Paul’s Church, Stalybridge, was often responsible for bringing musical performances to the town hall. As elsewhere, he would have been expected to put on concerts to supplement his income as organist, and his ‘annual grand concerts’ began in 1852, featuring international soloists and instrumentalists.36 These concerts ended in 1856, however, when he formed the Stalybridge Philharmonic Society37 which gave on average four concerts a year in the town hall, normally two in the spring and two in the autumn. The repertoire was mainly vocal and sacred, yet it never performed oratorios in full. It was keen to provide music for the lower classes, stating that ‘The object of the society [is] to enable the humbler classes to listen to the best of music for of the Foresters were held there, but it was very much a building for public use. The large room was capable of holding 800 people, and at one time housed a large organ and a library; see Bygone Stalybridge, pp. 184–5, and Morris and Co.’s Commercial Directory and Gazetter of Ashton-under-Lyne and District (Nottingham: Morris, 1878), p. 326. 34 Tameside Local Studies Library, Stalybridge Harmonic Society, Treasurer’s book, 1850–1855, Archive DD111/5. 35 See Walvin, Leisure and Society 1830–1950, p. 98. 36 ‘Mr John Marsden (Organist of St Paul’s, Staley), has much pleasure in intimating that he will give his fourth annual grand concert in the town hall, Stalybridge’: Ashton Weekly Reporter, 8 September 1855. 37 ‘Stalybridge Philharmonic Society – First Season 1856–7’, ibid., 21 February 1857. It seems likely that the instrumentalists from Marsden’s previous concerts formed a core of players for the choral society.

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a few pence, which otherwise they could not hear for less than some shillings’.38 To fulfil this aim the society sometimes performed a ‘People’s Concert’ a few days after its full-priced concerts, apparently with much success: Considering the superior quality of the music and the low rates of admission [Reserved seats, 1s.; Back seats, 6d.; Gallery, 3d.; as opposed to their fully priced concerts – Reserved seats, 3s. 6d.; Back seats, 2s.; Gallery, 1s.39], we do not hesitate to say that this was the cheapest concert we can recollect to have been given in this neighbourhood, and have to congratulate the committee of the Philharmonic Society on the satisfactory results of their spirited endeavours to provide good cheap music for the people.40

By the 1850s the ‘People’s Concert’ had been established in such places as Manchester, Leeds, Oldham, and Huddersfield. The concerts were specifically designed to unite different classes in the same building, representing a sense of community and shared experience.41 The ‘People’s Concert’ was a rare occurrence at Stalybridge Town Hall, but that it was present at all shows some acknowledgement presumably of the cheap concerts that had been established in Manchester and were advertised in the local paper. For the first 30 years of its existence, Stalybridge Town Hall was regularly used for the performance of music, the majority of performers coming from within the town itself. While the two choral societies were the most regular users, other musicians and singers from different areas of Stalybridge life used the town hall for their music-making. As well as concerts, the hall was used for the popular nineteenth-century pastime of ‘tea party and concert’, where the concert normally consisted of glees and songs, performed chorally or as duets or solos, often with instrumental solos added for interest: We cannot conclude our notice of this interesting party without passing a well earned compliment upon the members of the Church Choir and the Tonic Sol Fa Association for the efficient manner in which they carried out their part in the evening’s entertainment. The singing was really beautiful, and called forth repeated bursts of applause. The songs, ballads, and choruses were such as breathe the most lofty and pure sentiments, and their effect upon the audience must have been of the most beneficial character.42

This combination of food and entertainment was very popular with churches, and during its first period the town hall was regularly used for this purpose. The town hall was also occasionally a venue for visiting performers, often 38 Stated in a report of a concert given by the society: ibid., 28 March 1857. 39 Ibid., 28 February 1857. 40 Ibid., 21 March 1857. 41 In London during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century, such organizations as the Kyrle Society, the People’s Entertainment Society, and the National Sunday League were formed ‘to break down the barriers which seemingly existed between the lower classes and the full enjoyment of music’, see Mackerness, A Social History of Music, p. 200. 42 Ashton Weekly Reporter, 10 May 1862.

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Table 15.2 Expenses incurred for the town hall performance of Handel’s Samson by Stalybridge Harmonic Society in 1854 Date 25 May 22 June 19 September 22 September 7 October 12 October 25 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October 26 October *

Expense incurred ‘Small Score to Handel’s Samson’ ‘Binding Samson’ ‘Tenor to Samson’ ‘Drum sticks’ ‘4 Voice parts to Samson’ ‘7 Voice parts to Samson’ ‘William Farrington for writing [i.e. copying] music’ ‘Hire of Town Hall and Gas’ ‘Replacing town hall platform’ ‘John Swallow for going to the Gentlemen of the town for patronage and selling tickets’ ‘Large bills posting’ ‘Sockets for orchestra’ ‘William Clay for fixing gas pipes and fittings in the town hall’ ‘Mrs Sunderland[*] Engagement and expenses’ [soprano soloist] ‘Mrs Lawton Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Inkersall Engagement and expenses’ [tenor soloist] ‘Mr Edmondson Engagement and expenses’ [alto soloist] ‘Mr Mellor Engagement and expenses’ [bass soloist] ‘Mr Jackson Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Miller Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Smith Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Thorly Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Gledele Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Shepherd Engagement and expenses’ ‘Mr Elwood Engagement and expenses’

Amount 3s. 4d. 18s. 1s. 3d. 1s. 6d. 6s. 8d. – 3s. 6d. £1, 1s. 9½d. £1 2s. 6d. 4s. 10s. 1½d. 4s. 6d. £5 5s. 14s. 6d. £3 3s. £1 11s. 6d. £1 1s. £1, 5s. £1 1s 10s. £1 11s. 6d. £1 11s. 6d. £1 7s. 6d. £1 17s.

Susan Sunderland was a nationally known singer. For a summary of her career, see J.A. Hargreaves, ‘“The Calderdale Nightingale”: Susan Sunderland, 1819–1905’, THAS, 6 (1998): 46–54.

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companies who had transferred from Manchester or Liverpool, as with the Brousil family, for example, a string and piano ensemble of six child prodigies from Bohemia, aged 6–17, who had also been performing daily in London the previous summer.43 TOWN HALL, STALYBRIDGE: THE BROUSIL FAMILY (who have been so enthusiastically received at the Free-trade Hall, Manchester) have the honour to announce a GRAND EVENING CONCERT, on Monday next, February 9 th, 1857, being the only evening they have at liberty previous to their leaving this neighbourhood, in order to appear before her Majesty, the Queen, in obedience to the royal command.44

Visiting artistes were eager to be seen as respectable performers, and, similarly, the promoters of performance in the town hall were keen that the venue should appear as a place for ‘high class’, rational recreation. There is no doubt that Stalybridge Town Hall was a popular music venue in its early existence. Whilst this may have something to do with the novelty and potential prestige of the town hall, as will be seen, it could also have been because there was nowhere else suitable. Apart from the Foresters’ Hall there was no other secular public building in Stalybridge that could house a large audience. When a newer, more fashionable, more suitable venue was built, things began to change and the period of musical decline in Stalybridge Town Hall began. Phase II: Desertion and Decline In March 1857 Stalybridge was granted a charter which enabled the town to become a corporation. The incorporation of a town was often a catalyst for the building of a town hall to mark its newly raised status. Stalybridge did not follow this pattern, however. The town already had a town hall, but one that by this time was considered ‘the laughing-stock of all who came into the town’, rather than something to be proud of.45 As early as 1855 the suitability of Stalybridge Town Hall as a concert venue was brought into question. At first the criticisms were of superficial matters, such as cleanliness: The concert room afforded undoubted evidence of the neglect of public property at present in this town; everything was filthy and covered with dust – the walls, the blinds, and the floor – all were thickly coated, and it may be easily imagined what were the 43 On the Brousils, see Mackerness, Littell’s Living Age, 50 (26 July 1856): 256. 44 Ashton Weekly Reporter, 7 February 1857. 45 Ibid., 9 June 1866. At this time the town was building a new market, and the comment was made during discussion of the new building at a meeting of the Stalybridge Town Council. The mayor said that the town hall was not very handsome, ‘but experience made fools wise, and he did not think they should fall into the same error with their new market’.

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However, two years later John Frederick Cheetham, secretary of the Stalybridge Philharmonic Society and a member of a prominent mill-owning family, suggested in his speech at the society’s annual dinner that the problems were rather more fundamental: He complained of the inconvenience of the Town Hall for the performance of music, denounced it as ‘that monstrosity of bricks and mortar, in which it was difficult to keep one’s gravity.’ He hoped that when the new corporation got into full exercise […] a new building would arise that would give the society sufficient accommodation for the concerts (cheers).47

This ‘new building’ was found in the Mechanics’ Institution, which opened in July 1862. Although it was built by subscription rather than public money, the institution became the symbol of the new age of corporation, ‘an excellent building for the improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of its inhabitants’.48 For the Mechanics’ Institution ‘the Italian style [was] adopted, with, however, a considerable amount of Gothic Feeling in the details.’49 The Gothic revival in Britain was at its peak between 1855 and 1885, and the Italian style was often used in connection with the Gothic, so in architectural terms the building for the Mechanics’ Institution was at the height of fashion, and the first one of its kind in Stalybridge – very different from the plain Grecian façade of the Town Hall. The large room in the Mechanics’ Institution was clearly designed for community gatherings: The large hall is a splendid room, and apparently well adapted for meetings, concerts, lectures, &c., and we understand that it will contain between 400 and 500 chairs […] they have provided for the comfort and accommodation of the members, as well as attended to the useful and ornamental character of the interior, they would have felt highly rewarded for the great care with which they have attended to the true interests of the institution. […] it will be a great ornament to the town, and what is still better, it will be a most useful institution and well adapted for the object its promoters have in view.50

46 Ibid., 29 September 1855. 47 Ibid., 28 March 1857. 48 Ashton and Stalybridge Reporter, 25 January 1862. Mechanics’ Institutions were built from 1823 onwards, after the inauguration of the London Mechanics’ Institution. Originally intended to educate the artisans in order to make them better workers, the institutions gradually became clubs for the lower middle classes. They were an important part of the social history of music in the nineteenth century, offering classes in music and singing, as well as concerts in the large hall. For more, see Mackerness, A Social History of Music, pp. 147–52. 49 Ashton and Stalybridge Reporter, 24 August 1861. 50 Ibid., 12 August 1862.

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At a time when music-making was seen as important for the purposes of education, leisure, and self-improvement, the institution had been built with facilities for both performers and audience. In an attempt to communicate worthy values, the large hall was decorated with mottoes, although it is not known what these were. This is strikingly similar to Leeds Town Hall, which opened just four years earlier, where mottoes such as ‘Weave Truth with Trust’ and ‘Forward’ were inscribed in various parts of the hall.51 In fact, it seems that the Mechanics’ Institution was built as if it were a town hall, both physically and symbolically; and was designed to offer the people of Stalybridge everything they had missed out on in the building of their town hall in 1831 – the chance to create a symbol of progress, prosperity, and civic pride that was fully equipped to enhance the life of the community. Therefore, people from all aspects of Stalybridge life wanted to be a part of it. The move away from music-making at the town hall coincides exactly with the opening of the new Mechanics’ Institution building in July 1862. Stalybridge Town Hall was being used for musical performance on a regular basis in the first half of 1862, but at the end of June, when the Mechanics’ Institution came into use, those performances ceased abruptly. The Mechanics’ Institution hosted all the musical events that were previously performed in the Town Hall, including the two choral societies’ concerts. In 1870 there was a slight change in the Town Hall’s favour, both in terms of musical life and public opinion, which seems linked with the redecorating of the assembly room in the Town Hall that year. The Ashton Reporter of 2 July predicted that, when finished, it would be ‘the most handsome room in the town and a credit to the Corporation’. However, even after these improvements the room still provoked criticism, as in this review of a Stalybridge Harmonic Society performance of Handel’s Solomon: We are inclined to think that the acoustic properties of the hall interfered with the proper effect of [the tenor soloist’s] vocal powers. […] At the outset the defective acoustic properties of the hall were rather painfully apparent, preventing, as it did, the thorough blending of the vocal and instrumental parts.52

It is difficult to know how much attention was paid to the acoustics of the Mechanics’ Institution by its architects, but no complaints of this kind seem to have been reported. The renovations did not entice the majority of Stalybridge musicians back to the Town Hall, although there was a slight increase in the number of musical events, including the ‘tea party and concert’ entertainments and occasional concerts by societies such as the Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge Vocal Union.53 Throughout this middle period the Town Hall was still used for lectures,

51 52 53

Briggs, Victorian Cities, p. 181. Ashton Reporter, 7 October 1876. For example, ibid., 10 December 1870.

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meetings, and council business, but also occasional visits from visiting performers such as the African Opera Company in 1863: On Wednesday night, the African Opera Company of male and female vocalists, musicians, comedians and dancers, gave their evening’s entertainment in the Town Hall to a tolerably large audience, who received the performances with the greatest marks of approbation.54

It is useful to compare the musical life of Stalybridge Town Hall during this period with that of its neighbouring town, Ashton-under-Lyne (see Table 15.3). Ashton was larger than Stalybridge – the 1871 census shows a population of 64,557 in Ashton to Stalybridge’s 35,11455 – and the populations of both was heavily concentrated in the cotton industry. A factory inspector described Ashton in 1863 as a town ‘almost entirely’ dependent upon cotton.56 In 1840 the commissioners of Ashton built a new town hall, ‘in the Corinthian Style’,57 which was subsequently enlarged considerably in 1878. In Stalybridge the primary aim of the commissioners had been to build a market hall; its municipal and community functions were a secondary consideration. In contrast, the large hall in Ashton Town Hall was designed specifically as an assembly room for the people of the town. It was stated that ‘the Town Hall will not be let for any purpose having an immoral or irreligious tendency, and the committee will reserve the right of breaking any engagement if the hall is intended to be used for any purpose at variance with these conditions’.58 The commissioners of Ashton, it seems, wanted the town hall to be a place for rational recreation, the embodiment of the Victorian values of temperance, self-improvement, and morality. The contrast between the musical lives of the two town halls is unmistakable, and further enhanced by the fact that some of the acts which transferred from Ashton to Stalybridge did not transfer to the unpopular town hall. The difference can be explained firstly in terms of fashion: Ashton Town Hall was a large building, designed with performances in mind; built less than ten years after Stalybridge Town Hall, it was still considered to be stylish, impressive, and useful to the people of the town. As discussed, Stalybridge Town Hall had lost ground to the Mechanics’ Institution; Ashton also had a Mechanics’ Institution, which was sometimes used for the performance of music, but its influence on the musical life of the town did not rival that of Stalybridge Mechanics’ Institution. In Ashton 54 Ashton and Stalybridge Reporter, 8 August 1863. Not much is known about this particular touring company, which was probably made up of black rather than blackface singers. For context on touring black performers in England, see note 71 below. 55 Morris and Co’s Commercial Directory, pp. 1 (Ashton) and 326 (Stalybridge). 56 Reports of Inspectors of Factories (Redgrave, 30 April 1863), XVIII, p. 19, cited in N. Kirk, The Growth of Working Class Reformation in Mid-Victorian England (London: Croom Helm, 1985), p. 46. 57 Ashton-under-Lyne Official Handbook (Cheltenham and London: E.D.J. Burrows, 1949), p. 12. 58 Reporter Book Almanack and Manual of Local Information for 1882 (Ashtonunder-Lyne: J. Andrew, 1882), p. 65.

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Table 15.3 Comparison of musical events in Ashton Town Hall and Stalybridge Town Hall in 1876* Ashton Town Hall 27 January 12 February 19 February 26 February 4 March 24 June 16 September

Stalybridge Town Hall

‘Hague’s Minstrels’† ‘Private assembly: Alexander Owen’s band and chorus’ ‘Ashton Gentlemen’s Glee Club’ ‘Dramatic and musical entertainment – George Langford’ ‘Grand ball – Enos Andrews’ String Band’ ‘Old Folk’s Tea Party’ ‘Vocal comedian, mimic, ventriloquist, instrumentalist, author and delineator of comical characters – Harry Liston’‡

5 October

‘Stalybridge Harmonic Society, Handel’s Solomon’

28 October

‘Dramatic and musical entertainment – George Langford’ 15 November ‘Gentlemen’s Glee Club Concert’ 5 & 18–19 December ‘Charity concert for St Joseph’s Orphanage and Industrial School Sacred Service of Song – Wilmington’s Jubilee Singers’ 27 December ‘Gentlemen’s Glee Club Annual Dress Concert’ * † ‡

Data from weekly editions of the Ashton Reporter for 1876. The title of this newspaper does not necessarily indicate a bias in the reporting of musical events in Stalybridge and Ashton, see note 28 above. The same troupe performed at the People’s Hall in Stalybridge, which became the Victoria Theatre in 1880. Liston also performed at the Mechanics’ Institution, Stalybridge.

the town hall seemed to provide for all musical needs, whereas in Stalybridge, at this time, the town hall certainly did not. Phase III: Revival The renaissance of music in Stalybridge Town Hall began with the passing of the Stalybridge Extension and Improvement Act in 1881. The town had sought Parliamentary consent to include three nearby villages within its boundaries. The result was a fourth ward for municipal election purposes, which created more

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councillors, enlarged the town’s population, and enhanced its status. The Mayor of Stalybridge suggested, therefore, that the present town hall could no longer accommodate the increased number of officials resulting from the extension to the town.59 This was apparently a nationwide problem: as the pressure on town-hall accommodation increased, additions to original buildings became commonplace from the 1860s. Stalybridge Town Council initially considered erecting a new town hall on a different site, but eventually decided to extend the existing building. Significantly for the musical life of the town, the large assembly room was increased in size, and a new staircase rose to it from the vestibule of the main entrance. The old entrance near the platform was adapted to provide an extra exit in case of emergency, and the creation of a more imposing main entrance encouraged patrons to think they were entering a more grandiose environment. It seems that enhanced grandeur throughout the building caused people to change their responses from embarrassment to pride. Like Ashton Town Hall, the new building was not only to be an administrative centre, but a prestigious place of assembly for the people of the town. The design took account of the ‘Queen Anne’ style of architecture, which was at its most popular in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and featured picturesque detail (see Figure 15.4). The new and improved Stalybridge Town Hall was opened on 22 September 1883 with a whole day of celebrations, including a procession around the town accompanied by two of the town’s bands (involving officials from Stalybridge as well as neighbouring towns, the architect, the workmen, and many Stalybridge inhabitants); an exclusive tour of the new building; and a celebratory banquet at the Town Hall in the evening.60 This level of public rejoicing was a feature of the age, with the opening of town halls providing an excuse for some of the most abundant revelry; it was ‘the occasion for a town to measure itself against its neighbours and claim its new status’.61 For 50 years Stalybridge Town Hall had stood as a monument to the utilitarian buildings of the past; now, the newly renovated hall was the height of architectural fashion, no longer a ‘laughing stock’ but a building of status that could be measured against that of Ashton and the surrounding towns. The return of the musicians of Stalybridge to the town hall was almost as abrupt as their departure; as soon as the new town hall was in use a number of musical events were given in the large room. Average ticket prices came into line with those for the same type of performances at Ashton – namely 3s. for first seats, 2s. for second, and 1s. for back seats and the gallery62 – and it was advertised in the newspapers that ‘for the convenience of the Ashton people, tram-cars will run from the doors of the town hall to the Old Square after the concert’.63 This suggests that Stalybridge Town Hall was now of a standard to poach patrons from its rival in Ashton. The rise in performances at Stalybridge Town Hall resulted in a decrease in the number 59 60 61 62 63

See Stalybridge Centenary Souvenir 1857–1957, p. 59. Stalybridge Reporter, 22 September 1883. Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls, p. 216. See, for example, Stalybridge Reporter, 9 February 1884 and 14 March 1885. Ibid., 18 February 1884.

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Figure 15.4 Stalybridge Town Hall from the front, c. 1896–1902. Tameside Image Archive, t10325 at the Mechanics’ Institution, although it still remained a popular musical venue. A variety of different musical, social, and reforming organizations began to give miscellaneous amateur concerts in the town hall, from the Orpheus Vocal Quartet to the Stalybridge Anglers’ Association, and often the Stalybridge branch of the British Women’s Temperance Association.64 Guest vocal and instrumental soloists were engaged from the area, with repertoire mostly consisting of glees, songs, and duets, both religious and secular, and solo instrumental pieces. 64 ‘The Stalybridge Orpheus Prize Quartett will give a grand concert, town hall, Stalybridge, Tuesday, February 27, 1894’; ibid., 17 February 1894. ‘The members of the Stalybridge Anglers’ Association held their third annual concert in the Town Hall on Thursday evening’; ibid., 22 March 1890. ‘British Women’s Temperance Association, Stalybridge Branch. The third entertainment will be held in the town hall, Stalybridge, […] January 28th, 1884’; ibid., 26 January 1884.

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Choral societies were again a feature of the concert life of the Town Hall, although not until the 1890s. Stalybridge Harmonic Society was still active, but the Stalybridge Philharmonic Society had long since disbanded; however, a new choral society, the Stalybridge Choral Union, which was founded in the 1870s and originally performed in the Mechanics’ Institution, began to give performances in the Town Hall. This society generally performed operas, such as Chilperic, a comic opera by Hervé (1825–92), in 1894. Andrew Lamb comments that ‘Hervé’s compositions were mostly written for unsophisticated audiences and often hastily produced’;65 however, it was one of the first performances of opera in the Town Hall and, while acknowledging its weaknesses, the Stalybridge Reporter of 12 December 1894 indicated that it had been well received: The work is one which had considerable vogue in its day, but it has gone rather out of fashion lately […] It contains very tuneful and sprightly music, and the libretto is smart. Some middling puns there are, but they are compensated for by humorous, witty, and pungent sayings […] The total effect of the performance is extremely pleasing, and on Thursday night especially, the approval of the audience was very warmly displayed.

Though opera was new to the audiences of Stalybridge Town Hall, it was apparently well attended, which seems to have led both choral societies to move often from oratorio to opera in the 1890s.66 In this third period the Town Hall also became a regular venue for the enhancement of the mass singing movement amongst children.67 Sometimes the performers were from homes for the destitute; but there were also children from the many church schools in Stalybridge, where singing was promoted for the improvement of the students. This was presumably to give the children the experience of singing on a different stage, to a larger audience, and in a more prestigious environment, whilst arguably also indulging a sentimental streak in Victorian culture. One of the benefits of using town halls for concerts and entertainments was that the performance space could be interdenominational. The churches of Stalybridge certainly made use of the facilities offered at the town hall, whether it was for tea parties and entertainment, or simply amateur concerts. However, it seems to have been the Catholic Church that made the most use of the building. In the early nineteenth century there had been a major influx of Irish immigrants into England, attracted by new employment opportunities in the cotton and construction industries of the north-west. What was perceived of their moral condition appalled Victorian society. Fifty years later Engels remarked that: 65 Andrew Lamb, ‘Hervé [Ronger, Florimond]’, in GMO (accessed 23 June 2006). 66 This tallies with Dave Russell’s observation that choral societies began to add operatic selections to their repertoire from the 1890s onwards; see Popular Music in England, p. 216. 67 On children and the mass singing movement, including Tonic Sol-fa, see Bernarr Rainbow, The Land Without Music: musical education in England 1800–60, and its continental antecedents (London: Novello, 1967), pp. 139–55, also the chapters by Sarah Taylor and Catherine Dale in this current volume (Chapters 11 and 16 respectively).

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The southern facile character of the Irish-man, his crudity, which places him but little above the savage, his contempt for all humane enjoyments, in which his very crudeness makes him incapable of sharing, his filth and poverty, all favour drunkenness.68

By the mid-nineteenth century Stalybridge had a large Irish immigrant community of its own. The Catholic Church of the town maintained a watch over this new society, making arduous efforts to render the Irish more culturally acceptable to the ‘respectable’ sections of the town. Catholics were traditionally seen as outsiders in England; but by establishing Catholic schools and mutual improvement societies, for example, the Catholic Church of Stalybridge promoted diligence, frugality, and temperance as qualities the Irish population of Stalybridge should aspire to attain.69 Using the Town Hall – the venue frequented by the highest class of performers and audiences in the town – for their St Patrick’s Day celebrations and concerts by the Catholic brass band, the Irish population could signal their aspirations in that direction. During this period the Town Hall was again used by touring artistes on an infrequent basis – often those artistes who had previously performed at the Mechanics’ Institution. Touring concert companies were the most frequent visitors to the hall, mostly performing a professional version of the type of programmes favoured for miscellaneous choral society concerts. Other companies presented a far more diverse programme, such as the following: On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next, Clari’s Concert Company will appear in a Grand Entertainment, ‘The Scottish Chieftians,’ also Bros. D’Alcorn, negro artistes: Misses Clara and Nellie, duettists; Mr Marcus Boyle, vocal comedian, from the London music halls; The Excelsior Variety Troupe; Messrs Ridley and St. Clare, musical clowns and contortionists.70

There were also travelling minstrel companies such as the Robertson and Holme’s Coloured Operatic Kentucky Minstrels, and international acts like the Jungfrau Kapelle, a German family who performed on unusual musical instruments.71 The style of the entertainment supplied by these visitors, some of whom were actually billed as music-hall artistes, suggests that they were using Stalybridge Town Hall as a temperate and more respectable alternative to the music hall. Music halls were not seen as reputable until the end of the nineteenth century, mainly because the acts were not considered sufficiently wholesome or moral; if an act wanted to be 68 Engels, Condition of the Working-Class in England, p. 125, quoted in Hunt, Building Jerusalem, p. 42. On Roman Catholicism in England at this time, see Edward Norman, The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984). 69 Kirk, The Growth of Working Class Reformism in Mid-Victorian England, pp. 206, 319–20. 70 Stalybridge Reporter, 25 April 1885. 71 The Victorians took delight in the foreign and exotic, and were attracted to acts like these; see Derek Scott, ‘Blackface Minstrels, Black Minstrels, and the Reception in England’, in Rachel Cowgill and Julian Rushton (eds), Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 265–80.

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considered reputable and ‘high-class’, therefore, they would need to find a more respectable venue, and in Stalybridge and Ashton, the town halls seemed to offer just that.72 The acts that performed as part of ‘Clari’s Concert Company’ (see the quotation above), fall into the three categories that Dagmar Kift identifies as the main components of a music-hall programme: circus numbers, music and theatre, and information and innovations.73 It appears that the type of building Stalybridge Town Hall represented made the difference between rough and rational recreation. While this third period in the musical life of Stalybridge Town Hall mirrors the first, to some extent, in terms of its richness and diversity, there is a significant difference between the two: in the 1830s–50s, the Town Hall had what was really the only large public room in the town, and there was little competition for audience and performers; by this later period, however, there were many more halls and musical attractions in the town to compete with for patrons. The following article appeared in the Stalybridge Reporter of 19 October 1895, neatly summarizing the changing nature of the town’s musical life in the last quarter of the nineteenth century: There has been such a surfeit of cheap music at P.S.A. meetings and religious services on the one side, and at smoking concerts and various public occasions on the other, that the desire to attend the old-fashioned concert or mixed concert of a superior, or, at any rate, a more formal and expensive character, has declined […] There is apparently some change in the public taste, or, as we say, it has been to some extent partly surfeited and partly vitiated by the growth of smoking concerts, P.S.A. entertainments, church and chapel music services, and other semi-gratuitous attractions.74

The most professional rival to the Town Hall was the Victoria Theatre, which opened in 1880. After the original theatre burnt down, it reopened as the Grand Theatre in 1890.75 Although mainly established for the performance of drama, the theatre was often used for music – obviously music written for the stage, but also the kinds of miscellaneous vocal and instrumental concerts, sometimes of sacred music, that were performed at the Town Hall; the management was constantly striving to provide a respectable form of entertainment. However, theatres at the

72 Douglas A. Reid suggests that ‘theatrical entertainment enjoyed in morally unsullied venues like hotel assembly rooms, temperance halls, town halls, or even the circus, was acceptable’, see his ‘Playing and Praying’ in M. Daunton (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: vol. 3, 1840–1950 (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), p. 780. 73 Dagmar Kift, The Victorian Music Hall (Cambridge: CUP, 1996), p. 53. 74 The P.S.A., or Pleasant Sunday Afternoon movement, was founded in 1875 by John Blackham. Mainly introduced for the benefit of working men, it was an international movement with the aim of religious, cultural, and moral education on a Sunday afternoon. 75 This was a professional theatre with its own company, and aspired to present high culture. Before it opened, the Ashton Reporter of 18 September 1880 announced that ‘a high-class company is to be maintained, and Shakespearian plays will probably be given periodically’.

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time could not fully escape from the reputation for roughness they acquired in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. As one visitor had put it: The most striking thing to a foreigner in English Theatre is the unheard-of coarseness and brutality of the audience. The consequence of this is that the higher and more civilised classes go only to the Italian Opera, and very rarely visit their national theatre.76

In November 1890 the Stalybridge Harmonic Society, then in its 46th year, staged a production of Auber’s opera Masaniello. As the staging involved five fully painted sets, the management of the theatre suggested to the society that it perform the opera there. The society refused the offer, suggesting that to perform the opera in that building would not be suitable for a society promoting rational recreation: Mr Walters [the manager of the Grand Theatre at the time], we believe, would have been glad at the outset to have negotiated for the production of the opera at his theatre, but some of the members and their friends had scruples, which we can easily understand and appreciate, on the subject, and the idea was not pressed.77

Whilst the local newspaper predicted that ‘Stalybridge people will possess in the new theatre a Temple of the Drama in which they will be able to take an honest pride’,78 and the theatre programme never included anything that could be compared with music hall,79 the reporter here does not seem at all surprised at the society’s decision, which suggests that this view of the theatre’s moral unsuitability was fairly widespread in the town. Other halls in Stalybridge owned by various institutions offered the same type of entertainment as the town hall. The Foresters’ Hall, the Oddfellows’ Hall, and the Drill Hall all hosted musical concerts, sometimes taking the form of social gatherings and conversazione, using both performers from within the institution and visitors.80 The Oddfellow’s Hall even had performers from outside the town 76 E.M. Butler (ed.), A Regency Visitor: the English tour of Prince Pückler-Muskau, described in his letters, 1826–1828 (London: Collins, 1957), quoted in Golby and Purdue, The Civilisation of the Crowd, p. 70. 77 Stalybridge Reporter, 22 November 1890. 78 Ibid., 11 January 1890. 79 Plays such as Maria Morton, The Convict, Hard Times, and a variety of Shakespeare plays were performed, often several different plays a week (ibid., 23 August 1890). A pantomime was often presented for three weeks at Christmas, and dramatic and musical companies (such as D’Oyly Carte) also visited (Ashton Reporter, 16 December 1882). 80 The Foresters and Oddfellows were among a range of friendly societies which developed out of the drinking clubs in taverns, convivial societies, and debating clubs of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century they were examples of working-class self-dependence and respectability, qualities induced in their members by a combination of rituals and benefits; see J. Fullagar, ‘Friendly Societies’, in An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age, p. 514. These friendly societies were closely related to the working-men’s

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such as Mr T.R. Nugent’s Comic Opera Company in March, 1885. The admission prices for this were cheaper than for the Town Hall – 2s. for front seats, 1s. for second seats, and 6d. for back seats.81 The Liberal and Conservative Clubs of Stalybridge provided musical entertainment, most often in the form of ‘Smoking Concerts’, so called because they took place in the ‘smoking room’ – the large assembly room in the various buildings used as club premises. They were miscellaneous concerts of mainly vocal repertoire, also of the kind given in the Town Hall, and sometimes with guest artists engaged: The fifth smoking concert of the season was held at this club on Tuesday evening. There was a large and appreciative audience. Mr Linton Ives as pianist and principal vocalist, and Councillor J.W. Whitehead, as chairman, were in attendance.82

This seems an entirely respectable form of entertainment. However, the presence of a ‘chairman’ suggests a link with music hall, and with the likelihood of there being alcohol at such institutions, the smoking concerts would not have won approval from all sides. The churches of Stalybridge offered alternative sources of entertainment, and generated a wide range of supplementary organizations, clubs, and societies. Stalybridge was dominated by Nonconformity, although the significant number of Anglican establishments brought the number of churches in the town to almost 20 by the end of the century.83 They were all active in trying to bring respectable yet cheap, if not free, entertainment to the population. This generally took the form of ‘Band of Hope’ meetings,84 tea parties with concerts,85 and the ‘service of song’,86 all of which were linked to the idea of temperance and moral improvement. Such entertainments are likely to have been directed towards a

clubs, which were most prolific in northern England from the 1860s. They were intended as a temperate alternative to the public houses, although the sale of alcohol was eventually permitted. 81 Stalybridge Reporter, 14 March 1885. 82 Ibid., 22 November 1890. 83 For more on the religious history of Stalybridge, see Bygone Stalybridge, pp. 101–25. 84 For example, ‘Chapel-street Band of Hope – The fortnightly meeting of the above society was held in the school room on Wednesday evening […] A miscellaneous entertainment, consisting of songs, readings, recitations, &c., was gone through’: Stalybridge Reporter, 1 March 1890. The Band of Hope was the youth wing of the temperance movement. Founded in Leeds in 1847, it sought to educate young people against the evils of alcohol through recreation and instruction; see P. Horn, Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain (Stroud: Sutton, 1999), p. 250. 85 See, for example, the ‘tea party and concert’ given at Holy Trinity Mission Hall on 11 April 1885: Stalybridge Reporter, 18 April 1885. 86 For example, ‘A new service of song entitled “Florence Nightingale, or the Crimean Heroine” was rendered at the Gospel Mission Hall, on Sunday afternoon, by the members of the choir’: ibid., 12 April 1890.

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more working-class audience, and therefore generally not the same audience as for the town hall. However, it is likely that many middle-class philanthropists also attended the church entertainments, as their duty, and attended the town hall concerts as their recreation. At the opposite end of the scale, the public houses of Stalybridge frequently offered musical entertainment, often in the form of the benefit concert: On Friday evening week a benefit concert was held at the Friend and Pitcher Inn, Caroline-street, for the benefit of Messrs Burrows and Hardwick. The chairman was Mr H Gamble and Mr W Shepley officiated as the accompanist. During the evening the following talent appeared and gave their services – John Wade, tenor; H. Hamilton, character comedian and dancer; W. Cummings, Irish comedian; H. Elliot, Dutch vocalist; R. Heywood, motto and topical vocalist; and Messrs Burrows and Hardwick, English and Irish character duettists. The room was crowded, and the affair proved a great success.87

It seems ironic, that though these concerts were given with the purpose of raising money for someone in need, their location would have made them morally unacceptable to many. Admittedly the programme reported above is familiar from the music halls, but again, this form of entertainment had been seen at the town hall. There was much, therefore, to rival the town hall entertainments in this latter period. Indeed, at points in the year there was some form of musical entertainment almost every night of the week in Stalybridge. The newspaper might have suggested a drop in attendance at ‘the old-fashioned concert or mixed concert of a superior, […] more formal and expensive character’ (see above), but the alternative entertainments we have described here seem not to have affected the number of musical events given in Stalybridge Town Hall now that the inhabitants had a new, more custom-built hall in which to perform and to listen, for attending the town hall was a signifier of status and respectability – a symbol of the wealth and prosperity of the patron as well as the town. Conclusion In conclusion, the leisure occupations of the English people were fundamentally transformed in the nineteenth century by the process of urbanization and industrialization, and the building of town halls made a significant contribution to this. As a symbol of status and morality, the town hall made the ideal venue for nineteenth-century music-making. The musical life of Stalybridge Town Hall was entirely commensurate with changes in public taste regarding the building. In the first period, when the building was new, the assembly room was used frequently as a music venue. At this time there were really no other large public halls in the town. By the start of the second period, Stalybridge had become a corporation, 87

Ibid., 6 September 1890.

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which enhanced civic pride among the people of the town. Whilst other towns and cities had built lavish town halls that symbolized the prosperity and progress of the town, Stalybridge was trapped with a town hall ‘built at a period before the revival of architectural taste, and one of the relics of that unfortunate Georgian era in which almost every building erected was a model of hideousness and bad taste’.88 It was unfashionable and distasteful to the people of the 1860s whose attention refocused, therefore, on the building for the Mechanics’ Institution. The design of this building was the epitome of the progress and fashion of the time, and consequently it became the centre of community life. At this point, it was the Mechanics’ Institution, and no longer the Town Hall, that was at the heart of the musical life of Stalybridge. An article on town halls in The Builder of 1878, suggested that ‘Possessing wealth is the prelude to architectural display’.89 By the time it came to the rebuilding of the Town Hall in 1881–83, at the start of the third period, the architects had learnt from the example of town halls across the country, and gave Stalybridge something that catered to the needs of the community, but was also a fashionable building and at last a symbol of civic pride. Even though the town had many public buildings that could be used for the performance of music, Stalybridge Town Hall proved itself as the hub of musical life in the community, supplying this important cotton town with opportunities for respectable, rational recreation and self-improvement, whilst stirring the musical and civic pride of the inhabitants. Stalybridge Town Hall was able to compete with the other musical activities in the town because it was now a valued building. T. Wemyss Reid, in his biography of the prominent Leeds doctor J.D. Heaton, suggested that: It may seem a small matter to those who have not studied these questions of local politics whether a Town Hall in a provincial city shall be of one style of architecture or another, whether it shall be large or small, handsome or the reverse. As a matter of fact, a great deal may depend upon the decision which is arrived at in such a matter by the authorities upon whose judgment the final decision depends.90

This was certainly true of Stalybridge. The reputation of the original town hall was affected by the fact that it was built on an inappropriate piece of donated land, with attention to function but not aesthetic in its design. Nobody wanted to perform music in ‘that monstrosity of bricks and mortar’, but once the council decided to rebuild the hall as a symbolic, fashionable building, it became the principal performance space in the town. The Stalybridge Reporter boasted on 15 December 1883:

88 Ashton Reporter, 10 December 1881. 89 ‘The Development of the Modern Town-hall’, Builder, 36 (10 August 1878): 821–3 (p. 821). 90 A Memoir of J.D. Heaton, M.D., quoted in Briggs, Victorian Cities, p. 159.

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We are musical people in Stalybridge. Everybody says so and everybody is right. There is, in fact nothing in which we have a better right to pride ourselves.

But it was only when Stalybridge Town Hall was able to stimulate the civic pride of those ‘musical people’, that it could really be said to have influenced the musical life of the town.

Chapter 16

The Provincial Musical Festival in Nineteenth-century England: A Case Study of Bridlington1 Catherine Dale

Musical festivals proliferated throughout England in the nineteenth century, particularly in centres of industrial expansion such as Leeds, Birmingham, Norwich, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, and York, where they became coupled with middle-class concerns about social conditions and embraced the philanthropic, educational ideals of the age. Choral festivals originated, in part, from the mid-seventeenth century celebrations of St Cecilia’s Day,2 and similar events organized for other occasions, not least under the aegis of the Church of England, to raise funds for charitable purposes. Stimulated by these, an annual ‘meeting’ of the cathedral choirs of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford began around 1715, and developed through the nineteenth century into the major musical event known as the Three Choirs Festival. By 1750 the reverence for St Cecilia was beginning to be overshadowed by that for Handel, and the 1784 Handel Commemorations at Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon established a model for grand performances of Handel’s oratorios in towns across Britain, including Salisbury, Bristol, Bath, Coventry, Oxford, and Cambridge. Many provincial towns sought to emulate the 1784 celebrations immediately after them, by staging a repeat of the Westminster Abbey programme, sometimes with some of the original performers from the Chapel Royal and Ancient Concerts imported from the capital. These occurred most notably in Birmingham and Liverpool (1784), Derby (1788), and Newcastle (1791).3 1 The editors would like to thank Mrs Jean Dale for permission to publish Catherine Dale’s chapter posthumously. We are also grateful to Duncan Boutwood for his invaluable assistance with preparing the text for publication, and for additional research among the papers of Herbert Thompson, held in the Special Collections, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. 2 On music for St Cecilia’s Day, see also Bryan White’s chapter (Chapter 1) in this current volume. 3 Anthony Boden, Three Choirs: a history of the festival (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1992); Brian Pritchard, ‘The Provincial Festivals of the Ashley Family’, Galpin Society Journal, 22 (March 1969): 58–77; Donald J. Reid and Brian Pritchard, ‘Some Festival Programmes of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, RMARC, 5 (1965): 51–79;

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The idea that excellence was related to size, triggered by the assembling of a choir and orchestra 500-strong for the 1784 Handel Commemoration, further manifested itself in the decades that followed under the direction of George Smart, who controlled the majority of the principal festivals in the country between 1820 and 1850; and later Michael Costa, who directed the 1859 Handel Centenary Festival at the Crystal Palace, where similar festivals were held triennially until 1926.4 Only Mendelssohn would come close to rivalling Handel, with Elijah, commissioned for the Birmingham Festival of 1846. When the Leeds Festival Committee was considering the replacement of Elijah and Messiah by St Paul and Israel in Egypt in their programme for 1877, members wrote to the committees of the Birmingham, Bristol, and Worcester Festivals for advice. As Fred Spark and Joseph Bennett recalled, Leeds was counselled not to take the risk, since Elijah and Messiah had always guaranteed musical and financial success, and never failed to fill the concert halls. Among the respondents was Henry Thomas Smart, who sent the following: It would be an extraordinary mistake, in a commercial point of view, to omit both ‘Elijah’ and ‘Messiah.’ In Yorkshire especially, the absence of the latter would, I think, be looked upon as unpardonable … I certainly think it would be a capital error to omit from your morning programmes the two most popular oratorios ever written.5

When compiling their History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, several years later, Spark and Bennett illustrated this point with a table of attendance and receipts for performances of Elijah and Messiah at Birmingham Festivals from 1855 to 1891 inclusive (see Table 16.1). According to them, the receipts for the Elijah concert alone in 1891 reached £3,514. The diversification of festival programmes to include secular music performed in non-ecclesiastical buildings had become particularly common by the early nineteenth century. The programme of the ‘Miscellaneous Concert’ held at County Hall during the 1831 Derby Festival, for example, showed a marked shift to a secular programme that included only a single item by Handel, alongside works by Spohr, Rossini, Weber, and others.6 The erection of new concert and town halls in 6 (1966): 3–23; 7 (1969): 1–25; 8 (1970): 1–33 (with addenda from Betty Matthews); 11 (1973): 138; Brian Pritchard, ‘The Musical Festival and the Choral Society in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: a social history’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1968); Philip Olleson, ‘Crotch, Moore, and the 1808 Birmingham Festival’, RMARC, 29 (1996): 143–60; Philip Olleson, ‘The Tamworth Music Festival of 1809’, Staffordshire Studies, 5 (1993): 81–106. 4 H. Bertram Cox and C.L.E. Cox (eds), Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1907); Michael Musgrave, The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace (Cambridge: CUP, 1995), pp. 27–57. 5 Fred R. Spark and Joseph Bennett, History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, 1858–1889 (Leeds: Spark; London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1892), pp. 67–74 (p. 69). 6 Programme of the first Miscellaneous Concert held at the County Hall, Derby, on Tuesday evening, 27 September 1831, from Pritchard and Reid, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1970), p. 14.

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Table 16.1 Attendance and receipts for Elijah and Messiah performances at Birmingham Festivals from 1855 to 1891* Elijah Year 1855 1858 1861 1867 1870 1873 1876 1879 1882 1885 1888 1891

Attendance 1,574 2,004 1,511 1,613 2,227 2,264 2,334 1,678 1,678 1,936 1,895 2,070

Messiah Receipts £1,889 £2,485 £1,809 £2,104 £3,003 £2,972 £3,271 £2,444 £2,632 £2,744 £3,032 £3,514

Attendance 2,597 2,270 2,299 2,228 2,325 2,282 2,385 1,945 1,855 1,688 1,411 1,731

Receipts £2,808 £2,789 £2,653 £2,729 £2,901 £2,924 £3,061 £2,543 £2,422 £2,431 £1,946 £2,471

* Fred R. Spark and Joseph Bennett, History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, 1858–1889 (Leeds: Spark; London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1892), pp. 67–74 (p. 69). By contrast, attendance at St Paul in 1864 was tallied at 1,343, bringing in £1,582.

places such as Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Norwich, and Leeds facilitated the staging of large-scale festivals fuelled by the expansion of amateur choral activity, particularly in the industrial centres of the north, where choral societies reached huge proportions. By the middle of the century most northern festival choruses totalled over 200, virtually twice as large as those in the south. Among provincial towns in the north and south of England, from the eighteenth century, festivals occurred annually in Salisbury 1742–92, then triennially from 1804; and annually in Winchester 1761–79, under the designation the ‘Hampshire Music Meeting’ 1780–99, and as the Hampshire Musical Festival in 1800–1807, with two further festivals in 1814 and 1817. Frequent but irregular festivals took place in, among other towns, Oxford between 1733 and 1844, and Cambridge between 1749 and 1842. In Birmingham they occurred at irregular intervals from 1759, in Derby from 1788 (triennially in 1816–31), in Newcastle from 1788, York from 1791, and Leeds initially from 1858 and triennially from 1874. The inauguration of organs in St Peter’s Church, Liverpool (1766), and St Thomas’s (1770), and in St John’s Church, Manchester (1770) was celebrated by oratorio performances which were succeeded by a long-continued, though at times irregular series of festivals in Liverpool and a shorter series in Manchester. The resumption of the Liverpool Festival on a triennial basis after 1823, following the lean period of the Napoleonic Wars, and the Manchester Festival of 1828, formed part of the ‘festival mania’ that swept throughout England in the 1820s, and were a symptom of the growing desire for prestige and cultural standing amongst the increasingly affluent class of northern manufacturers.

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Neither Liverpool nor Manchester had a cathedral at this time (although choristers from the Manchester Collegiate Church nevertheless took part in the festivals there), and whilst the choruses at many of the southern meetings consisted almost entirely of cathedral choristers,7 Liverpool and Manchester relied on local vocalists and, in particular, chapel singers from the nearby Lancashire villages of Oldham, Shaw, and Hey.8 The Liverpool Mercury of 20 September 1816 notes that for the festival of that year ‘the Band and the Chorus will be numerous and complete, the celebrated Lancashire Chorus Singers being engaged’, and the same ‘celebrated Lancashire Chorus Singers’ also assisted at the Cambridge, Birmingham, Derby, and Newcastle Festivals: Newcastle engaged the Lancashire chapel singers from as early as 1778, supplemented by choristers from Durham and York Cathedrals; and the Derby Mercury of 4 October 1810 notes that ‘the chorusses [sic] will be supported by the celebrated Female Singers from Lancashire, also by performers from the Ancient and Vocal Concerts, London, and from various cathedrals’.9 The Birmingham Festival grew from small beginnings of ‘upwards of twentyfour Chorus-Singers [and] over thirty instrumentalists’ in 1759,10 to become, under the direction of Joseph Moore from 1799 to 1849, the premier provincial musical festival in terms of the number of performers, the quality of its soloists, and enormity of its profits.11 Its status was usurped only briefly in the 1820s and 1830s by the massive meetings held in York, which in 1828 could boast a choir of 350 and an orchestra of 250.12 A distinct note of rivalry may be detected between 7 For example, the Salisbury and Winchester Journal (15 September 1817) states that the choruses of the Hampshire Musical Festival were ‘supported by the young gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, Westminster Abbey and the cathedrals of St Pauls, Salisbury and Winchester, with the assistance of numerous efficient and experienced singers from London, Portsmouth & Portsea’, quoted in Reid and Pritchard, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1965), p. 79. Similarly, the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal of 25 June 1842 notes that the Cambridge chorus was supported by members of ‘Professional London Choral Societies […] assisted by members of the choirs in Cambridge, and choir of Ely Cathedral’, quoted in Reid, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1966), p. 11. 8 See chapters by Sally Drage (Chapter 10) and Rachel Cowgill (Chapter 4) in this current volume. 9 Quoted in Reid and Pritchard, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1969), p. 10, and (1970), p. 10. 10 Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 1, 8, and 15 October 1759; quoted in Pritchard and Reid, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1970), p. 5. 11 See Philip Olleson, ‘Crotch, Moore, and the 1808 Birmingham Festival’, pp. 143–4; Gordon Goodwin and Jeremy Dibble, ‘Moore, Joseph’, ODNB (accessed 28 January 2007). 12 See [John Crosse], An Account of the Grand Musical Festival, held in September, 1823, in the Cathedral Church of York […] To which is prefixed, a sketch of the rise and progress of musical festival in Britain (York: John Wolstenholme, [1825]); An Account of the Second Yorkshire Musical Festival held on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th of September 1825 (York: John Wolstenholme, [1825]); An Account of the Third Yorkshire Musical Festival held on the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th of September 1828 (York: H. Bellerby, [1828]); An Account of the Fourth Yorkshire Grand Musical Festival held on the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th

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towns in the size and success of their festivals. After the 1823 York Festival, which professed a choir of 240 and an orchestra of 175, the critic of the York Chronicle wrote: we cannot but sympathize in the agreeable disappointment which the Directors of the approaching Birmingham Festival must experience at the perfect precision and unqualified correctness of a Band whose numerical strength so far exceeds the standard they had laid down.13

Audience expectations of provincial festivals clearly changed in the course of the nineteenth century. The critic of the Newcastle Courant compared the 1842 Newcastle Festival, which professed a chorus of 164, with that of 1824, at which 62 vocalists and 55 instrumentalists were engaged: Eighteen years have elapsed since a Musical Festival was held in Newcastle, and in that period the prosperity of the town and the musical taste of its inhabitants have greatly increased. Performances, which at that time would have been deemed ample, and even magnificent, would now be considered meagre; and hence, the scale of the present Festival has been extended to meet the popular feeling, and to gratify a refined taste.14

Many festivals were established to raise funds for local charities; the costs of mounting such large-scale events were huge, however, and some succeeded in this aim whilst others ran at a loss. The 1768 Birmingham Festival was promoted by the Board of Trustees of the General Hospital in the hope of raising sufficient funds to complete the building of the Infirmary. It raised almost £800, of which £300 was donated to the hospital. The hospital benefited from the festivals of 1780 and 1784 also, and after the latter meeting the Trustees decided to establish a triennial festival as a permanent source of income. The Derby Festivals of 1788 and 1793 make no reference to any charitable aims, but from 1810 the festivals were held for the benefit of the Royal Derby Infirmary, and after the discontinuation of the series in 1831 an annual charity service, which included choral music, was held to raise funds for the Infirmary. There is no evidence that the 1791 and 1803 meetings in York were held for charitable purposes either, but from 1823 the festivals were given for the benefit of the unendowed hospitals of York, Leeds, Sheffield, of September 1835 (York: B. Wikeley & W. Sotheran, [1835]). Copies of the above are in the BL, and a notebook containing manuscript accounts for the 1835 festival is held at the Brotherton Library, Special Collections, University of Leeds, MS 445. For an overview of the York festivals, see David Griffiths, ‘A Musical Place of the First Quality’: a history of institutional music-making in York, c. 1550–1990 (York: York Settlement Trust, [1994]), pp. 83–102. See also Robert Demaine’s chapter (Chapter 9) in this current volume, at p. 190–91. 13 York Chronicle, 25 September 1823, quoted in Pritchard and Reid, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1970), p. 20. 14 Newcastle Courant, 16, 23, and 30 September 1842, quoted in Pritchard and Reid (1970), p. 18.

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and Hull, and the festival of 1856 was held for the benefit of the York County Hospital. The Newcastle Festival of 1796 ran at a loss, and a charity motive was introduced into the 1814 and 1824 festivals, in part as a means of securing a larger audience and therefore greater profits for the promoters. Receipts for the 1824 festival, following the engagement of Sir George Smart as conductor, rose to £3,846, of which one fifth was distributed amongst 13 county charities, Newcastle Infirmary receiving £192. Only the festival of 1842 appears to have been organized solely for charitable purposes.15 A tabulated statement of the Leeds Festival accounts from 1858–89 is shown in Figure 16.1, and indicates the amounts that were distributed between Leeds Infirmary, Dispensary, Women’s Hospital, and Fever Hospital. To put this in perspective, the price of a serial ticket for the 1858 festival was four guineas and Sir Michael Costa’s engagement as conductor for the 1874 festival was at a fee of 300 guineas.

Figure 16.1 Tabulated statement of accounts for Leeds Musical Festival, 1858–89, from Fred R. Spark and Joseph Bennett, History of the Leeds Musical Festivals, 1858–1889 (Leeds: Fred R. Spark; and London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1892), p. 371 15 1–22.

These data from Pritchard and Reid, ‘Some Festival Programmes’ (1970):

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Contrasting with the rising commercialism of many festivals, the educationalist John Curwen established a series of competitive and non-competitive festivals designed to improve standards of musical literacy. In 1874, some 3,000 children, supported by tenors and basses, took part in a Tonic Sol-fa Festival at the Crystal Palace before a reported audience of 29,573, and Curwen’s models inspired Mary Wakefield to hold a competitive festival in Westmorland in 1885.16 Reflecting the altruistic, philanthropic spirit of the time, these early examples gave birth to the modern competitive festival movement which, since 1921, has been regulated in Britain by the British Federation of Music Festivals (since 1991 part of the British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance, and Speech), to which over 300 festivals are affiliated.17 The Board of Education inspectors Geoffrey Shaw and Cyril Winn promoted non-competitive festivals for schools, and composers such as Gerald Finzi, Gustav Holst, John Ireland, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gordon Jacob, Peter Warlock, and Herbert Howells contributed works for the purposes of these amateur music-making events. Within the context of the festival movement, the musical festivals held annually in Bridlington 1894–1901, with a hiatus in 1902 and a final festival in 1903, represent an illuminating sidelight. This small east Yorkshire coastal town, dependent for its economy in the nineteenth century on its agriculture, market, and port, seems an unlikely place to have hosted a successful musical festival which in 1900 could boast a chorus of 201, an orchestra of 69, and a thriving musical society of 115 members (see Appendix 16.1).18 The population of Bridlington was recorded as only 16,762 in 1881, rising to 16,897 over the next ten years;19 but the town was ripe for an event of some kind to entertain its new middle classes. Chief among these were the merchants and professionals who were accustomed to a high standard of music-making in Hull, Leeds, and elsewhere in the West Riding, where they continued to work, but who had moved to the coast once Bridlington had been connected to the railway network. As the map in Figure 16.2 shows, the Hull–Bridlington railway was opened in 1846, and the following year the resort was linked to the York–Scarborough line. 16 Musgrave, The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace, pp. 186–8 (p. 188); Rosa Newmarch, Mary Wakefield: a memoir (Kendal: Atkinson & Pollitt, 1912); Mary Wakefield, Music Competitions (Kendal: T. Wilson, 1888). See Sarah Taylor’s chapter (Chapter 11) in this current volume for discussion of the Tonic Sol-fa movement. 17 See British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance, and Speech (accessed 28 January 2007). 18 For an account of the development of Bridlington, see David Neave, Port, Resort, and Market Town: a history of Bridlington (Hull: Hull Academic Press, 2000). For an extended study of the music festival, see Catherine Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, 1894–1903 (Leicester: Matador, c. 2004). Details of the Bridlington Musical Festivals presented here and elsewhere in this chapter are taken largely from the programmes, a bound set of which (donated by Herbert Thompson) can be found in the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI. 19 Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System Project, A Vision of Britain Through Time (accessed 13 February 2007).

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With the opening of the Market Weighton–Driffield line in 1890, a more direct route to the West Riding was secured, and by the late 1880s it was estimated that some 300,000 summer visitors descended on the resort each year.

Figure 16.2 Development of rail links with Bridlington, taken from D. Neave, Port, Resort, and Market Town: a history of Bridlington (Hull: Hull Academic Press, 2000), p. 171. Reproduced by permission The railways served not only to transport workers and holidaymakers to and from Bridlington, however, but also to bring a large percentage of the audience together with music critics to the festival from Hull, Sheffield, York, the West Riding, and further afield. Special late trains were scheduled on festival days, and each year the concert programme included a train timetable. A comparison of those for 1894 and 1903 (see Figures 16.3a and b) indicates that by the later date, many of the smaller, outlying districts had been added to the rail routes. Each year extensive, detailed, and generally complimentary reviews of the standard of music-making in Bridlington appeared not only in local newspapers, but also in the Leeds Mercury, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield Independent, Hull Daily Mail, Yorkshire Herald, and Yorkshire Post. By 1897 the festival had gained sufficient repute for the Daily Telegraph to send Joseph Bennett from London to cover it, and the Times published a review on 30 April 1900. The Times

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Figure 16.3a Details of special arrangements for late trains, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1894, from a bound set of programmes donated by Herbert Thompson, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI. Reproduced by permission critic, in his assessment of the incredible success of an event in what must have seemed to him something of a cultural backwater, shows a perfect comprehension of the situation: Bridlington, on Thursday last, held its seventh annual musical festival. That it has kept the ball rolling so long as this is not due to any exceptional enthusiasm for art in this little Yorkshire watering place, but to the energy and generosity of a neighbouring squire, Mr. Bosville, of Thorpe. Mr. Bosville, indeed, may be said to pervade the festival, greatly to its advantage. He compiles the programme, he trains the chorus, he conducts the performances, he houses the chief performers, from the prima donna down to the cymbalist, he enlivens the programme by his light-hearted but illuminating comments, his family add materially to the strength of the chorus and orchestra, and not least of his services, he supplies the inevitable deficit.

It is indeed true to say that the Bridlington Musical Festival owed its existence to Sir Alexander Bosville (1865–1933) of Thorpe Hall, knight baronet, and, from 1910, Macdonald of the Isles, Chief of Sleat.20 His wife, Lady Alice, was described by the Leeds Mercury of 1900 as possessing a ‘soprano voice that might have 20 For the Macdonalds’ biographies, see Lady Alice E. Macdonald, All the Days of My Life (London: John Murray, 1929), and A Sheaf of Memories: speeches on various occasions by Sir Alexander Macdonald of the Isles – gleanings garnered by his wife (London: A. Brown, 1933).

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Figure 16.3b Details of special arrangements for late trains, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1903, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI. Reproduced by permission

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ensured her professional success had she been born under a less fortunate star’,21 and she performed solos at each of the festivals. She rarely appeared as one of the principals, some of whom were brought in from the Royal College of Music, for example, but was given a separate slot in which she performed works such as Handel’s ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’ from Samson, Saint-Saëns’s setting with orchestral accompaniment of Hugo’s La fiancée du timbalier op. 82, Meyerbeer’s ‘Robert, toi que j’aime’ from Robert le Diable, or took a part in a small ensemble. From the 1899 festival onwards, when the Bosville children, Godfrey and Celia, were only eleven and ten years of age respectively, the orchestra lists included in the programmes show that they too contributed on triangle, tambourine, and bass drum. Indeed, the critic Herbert Thompson, writing in the Yorkshire Post of 29 April 1903, noted that the bass-drum part in Charles Harford Lloyd’s cantata Hero and Leander was provided especially for the Bridlington Festival performance by the composer, ‘that instrument being in the hands of an artist in whose discretion he had absolute reliance’. Rehearsals for the chorus occurred weekly during the winter months and twice weekly as the festival approached, and in 1903 the critic of the Sheffield Independent notes that they had had approximately 30 rehearsals for a programme that featured Josef Nešvera’s De Profundis, Lloyd’s Hero and Leander, Dvořák’s cantata The Spectre’s Bride op. 69, and a fragment of Act III of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger.22 The critic writing for the Times in 1900 observed further of Bosville, that: As he pays the piper, he naturally calls for the tune, and it must be said that his choice of ‘tunes’ always shows both discrimination and pluck. An East Riding chorus is, in stamina and experience, a very different thing from a West Riding one, and Mr. Bosville, perhaps wisely, dispenses with all outside help.23

This statement refers, of course, to the practice of importing singers from elsewhere, discussed above, and although a number of reviews comment on the Bridlington singers’ lack of tone, particularly in the tenor section,24 they are unanimous in praising the intelligence of their singing, as well as their sensitivity 21 Bridlington Local Studies Library, ‘Annals of Bridlington (1867–1942)’, a collection of press-cuttings in 59 vols, compiled by W. Taylor and A.E. Matthewman, vol. 17 (1900), clipping from the Leeds Mercury. 22 Sheffield Independent, 1903, cited in Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, p. 79. 23 Times, 30 April 1900. 24 For example, the Eastern Morning News comments of a performance of Elijah, in 1901, that ‘the chorus would have been better and more evenly balanced had there been more men’s voices’, whilst the Bridlington Chronicle observes that ‘there is some disparity in point of numbers, […] the tenors having suffered the greatest deficiency’. Of the 1903 festival, the Leeds Mercury notes that ‘the singing of the Chorus was intelligent, and in many respects highly commendable. The tone, it is true, was not big, whilst the male choralists were in a serious minority, and placed so high above the area of the hall as to discount their efforts’, and the Bridlington Free Press comments that ‘the chorus seemed thin, the tenors somewhat delicate’. Cited in Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, passim.

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and refinement of phrasing. Herbert Thompson, writing in the Yorkshire Post of 19 April 1903, summarizes well: Intelligence and a praiseworthy knowledge of their work the Bridlington singers showed, but breadth and force of tone is not theirs, and there is besides a want of proportion between the male and female voices which is unavoidable, but unfortunate. The Society might, as many do, draft a few leathern-lunged and trumpet-tongued singers from the West Riding, but they show a wholesome pride in determining to stand or fall on their own capacity, for which they deserve all possible praise.

The statistics given in Appendix 16.1 indicate the size of the chorus and orchestra at each of the festivals. They also show the number of honorary members of the society, and the prices of the tickets and programmes, which could be obtained by post following the practice adopted in London (by John Ella for the Concerts of the Musical Union) and in Birmingham (by the Birmingham Musical Examiner and Dramatic Review for the Town Hall Organ Concerts given by James Stimson).25 Bosville’s choice of programmes demonstrates his typically Victorian spirit of philanthropy. The Bridlington and Quay Gazette of 21 April 1899 noted that each year he sought to make them ‘more educational [and] more interesting’, and in 1900 the same newspaper drew attention to his efforts to ‘educate and raise the public taste’.26 His selections reflect contemporary tastes for the gothic, the exotic, and for musical seascapes, the latter no doubt encouraged by the festival’s briny location and perhaps also Bosville’s Scottish heritage (viz. Frederick Bridge’s The Inchcape Rock, Somervell’s The Forsaken Merman, Stanford’s The Revenge; a ballad of the fleet, Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ overture, items from Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Handel’s Water Music, and Joseph Eaton Faning’s Songs of the Vikings, the text by Somervile Gibney featuring the chorus ‘Lords of the waves we are, / Kings of the Seething Foam!’). Appendix 16.2 presents an alphabetical list of the works performed at the eight festivals. The ‘compulsory’ Handel and Mendelssohn items are no longer quite so evident, although Elijah was performed twice in 1895 and 1901 as what the Leeds Mercury critic described in 1901 as ‘a concession to public taste’.27 The result, he continues, was ‘indicated in the purchase of tickets, a process which Mendelssohn’s oratorio invariably encourages’.28 This blatantly commercial choice aside, the Sheffield Independent commented in 1903 that ‘the Bridlington Festival is responsible for a greater proportion of novelties than any other festival of the time’;29 these ‘novelties’ are indicated by asterisks in Appendix 16.2. 25 See Christina Bashford’s chapter (Chapter 17) in this current volume, and Catherine Dale, ‘The “Analytical” Content of the Concert Programme Notes Re-examined: its growth and influence in nineteenth-century Britain’, in Bennett Zon and Jeremy Dibble (eds), Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies, 2 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp. 199–222. 26 Bridlington and Quay Gazette, 27 April 1900. 27 Quoted in Bridlington Free Press, 19 April 1901. 28 Ibid. 29 Quoted in Bridlington and Quay Gazette, 8 May 1903.

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Admittedly, the composers commissioned by Bosville were predominantly local ones, including John Camidge (1853–1939), organist of Beverley Minster from 1876; Hull conductor John William Hudson (1855–1923); Thomas Tertius Noble (1867–1953), organist of York Minster from 1897; and George Thomas Patman (1875–1961), organist of the Bridlington Priory Church from 1901. They could not rival the composers approached by Leeds Festival, among whom were Gounod, Liszt, Verdi, Brahms, and Wagner (although none of these composers actually accepted commissions from Leeds). Bosville’s pioneering nature is apparent, however, in the fact that Bridlington festival gave only the third performance of Stanford’s Te Deum, which had been composed for the Leeds Festival in 1898, the first performance in Yorkshire of Elgar’s The Black Knight, and the first British performance with full orchestra of the oratorio De Profundis op. 49 by the Czech composer Josef Nešvera. For the 1896 festival Bosville commissioned an arrangement by Coleridge-Taylor, for solo voice and orchestra, of ‘The Three Ravens’, a melody first recorded by Ravenscroft in the early seventeenth century, and his accurate prediction of the young composer’s rise to fame was reflected in his performances in consecutive years from 1899 of Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, the Yorkshire première of The Death of Minnehaha, and Hiawatha’s Departure. Bosville’s programme notes, which, according to Lady Macdonald, achieved great notoriety and ‘were in request, not only in Bridlington, but even in places far from England’,30 are in the descriptive, narrative style of Tovey and Grove, but Bosville surpasses even these in his mastery of the metaphor and purposefully chosen anecdote. His notes were intended, he claimed in the Preface to the 1895 programme book, as ‘a gossipy guide book to the music which the Society proposes to perform’, and he states clearly his aim ‘to refrain from any definite expression of personal opinion’. He considers that ‘a programme writer should deal only with facts, and not attempt to lay down as law, what has been dictated by his own fancy’. His analyses do indeed abound with facts, and, though not a trained musician, Bosville demonstrates a secure knowledge of musical forms, key structure, motivic development, and technical terminology. An illustration of this may be seen in his explanation of the modal structure of Mendelssohn’s Lauda Sion in the 1897 programme note shown in Figure 16.4. For the most part, however, he intended that his notes should be followed as the works are performed, and, as the notes on Stanford’s The Revenge for the 1895 festival show (see Figure 16.5), in vocal works he gave the complete text in large typeface, drawing the attention of the audience to features of particular musical interest, such as the thematic structure and triplet accompaniment figure in the woodwind, in small type. All the notes are copiously illustrated by musical examples. The various festival venues are set out in Appendix 16.1. From 1894 to 1896 the performances were held in the Wellington Hall, which had been erected in 1877 by the Albert Temperance Society at a cost of £2,000 and subsequently purchased by the Salvation Army. It had a seating capacity of 1,000, but was described by 30 A Sheaf of Memories (London: A. Brown, 1933), p. 9. On the context for Bosville’s programme-note writing, see Christina Bashford’s chapter (Chapter 17) in this current volume.

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Figure 16.4 A.W.M. Bosville, part of a programme note for Mendelssohn, Lauda Sion, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1897, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI. Reproduced by permission

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Figure 16.5 A.W.M. Bosville, part of a programme note for Stanford’s The Revenge, Bridlington Musical Festival Programme, 1895, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI. Reproduced by permission

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the Bridlington and Quay Gazette of 18 May 1895 as ‘lamentably small’. As the numbers of festival personnel, audience members, and also tourists to Bridlington increased, the demand for places of entertainment escalated and constant petitions were made in the local press. In 1896 the resort was provided with two new venues: the New Spa and Gardens, and the People’s Palace, which became the festival venue from 1897 until its demise in 1903. The People’s Palace was erected at a cost of £8,000 and was capable of seating 1,500. It comprised a main hall 90ft long by 50ft wide, exclusive of the stage which measured 29ft by 20ft; there were dressing rooms on each side and a balcony on three sides, and in the basement there was a ballroom and a refreshment area.31 Given the apparent success of the festivals and frequent reference in the press reviews from 1903 to Bosville’s ‘re-assembling of the Society’ in preparation for the next one,32 the reasons for its abrupt end in 1903 must remain a matter of some conjecture. First is the question of accommodation. The People’s Palace soon became too small, and even in its first year an additional stage had to be erected, extending over 40ft into the auditorium.33 In 1901 the Leeds Mercury commented that ‘the People’s Palace is not an ideal concert hall, for the reason probably that it was never intended to be one’,34 and in 1903 there were several criticisms of its unfavourable acoustic.35 Second, by 1903 Bridlington no longer attracted the wealthy middle-class visitors who had patronized it some years earlier; it was the factory workers of Yorkshire and Lancashire who now flocked to the resort, and demanded new sources of entertainment. The bandstand, Floral Pavilion, Punch and Judy shows, and cinema all date from the first decade of the twentieth century, and in 1910 the People’s Palace, renamed the Hippodrome, began to show films too.36 The numbers of performers and honorary members of the Musical Society had decreased slightly since their peak in 1900, and, whilst the connection of Bridlington to the railway network served to bring visitors into Bridlington, it also transported the more serious-minded music lovers to the larger events and festivals in Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, and York. One explanation for the cessation of the festival is suggested by the absence of a festival in 1902, and it is in this context that Bosville’s personal circumstances must be considered. In 1901–02 he served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire, which involved him in numerous civic duties and left him with no time to rehearse for a festival in 1902.37 His heightened public profile, together with the increased civic

31 See Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, pp. 94–100. 32 Bridlington Free Press, 1 May 1903, and Bridlington and Quay Gazette, 8 May 1903. 33 See Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, p. 97. 34 Quoted in the Bridlington and Quay Gazette, 26 April 1901. 35 See Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, pp. 98 and 121. 36 Ibid., pp. 119–22. 37 Herbert Thompson notes that Bosville ‘has been selected as High Sheriff of Yorkshire for the coming year’ in the Yorkshire Post (20 March 1901), and suggests later that ‘Mr. Bosville, as High Sheriff of Yorkshire, will be too much engaged in conducting

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duties he undertook during his year of office, resulted in frequent invitations to serve on committees, to attend and deliver speeches at a variety of civic functions, and to play a large part in county administration. These increased commitments evidently took a toll on Bosville’s health, and in a letter dated 7 November 1903, written at Thorpe and addressed to the ‘Ladies and Gentlemen of the Chorus’, he expressed what must undoubtedly be regarded as the principal explanation for his precipitate decision to withdraw from the festival: I am sorry to inform you that a strained heart and a mild attack of rheumatic fever prevent me from undertaking the work of a Bridlington Musical Festival this season. I am glad to say however that Dr. Coleman gives me good hope that if I take things quietly at present I may be fully equal to the work again another year.38

It was also around this time that he embarked upon a long and time-consuming lawsuit to prove his Scottish clanship and rightful heritage as Macdonald of the Isles, Chief of Sleat, and premier baronet of Nova Scotia. After June 1910, when his clan descent was finally proven, he divided his time between Yorkshire and Scotland, where he secured possession of Duntulm, a family estate in the northwest of Skye; he assumed an equally active role in public life there, delivering speeches at the Highlanders’ Institute in Glasgow, and serving as chairman of the Skye Gathering.39 Such prolonged absences from Thorpe were clearly not conducive to the rigours of festival organization and a sustained rehearsal schedule throughout the winter months. Without any obvious successor to the role of festival conductor in Bridlington with the same commitment, musical inspiration, and financial magnanimity as Bosville had shown the town during the years that marked the turn of the century, it did indeed seem that the lifespan of the Bridlington Musical Festival had reached its natural end.

judges and directing the performance of fanfares to be able to undertake the artistic, literary, and financial responsibilities of a festival’ (29 November 1901). 38 Quoted in Dale, The Bridlington Musical Festival, p. 122. 39 See Lady Alice Macdonald, Sheaf of Memories, and All the Days of My Life.

Appendix 16.1

Organizational detail of the Bridlington Musical Festivals 1894–1901 and 1903

* Date

10 May 1894

16 May 1895

7 May 1896

6 May 1897

21 April 1898

20 April 1899

26 April 1900

18 April 1901

28 April 1903

Venue:

Wellington Hall

Wellington Hall

Wellington Hall

People’s Palace

People’s Palace

People’s Palace

People’s Palace

People’s Palace

People’s Palace

Size of chorus 147 (s|a|t|b): 58|37|23|29

147 58|37|23|29

150 55|44|23|28

153 55|44|25|29

170 57|52|26|35

195 67|52|37|39

201 64|57|37|43

189 59|59|29|42

184 57|61|29|37

Size of orchestra:

58

58

61

61

62

65

69

63

62

Honorary members:

81

81

105

107

105

114

115

115

112

Ticket prices 3s. (single/serial):

4s. / 6s.

4s. / 6s.

4s. & 5s. / 6s. & 10s.

4s. & 5s. / 6s. & 10s.

4s. & 6s. / 7s. 6d. & 10s. 6d.

4s. & 6s. / 7s. 6d. & 10s. 6d.

4s. & 6s. / 7s. 6d. & 10s. 6d.

4s. & 6s. / 7s. 6d. & 10s. 6d.

Cost and delivery of programmes:

6d. at the hall, or by post

6d. at the hall, or by post

1s. at the hall, or by post

1s. at the hall, or by post (+2d.)

1s. at the hall, or by post (+2d.)

1s. at the hall, or by post (+2d.)

1s. at the hall, or by post (+2d.)

1s. at the hall, or by post (+2d.)

*

2d.

All festivals took place on a Thursday.

Appendix 16.2 Works performed at the Bridlington Musical Festivals (1894–1901, and 1903), compiled by Duncan Boutwood from a bound set of programmes donated by Herbert Thompson, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Store Music A-0.02 BRI. Spellings and opus numbers have been taken directly from these programmes Composer

Piece

Year(s) performed

Beethoven

Chorus, ‘Hallelujah’, Mount of Olives, op. 85

1897

Overture, Coriolan, op. 62

1900

Overture, Egmont

1895

Overture, Leonore ‘No. III’, Fidelio

1901

Symphony no. 4 in B flat, op. 60

1903

Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67

1897

Symphony no. 6 in F (The ‘Pastoral’), op. 68

1899

Symphony no. 8 in F, op. 93

1896 and 1900

Berlioz

Overture, Le Carnaval Romain, op. 9

1900

Bizet

Séguidille and Habenera, Carmen

1895

Brahms

A Song of Destiny (Schicksalslied), op. 64

1896

J. Frederick Bridge

The Inchcape Rock, ballad for chorus and orchestra

1898

John Camidge

* Introduction and Three Dances for orchestra, op. 18

1897

* Marsyas and Apollo, dramatic scena for soli, chorus, and orchestra, op. 17

1896

* Overture to The Canterbury Tales

1901

* Suite for Orchestra, op. 16

1895

Frederic Clay

Song, ‘I’ll sing thee Songs of Araby’, Lalla Rookh

1894 and †1895

Coleridge-Taylor

* Song: ‘The Three Ravens’ (arr. and orch.)

1896

Composer

Piece

Year(s) performed

Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, op. 30

1899

The Death of Minnehaha, op. 30 no. 2

1900

Hiawatha’s Departure, op. 30 no. 4

1901

Michael Costa

‘God save the Queen/King’ (arr.)

Performed at each concert

Dvořák

The Spectre’s Bride, dramatic cantata, op. 69

1897 and 1903

Stabat Mater, op. 58

1898

Arthur C. Edwards

* Concerto in A for piano and orchestra

1899

Elgar

The Black Knight (Der Schwarze Ritter), op. 25

1899

Eaton Faning

Song of the Vikings

1894

A. Goring Thomas

‘The Swallow Song’, Esmeralda

1897

Recitative and air, ‘O vision entrancing’, Esmeralda

1895

Overture, Philémon et Baucis

1895

Romance and Ariette, Philémon et Baucis

1895

Romance, ‘Hast thou seen the young day blushing?’, Irene [La reine de Saba]

1894

‡Scena, ‘The Jewel Song’, Faust

1895

Grieg

Suite [no. 1], op. 46, Peer Gynt

1895 (omitting movement 1) and 1903

Handel

‘Let the Bright Seraphim’, Samson

1903

Minuet, Berenice

1894

Two Bourées, Water Music

1895

Gounod

Composer

Piece

Year(s) performed

Arthur Hervey

Overture, Youth

1903

J.W. Hudson

* The Troubadour, a ballad for contralto and orchestra

1897

Liza Lehmann

Vocal scena, Endymion

1900

Charles Harford Lloyd

Hero and Leander, dramatic cantata for soprano and baritone soli, chorus, and orchestra

1903

A.C. Mackenzie

Funeral March for chorus and orchestra, The Dream of Jubal

1901 (in memory of Queen Victoria)

Mendelssohn

Elijah, op. 70

1895 and 1901

The First Walpurgis Night, op. 60

1896

The Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang, eine Symphonie-Cantate), op. 52

1894 and 1898

Lauda Sion (Praise Jehovah), a sacred cantata, op. 73

1897

Notturno, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1894

Overture, The Hebrides (Fingal’s Höhle), op. 26

1899

Overture, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1900

Wedding March, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1895

Meyerbeer

Cavatina, ‘Robert, toi que j’aime’, Robert le Diable

1899

Josef Nešvera

De Profundis, op. 49

1903

T. Tertius Noble

Overture and Introductions to Acts II and III, Incidental music to The Wasps of Aristophanes

1900

G.T. Patman

* Suite for orchestra, Cinderella, op. 1

1903

Carl Reinecke

Prelude to Act V, King Manfred, op. 93

1897

Saint-Säens

La Fiancée du Timbalier, ballad, op. 82

1898

Composer

Piece

Year(s) performed

‘Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix’, Samson et Dalila

1901

Symphonic Poem, Danse macabre, op. 40

1898

Great is Jehovah the Lord (Die Allmacht), op. 79 no. 2, arranged with an accompaniment of men’s voices and orchestra by Franz Liszt

1897

Symphony in B minor (‘Unfinished’)

1896

Henry T. Smart

Serenade, ‘Wake, awake’

1894

Somervell

The Forsaken Merman, for bass solo, chorus, and orchestra

1897

Stanford

‘Nay, his is no victory’, Scena, Savonarola

1900

The Revenge; a ballad of the fleet, op. 24

1895 and 1900

Te Deum, op. 66

1899

The Golden Legend

1896

Music to the masque, The Merchant of Venice

1899

Marche Solennelle

1900

Schubert

Sullivan Tschaikowsky

Symphony no. 6 in B minor (The ‘Pathetic’)

1898

Verdi

Requiem

1900

Wagner

‘Der Ritt der Walküren’ [Act I, Die Walküre]

1896 and 1899

Fragment from Act III (the naming of the ‘Dream-song’; Hans Sachs’ Chorale; the ‘Prize song’; Hans Sachs’ song; finale), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

1903

Hüldigungs Marsch

1901

Overture, The Flying Dutchman

1897 and 1901

Overture, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

1895, 1898 and 1903

Composer

Weber

* † ‡

Piece

Year(s) performed

Overture, Tannhäuser

1894 and 1896

Prelude [Act I], Lohengrin

1897

Prelude, Act III, Lohengrin

1895

Prelude, Parsifal

1897

Quintett, Die Meistersinger

1895

Senta’s ballad, Act II, The Flying Dutchman

1901

Siegfried Idyll

1900

Spinning Chorus, Act II, The Flying Dutchman

1901

Wotan’s ‘Abschied’ and ‘Feuerzauber’, Act III, Die Walküre

1896 and 1899

Cavatina, ‘Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle’, Der Freischütz

1894

Concertstück for piano and orchestra, op. 78

1898

Overture and Scena from Act II, Euryanthe

1903

Scene and aria, ‘Wie nahte mir der Schlummer’ and ‘Leise, leise’, Der Freischütz

1899

Composed specially for the Bridlington Festival. A slip pasted into the 1895 programme announced that Clay’s ‘I’ll sing thee Songs of Araby’ was to be performed ‘by special request of the Members of the Chorus’. Thompson noted in pencil on his programme that this was ‘Sung in Italian’!

Chapter 17

Educating England: Networks of Programme-Note Provision in the Nineteenth Century1 Christina Bashford

I write […] in a frantic hurry to know if you will let us have your G. Minor Bennett Symphony analysis for our programme for the 21st? + if so if Dickens & Evans will hire us the blocks of music as before? I imagine tomorrow is your Palace day, if so, & if you have a spare minute would you mind asking them to send me the blocks + a copy of the programme to print from. I will send you a proof[.] Letter from Charles Stanford, Cambridge, to George Grove [1878]2 Requests were read for the use of notes from our programmes at concerts at Reading and Brighton. In connection with the latter, a series of six, acknowledgements were to be made on the programmes. Minutes of the South Place Sunday Popular Concerts, London, dated 5 November 19113

The spread of programme notes across nineteenth-century England may seem an unlikely topic for an historical essay, and the casual reader flicking through this volume might be forgiven for assuming the subject to be an area of limited importance and marginal, bibliographic interest. But, as it turns out, this quirky and seemingly dry material belies a topic of surprising richness and broad cultural significance, offering a range of insights: into the relationship between musical life in London and that of the regions; into the development of common ways of categorizing and describing music; and into the shaping of nationwide 1 I wish to thank David Wright and John Wagstaff for their practical help and constructive comments on the text while I was shaping this chapter for publication. For research assistance I am also indebted to Andrew Woolley. 2 BL, Add. MS 55,239, f. 5 (see also note 21 below). I am grateful to Leanne Langley, co-author (with Simon McVeigh) of London Concert Life, 1880–1914: transforming a culture (CUP, forthcoming), for alerting me to this letter, and to material in the Glasgow Choral Union archive cited later in this chapter. 3 For this quotation, and other information on the South Place concerts, I thank Alan Bartley, author of ‘Chamber Music Concerts in Suburban London, 1895–1915: aspects of repertoire, performance, and reception’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Oxford Brookes University, 2004).

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modes of listening. These last two arguably endured for several generations. The driving force behind the development of the programme-note phenomenon in nineteenth-century England came, as we shall see, from a mixture of happenstance, cultural values, and the practicalities of commercial concert life. And it is with the conditions ‘on the ground’ that this chapter begins. Among the numerous tasks facing the nineteenth-century English concert organizer was that of providing reading matter for audiences. Whether this amounted simply to supplying the words to the ubiquitous songs in concerts, or to writing full-blown discursive programme notes on all the items in what would inevitably be a lengthy programme, the job ranked along with artist hiring, venue booking, advertising, ticket printing, and so on, as one of those unseen, but important, behind-the-scenes activities. At the opening of the century, a ‘book of words’ was the most that audiences could have expected; but towards the century’s close, the word-book had been supplemented or supplanted, at those concerts that promulgated serious musical values and what the Victorians called ‘the best music’, by explanatory notes about the musical works. The task of filling a programme booklet, week after week, with a series of explanatory essays had become a considerable practical challenge – not least because concerts were longer and contained much more music than they do today. Small wonder, then, that concert organizers – those crucial ‘enablers’, whose activities are so often obscured from historical view, and, even when not obscured, are usually undervalued by modern commentators – should sometimes seek pragmatic solutions, like those quoted at the head of this chapter. The practice of providing listeners at ‘serious’ concerts with booklets of words to enhance their appreciation of the music – what we have come to call ‘programme notes’ – began in earnest in London during the mid-1840s and 1850s, at a time when concert life was expanding vigorously.4 Chief among the prototypes were the celebrated notes provided for John Ella’s Musical Union chamber concerts in the West End of London (1845–81), and the Crystal Palace Saturday Orchestral Concerts out at Sydenham (1856–1902) under the auspices of George Grove,5 both of which epitomized the Victorian impulse to educate and edify. As the century 4 The growth of concert life, and increased middle-class demand for music, in the 1830s and 1840s was first highlighted by William Weber in his Music and the Middle Class: the social structure of concert life in London, Paris, and Vienna (London: Croom Helm, 1975; 2nd edn, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003). For a broader historical discussion of trends across the century, see Cyril Ehrlich’s insightful cameo of ‘Concerts and the Shilling Public’ in his The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century: a social history (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), pp. 59–65. 5 Grove died in 1900, but the Crystal Palace orchestral concerts continued until the 1902–03 season: see Michael Musgrave, The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace (Cambridge: CUP, 1995), pp. 127–9. Grove’s skill as a programme writer is discussed in ibid., pp. 113–16, and set in a broader context in Christina Bashford, ‘Not Just “G.”: towards a history of the programme note’, in Michael Musgrave (ed.), George Grove, Music, and Victorian Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 115–42, 301–17. On Ella’s Musical Union concerts, see the author’s forthcoming monograph, The Pursuit of High Culture: John Ella and chamber music in Victorian London (Boydell & Brewer).

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progressed, programme notes came to be provided outside the metropolis, and by the 1870s and 1880s they were in evidence at English provincial concerts, and in Scotland too, a good generation before they became a recognizable phenomenon in any European centres.6 Real proliferation, however, came only between the late 1880s and the onset of the First World War, when concert life was burgeoning, and when notes were regularly and repeatedly used at concerts both in London and in regional urban centres such as Birmingham, Huddersfield, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Worcester. Charles Ainslie Barry, Sydney Grew, Edgar Jacques, Alfred Kalisch, Ernest Newman, Rosa Newmarch, Percy Pitt, and Herbert Thompson were among the spectrum of writers who frequently contributed them. Facing all such authors was the central issue, indeed the eternal conundrum, of how to explain instrumental music adequately in words. The particular challenge lay with the relatively unfamiliar symphonic repertoire, which formed the staple of most serious concerts: essentially the (big) orchestral and chamber works of Beethoven and the Austro-German succession up to Brahms, along with a few nottoo-distant cousins – for instance, symphonic poems by Berlioz and Strauss, and orchestral selections from Wagner. Many writers struck a balance between factual information about the music and its genesis on the one hand, and helpful guidance for the listener on the other. Some side-stepped issues of musical construction altogether, and focused on biography, compositional history, or subjective interpretation, the last-named being particularly germane to works intended to carry descriptive or narrative meanings, though it was equally capable of being extended to absolute music. August Manns, in 1861, saw the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, originally (as he knew) dedicated to Napoleon, as a portrayal of the ‘vast, exalted, energetic hero – the destroyer of slavery and restriction’, and felt the slow movement embodied ‘the destruction of the life and happiness of thousands’.7 But the lion’s share of English writers presented aural guidance to the music, and many of them mapped out the thematic and structural shapes of each work, often using terms (such as second subject, recapitulation, and diminution) that implied a familiarity on the part of their audience with music’s technical vocabulary, alongside sprinklings of metaphor and descriptive language (melodies could be ‘delicious’, woodwinds could ‘chuckle’, a transition could be ‘long and stormy’, and so on). The result was a genre of writing typically dubbed ‘Analytical’ or ‘Historical and Analytical’ notes. The lengthy instrumental, and often abstract, movements of much symphonic music – it is all too easy to forget – offered considerable challenges to the growing hordes of concert listeners, to whom much repertoire was both unfamiliar and difficult to grasp. What is more, concentrated listening and cerebral engagement 6 Although Scottish traditions lie outside the remit of this chapter, the reader should note that concerts in Edinburgh (Reid Concerts) and Glasgow (Choral Union) were among those to provide programme literature in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and that Scotland was also part of the programme-note network discussed here. 7 Crystal Palace programme, 9 March 1861, RCM (Centre for Performance History).

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with symphonic music were skills that had to be learned. The note-writers wrote about most works at great length: up to 2,000 words for a symphony were not uncommon or particularly remarkable for listeners who belonged to a predominantly reading culture. They also typically interpolated into their prose thematic extracts in music type, sometimes even in piano score. The result was a series of imagined ‘aural roadmaps’, which enabled audiences to follow the linear succession of events in each movement, and which stood to shape a particularly nineteenth-century style of structure-oriented narrative listening. The use of notation, scarcely imaginable in programme notes today, clearly befitted a culture where a rudimentary musical literacy was commonplace and cheap pianos were being purchased in tens of thousands for middle-class homes. At the same time, access to good-quality performances in the concert hall was perforce limited (even in 1890, the number of times one could hear, say, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in a London concert hall would have been few), and re-encounters through gramophone technology were still a long way off. Being able to take the notes home after the concert and use them to trigger the musical memory, or as the basis for home study in tandem with piano transcriptions and the like, was a great bonus for listeners, and enhanced the ‘trophy’ value of the items. Programme notes were usually sold at the door for a few pence, on top of the more costly expense of a subscription or ticket; but in spite of their relatively low cost, their status was by no means ephemeral. Many bound sets of programmes, through-paginated and with indexes to the works covered, still exist today, and are testament not only to the collecting habit, but also to the demanding appetite of the Victorian concert-goer for elucidation and self-improvement by reference to informed authorities.8 In the regions, as in London, the types of concert for which programme notes were supplied were models of cultural seriousness, with aspirant audiences to match. For much of the century, this typically meant institutions with names like ‘philharmonic society’ or ‘orchestral union’ that were imbued with highminded principles and connotations of quality: as frequent introducers of new symphonic works to audiences, they took seriously the responsibility of, and need for, explanation.9 For example, in Liverpool, from the late 1860s, the city’s Philharmonic Society regularly treated listeners to full diets of good symphonic fare (albeit leavened by songs), and sold sixpenny books of explanatory analytical notes to aid audience appreciation. In time, the regional festivals – for instance Birmingham, Sheffield, and Leeds (where orchestral music as well as

8 See also Percy Scholes’s comment, in the article on ‘Annotated Programmes’ in his Oxford Companion to Music (London: OUP, 1938; 10th (rev.) edn, 1970, p. 41), that Grove’s programmes were ‘stored up by many regular attendants at the [Crystal Palace] concerts, so that sets of them occasionally come into the market today’. 9 That said, this sort of provincial concert was in the minority during this period. The archetype remained the miscellaneous, mixed programme for which just a ‘book of words’ to the songs was available.

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choral was performed) – joined in as purveyors of this special brand of musical erudition.10 That said, the supply and nature of programme notes in the English regions was not a simple matter of localized imitations of London practice. Rather, there seems to have been a set of relationships between urban centres – relationships that amounted to a casual network of programme-note provision and borrowing, all supporting the educative wing of Victorian concert life. These findings have come into focus slowly, and only after piecing together scraps of information (typically small-print programme detail, or evidence in letters and so forth) and comparing the texts of a range of concert programmes from London, Manchester, Liverpool, Huddersfield, Birmingham, Oxford, and a few other centres.11 In this chapter I seek to explain how the network manifested itself and how I believe it operated, and then to offer a few thoughts about the light it sheds on the relationship between centres of concert life in particular, and on the spread of English music appreciation more generally. Articulating the story is a chronology that divides the period and its concert history into two: from 1850 up to the 1890s; and from the 1890s to the First World War. Close acquaintance with programme notes for concerts given in a range of English towns and cities in the second half of the nineteenth century reveals how frequently programme notes written for one particular institution were reused at other concerts, often hundreds of miles away. In practice, this was not just a case of London notes popping up in the provinces (although this happened a good deal), but also involved notes from regional centres being used in metropolitan concerts or other regional ones. For instance, London notes were read in places as far apart as Bristol and Bradford, and notes from Gloucester and Norwich were disseminated in London. Underpinning this ‘recycling’ of material were, essentially, two types of activity: first of all, a form of ‘syndication’ – that is, 10 The organizers of some one-off chamber or orchestral events were moved to provide informative literature, particularly as the culture for programme notes grew. Examples here might include the notes provided by local writers Andrew Deakin and S.S. Stratton for Fanny Davies’s annual Birmingham concerts in the 1890s, and those provided by the cellist of the London Trio, W.E. Whitehouse, when the group gave the first Huddersfield performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio op. 50 (1902). 11 The principal programme collections consulted were those held in Manchester Central Library (Henry Watson Music Library); the Bodleian Library, Oxford (John Johnson Collection); Huddersfield Public Library (Local Studies Library); Birmingham Central Library (Local Studies and History Department); Bristol Reference Library (Local Studies Library); the British Library, London; and the Royal College of Music, London (Centre for Performance History; and the Library). While this chapter does not purport to be a comprehensive study of provincial note provision in England, my hope is that it will stimulate further work in this area. The Concert Programmes Project, engaged in inventorizing collections of surviving programmes, promises to open up this topic considerably for future research; see Rupert Ridgewell, Concert Programmes in the UK and Ireland: a preliminary report (London: IAML and Music Libraries Trust, 2003).

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the sanctioned reprinting of notes in new contexts – and, second, unauthorized reprinting in ways that we would now see as intellectual property theft, or ‘plagiarism’. Given the slow pace and complex practicalities of organizing concerts in the age before modern technology, not to mention the financial precariousness of concert-giving during the period, it is by no means surprising that, when it came to programme-note provision, ways of minimizing costs and of fast-tracking tasks should have loomed large in many enterprises. Facts and figures on this aspect of the Victorian concert business are frustratingly thin on the ground, particularly for provincial activities, and some of the financial detail underpinning this aspect of the chapter has, perforce, been based on the ledgers of a London, as opposed to a regional, institution: in this case, the exceptionally comprehensive archive of the Philharmonic Society, now housed in the British Library. Self-evidently, too, financial margins in producing programme booklets for one-off concerts would have been tight: although print was cheap, setting up music type for the music examples increased expenditure, and there was also, usually, a writer to be paid; added to that, there was no guarantee that the entire audience would buy programmes. Caveats about typicality notwithstanding, it seems likely, to judge from evidence from the Philharmonic ledgers of the 1870s, that sales of programmes rendered only small profits at best, and that there may well have been considerable difficulties in breaking even.12 This must have been especially true before selling advertising space in programmes (a phenomenon largely evident only from the 1890s) provided the possibility of additional revenue to offset expenditure; while from our contemporary perspective, an institution’s willingness to provide programme notes as something of a ‘loss leader’ in the pursuit of high educational values seems nothing short of remarkable. That said, many societies must have found ways of absorbing or containing costs. The Birmingham Musical 12 For example, in March 1870 the Philharmonic’s directors set out its parameters for the season’s programmes, requesting the note-writer, G.A. Macfarren, to limit the length of his notes and to take a reduced fee, because ‘last season the sale of the Book was a considerable loss’ (see the Directors’ Minutes for 1870; BL, Loan 48.2/6). Some corroborating evidence for the difficulty of breaking even can be found in the numbers of programmes sold in the 1877–79 seasons; see the Philharmonic’s accounts for these years in Loan 48.9/11–13. These accounts show, for instance, that in the 1877 season, sales per concert amounted to between 354 and 572 copies (a total income over the season of £110 12s. 6d.). The costs of producing the 1877 programmes included a fee to Macfarren of £40, and printing costs of £171 13s. 6d., suggesting a possible overall loss as high as £101 1s. While it may be that the printing costs for these programmes also included the expenses of producing the season’s handbills and tickets, the difference is not likely to have been significant, and an overall loss on the programmes would seem to have been inevitable. (This last point is endorsed by evidence from the Scottish regions: materials in the archive of the Glasgow Choral Union for 1888 suggest that around 75 per cent of that society’s annual printing bill would have been taken up with paying for the programmes, the costs of which could range between £167 12s. 6d. and £220 0s. 6d. See the financial estimates in the Minutes of the Glasgow Choral Union for 17 October 1888, preserved in the Archives of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow.)

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Union, for one, seems to have minimized expenditure on programme notes by providing only brief accounts of the works, and foregoing the expense of musictype illustration.13 Others, as we shall see, sought to minimize or eliminate the cost of paying an author. To do this they used pre-existing notes, whether by fair means or foul. Let us first consider the ‘fair’. One of the main destinations for the sanctioned reprinting of London notes in the provinces was locally-organized concerts, which, even if garnished by a few London-based soloists, were nevertheless events indigenous to the regions. Crystal Palace programmes were a favourite source of notes on orchestral repertoire. The Liverpool Philharmonic, for instance, began to supply notes for its own concerts during the conductorship of Julius Benedict (1867–80),14 introducing several from the Crystal Palace signed by Grove or August Manns, or with acknowledgement of their Sydenham provenance.15 As a credit-line, the following, taken from a programme note for Frederic Cowen’s Symphony in C minor, is typical: ‘Extract from the Crystal Palace Book of Words, 9th April, 1870.’16 With its undisputed reputation for innovation, good performances, and erudition, the Crystal Palace brought Liverpool audiences quality by association, as well as a sense that they were keeping up with Londoners. Grove’s notes, in particular, were exemplars of the genre: insightful, informative, lucid, and able to ‘speak’ to the general reader. Similar things had been happening a decade or so earlier in Manchester, where Charles Hallé used notes at his chamber concerts from the early 1850s. For these, the main source of top-notch London quality was the Musical Union, whose notes by John Ella had blazed the trail. Hallé was closely associated with Ella and the Union, eventually becoming one of its esteemed performers. In the 1850s he wrote to Ella asking if he would supply analyses for Manchester, on one occasion signing off with the words: ‘Now adieu, my dear Ella, & please do write

13 The South Place Sunday Popular Concerts, run by the South Place Ethical Society in Finsbury, London, offer a further example. Admission was free (there was a retiring collection); programmes cost a penny. 14 According to Ruby Lewis, ‘The Educational Functions of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society 1840–1990’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Liverpool, 1998), p. 245. 15 Other examples of the recycling of Crystal Palace notes can be found in the programmes of the Manchester Hallé orchestra (for its Beethoven centenary cycle of 1870), Cambridge University Musical Society, and for the Reid Concerts in Edinburgh. The Edinburgh borrowings are described in Catherine Dale, ‘The “Analytical” Content of the Concert Programme Note Re-examined: its growth and influence in nineteenthcentury Britain’, in Jeremy Dibble and Bennett Zon (eds), Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies, 2 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp. 199–222 (at p. 203). 16 This example appears in the Liverpool Philharmonic programmes for 3 October 1871 and 27 January 1874 (copies in the BL). The note was unsigned in both the Crystal Palace and Liverpool booklets. The Liverpool programmes also contained several unsigned notes with no indication of origin (perhaps they were written afresh by Benedict; or they may have been plagiarized, as per the discussion below).

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me the Analysis. The fact is I should like to have lots of them done by you’.17 Ella seems to have complied by sending notes he had already written for London; they were duly printed in Hallé’s programmes with the attribution ‘Ella’s Record’.18 Another source for Hallé was the somewhat verbose and self-consciously technical notes written by George Macfarren, who was at the same time supplying notes for the short-lived London Quartett Association concerts (1852–54), at which Hallé had also performed.19 Hallé’s use of Ella’s and Macfarren’s notes points up, in no uncertain terms, the importance of personal contacts to the workings of English concert life, and one might further wonder whether a similar alliance was operating from Liverpool between Benedict and Grove.20 Certainly, Charles Stanford’s friendship with Grove was a useful conduit when a programme note was required for the performance of Sterndale Bennett’s Symphony in G minor by the Cambridge University Musical Society in May 1878.21 On many occasions, as was the case with Hallé’s use of Ella’s material, the notes (both the letterpress and the music) were reset by a local printer, but at other times the music-printer’s blocks were dispatched from London. Stanford’s letter to Grove about the Bennett symphony suggests this was an acceptable practice for minimizing expenditure, as does the occurrence of identical music type in programmes for the Crystal Palace and the Liverpool Philharmonic.22 17 John Ella Collection (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford), MS 17 (miscellaneous materials relating to Charles Hallé), letter extracts dated 1 March 1852. Requests for analyses of works by Mozart (String Quartet in A) and Beethoven (Sonata for Piano and Violin, op. 96) are also preserved in this manuscript (these dated 1854 and 1855 respectively). 18 The reference here is to Ella’s Record of the Musical Union, published in London between 1845 and 1881. Reprinted notes for successive Hallé concerts rarely included the credit-line. 19 In some cases, Macfarren’s Manchester notes may have preceded the London ones, and may have been recycled in the metropolis (as noted on p. 353) rather than originating there. Hallé used Macfarren’s notes in his first season of concerts (1852–53); but he seems to have preferred Ella’s lighter touch, for on at least one occasion Macfarren’s notes were heavily cut and edited when reprinted for subsequent use, and from the 1853–54 season Ella appears to have been the preferred writer when new notes were required. Copies of the Hallé programmes are in Manchester Central Library (Henry Watson Music Library). 20 That the two men were professionally acquainted is indicated in Percy M. Young’s George Grove, 1820–1900: a biography (London: Macmillan, 1980). 21 As quoted at the head of this chapter. The concert in question appears to have been held on 21 May 1878. 22 See, for example, the reuse in Liverpool of Grove’s note on the Brahms Violin Concerto (as published for the Crystal Palace concert of 3 March 1888) in the programme for 25 October 1892 (copy in the BL). In cases of authorized reproduction such as this, it seems to have been usual for the letterpress to be reset, but for the music type to be reused where possible. Grove, in any case, was always keen to make changes to his prose, as his letter to the [London] Philharmonic Society of 11 March 1885 indicates: ‘I am delighted that anything of mine should be of service to the dear old Philharmonic Society […] Should you in future wish to use my remarks, I would only stipulate that you will kindly direct the

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Apparently more straightforward were the procedures supporting the supply of London programme notes to provincial concerts given exclusively by visiting artists and ensembles, particularly where the performers’ appearance was arranged by a metropolitan agent, himself negotiating and liaising with local functionaries. Agents were, of course, a late-century phenomenon, and by 1900 were becoming the new, business-like face of artists within the modernizing and increasingly international concert industry. One of the earliest, S. Arthur Chappell, who represented Joseph Joachim, Clara Schumann, Alfredo Piatti, and other celebrated performers, actually took his Monday Popular Concerts of Chamber Music from St James’s Hall in London to Liverpool, complete with performers and analytical programme notes; extant booklets from concerts given in Liverpool in the 1870s, printed in London, tell much of this story (see Figure 17.1).23 By the turn of the century, some agents appear to have viewed the supply of programme notes, notably when the repertoire demanded, as part of the services offered to regional venues or concert societies. For agents involved in organizing provincial tours, all-purpose programme booklets prepared and printed in London were surely both highly practical and cost-effective. In the space of two weeks in autumn 1895, for example, the firm of Vert took the celebrated Richter Concerts and their programmes of orchestral music from London to Brighton, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Bradford; the same booklets of analytical notes, some in fact originating from the Crystal Palace and printed there for London audiences, served all provincial cities alike, and spread the musical insights of Grove, C.A. Barry, and Edward Dannreuther (alongside adverts for pianos from Erard and others) far afield.24 Likewise, part of the package for the violinist Kubelik’s provincial tour of 1903, organized by Hugo Görlitz of New Bond Street, London, were descriptive and printer to send direct to me at Lower Sydenham the proofs in each case, as I never like these things to reappear without having an opportunity of correction or of adding anything that has occurred to me in the meantime’ (BL, Loan 48.13/14, ff. 214–15). Moreover, setting the Crystal Palace programmes without emendation was not sensible, since so many of the notes contained information specific to the performance in question. 23 Inside the booklet, the notes were reprinted verbatim, without deleting information that was relevant only to the London context. Chappell’s notes for the Monday Pops in London were also reused, with permission and printed acknowledgments, at Chamber Concerts in Huddersfield in the 1880s. Programmes for these concerts, which were part of the Highfield Lectures series, are located in Huddersfield Public Library (Local Studies Department). New covers and title-pages were printed, but the notes themselves were not changed: they were printed in London by Mallett using the same blocks. The result again was that some information, local to the London series, was meaningless in the new context (such as references to earlier performances given at the Monday Pops). 24 This, and the other recycling of Grove’s Crystal Palace notes mentioned above, may have been behind H.C. Colles’s observation, in his revision of Grove’s article ‘Analytical Notes’ for the third edition of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. H.C. Colles (5 vols, London and New York: Macmillan, 1927–28), that Grove’s notes, ‘more than any others, established the practice [of programme-note provision] in the English concertroom’: vol. 1, pp. 84–5.

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analytical notes by Alfred Kalisch.25 And even if a musician or ensemble did not have an agent, performers might well organize concert literature themselves as a measure of their artistic seriousness. So much for London feeding the regions. To a limited extent, the regions were also nourishing London, most especially the Crystal Palace, where varied and often innovative programming, not to mention a relentless cycle of weekly concerts needing notes, seems to have led the programme department to seize opportunities as they arose. The result was the reprinting in London of notes originating in concert and festival programmes from places as far apart as Norwich and Edinburgh, with printed credit-lines that effectively celebrated Sydenham’s associations with the regions’ concert culture. The notes in question were mostly on music which, while new to the Crystal Palace, had been given its first performance in the provinces. Writing about unfamiliar music was patently time-consuming for note-writers – we know it required scores to be provided in good time26 – and it clearly added to editorial pressures; besides, the Crystal Palace, in deciding to schedule the new music in the first place, would almost certainly have been made aware of any provincial première, and the necessary social contacts would have been established. Table 17.1 provides a list of the notes that were fed in from the regions. They were complemented by a good deal of borrowing from other London concerts: the Philharmonic Society, London Wagner Society, and Royal Albert Hall concerts, to name just a few. In the case of Cambridge and Liverpool, and quite possibly other centres too, an element of reciprocation may have been at work between these institutions and the Crystal Palace. At the outset, the note-writer (if not part of the concert institution, as Grove was at the Crystal Palace, and Ella at the Musical Union, for instance) would normally have been paid by the concert society, or by whoever had commissioned him. Remuneration could be respectable, and, at any rate, a useful supplement to regular journalistic earnings.27 A comprehensive analysis of note-writers’ fees is hampered by the paucity of documentation, but the case of Macfarren and the Philharmonic Society in London may nevertheless prove instructive. In 1869 Macfarren was hired by the Philharmonic to write the notes for the society’s

25 A copy of this programme is preserved in Huddersfield Public Library (Local Studies Department). 26 The following, in a short note by August Manns on Popper’s Cello Concerto for the Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts (10 October 1891), makes the point: ‘As the score […] was not received till Friday morning, it is impossible to give the usual analysis’, copy of programme in the RCM (Centre for Performance History). It seems that composers were rarely asked to write notes for their own music. 27 Most note-writers also wrote music journalism, patching together an income from a range of sources. (Some critics did other, non-journalistic work as well.) Fees varied, but it seems unlikely that any paper or journal paid a regular critic, mid-century, more than £200 per year, and quite possibly no more than £50. My source here is Christopher Kent, ‘Periodical Critics of Drama, Music & Art, 1830–1914: a preliminary list’, Victorian Periodicals Review, 13 (1980): 31–55, which gives an indication of the range of fees in arts journalism, and journalists’ incomes, across the century.

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Figure 17.1 Title-page of the programme booklet for the Monday Popular Concert in Liverpool, 17 February 1874. © British Library Board. All rights reserved (shelfmark: P.431/75)

Table 17.1

The Crystal Palace Concerts: examples of notes recycled from the regions

Source*

Notes on

Date(s) used at Crystal Palace**

Writer

Bath Jubilee concerts

C.T. Speer: cantata, The Day Dream

1888

unsigned

Birmingham

A.C. Mackenzie: Violin Concerto, op. 32

1886

unsigned

Cambridge University Musical Society

Joseph Joachim: Elegiac Overture

1877 1878–94

unsigned G.A.M. [G.A. Macfarren]

Edinburgh Edinburgh

Hamish MacCunn: The Cameronian’s Dream H.S. Oakley: Festal March ‘Edinburgh’

1890–92 1876

J. Dibdin unsigned

Gloucester Chronicle

Rosalind Ellicott: Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra

1896

unsigned

Leeds Festival Leeds Festival Leeds Festival Leeds Festival

1892 1895 1887

unsigned J.B. [Joseph Bennett] J.B. [Joseph Bennett] J.B. [Joseph Bennett]

Leeds Festival Leeds Festival Leeds Festival

Frederick Cliffe: Symphony no. 2 in E minor Edward German: Suite in D minor F.K. Hattersley: Concert Overture in E minor A.C. Mackenzie: Pibroch for Violin and Orchestra, op. 42 Arthur Sullivan: Music to Macbeth Arthur Sullivan: The Martyr of Antioch Thomas Wingham: Overture, Mors Janua Vitae

Liverpool (Philharmonic) Liverpool (Philharmonic)

J.F. Barnett: The Lay of the Last Minstrel Mendelssohn: Overture, Ruy Blas

1875 1873–75 1877

1892 1889 1892 1880

unsigned unsigned unsigned unsigned unsigned additional material by ‘G.’ [George Grove]

Table 17.1 cont’d Source*

Notes on

Date(s) used at Crystal Palace**

Writer

Liverpool (Philharmonic)

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto no. 2 in G minor

1879–1900

unsigned

Norwich Festival Norwich Festival Norwich Festival Norwich Festival

Frederick Cliffe: Violin Concerto in D minor Edward German: Symphony no. 2 in A minor Paderewski: Piano Fantasia, op. 19 C.H.H. Parry: cantata, L’Allegro ed Il Pensieroso

1896 1893 1893 1890

J.B. [Joseph Bennett] J.B. [Joseph Bennett] unsigned J.B. [Joseph Bennett]

Oxford, Eaglesfield Music Society

Ebenezer Prout: Symphony no. 4 in D major

1887

J.H.M. [J.H. Mee]

*

This information comes directly from the programmes, some of which credit only ‘an Edinburgh programme book’ for example, without specifying the performing society or organization. ** Formulas such as 1876–94 indicate that notes appeared during a range of years, though not necessarily in every single year within the period indicated.

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eight concerts that season – some 60-odd pieces of music28 – for 40 guineas (far above what was earned by any player). It was a job that would have also involved selecting music examples and preparing them, sometimes in short score. However, the society’s profit margins, as noted earlier, proved to be problematic, and when a loss was made on the programmes that year, Macfarren’s fee was beaten down in the subsequent two seasons (1870 and 1871) to 20 guineas – but that was still twice the amount paid to Clara Schumann for an appearance in 1870.29 More difficult to determine is whether an institution made money from passing programme notes on to other societies. In the period up to the 1890s – to judge from the printed credit-lines – permission to borrow programme notes was normally granted by the concert institution that had originally printed them, rather than by the note-writer. But the archival evidence studied so far gives no indication that official payments for reuse were made in such circumstances, either to the originating society or the writer.30 Quite possibly the credits were simply published and the author identified on moral grounds. At the same time, striking financial deals over the loan of programme notes might well have seemed, to an institution, not worth the administrative bother; far better perhaps to develop good reciprocal relations with sister bodies – you never quite knew when you might want to borrow parts, not to mention programme notes, or to beg other favours. George Grove (secretary to the Crystal Palace concerts), in a letter to the Philharmonic’s secretary Francesco Berger in 1885, referred to having allowed his Crystal Palace analyses to be reused in Philharmonic programme books ‘without [making] any charge to the [Philharmonic] Society’ – Grove, characteristically, being more concerned that he should see proofs of anything bearing his name and have a chance to expand or update them.31 It also seems unlikely, when deals were struck between institutions, that the note-writers themselves were paid fees for the reuse of their notes, but it is possible that some writers managed to sell their notes on to other organizations. Macfarren spelt out his terms to the 28 This amounted to 38 substantial notes and 28 short ones (the latter comprising less than half a page of text and mostly historical notes on vocal items). 29 The episode between Macfarren and the Philharmonic is documented in the Directors’ Minutes for 1869–70 (BL, Loan 48.2/6). Fees are noted in the Philharmonic account books for 1869–74 and 1877–79 (Loan 48.9/6 and Loan 48.9/11–13); the fee rose gradually after 1871: £26 5s. in 1872; £31 10s. in 1873; £40 by 1877. When Francis Hueffer was appointed programme-writer in 1880, the Philharmonic offered him 30 guineas (Loan 48.2/6). On the wider economic problems, and fees paid to soloists, at the Philharmonic during this time, see Cyril Ehrlich, First Philharmonic: a history of the Royal Philharmonic Society (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), pp. 113–31. 30 Even in the Philharmonic’s detailed account and minute books, there are no documented payments to the Crystal Palace Company, or to its note-writers, for the Philharmonic’s use of their programme notes; nor is income noted from the Crystal Palace for the Philharmonic notes that were occasionally reprinted for Sydenham. 31 Letter of 11 March 1885, BL, Loan 48.13/14, ff. 214–15; quoted in note 22 above. Many of the other letters from Grove to the Philharmonic suggest that the borrowing of Philharmonic orchestral parts was a common occurrence, and an established mutual benefit.

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Philharmonic in 1869: he wanted, in addition to the 40-guinea fee, to ‘retain the right of (possibly) using the matter on any subsequent occasion’ – which suggests that normal practice was for the institution to assume the rights in such a transaction, even if it had not formally purchased them from the writer.32 Clearly such opportunities for income generation mattered to jobbing music journalists (who were the usual writers of such notes), since their livings were typically tacked together from various sources, and, while one-off fees could sometimes be large, financial security was a constant anxiety. Worse still from the writers’ point of view, in terms both of loss of potential earnings and immorality, was the unauthorized reprinting – or plagiarizing – of their work, without attribution. Such ‘foul’ means of appropriation comprise the second category of programme-note reuse. By definition, it is almost impossible to quantify this practice; identifying cases, which are always – of course – passed off anonymously, relies on one’s visual memory for text, and some lucky breaks. For instance, an unsigned note for the Liverpool Philharmonic on Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ overture (see Figure 17.2a) turns out to be the same text (albeit reset by the Liverpool printer, with a handful of tiny and insignificant editorial changes conforming to what amounted to the ‘house-style’) as a London Philharmonic note by Macfarren (see Figure 17.2b).33 A more telling example is to be found in a set of Crystal Palace programmes formerly housed in a Bristol library, but now in Bromley Public Library: several of the programme notes were marked up as printer’s copy, the type to be reset in concert programmes for the Bristol Subscription Orchestral Concerts of 1893. Figure 17.3a shows the marking-up of the Bristol amendments for the note on Brahms’s Symphony no. 2 (originally published for the Crystal Palace in 1883); and Figure 17.3b shows the revised note as published in the Bristol programme. Grove’s signature was removed, the musical examples omitted (along with any prose reference to them), and some local nuance added.34 Even though the analysis used in Bristol effectively lacked the badge of metropolitan authority that a full credit-line and signature would have given it, it was a cheap and easy way of endowing concerts with the trappings of high culture: who would ever find out, and even if someone (like Parry – a close friend of Grove – who was conducting) did, what would he or she do about it? The Bromley Library example is a rare find, admittedly, but there seems little doubt that plagiarism such as this became common as the number of concerts

32 Letter of 19 January 1869, BL, Loan 48.13/20, ff. 146–7. On the notable absence of fees paid to note-writers whose work was reprinted by the Philharmonic, see note 30 above. It seems unlikely that concert societies went to the trouble of formally purchasing the copyright to note-writers’ work – in which case copyright would have rested, in theory and in law, with the writers. 33 It is just possible that Macfarren had sold the note to Liverpool himself; but if so, it seems odd that his signature was not included. 34 The Brahms note was marked up for Bristol from the Crystal Palace programme for 21 April 1883, and appeared in the Bristol programme for 13 March 1893; see the copy in Bristol Reference Library (Local Studies Library).

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Figure 17.2a Anonymous programme note on Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ overture for the Liverpool Philharmonic Society concert on 27 January 1874. © British Library Board. All rights reserved (shelfmark: P.431/75)

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Figure 17.2a cont’d

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Figure 17.2b G.A. Macfarren’s programme note on Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ overture, from the programme booklet of the Philharmonic Society, London, for the concert on 17 May 1869. The entire booklet is attributed to Macfarren on page [3]. © British Library Board. All rights reserved (shelfmark: e.1401)

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Figure 17.2b cont’d

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Figure 17.3a George Grove’s programme note on Brahms’s Symphony no. 2 for the Crystal Palace Concerts, 21 April 1883, marked up for the Subscription Orchestral Concerts, Bristol. Reproduced by kind permission of Bromley Local Studies Library

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Figure 17.3a cont’d

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Figure 17.3b Anonymous programme note on Brahms’s Symphony no. 2 for the Subscription Orchestral Concerts, Bristol, 13 March 1893. Reproduced by kind permission of Bristol Reference Library

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multiplied between 1890 and 1914, and as the desire to elucidate the musical experience through the programme note intensified. The real tell-tale signs are the credit-lines that accompany almost all the signed, above-board programme notes of this fin-de-siècle period. Fierce warnings about unauthorized reprinting – such as ‘These Notes are Copyright, and must not be reprinted without the permission of the author’35 – abound, and are a new thing. As such, they are testimony not only to the existence of plagiarism, but also, more broadly, to the increasing emphasis in England on the moral and financial rights of authors, even in ephemeral reading matter. It is surely no coincidence that this very period, from the early 1890s, saw the beginning of a flurry of lobbying and activity about issues of copyright and the rights of authors that eventually, like those affecting the musical dots on the page, were tackled by the 1911 Copyright Act.36 Notes by Edgar Jacques, for example, appeared in the late 1890s in programmes for the Queen’s Hall Symphony Concerts in London, for the Hallé (Orchestral) Concerts in Manchester, and for the Hallé’s regional appearances in neighbouring centres such as Huddersfield; and in the programmes for the northern cities, Jacques is clearly asserted as the owner of the work and of its rights. In all likelihood, he and his fellow note-writers were starting to strike separate deals with institutions, agents, and others, and were pressing for their rights to be respected, especially when their work was being disseminated miles from home. Change, then, was afoot during the period up to 1914, not only in terms of attitudes towards the rights of note-writers, but also in how programme notes were circulated around England. While concert centres and institutions were initially laced together in ad hoc ways by the threads of personal contacts who passed programme notes around on an unofficial basis, by 1900 more formal modes of dissemination were emerging, as concert life began to modernize. Notably, too, writers were attempting to assert their rights as part of a growing band of authors and journalists pressing for reforms. Concert agents and organizers were probably more aware than ever of the rights of writers, thanks to the activities

35 Taken from the programme book for the Hallé Concerts, 9 December 1897 (copy in the Henry Watson Music Library, Manchester Central Library). 36 The more general literary campaign for reform can be followed in the pages of The Author, the official journal of the Society of Authors, a body established by the novelist and social reformer Walter Besant in 1884 ‘to protect the rights and further the intents of authors’ and still in existence. The 1911 Copyright Act, covering ‘every original literary[,] dramatic[,] musical[,] and artistic work’, came into force on 1 July 1912, bringing provisions on copyright together in the one Act, and extending the term of protection from 28 to 50 years beyond the author’s death; for the text of the Act see the supplement to The Author, 22/5 (February 1912). However, issues of copyright infringement in magazines and newspapers – and by extension, programme notes – seem to have remained difficult to police. See the amusing account of excuses given to editors in the USA by George Jean Nathan, ‘“Twice Told Tales” of the Magazines’, The Bookman, 34/5 (1912): 481–4. Later, in 1933, the activist G. Herbert Thring saw fit to publish advice to writers on dealing with newspaper editors in his The Marketing of Literary Property: book and serial rights (London: Constable, 1933), pp. 157–73.

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of groups such as the Society of Authors.37 At the same time, and as we have seen, continuities were maintained. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of programme notes, often originally written for London, were spread far beyond their intended domain, through a network of relationships between concert societies, writers, and (later) agents. Furthermore, although London was the focal point of the programme-note network, the relationship between the capital and the English regions was more than a series of one-way streets out of the metropolis. Rather, the roads ran in both directions: provincial literature was used and valued in London, and London programme notes were welcomed in the regions as indicators of cultural parity. Even so, much programme-note writing was effectively routed through, or powered by, London. This was partly because a lot of programme notes originated in London, and partly because some of the note-writers writing for first performances in the provinces were London-based men such as Joseph Bennett, the Daily Telegraph’s regular music critic, who provided notes for the Leeds and Norwich festivals. Of course there were exceptions. Not all English cities were actually on the network, and some autonomy certainly developed. Birmingham, for example, seems to have gained, self-consciously, a largely independent identity in relation to its audience education, relying on local writers such as Stephen Stratton (of British Musical Biography fame) and Sydney Grew, the latter writing at great length on such works as Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique and Elgar’s First Symphony for the Birmingham Philharmonic Society around 1910. And the Liverpool Philharmonic, while milking its connections with London writers, brought forward Hamish MacCunn and later Ernest Newman. Whether such notes were reused within the local region remains to be seen. Manchester offers further variations and idiosyncrasies, notably during the time of Hallé. For although he cultivated analytical notes at his chamber concerts, more often than not Hallé allowed his celebrated orchestral series to go without any notes at all. Exceptions include the Beethoven symphony cycle in 1870, celebrating the centenary of the composer’s birth, which called on Grove’s Crystal Palace notes. At another time, concertgoers seem to have breakfasted on programme notes by courtesy of the morning paper, the Manchester Examiner and Times, which during the 1889–90 season published short programme notes for the evening’s concerts. The following is the opening of the Manchester Examiner and Times ‘Hallé Concerts’ column for 21 November 1889; the author is unknown.

37 There is no knowing how often unauthorized reprinting of one-off programme notes for concerts continued after the 1911 Copyright Bill became law; one suspects it still happened, though perhaps to a lesser extent than hitherto. In 1928, when OUP began publishing Rosa Newmarch’s programme notes (originally written for the Queen’s Hall Orchestra and some regional institutions) in the series The Concert-goer’s Library of Descriptive Notes, the front matter carried the stern advice: ‘Any of these Notes may be reprinted in programmes on the payment of a fee of 10s. 6d. each, acknowledgement being made in the following terms: “Reprinted from The Concert-goer’s Library by Rosa Newmarch, by permission of the Author and the Oxford University Press”’.

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SIR CHARLES HALLE’S CONCERTS. ---------TO-NIGHT’S PROGRAMME. Overture ……. ‘Anacréon’ …… Cherubini. Among other minor works, Cherubini wrote a one-act opera entitled ‘Anacréon,’ to which the above piece forms the prelude. Like most of his larger works, the overture has outlived the rest of the opera. ‘Anacréon’ was written in 1803, at a period when Cherubini had attained the full development of his artistic powers. The overture is scored for a full orchestra, including a piccolo, four horns, and three trombones. A short introduction leads to the allegro movement, which is written in a style not unworthy of Mozart. Its broad and dignified classical spirit still commends the piece to popular favour. Scena and Aria – Miss Fillunger … ‘Ah, perfido!’ ………….. Beethoven. ‘Une grande scene [sic] mise en musique, par L. v. Beethoven, à Prague’ is the composer’s own description of the scena. It appears that it was written for Madame Duschek (the friend of Mozart) in the year 1796. Grand Concerto for Violin in D (op. 61) – Madame Neruda (Lady Hallé) …Beethoven. With the single exception of the ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ (op. 47) there is perhaps no single work in the whole range of violin music which can compare with this wonderful Concerto. It holds the same relationship to violin concertos as does Homer’s ‘Iliad’ to epic poetry. The distinguishing feature of the Concerto is the wonderful breadth and beauty of the themes – fraught as they are with the deepest and most subtle poetry. The work was written in 1806. Beethoven had previously been engaged upon the three Rasoumowsky Quartets and the Fourth Symphony. The Concerto was first played in the year of its completion by Clement, a well-known violinist of that time; for whom indeed it was composed. In brief form the characteristics of the three movements might be summarised as follow[s]: In the first movement Beethoven speaks to us from the profound depths of his heart; no song-language could more surely testify to the earnest and purposeful nature of his thoughts. It carries us with him note by note, enchaining the attention of the most heedless among us. The succeeding slow movement is distinguished by its extraordinary tranquillity and calmness, presently to be broken in upon by the boisterous gaiety of the final Rondo.

It was only in the 1897–98 season – two years after Hallé’s death, and a time when the orchestra was under the temporary conductorship of Frederic Cowen – that full-fledged analytical notes were supplied, by the London-based Edgar Jacques.38 More work is needed to contextualize these localized trends, to gauge their extent, and to assess their significance in the national picture. Nevertheless, the typical model for programme-note provision in England remains one of 38 A further example of provincial autonomy, often included in the standard literature on programme notes, is offered by the notes written by A.W.M. Bosville for his Bridlington Musical Festival. I am grateful to the late Catherine Dale for providing me with copies of these notes; for more on Bosville, see her essay ‘Analytical Content’, and her chapter (Chapter 16) in this present volume.

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networks, and of a commonality of concert literature spread across several centres of concert-giving. While much of this chapter has been concerned with what might, on first inspection, seem like a minute detail in, or footnote to, the history of concerts or publishing, its findings reveal some surprisingly broad insights into the dissemination of musical culture across England, most notably as regards the shaping of audience reception through directed listening and music appreciation. If nothing else, one might well conclude that throughout many of the country’s larger towns and cities, audiences’ listening practices and their understanding of repertoire stood to be shaped, through the recycling of a limited body of programme notes, in largely homogeneous ways – so much so, that to talk of a shared concert culture and a specifically English model of narrative listening and music appreciation in the nineteenth century suddenly takes on real meaning. No longer a glib generalization that says ‘England’ but means ‘London only’, the notion of a peculiarly English ideal of symphonic listening, in which audiences were encouraged to follow music’s thematic and tonal structure in a linear fashion by reference to musical signposts, can be shown to have been promoted in a range of English urban communities, whether Bristol, Liverpool, or Brighton.39 George Grove’s notes, in particular, played a significant part in the process, being recycled – quite possibly – more than any others. Of course, claims about national styles of listening require careful qualification, for, self-evidently, we can never know exactly how many Victorians actually listened in this recommended way, or even read the programmes as they listened.40 And it is hard not to conclude that there was much diversity among audiences – some people etching an aural harmonic and thematic map in the way the note-writer intended, some struggling to follow in the recommended way, some responding intuitively to harmonic architecture, some losing themselves in the

39 German concert audiences did not have this type of ‘Wegweiser’ until the late nineteenth century, and it can therefore be seen as a peculiarly British phenomenon tying in with contemporary modes of travel or tour guidance. This is explored more fully in the author’s as yet unpublished paper ‘Writing for Listening: the creation and cultivation of the programme note in nineteenth-century Britain’, first given at the 17th International Musicological Society Congress, Leuven, Belgium, in 2002. 40 It seems right to presume that not all audience members bought programmes: we know institutions seem to have had to work hard to keep costs down and break even (see note 12); moreover, programme costs of 6d., charged at the Popular Concerts and many other London institutions, were deemed by many to be too high, according to a correspondent to the MT, 25 (1884): 228. In addition, it is difficult to say exactly how many people actually read the programmes they had bought or had access to: some may have shared programmes during the concert; some may have bought programmes but not read them assiduously; some may have relied on knowledge acquired beforehand.

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sensuous sonorities, and so on.41 Others certainly followed scores in preference.42 In truth, later generations, including the scholar and pianist Donald Tovey, came to question the compatibility of reading and listening simultaneously;43 and some programme notes were considered excessive or unreadable.44 But the fact remains that serious-minded concertgoers, in an age of deference to authority, were urged to approach music and the listening process through an understanding of form and thematic development. Regardless of how achievable it turned out to be in practice, this mode of listening with programme notes stood as a prototype for serious engagement with music, and was endorsed by many a contemporary illustration 41 On people not being able to follow programme notes, see MT, 27 (1886): 13, which includes a call for notes to be distributed by post ahead of the concert. According to Percy Scholes in The Mirror of Music, 1844–1944: a century of musical life in Britain as reflected in the pages of the ‘Musical Times’ (2 vols, London: Novello, 1947), vol. 1, p. 218, this practice was common in the USA; it was also attempted in Britain by John Ella for his Musical Union audiences, and later also by Donald Tovey (see note 43 below). 42 Copies of the music were sometimes sold at the door. At the first orchestral performance of Hamish MacCunn’s cantata Bonny Kilmeny in Edinburgh on 21 January 1889, scores published by Paterson, also the concert promoter, were on sale at the hall on the night and were thus advertised ahead of the performance. I am grateful to Jane Mallinson for this information. For other evidence of this practice, see, for example, the Bristol Musical Festival programmes of 1912 (copies in the BL), which indicate that copies of the music could be bought at the door. On the use of miniature and ‘pocket’ scores at concerts, see Hans Lenneberg, ‘Revising the History of the Miniature Score’, Notes, 45 (1988): 258–61; and Christina Bashford, ‘Learning to Listen: audiences for chamber music in early-Victorian London’, Journal of Victorian Culture, 4 (1999): 25–51. 43 Many writers voiced misgivings about the appropriateness of reading musical analyses in the concert hall. In the introductions to his programmes for his chamber music concerts at St James’s Hall, London, in November 1900 (see copies in the BL), Tovey remarked that ‘[i]t would be quite impossible to devise an aesthetic discussion so slight that it could be read without distracting one’s attention during the performance of the work discussed, and yet sufficiently valuable to shed a real light on the work, beyond what is already done by quoting its themes’, and he advised listeners to read the letterpress outside the concert room: he sold his programmes in advance and afterwards, for this reason. Grove, too, had apparently intended that audiences should read his notes before concerts or during intervals (according to George Henschel’s preface to the American edition of Grove’s book, Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, the edition was published in Boston in 1884 as Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies: analytical essays). For further discussion of related issues concerning listening, see Bashford, ‘Not just “G.”’, pp. 127–34. 44 George Bernard Shaw famously pilloried the pedantic style of many analytical programme notes, including those written by George Macfarren, on one occasion presenting an analysis of Hamlet’s soliloquy in similar style (quoted in Shaw, Music in London 1890–94 (3 vols, London: Constable, 1932), vol. 2, pp. 321–2). By the 1920s the use of analytical programmes was, according to the chamber-music writer W.W. Cobbett, becoming ‘deprecated by many serious musicians’; see ‘Analytical Programmes’, Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1929), vol. 1, p. 22. The observation is born out by Frank Howes’s attack on the analytical writing in concert programmes and its inappropriateness to concert-hall listening in his essay ‘Programme Notes’ in MT, 71 (1930): 305–8.

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(see, for example, Figure 17.4).45 Indeed, one could further argue that, as an informal and unplanned method of educating English music-lovers long before the BBC, with Walford Davies and Percy Scholes, set about more widespread listener education through the air-waves, nineteenth-century programme-note provision stands as an important first chapter in the history of nationwide music appreciation.46

Figure 17.4 ‘A Pair of Enthusiasts’: a depiction of audience members at the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace in the 1870s (Graphic, 27 June 1874). Reproduced by kind permission of the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

45 A parallel line of development was the public lecture, by then already a prominent vehicle for musical appreciation in the nineteenth century. See Howard Irving, Ancients and Moderns: William Crotch and the development of classical music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), and William Sterndale Bennett, Lectures on Musical Life, eds Nicholas Temperley and Yunchung Yang (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2006). 46 The nub of this argument is essayed in Scholes’s historical introduction to his Music, the Child, and the Masterpiece: a comprehensive handbook of aims and methods in all that is usually called ‘musical appreciation’ (London: OUP, 1935), pp. 22–7.

Index

Abel, Karl Friedrich 140, 146 Abell, John 63 Aberdeen, east coast of Scotland 62, 128 Academy of Ancient Music see music societies and singing clubs Accrington, Lancashire 198–199 Acland MP, Sir Thomas Dyke 259 agents, managers, and promoters 4–6, 63, 115–128, 139, 141, 189, 237–253, 256, 255–268, 297, 349–376 Agutter, Ralph 17, 63 Akeroyde, Mary 104 Albert, Prince 204 Albicastro, Henrico 4, 56 Albinoni, Tomaso Giovanni 4, 56–57 Alboni, Marietta 248 Alcock, John 281 alcohol 297, 303, 317, 320 temperance 312, 317 Albert Temperance Society 337 Band of Hope 320 British Women’s Temperance Association 315 Aldrich, Henry 56 Allegri, Gregorio 278 Allen, Anthony 55 Allen, H.P. 287 Almondbury, Huddersfield 188 amateurs 3, 5, 9–44, 45–59, 78, 84, 93, 112–113, 115–28, 129–149, 192, 195–221, 223–235, 255–268, 297–298, 303–310, 315–323, 325–347; see also professionalism and professionalization Ambrosio, Giacomo 51 American music 219, 284, 376; see also Bradbury, William Batchelder; Root, George Frederick Amott, John 257 Amsterdam 78, 80 ‘ancient music’ 133, 136; see also concerts and concert series, subscription concerts and concert series in London, Concerts of Ancient Music; music

societies and singing clubs, Academy of Ancient Music Andrews, Enos 313 Anglicans and Anglicanism 6, 11, 48, 174–175, 178, 203, 206, 276, 281–282, 286, 320, 325; see also clergy Anglo-Saxons, 270–271 anthems 6, 9–10, 48, 50–51, 53, 55–57, 94, 97, 102, 165, 168–169, 171–172, 175, 179–181, 200–204, 209, 217–221, 229, 258–259 Armstrong, Dr 232 Army, Salvation 337 Arne, Thomas 84 Arnold, Franck Thomas 68 Arnold, John 281 Arnold, Samuel 81, 167, 212–216 Arnot, Hugo 75 Arrigoni, Carlo and Ferdinando 62 Ashe, Andrew 138, 188 Ashe, Mrs 188 Ashe, Samuel 166, 174–175 Ashley Charles Jane 188, 190 John 186 Richard 190 Ashley, Josiah 138 Ashton, G. 281 Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester 299, 304, 311–313, 318 Ashworth family (Rossendale) 195–221 Abraham 203 Caleb 209 Edward 215 Guss 217 James 203 Robert 199, 202–203, 213, 220 Asola, Giovanni 284–285 Aspden, Suzanne 98–99 assembly rooms 3, 241, 303; see also concert halls and concert rooms; hotels; taverns and public houses; town halls Bath 138 Canterbury 252

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Cheltenham 252 Chippenham 166, 173 Halifax 113 Liverpool (Royal Assembly Rooms) 252 Newcastle 118 Tunbridge Wells 252 York 121–122, 186 Assheton, Sir Ralph 197 Assize Week 124; see also Race Week; season, the Auber, Daniel-François-Esprit 319 Aubrey, John 164 audiences 6–7, 96, 111, 121, 139, 141, 232, 237, 239, 241–242, 244–245, 295–323, 349–376 structured listening 349–376 Australia 223 Avison Charles junior 124 Charles senior 5, 116–121, 124, 126–128 Edward 119, 124 Axon, W.E.A. 296 Aylward, Theodore 135 Babel, Charles 28 Bach Johann Christian 86, 133 Johann Sebastian 279 Bacup, Rossendale 198, 214 Baeteus, Charles 278, 284–285, 291 Baggerly, Mr 19, 26, 32 Bailey, William 89 Bainbridge, Mr 127 Bairstow, Edward 255 Baker, Henry 168–169, 180 ballads 77, 81, 157, 167, 196, 307 bandstands 340 Banister, John 1 Baptists 6, 195–221; see also Nonconformism Association of Baptist Churches 198 Strict or Particular Baptists 198–199 Barber, Abraham 207 Barber, Robert 119 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 62 bards 157 Barnett, J.F. 360 Barret, Charles 104–105 Barry, Sir Charles 296 Barry, Charles Ainslie 351, 357

Barsanti, Francesco 62, 72, 78, 86 Barthélemon, François-Hippolyte 140 Bates family (Halifax) 87–113 Henry junior 91, 93–95, 99–109 Henry senior 91, 94–95, 97, 101, 106–110 Joah 5, 91–96, 99, 102–109, 111–113 Bates, Frank 256 Bath, south-west England 3, 5, 10, 106, 110, 115, 123, 130–132, 134, 137–139, 141–142, 144, 146, 163, 166–167, 169, 188, 241, 253, 325, 360 Battishill, Jonathan 281 BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) 154, 376 Beale Thomas Frederick 248 Willert 237, 242, 246, 248 Beckwith, John 281 Bede, the Venerable 270 Bedell, Revd Henry 9, 15, 17–19, 26, 32 Beethoven, Ludwig van 86, 191, 212, 257, 266–267, 343, 351, 355–356, 372–373, 375 symphonies 1, 260, 266, 343, 351–352, 372 Begrez, Pierre 244 Belfast, Ireland 250 Belgian music and musicians 58 Bellini, Vincenzo 239, 251 bells and bell-ringing 9, 99–100, 210 Benedict, Julius 256, 355–356 Bennett, Joseph 326–327, 332, 360–361, 372 Bennett, William Sterndale 349, 356 Benson, Thomas 50–51, 57 Berger, Francesco 362 Berlioz, Hector 343, 351 Besant, Walter 371 Betts, Edward 95 Bewick, Thomas 124 Bible, The 95, 198, 203, 217, 304 Bickham, George 28 Biddlecombe, William 165 Birmingham, west midlands, England 95, 112, 183, 191, 207, 227, 234, 246, 252, 298, 300, 325–329, 336, 351–354, 357, 372 Birstall, Leeds 188 Bishop, J.C. 272

Index Bitti, Alexander 122 Bizet, Georges 343 black and blackface performers see concert parties and minstrels Blackburn, east Lancashire 208 Blackham, John 318 Blagrove, Henry 264 Blow, John 25, 50, 56–57, 181, 281 Boccherini, Luigi 139–141 Bocchi, Lorenzo 4, 47–48, 51, 61–86 Bochsa, Nicholas 244, 259 Bolton, Lancashire 202, 205 Bonfield, Captain 153 Bonney, Edwin 288 Bononcini, Giovanni 28–30, 52 Borghi, Luigi 135, 185 Borri, Giovanni Battista 51, 57 Borsay, Peter 10 Boschi, Giuseppe 61 Boswill, Sir Alexander and Lady Alice 6, 333–341, 373 Bottomley, Joseph 192 Bourne, John 238 Bowles, Revd William Lisle 168, 170, 174–177 Bowood House (Wiltshire), 163, 177; see Lansdowne, Marquis of Boyce, William 65, 172, 204, 209 Boydell, Barra 155 Bradbury, William Batchelder 210 Bradford, west Yorkshire 295, 353, 357 Brahms, Johannes 337, 343, 351, 356, 363, 368–370 brass bands 210, 317 Brassolin [Brasolini], Domenico 51 Bremhill, Chippenham 168, 174–176 Bridge, J. Frederick 336, 343 Bridge, Richard 220 Bridlington, east coast, Yorkshire 6, 331–347 Brighton, south coast of England 230, 241, 249, 252, 256, 300, 349, 357 Bristol, south-west England 95–96, 151, 165, 298, 325–327, 353, 363 Broderip, Robert 165 Bromley, south-east of London 363 Brooke, Sir Thomas and Anne 12 Brooks, James 137–138 Brousil family 309 Brown (Leeds), R.A. 263

379

Brown (Ushaw), Richard A. 291 Brown, William 272–275, 279, 282–285, 288–289, 291–292 Browne, Revd William 22, 36 Brunswick [Braunschweig], German court of 142 Brussels 53 Buckley, Annie 197–198 Bull, Ole 259 Burchell, Jenny 115, 130, 139, 142, 146, 207 Burghersh, Priscilla, Lady 244 Burley House (Rutland) 50 Burney, Charles 61, 103, 174, 208 Burnley, Lancashire 210 Burns, James 282 Burns, Lambert & Oates (publisher) 282 Burns, W. 291 Burrows and Hardwick, Messrs 321 Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent 227–233, 235 Burton, Robert Senior 263–267 Bury, John 200 Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk 95 Byrd, William 56–57 Cafferata, J. 283 Calach, John 281 Calcott, John Wall 140 Calne, Chippenham 177 Calvinism 166 Cambini, Giuseppe Maria 140 Cambridge, east England 9–44, 45–46, 51–52, 55, 58, 91–93, 95–96, 103, 111–112, 134, 204, 325, 327–328, 358 Camerton, Bath 175 Camidge John I 117, 185, 255 John II 191, 255, 337, 343 Matthew 191, 255, 281–282 Thomas Simpson 255 Cannons (Middlesex) 122 see Chandos, Duke of canonization 1, 90, 264; see also Handel Commemoration (1784) Canterbury, south-east England 46–47, 55, 241, 252, 270 Caporale, Andrea 62 Caradori-Allan, Maria 259 Carey, Henry 41–42 Carissimi, Giacomo 51

380

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Carlisle, north-west England 128, 256 Carolan, Nicholas 155 Carolan [O’Carolan], Turlough 73, 155 Carr, John 100 Carter, Tim 2 Carteret, Lord, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 68 Casali, Giovanni 291 Castrucci, Pietro 62, 78 Catalani, Angelica 237 catches and glees 2, 28, 48, 57, 93–94, 173, 255, 257, 261–262, 266–267, 308, 313, 315 cathedrals, abbeys, and minsters 3, 4, 6, 10, 58–59, 207, 255, 328 Bath 167 Beverley Minster 337 Canterbury 46–47, 55 Carlisle 256 Chester 256 Chichester 130, 135 Christ Church, Oxford 256 Durham 47, 51, 64, 116, 119, 124, 126, 270, 281, 328 Ely 58, 328 Exeter 258–259, 261–262, 282 Gloucester 168, 268 Hereford 21, 258 Lincoln 23, 56 Liverpool pro-cathedral 278 Norwich 130 Ripon 52 St Mary’s pro-cathedral, Newcastle 273 St Paul’s, London 10, 328 Salisbury 163–165, 328 Southwark (R.C.) 277 Wakefield 183 Wells 10, 21, 59 Westminster Abbey 5, 90, 96–99, 325 Winchester 268, 328 Worcester 256 York Minster 4, 45–59, 64, 117, 184, 190–191, 255, 328, 337 Catholic Emancipation Act (1829) 6, 272 Catholic Relief Act (1778) 280 Catholic Relief Act (1791) 272 Catholicism, Roman 6, 26, 37, 54, 57, 269–293, 316–317 Cecilians 284–286, 288–289 German Society of St Cecilia 284

Irish Cecilian Society 284, 288 London 284 Oscott 284 ‘faithful north’ and northern English particularism 269–271, 274–275, 277 hierarchy of England and Wales 275 latin vs vernacular 269–293 priests 269–293 ‘improving’ the Irish poor 316–317; see also Irish immigration and immigrants promoting respectable entertainment 317; see town halls Ultramontanes 270–271, 278, 284, 288 Cattanei, Giovanni 120, 122 Cavendish, Michael 230 Cawdry, James 104 Cawood, Martin, 264 Caygill, John 91, 100–101 Cecilians see Catholicism, Roman, Cecilians; St Cecilia Cennick, John 175–176 Cervetto, James 138 Chadfield (composer) 288 chamber music 20, 65, 67–69, 129–149, 259, 351, 355, 357 Chandos, Duke of 121–122 chants 48–49, 53–54, 57, 177, 179–181, 219, 272, 277, 279–281, 287; see also plainchant, plainsong; psalms and psalmody chapels 3, 202, 303–304 Bethesda Chapel, Hanley 229 Catholic embassy chapels, London 278–279, 282–284, 291 Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace 256, 268 Chapel of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton 256 Deerplay Baptist Chapel 206 Everingham Chapel (R.C.) 282 Goodshaw Baptist Chapel 198–200 Hey Chapel, Rochdale 95, 103–105, 110, 113, 124, 207–208, 328 Lumb Baptist Chapel 198–200, 206 Machpelah Baptist Chapel, Accrington 198–199 Octagon Chapel, Bath 106, 110 St George’s Chapel, Windsor 135, 325, 328

Index St Margaret’s Proprietory Chapel, Bath 167 St Mary’s Chapel, Niddry’s Wind, Edinburgh 63, 75 Shaw Chapel, Oldham, 105, 110–111, 124, 207–208, 328 Sowerby Chapel, Halifax 100 Waterbarn Baptist Chapel 199 Wesley Chapel, Burslem 229 Wesley Place Chapel, Tunstall 228 Chappell (music publishers) 191 Chappell, S. Arthur 357, 359 Chard, George 281 charity, fund-raising, and philanthropy 118, 127, 163, 166, 169, 176–177, 193, 296, 298, 313, 315, 321, 325, 329–330, 336; see also sermons, charity sermons; services, anniversary service Chatfield, Paul 3 Chatsworth House (Derbyshire) 190 Cheetham, John Frederick 310 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire 241, 252 Cherici, Sebastiano 56 Cherubini, Luigi 373 Cheshire, north-west England 188, 207 Chester, Cheshire 188, 256 Chester-le-Street, Durham 127 Chetham, John 203 Chevill, Elizabeth 21 Chichester, south coast of England 5, 130–131, 133–137, 141, 143–144 Chiffence, Edward 167 Child, William 57 Chippenham, Wiltshire 6, 163–167, 177, 181 Chivers, Matthew 177 choral music 5–7, 87–113, 183–193, 195–221, 325–347; see also anthems; liturgical music; odes; oratorio; psalms and psalmody; set pieces; songs and vocal music choral societies 178, 225–226, 232, 255, 260, 303, 316, 317, 327 Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge Vocal Union 311 Bradford (Old) Choral Society 233, 235, 304 Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir (‘Tonics’) 228–235 Crawshawbooth Sacred Harmonic Society 204, 215

381

Exeter Oratorio Society 260–262 Glasgow Choral Union 349, 351, 354–355 Halifax (Quarterly) Choral Society 176, 185, 192, 226, 304 Huddersfield Choral Society 226, 235 Hull Oratorio Society 189 Leeds (Parochial) Choral Society 263–268 Manchester Choral Society 265–266 North Staffordshire District Choral Society 234–235 Norwich Choral Society 256 (Old) Leeds Choral Society 263–266 Potteries and District Choral Society 228, 233–235 Sacred Harmonic Society, London 304 Stalybridge, unnamed choral society (1824–1840) 304 Stalybridge Choral Union 316 Stalybridge Harmonic Society 204, 304–307, 311, 313, 316, 319 Stalybridge Philharmonic Society 306, 309, 316 choruses and choirs 4–5, 50, 87–113, 116, 124, 130, 210, 223–235, 262, 328, 335; see also cathedrals; chapels; choral music; churches; festivals; songs and vocal music balance and size 102–105, 113, 327–329, 331, 336, 342 boy choristers 50, 56–57, 104, 110–111, 164–165, 205, 256, 261–262, 264 choirs Ashton Gentlemen’s Glee Club 313 Eastwood Vale (Prize) Choir 233 Talke and District Male Voice Choir 234 West Riding Choir 230 Wilmington’s Jubilee Singers 313 dynamics and tempi 206 female choristers 104–105, 111, 166, 205, 207–208, 234, 261 ornamentation 206 voice allocation 205 Christchurch, Hampshire 165 Christmas 177, 197, 200, 203, 209, 275, 319 church bands see instruments, instrumentation, and accompaniment, use of instruments in church worship

382

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Church Langton, Leicester 95 churches 3–4, 6, 90, 255, 272, 298, 308 All Saints, Cambridge 51 All Saints, Harewood 183, 187, 191–192 as venues for music and/or oratorio 95–96, 298–299 Chippenham Parish Church 163–173, 178 Collegiate Church, Manchester 95, 328 Haslingden Church 208 Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York 55 Lumb Parish Church 198 Priory Church, Bridlington 337 Priory Church, Christchurch 165 St Clement Danes, London 55 St Cuthbert’s, Durham (R.C.) 6, 269–293 St Edmund’s, Ware (R.C.) 270 St George’s, Leeds 263 St George’s Parish Church, Stamford 26 St Godric’s, Durham (R.C.) 273, 276–277, 288 St Katherine Coleman 18 St John’s, Little Gidding 15 St John’s, Manchester 327 St John’s Parish Church, Halifax 90, 96–107, 110 St Martin’s, York 52–53 St Mary le Bow, Newcastle 127 St Mary’s, Stafford 229 St Mary’s, Stockport 95 St Mary’s, Warrington (R.C.) 291 St Michael’s Parish Church, Stamford 13–14 St Michael-le-Belfrey, York 50, 55, 189 St Mowden, Burton-upon-Trent 22 St Nicholas’s, Newcastle 126 St Paul’s, Leeds 183, 188 St Paul’s, Stalybridge 306 St Peter’s, Langley Burrell 174 St Peter’s, Leeds 256, 262–264 Parish Church Choir Committee, Leeds 264 St Peter’s, Liverpool 327 St Petrock’s, Exeter 260 Wakefield Parish Church 112, 190, 192 Wigan Parish Church 46 Cianchettini, Veronica 207 cinema 340 circus 228, 318

Cirencester, Gloucestershire 165 civic pride 3, 131, 235, 295–323, 325–327 Civil Wars 4, 11, 22 Clagget, Walter 118 Clark, Mr 135 Clark, Peter 3, 90–91, 94 Clarke, Charles 256 Clarke, Jeremiah 22, 56 Clay, Frederic 343 class identity and class politics 10, 20, 28, 88–90, 92, 97, 99–100, 109, 115–128, 196, 208, 224, 227, 235, 264, 296–298, 306, 308, 310, 319–321, 325, 340 Classicism 6, 168, 286, 301–302 Clayton, Thomas 28–30 clefs 25, 27, 31, 69, 80, 205 Clegg, Mr 68 Clemetshaw, Henry 190 clergy 4, 10–11, 21, 45–59, 116, 126–127, 135, 163–181, 262–264, 269–293 Clerk, Sir John, of Penucuik 74, 76 Clerkenwell, London 92 Cliffe, Frederick 360, 361 Clifton, Bristol 253 clubs, associations, and societies 9–11, 21, 93–94, 319–320; see also music societies and singing clubs Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel 337, 343 Colles, H.C. 357 Collins, Richard 288 Cologne [Köln], Germany 151 commercial vs ‘polite’ 115–128 Commonwealth 4, 10 competitions 3, 7, 230–235; see also festivals Compston, Samuel 195–196, 198–200, 203–206, 208 concerts and concert series 1–2, 4–6, 61, 63–64, 108, 110, 115–128, 129–149, 164, 166, 183–193, 207, 231, 241, 297, 304–307; see also choral societies; music societies and singing clubs ‘People’s Concert’ 307 private concerts 2, 116–118, 129–149, 175–176, 242, 255–256, 313 as rehearsals 133 smoking concerts 318, 320 subscription concerts and concert series in London Catch and Glee Concert 2

Index

383

Sunderland 115, 125–126 Concerts of Ancient Music 2, 90, 111, York 58, 115–128, 186 186, 256, 325, 328 concert halls and concert rooms 1, 298; Crystal Palace Saturday Orchestral see also assembly rooms; hotels; Concerts 350, 358, 360–361, 363 Mechanics’ Institutions; town halls John Ella’s Musical Union 336, 350, Bath 355 Gyde Rooms 144 Lenten Oratorios 256 Pump Room 138, 166 London Quartett Association Spring Gardens 138 Concerts 356 Bridlington London Wagner Society 358 New Spa Gardens 340 Monday Popular Concerts of People’s Palace 340, 342 Chamber Music 357, 359 Wellington Hall 337, 342 Nobility Concert 2 Dublin Orchestral Union of London 227 Mr Neal’s Musick Room 72 Philharmonic Society concerts 167, Edinburgh 257, 266, 354, 356–358, 362–363, Taylor’s Hall, Cowgate 75–76 367 Exeter Professional Concert 2, 135 Congdon’s Rooms, Exeter 260 Queen’s Concert 2 Leamington Queen’s Hall Symphony Concerts 371 Royal Music Hall 252 Royal Albert Hall Concerts 358 Leeds South Place Sunday Popular Concerts Music Hall, Albion Street 188, 191, (South Place Ethical Society) 349, 263, 265 355 Liverpool Vocal Concerts 256, 328 Philharmonic Hall 359–361 subscription concerts and concert series London outside London Crystal Palace, Sydenham 7, 230, 235, Bath 141, 188, 360 325, 349–350, 355–358, 360–362, Birmingham Musical Union 354 368–369 Birmingham Philharmonic 372 Hanover Square Rooms 2 Birmingham Town Hall Organ Hickford’s Rooms 120 Concerts 336 King’s Theatre (Opera) Room 186, Bristol 363, 368–370 207 Chichester 133–137, 141, 143 Pantheon 99, 135, 325 Darlington 115, 127 Queen’s Hall, The 371 Dublin 71–72, 76, 238 Royal Albert Hall 358 Durham 115–116, 120, 125 St James’s Hall 375 Edinburgh 62–63, 75, 188, Vauxhall Gardens 142 Edinburgh (Cecilian concert) 20 Willis’s Rooms 186 Edinburgh (Reid Concerts) 351, 355 York Buildings 1 Exeter 259–260 Maidstone ‘Gentlemen’s Concert’, Manchester Corn Exchange Room 252 132 Manchester Hallé (Orchestral) Concerts 371 Free Trade Hall 309 Leeds 95, 187 Hallé Orchestra concerts 355 Liverpool Philharmonic 238, 352, 355, Oxford 361, 363, 372 Holywell Music Room 5, 142, 151–161 Morpeth 115 Music School [Schola musicae], Newcastle 115–128, 132, 141–142 Bodleian Library 152 Portsmouth 136

384

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Reading The Hall 252 Stalybridge Drill Hall 319 Foresters’ Hall 305, 309 Liberal and Conservative clubs 320 Oddfellows’ Hall 319–320 People’s Hall 313 York Concert Room, Minster Yard 189 concert parties and minstrels; see also town halls, relationship with music halls African Opera Company 312 Clari’s Concert Company 317–318 Hague’s Minstrels 313 Jungfrau Kapelle 317 Robertson and Holme’s Coloured Kentucky Minstrels 317 concertos 5, 56, 72, 75, 78–81, 83, 102, 127–128, 135–136, 138, 167, 172–173, 185, 189, 244, 356, 358, 360–361, 373; see also Corelli, Arcangelo; Vivaldi, Antonio conducting and directing 4–5, 103, 183, 190–192, 223–235, 242, 256–258, 264, 266 Congregationalism 224 Consitt, Edward 273, 277, 279, 286 Copyright Act (1911) 371 Continent, the see Europe continuo 19–20, 23, 26–28, 51–52, 72, 74, 79–80, 94–95, 102–103, 266 Cook, Mr 40 Coombs I and II, James Morris 6, 163–175, 177, 179–181 Elizabeth 168 Cooper, John 56–58 Cooper, Thomas 217 copyright 371–372 Corelli, Arcangelo 13, 16–20, 30, 33, 51, 74–75, 78–80, 86 concerti grossi 56, 136 trio sonatas 4, 11, 17–20, 30, 34–36, 48 Corfield, Penelope 116–117 Corinthian style (architecture) 312 Corporation Act, repeal of (1828) 295 Corri, Domenico and Natale 62 Corsham, Wiltshire 177 Costa, Michael 291, 326, 330, 344

counterpoint 54–55; see also Renaissance polyphony County Police Act (1839) 167 Courteville, Raphael 40, 50 Cousser, John Sigismond 68, 76 Coventry, west midlands, England 95, 325 Cowen, Frederic 355, 373 Cowgill, Rachel 152, 154 Cowper, Mr 22, 36 Cowper, Spencer 116 Coyle, Miles 120, 122 Craig, Adam 63 Cramer Franz 134, 186 John Baptist 248 Wilhelm 186 Cramer & Co. 248 Cramer, Mr 134–135, 143 Crawshawbooth, Rossendale 204–205, 210, 212, 214–215, 220–221 Crediton, Devon 259 Croft, William 23, 56–57, 181, 209, 266 Crook Hall, Durham 270 Cropper (singer) 218 Crosdill, John 135, 138 Crossley, Robert 305 Crotch, William 151–161, 263, 281 Crowder, David 104 Crowther, Betty 104 Crumden, Henry 63 Cunningham, Mr 157 Cunningham, Colin 300–302 Curwen; see also Sol-fa, Tonic John 7, 223–225, 227, 229–231, 331 John Spencer 226, 233–234 cymbal 157 Dahmen, Johan Arnold 186 Dall’Abaco [Abacho], Joseph-MarieClément 122 Danby, John 210 dances, dancing, and dance music 6, 18, 36, 51, 67, 70–71, 74–77, 80, 82, 123, 204, 209, 217–218, 221, 297, 313 dancing masters 122 Dannreuther, Edward 357 Darlington, Earl of 95, 116 Darlington, north-east England 115, 127–128

Index Davaux, Jean-Baptiste 140, 146 Davies, Fanny 353 Davies, Rowland 283 Davies, Walford 376 Davis, Henry 68 Davy, John 140 Dawes, D’Arcy 117–118 Dawson, John 213 Deakin, Andrew 353 Dean, John 104 Dean, Larks of [Deighn, Deyghn, or Deyn Layrocks] 6, 195–221 Dean valley, Lancashire 195–221 Dean-Smith, Margaret 154, 160 Deerplay [Derpley], Rossendale 201–202, 206, 221 Derby, east midlands, England 128, 145, 207, 300, 325, 327–328 Derbyshire 207, 237 Demachi, Giuseppe 146 Desmet, Alphonse 287 Devizes, Wiltshire 176 Devon, south-west England 257–258, 262 Dibdin, Charles 87–88, 96 Dibdin, J. 360 dilettante, definition of 126 Distler, Johann Georg 140–141 Dobler (singer) 244 Docksey, William 232, 235 domestic music 3, 5, 9–44, 54, 129, 175 Donaldson, John 187 Doncaster, south Yorkshire 188 Done, William 256 Donizetti, Gaetano 245, 250 Dorset, south-west England 142 Douai, France, Roman Catholic seminary 270, 291 double-stopping 78, 127 Dowdall, Sprackling or Francis 68 Draghi, Giovanni Battista 10, 52 Dragonetti, Domenico 186 drawing and sketching 5, 151–161, 218 Driffield, Yorkshire 332 Droylesden, Manchester 299 Dryden, John 22, 36, 202, 212 Dryden, R. 272 Dublin, Ireland 61–86, 122, 128, 155, 237–238, 250 Dubourg, Matthew 76, 79 Dukinfield, Manchester 299

385

Dupuis, Thomas 281 D’Urfey, Thomas 40, 81–82 Durham, north-east England 5, 7, 112, 115–117, 120, 125, 128, 269–293, 328 Dussek, Jan Ladislav 186, 207 Dvořák, Antonín 335, 344 East Tytherton, Wiltshire 163, 175–176 Easter 200, 275 Eaton Faning, Joseph 336, 344 Ebdon, Thomas 119 Ebers, John 244–245 Eccles, John 40–41 Ecclesfield, Yorkshire 208 Edinburgh, Scotland 4, 20, 61–86, 115, 126, 128, 188, 230, 250, 351, 357–358, 360 Edmondson, Mr 307 Edstone, Revd George 176 Edwards, Arthur C. 344 Edwards, Frederick George (pseud. ‘Dotted Crotchet’) 263 Edwards, John 89 Elbourne, Roger 196, 200 Elford, Richard 23 Elgar, Edward 1, 337, 344, 372 Elkins, Wyndham Earl 165 Ella, John 336, 350, 355–356, 358 Ellicott, Rosalind 360 Elliott, Mr H. 321 Elliott, Sir Gilbert 79 Elliott, Jon 196–197 Ellway, Thomas 50, 56–57 Elouis, Amelia 262 Elvet, Durham 269–293 Elwood, Mr 307 Ely, east England 58 Empingham (Rutland) 12, 17, 34 empire, and the British Empire 1, 7, 163, 176–177; see also Holy Roman Empire Engels, Frederick 297 England 4, 10–11, 17–19, 21, 94, 145–146, 151, 155, 167, 190, 195, 206, 214, 237, 245, 251, 255–256, 268, 269–271, 274–276, 279, 284, 321, 325–347, 349–376 Entwistle, Richard 145 Erard 262, 357 Ernst, Philip 262 Erskine, John 186, 188

386

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

ethnomusicology 1 etiquette 3, 94, 109, 164 Eton, Windsor 55, 91, 95 Ett, Caspar 275, 285 Europe, the Continent 1–2, 4–6, 51–52, 86, 122, 134, 139, 141, 145, 244, 269–293, 296, 351 Evance, William 272, 281 Everingham, east Yorkshire 282 Ewer (music publisher) 273 Exeter, south-west England 6, 253, 257–258, 266, 268, 282 extemporization 107 Eyam, Derby 47 Farmer, Henry 277, 287, 290–291 Farmer, Thomas 50 Farrant, John 165 Farrer Edward 104 Isaac 104–105, 109 Mark 104 Farrer family (Midgley) 89 Farrington, William 304, 307 fashion 2, 7, 10, 18, 90, 130, 132, 134, 188, 239, 241, 244, 265, 295–323 Fawcett, John 202, 204–205 feasts 9–10, 22 Felton, William 281 Ferrar family (Little Gidding) 9–44 Basil 13, 15–21, 24–26, 28, 30–35, 37 Edward I 13, 19, 21, 24, 26, 30–32 Edward II 40 John I 12 John II 12–13, 21 Nicholas 15, 21 Susannah 21 Thomas 13, 15–19, 21–22, 24–26, 28, 30, 32–37, 39 festivals 3–7, 87–113, 133–134, 137, 139, 178, 190, 193, 242, 244, 255, 262, 325–347; see also Handel Commemoration (1784); Handel Centenary (1859) Almondbury 188 Birmingham 95, 191, 207, 325–329, 352 Birstall 188 Bridlington 6, 331–347 Bristol 95–96, 326, 375 Bury St Edmonds 95

Cambridge 327–328 Chester 189 Chippenham 165, 169, 173–174, 177 Church Langton 95 Coventry 95 Crystal Palace, Sydenham 7, 230, 235, 326 Derby 207, 325–329 Doncaster 188 Durham 127 Eisteddfods 7 Welsh National Eisteddfod 232, 234 Halifax 87–113, 188 Hampshire Music Meeting 327 Hampshire Musical Festival 327–328 Handel 326, 376 Huddersfield 190 Hull 188 Leeds Triennial 266, 326–327, 330, 337, 352, 360, 372 Lincoln 190 Liverpool 325, 327–328 Manchester 327–328 Market Harborough 190 May Festival of Flowers and Song, Burslem 231 New Musical Fund 186 Newark 190 Newcastle 207, 325, 327–330 Norfolk and Norwich Triennial 241, 252, 256 Norwich 134, 361, 372 Oxford 134, 327 Peterborough 190 Rotherham 190 Salisbury 95, 133, 164, 327 Sheffield 187, 352 Sherburn 188 Sons of the Clergy 9–10 Staffordshire 227 Three Choirs 95–96, 111, 123, 191, 255, 257, 259, 264, 268, 325–326 Tonic Sol-fa Association 230, 235, 331 Wakefield 112–113, 188 Westmorland 331 Winchester 95 Wolverhampton 95 Wortley 188 York 327–330 Yorkshire 5, 188, 190–191, 328–330

Index Yorkshire Amateur Musical Meeting 192, 266–267 Field, Henry Ibbott and Thomas 167, 173 Field House (Sowerby) 100, 104; see also Stansfield, George Filtz, Anton 140–141, 146 Finch, Edward 4, 45–59, 64, 79, 84–86 Finger, Gottfried 28–30, 51 Finsbury, London 230 Finzi, Gerald 331 Fiocco 4 Jean-Joseph 53, 57–58 Pierre Antoine 52–53, 58 Fischer 139, 144 Flemming, Mark 20–21 Fletcher, William 272–273 Floral Pavilion, Bridlington 340 Flower, Thomas 163, 176–177 folk and vernacular musics 4–5, 65–67, 70–75, 77, 81–83, 86, 151–161, 195–221 Ford, Henry 256–257 Ford, Revd Mr 53 Foresters’ Lodge, Stalybridge 305; see also concert halls and concert rooms Forster, Mr F. 127 Forty, Elizabeth 165 Foster, John 207 Foster, William 56 Foundling Hospital (London) 103 Foxley, Herefordshire 153 France and French musicians 4, 26, 37, 212, 214, 272, 282, 285 Franklin, Mr 261 French Revolution and ‘Reign of Terror’ 167, 270 French Wars see Napoleonic Wars friendly societies see Foresters’ Lodge; Oddfellows’ Lodge Fuller, Mr Wendy 55–58 Fulneck, Leeds 175 Gadsby, William 199, 210 Gamble, Mr H. 321 Ganthony, Joseph 65 Ganz, Wilhelm 245 Garbett, Mr 173 Garcia, Manuel 244 Gardiner, Luke 68 Gardiner, William 145, 202, 212

387

Garlick, Samuel 304-305 Garner, James 233, 235 Garth, John 116, 128 Gauntlett, H.J. 216 Gawthorp Hall (Leeds) 187 Gay, John 77 Geminiani, Francesco 48, 52, 62, 72, 75, 86 gender 21, 28, 93, 104–106, 116–117, 205, 234–235, 261, 313 Genoa, Italy 62 gentleman, definition of 116–117; see also class identity and class politics; nobility and gentry; sociability ‘Gentlemen’s Concert’, Manchester see concerts and concert series, subscription concerts and concert series outside London George III, funeral of 169 George IV 256 German, Edward 360–361 Germany and German (Austro-German) musicians 4–5, 78, 94–95, 106–113, 122, 140–141, 145, 151–161, 166, 239, 279, 282, 284–286, 351, 374 Giardini, Felice de 123, 140, 143 Gibbons, Orlando 56 Gillow Revd Richard 272 Thomas 272 Gillow, Robert 283 Giordani, Tommaso 62, 140–141 Glasgow, south-west Scotland 64, 128, 341, 349, 351, 354, 357 Gledele, Mr 307 Gledhill, Shadrach 104 glees see catches and glees; music societies and singing clubs Glorious Revolution 10 Gloucester, south-west England 168, 255, 257, 268, 325, 353; see also festivals, Three Choirs Glover, Sarah 224 Goldwin, John 56–57 Goodban, Charles 249–250 Goodenough, Major 136 Goodenough, R.P. 281 Goodshaw, Rossendale 196, 198–200, 203, 214, 221 Goodson, R. 275 Goodson, Richard 20, 57

388

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Goodwood House (Sussex) see Richmond, Charles Lennox, third duke of Gordon, Alexander 62–65, 76 Goring Thomas, A. 344 Görlitz, Hugo 357 Goss, John 281 Gossec, François-Joseph 146 gothic, ‘Gothick’ 190, 272, 302, 310, 336 Gounod, Charles-François 337, 344 gramophone 352; see also phonograph Grand Tour 153; see also touring and tourism Grano, John Baptist 52 Graun, Carl Heinrich 173, 179 Graziana, Madame 239 Greatorex, Thomas 191 Greber, Jakob 52 Greek Doric style (architecture) 302, 310 Greene, Maurice 50–51, 56, 172 Greenwood George 217 James 219 John 217–218 Jonathan 220 Greville, Revd Mr 127 Grew, Sydney 351, 372 Grieg, Edvard 344 Griffiths, David 115, 185 Grindrod, Anne 209 Grindrod, Elizabeth 209 Grindrod, Esther 209 Grisi, Giulia 237, 244, 250 Groom, Alban 274 Grove, Buckinghamshire 22 Grove, George 337, 349–350, 352, 355–358, 360, 362–363, 368–369, 374 Gunton, Frederick 256 Gyrowetz, Adalbert 140, 190 Haberl, Franz Xaver 284 Hague, Charles 134 Halévy, Fromental 202, 212 Halifax, west Yorkshire 5, 87–113, 176, 188, 203, 208, 234, 296 Hall, Elias 104, 207 Hall, Henry 24, 50 Hallé, Charles 7, 355–356, 372–373 Hamilton, Hugh Douglas 155 Hamilton, James, Duke of 66–68 Hampshire, south England 327

Handel, George Frideric 1, 6, 28–30, 52, 58, 63, 75, 78, 81, 86, 90, 93–94, 134, 136, 188, 190, 200, 202, 206–208, 210, 212–213, 228–229, 257, 265–266, 279, 304–307, 311, 325–326, 336, 344 Alexander’s Feast 202, 207, 212, 218, 266 Dettingen Te Deum 200, 206–207, 215 Israel in Egypt 111, 264, 326 Jephtha 94, 111, 207, 213–214 Joshua 111, 202, 207, 212–213, 266 Judas Maccabaeus 111–113, 189, 206 Messiah 1, 5, 87–113, 126, 172–173, 200–201, 204, 206–207, 214–215, 221, 224–226, 231–232, 234, 263, 265–266, 273, 304, 326–327 Samson 94, 136, 199, 207, 215, 305–307, 335 Saul 94, 111, 212, 215 Tomb, Westminster Abbey 97 Handel Commemoration, Westminster Abbey and Pantheon (1784) 5, 90, 96, 103, 111, 208, 325–326 Handel Centenary Festival, Crystal Palace (1859) 326 Hanley, Staffordshire 227, 229, 235 Hanover [Hannover], Germany 94, 107; see also monarchs and monarchy Harding, Mr 261 Hardy, Mr 135 Hardy, Thomas 176 Hardy, William 104 Harewood, Edward Lascelles, second Lord 5, 185, 187, 190 Harewood House (Leeds) 185, 187 Harewood, Leeds 183, 187, 191–192 Hargreaves family (Rossendale) 195–221 James 212 Jeremiah 212 John 204, 217–218, 221 Harley, Robert, first earl of Oxford 56 harmoniums and harmonium players 166, 210, 304–305 Harper, John 59 Harrison, Colin 153–161 Harrop, Sarah 111 Hartlepool, north-east England 282 Hartley, James 104–105 Hartly [Hartley?], Mary, Sarah, and Susan 104–105

Index Harwood Edward 169, 208 ‘The Dying Christian to his Soul/Vital spark of heav’nly flame’ 169, 208 Mary (of Darwen, Lancashire) 208 Harwood, Miss (of Yorkshire) 124 Haslingden, Rossendale 208–209 Hattersley, F.K. 360 Hawdon, Matthias 119, 124, 127 Hawes, William 256, 259 Hawkins, James 58 Hawkins, John 61, 92 Haworth, west Yorkshire 200 Haycroft, Henry 260 Hayden, George 58 Haydn, Joseph 1, 86, 125, 134, 141, 144–146, 149, 188, 210, 212, 265, 274, 283–286, 290–291, 304 Creation 173, 263–267 Seasons 265 string quartets 136, 139, 140–141, 144–146, 149 symphonies 144 Hayes, William 281 Haym, Nicola Francesco 28–30 Haynes, Henry 165 Hayward, John 165 Heap, James 104 Heap, Moses 196–197, 199, 202–206, 209–211, 213, 215–216, 220–221 Heath Daniel 223, 226–232 Thomas Wood 223 Heaton, Dr J.D. 299, 322 Hebden [Hebdeni], John 119–121 Hemy, Henri Frederick 271, 274, 276–278, 280–282, 286, 290 Heneken, C.H. 283 Henschel, George 375 Henshall, Samuel 285, 291 Hereford, west midlands, England 6, 21, 24, 95–96, 151, 229, 255–259, 264, 325; see also festivals, Three Choirs Herissone, Rebecca 28 Herod, 273 Herschel Alexander 137–138 Jacob 94 William 5, 94–95, 106–113, 166, 168 oratorio, Paradise Lost 107

389

Hervé [Ronger, Florimond] 316 Hervey, Arthur 345 Hey, Rochdale 95, 103–105, 110, 113, 124, 207, 328 Heywood, Mr R. 321 Heyworth Henry 217 John 201–202, 221 Robert 217 Hexham, north-east England 269, 289 Highways Act (1771) 160 Hiles, J. Henry 279 Hill, Charles (Halifax) 104 Hill, Charles (Winchester) 137 Hill, James 264–265 Hill, John 104 Hilton, Edward 305 Hinchingbrooke House (Huntingdon) 93, 111; see also Sandwich, John Montagu, fourth earl of Hindmarsh, Mr 136–137 historiography 1 Hitchen, John 104 Hodson, Morris 263 Hogarth, George 108, 298, 303 Holdroyd, Israel 203 Holdsworth, John 104 Holland, Revd Christopher 165 Holman, Peter 9, 20, 157 Holmes, George 23–24, 57 Holst, Gustav 331 Holy Roman Empire 4 Holzbauer, Ignaz 146 Hook, Walter Farquhar 264, 268 Hopwood, Richard 104 hotels 241, 248 Scarborough Hotel 263 Howells, Herbert 331 Howes, Frank 375 Hubersty, Father James 273 Huddersfield, west Yorkshire 190, 234, 308, 351, 353, 357, 371 Hudson Frances 120, 123 William 120, 123, 125 Hudson, John William 337, 345 Hudson family (Rossendale) 195–221 John 205, 220 Reuben 203, 214

390

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Richard 198, 208–209 Tim 214 Hudson, Miss 208 Hueffer, Francis 362 Hull, east Yorkshire 128, 188, 192, 266, 298, 330–332, 337, 340 Hullah, John 223, 227 Hulme, Thomas 229 Humfrey, Pelham 57, 181 Hummel, F.L. 140–142 Hummel, Johann Nepomuk 141, 167, 216, 290–291 Huntingdon, east England 13, 19, 52, 93; see also militia hurdy-gurdy see cymbal ‘Old Sarah’ 157 Hutchinson, John 56 Hyde, Manchester 299 Hyler, Mr 135 hymns and hymn tunes 6, 168–169, 175, 196, 195–221, 269–293, 298 illiteracy 227 impresarios 6; see also agents, managers, and promoters; concerts and concert series; professionalism and professionalization; theatre industrialization 3, 177, 193, 295, 297, 321 Infirmaries; see also charity, fund-raising, and philanthropy Birmingham 329 Hull 330 Leeds Dispensary 330 Fever Hospital 330 General Infirmary 187, 191, 329–330 Women’s Hospital 330 Newcastle 127, 330 Royal Derby Infirmary 329 Sheffield 330 York 329 York County Hospital 330 Ingham, William 104 Inkersall, Mr 307 instrument makers and repairers 63–64, 96–98, 100–102, 107, 113, 165, 177–178, 187, 199, 262, 272 instruments, instrumentation, and accompaniment 19–23, 27–28, 32–33, 47–48, 50–52, 54, 61–86, 92, 102–103,

112, 122, 142, 155–157, 165–166, 174–175, 203–205, 207, 218, 242, 244, 265, 304–306, 335 use of instruments in church worship 99, 165–166, 174–175, 198–200, 203–204, 206 Ireland, John 331 Ireland and Irish music 4–5, 61–86, 122, 152, 155–160, 189, 259, 321; see also Belfast; Dublin; pipes and pipers, Irish Irish immigration and immigrants, potato famine 273, 278, 316–317 Irish State Music 68, 76 Irwell Vale, Rossendale 206 Irwin, Viscount 187; see also Temple Newsam House (Leeds) Italianate (architecture) 302, 310 Italy and Italian musicians 4–6, 11, 17–19, 55–56, 58, 61–86, 120–123, 140–141, 168, 171, 185, 212, 214, 237–253, 282, 284–286 Ivanoff, Nicola 244 Ives, Linton 320 Jackson (Durham), Mr 127 Jackson (Halifax), Mr 113 Jackson (Stalybridge), Mr 307 Jackson, Francis 255 Jackson, Paul, 137, 146 Jackson, William (Exeter) 258 Jackson, William (Masham) 281, 290 Jacob, Gordon 331 Jacques, Edgar 351, 371, 373 Jewish melodies 152 Joachim, Joseph 357, 360 Jobson [later Warburton], Robert 112, 124 Johnson [Johnston], Thomas 79 Johnstone, Harry Diack 10, 21, 24, 59 Johnstone, Revd Thomas 184–186, 189–191 Jones, David Wyn 144 Jones, Edward 157 Jones, John 281 Jones, Revd Dr John 157 Jung, Philippe 137 Kalisch, Alfred 351, 358 Kammel, Antonín 140, 144, 149 Keller, Johann Gottfried 28–30, 52 Kelly, Thomas Alexander, sixth earl of 140

Index

391

Law, Frank Trickett 216 Law, Sarah 202, 214, 218 Lawes, Henry and William 26 Lawson, Joseph 225 Lawton, David 188 Lawton, Mrs 307 Leach, James 208–209 Leamington Spa, west midlands, England 252, 300 Le Bas, Jacques-Philippe 153 lectures 297, 311, 357 Leeds, west Yorkshire 6, 88, 95, 145, 183–193, 256, 262–268, 295, 298, 302–303, 308, 325–327, 330–332, 337, 340, 351, 372 Leeds Public Exhibition (1843–44) 265 Legh, Revd George 97 Lehmann, Liza 345 Leicester, east midlands, England 145, 202, 212 Leo, Leonardo 266 Leslie, John 76 Lettsom, M.A. and L. 215 Lidl, Andreas 143, 146 Lincoln, east England 23, 56, 112, 128, 190 Lindisfarne, off north-east coast, England Lablache 269–270 Federico 244, 250 Lindley, Robert 186 Luigi 237, 239, 244, 250, 259 Lingard, Frederick 272, 281–283, 285, 289 Lamb, Benjamin 25 Linley, William 177 Lamborne, George 165 Linsey, Hon. Mr 157 Lancashire, north-west England 6, 105, Lister family (Shibden Hall) 89, 91 124, 136, 195–221, 304, 328; see also Liston, Harry 313 Sol-fa, Lancashire Liszt, Franz 259, 337, 346 ‘Lancashire, celebrated female singers from’; see choruses and choirs, female literacy 352 Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire 9–44 choristers Littleborough, Lancashire 216 Lancaster, north-west England 218 liturgical music 45–59, 166–169, 171, Langdon, Richard 258 179–181, 215, 217, 230, 232, 257, Langford, George 313 272–293; see also anthems; hymns Langley Burrell, Chippenham 166, 174 and hymn tunes; plainchant and ‘Langley Riots’ 178 plainsong; psalms and psalmody; Lanier, Nicholas 25 Renaissance polyphony; set pieces Lansdowne, Marquis of 163, 173, 177 Liverpool, north-west England 112, 203, Lanza, Mademoiselle 262 208, 212, 238, 252, 283, 298, 308, 325, Lascelles family (Harewood); see 327–328, 351–353, 357–359, 360–361, Harewood, Lord 364 Lassus, Orlando 284 Lloyd, Charles Harford 335 Lates, James 133 Loder Latrobe, Christian Ignatius 145, 175 Andrew 169, 172–173 Laude, Revd S. 289 Kelly, William Nugent 291 Kendal, north-west England 202 Kentish, Edward 125 Kidson, Frank 184 Kift, Dagmar 318 Kilvert, Revd Francis 166 King, Charles 281–282 King, Robert 27, 41, 50 Kinleside, Revd 135 Kirkby-in-Cleveland, north Yorkshire 46 Kirkheaton, Huddersfield 208 Klein, Bernhard 285 Knapton Philip 188, 191 Samuel 191 Knerler (violinist) 120 Knight, J.F. 282–283, 285–286 Knight, William 290 Knight (York), William 4, 45–59 Knyvett, William 188 Kozeluch, Leopold 140 Krugh (composer) 210 Kubelik, Jan 357 Kyrle Society, London 308

392

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

J.D. 266–267 John 137–138, 188 Loeillet, Jean Baptiste 52 London 1–7, 9–12, 15, 17, 22–23, 27–28, 30, 32, 35, 45, 50, 55, 58, 62–65, 72, 80, 92, 94, 96–97, 100, 102, 111–112, 121–122, 126, 130–131, 134, 136–142, 144, 151, 155, 160, 166–167, 169, 175, 179, 181, 185–186, 188–189, 192–193, 207, 230, 237–239, 241–242, 244–248, 250–253, 255–256, 259, 262, 264, 266–267, 271–272, 273, 278–279, 282–284, 286, 291, 304, 308, 328, 336, 349–376 City of 92 London Trio 353 Lowe, Edward 20, 25 Lucca, Italy 62 Luckett, Richard 28 Lumb, Rossendale 196, 198–200, 203–204, 206, 210, 213, 215, 221 Lumley, Benjamin 238–239, 245–247, 250–252 Lutz, Meyer 277 Lutzer, Jenny 239 McCarroll, Mr, and daughters 249 MacCarty, Callaghan 79 MacCunn, Hamish 360, 372, 375 McFarlane, Walter 76 Macfarren, George Alexander 354, 356, 358, 360, 362–367 Mackenzie, Alexander C. 345, 360 Mackworth family (Neath) 17 Mackworth family (Rutland) 17 Robert (Empingham) 12, 17, 19, 34 Madingley, Cambridge 91 Mahon James 142 John 140, 142–143, 146 Ross 142–143 William 142 Maidstone, south-east England 241, 252 Malchair, John Baptist 5, 133, 151–161 Malibran, Maria 245 Manchester, north-west England 5, 7, 95, 112–113, 115, 130–132, 134, 142, 144–145, 149, 183, 208, 220, 227, 233, 238, 257, 265, 267, 295–296, 299–300, 302, 308–309, 325, 327–328, 351, 353, 355, 357, 372

Manchester College of Music 279 Mancini, Francesco 28–30, 63 Mannheim school 141 Manns, August 351, 355, 358 Marcello, Benedetto 168, 171 Marella, Gian Battista 62 Margate, south-east coast of England 123, 300 Marino, Carlo Antonio 56 Mario, Giovanni Matteo 237, 239, 244, 250 Market Harborough, Leicestershire 190 Market Weighton, Yorkshire 332 Marler, Mr 113 Marsden, John 306, 310 Marsh, John 128, 133–137, 140, 142–43 Marshall, William 256 Mary, Queen of Scots 72 masque 66–67 mass singing movement 7, 223–235, 264–265, 316; see also; Curwen; Novello & Co.; Sol-fa, Tonic Maynard, Walter (pseud.) see Beale, Willert Mazzinghi, Joseph 285 Mechanics’ Institution 310–311 Ashton-under-Lyne 312 Leeds 267 London 310 Manchester 267 Stalybridge 299, 310–314, 315–317, 322 Mee, J.H. 361 Mellor, Mr 307 Mendelssohn, Felix 257, 336–338, 345, 360, 363–367 Elijah 1, 224, 232, 326–327, 335–336, 345 St Paul 265, 326 Meredith, Edward 119 Messiah Club (Halifax); see music societies and singing clubs Methodism 206, 296; see also Nonconformism Primitive Methodists 206 Methold, Mr 127 Meyer, Philippe-Jacques, 186 Meyerbeer, Giacomo 335, 345 Midgley, Halifax 89, 99 Milgrove, Benjamin 166

Index

393

militia, military music 5, 66, 125, 136, 199, music-printing, engraving, and publishing 61, 67–69, 73–74, 80, 191, 224, 226, 204, 217–219, 221 260–261, 287 17th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Band music societies and singing clubs 30; see 210 also choral societies; concerts and Armed Association of Chippenham 167 concert series Band of the 17th Lancers 266 Aberdeen 128 Dorset militia 142 Academy of Ancient Music (Academy Duke of Richmond’s private band 136 of Vocal Music), London 2, 92 Earl of Darlington’s militia band 95 Anacreontic Society, London 143 Huntingdon Battalion 124 Ashton Gentlemen’s Glee Club 313 Lancashire Fencibles Regiment 136 Blackburn 208 Newcastle Volunteer Corps 125 Bridlington 331–347 Oxford Volunteers’ Band 142 Cambridge University Musical Society Sussex militia band 135–136 355–356, 360 Miller, Mr 307 Carlisle 128 Milton, John 107 Chichester 134–137 miniature scores, used by audiences at Darlington 128 concerts 375 Derby 128 minstrels, black and blackface; see concert Devon and Exeter Madrigal Society parties and minstrels 258–259 Mitterer, Ignatius 284, 291 Devon and Exeter Quartett Parties 260 monarchs and monarchy 4, 11, 52, 101, Devon Glee Club 258–259, 262 105, 169, 181, 204, 215, 272 Dublin 128 Moody, Dwight L. 198 Durham 128 Moore, Joseph 328 Ecclesfield 208 Moore, Revd 135 Edinburgh 63, 71, 74–75, 128 moot halls 296 Glasgow 128 morality 7, 98–99, 110, 224–225, 231, 235, Hereford 21 296–299, 312, 317 Hey see chapels, Hey Chapel Moravians and Moravianism 6, 145, 163, Hull 128 175–176 Kirkheaton 208 Mori, Nicholas 244, 259 Larks of Dean, Rossendale 195–221 Morley, Thomas 111, 281 Leeds Amateur Musical Society 192 Mornington, Garret Wesley, first earl of Lincoln 128 210, 281 London Wagner Society 358 Morpeth, north-east England 115 Madrigal and Motet Society, Leeds 266 Morris, Claver 10, 21, 24, 59 Madrigal Society, London 92 Mossley, Manchester 208, 300 Manchester 132, 134, 146–147 Mozart Messiah Club, Halifax 5, 87–113 Leopold 1 Mossley 208 Wolfgang Amadeus 139, 146, 173, Musical and Amicable Society, 204, 207, 210, 212, 215, 221, 232, Birmingham 298 251, 257, 267, 271, 272, 283–286, Musical Association, Exeter 260 290–291, 356 Newcastle Musical Society 117–128 Municipal Corporations Act (1835) 295 Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club municipal patronage 295–323 93, 138 murals and mottoes 296, 311 Norwich 128, 141 Murgatroyd, Charles 54, 56 Nottingham 128 Murphy, Joseph 291 Senior Music Society 128 music hall 317–320

394

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Newman, Ernest 351, 372 Newmarch, Rosa 351, 372 Newsham, Charles 270–273, 276–278, 281–283, 285–286, 289–290 newspapers 131, 137, 230, 304, 308, 332–333 Nicholls, Mr 122 Nigri, Signor 240–242, 246, 252 Nixon, Henry G. 278, 291 nobility and gentry 2–3, 65–68, 89, 93, 115–128, 137, 166, 169, 176, 242, 307 Noble, Thomas Tertius 337, 345 Noëlli, Georg 140, 142, 149 Noke, Mr 189 Nonconformism 195–221, 264, 295–298, 320; see also Baptists; Methodism Norman, Joseph 305 Norris, Thomas 103 Norris, William 23 North, Roger 19 Northampton 14, 32 Northamptonshire, east midlands, England 14–15 Nalson Northwich, Cheshire 111 John 52 Norwich, east England 5, 10, 128, Valentine 4, 45–59 130–132, 134, 141–142, 224, 241, 256, Nancy, France 151 325, 327, 353, 358, 361, 372 Napier, William 136, 140 Norwood, Robert 20–21 Naples 62 Norton, Thomas 304 Napoleon 351 Napoleonic Wars 5, 125, 136, 167, 189, 327 Nottingham, east midlands, England 112, 128, 233, 357 Nares, James 56, 58 Novello (Ewer) & Co. 177, 181, 217, 226, ‘national music’ see folk and vernacular 260, 263, 273, 278, 283, 288, 291 musics Novello, Joseph Alfred 281 National Sunday League, London 308 Novello, Vincent 177, 215–216, 226, 262, Natividad, Joachim de 290 276, 278, 282–283, 290–291 Navarra, Francesco 52 Nugent, T.R. 320 Naylor, John 104 Nuttall family (Rossendale) 195–221 Neale, John and William 67–76, 79 Adam 209, 221 Neruda, Wilma, Lady Hallé 373 Betty 208, 214, 219 Nesfield, Revd Mr 127 Henry 202–203, 210 Nešvera, Josef 335, 337, 345 James 196, 199, 202–204, 209, 212–215, Netherlands, The, and Dutch musicians 4, 218–221 11, 56, 122, 141, 321 John 199, 202–204, 206, 213–215, Nettel, Reginald 227, 235 217–219, 221 Neukomm, Sigismund 257 Revd John 198, 202, 209 Newark, east midlands, England 190 Richard 212, 214, 217 Newbigging, Thomas 196–198 Sally 202, 205, 214, 217–218 Newcastle, north-east England 5, 95, 115–128, 130–132, 141, 145–146, 207, Oakley, H.S. 360 273–274, 325, 327–328, 330 Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire 227 Oates, John 104 Old-Cock, Halifax 87–113 Oldham 208 Ossett 208 Oxford 4, 16–17, 21, 128, 132, 137, 141–142, 146, 148–149 Oxford Eaglesfield Music Society 361 Saddleworth 208 Salisbury 146–147 Shaw see chapels, Shaw Chapel Sheffield 208 Society of the Gentlemen Lovers of Musick 9–10 Spalding 128 Stamford (‘Cecilians’) 4, 9–44 Wells 10, 21, 24, 59 Whitehaven 128 Wigan 208 York Musick Club (Musick Assembly/ Fund/Society) 58, 117–128, 184 musicology 1–2

Index Oddfellows’ Lodge 319 odes 27–28, 66, 207, 212–213, 215; see also St Cecilia Oldham 104–105, 110–111, 124, 207, 308, 328 Oliver, Carl 234–235 O’Neal, J.H. 98 O’Neill, Sinéad 155 opera 286 ballad 61, 65, 76–77 English 256, 268 French 316, 319, 335 Italian 63, 74, 237–253, 319 Scottish 5, 61, 64–65, 76–77, 86 touring D’Oyly Carte 319 T.R. Nugent’s Comic Opera Company 320 oratorio 5–6, 87–113, 124, 183–193, 195–221, 232, 241, 262–268, 304–307, 325–347; see also concerts and concert series; Handel, George Frideric orchestras and bands 5, 23, 84, 102–103, 106–107, 113, 116–118, 126–128, 130, 138, 151, 166, 173, 192, 204, 210, 231, 238, 244, 260, 265, 267, 304, 335–336, 342 organs and organists 4–6, 19–23, 25, 46, 50–52, 54–58, 90, 94–113, 116–117, 119, 124, 126, 130, 135–136, 145, 163–181, 183–193, 198, 228–229, 234, 255–268, 272–293, 305–306, 327, 336–337 Orpin, Thomas 166 Oscott, Birmingham 284 Ossett, Wakefield 207 Ostergaard, Sophie 239–240, 242, 246, 252–253 Oswald, James 72 Oundle, Northamptonshire 13–14, 26, 32–33 Owens, Alexander 313 Owens, Miss 172–173 Oxford 4–5, 9–10, 17, 20–23, 30, 95, 112, 115, 128, 130–131, 134, 137, 139, 144, 151–161, 174, 256, 325, 327, 353, 357 City Music (City Drum) 154 Lord Mayor City Music 154 Oxford Movement 6, 178

395

Pacini, Mademoiselle 239, 241–242, 252 Pack, Simon 40 Paddon, James 258 Paderewski, Ignacy Jan 361 Padua, Italy 62 Paganini, Nicolò 213 Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da 284 Palmer, Raymund 274 Palmer, Roy 157 pamphlets and pamphleteering 87–113, 174 pantaleon 142 pantomime 319 Paradies, Domenico 169, 172 Paris 153 Parker, Tom 200 Parliament and MPs 100, 163–164, 166, 297, 300, 313–314 Parma, Italy 245 parochial politics 87–113 Parry, C.H.H. 361, 363 Parry, Robert 164–165 Pasquali [Pascoli], Nicolo 62, 65, 283 Passerini, Christina and Giuseppe 62 pastoral 61, 65–67, 76 Paterson, James 62 Patman, George Thomas 337, 345 Patti, Adelina 251 Paxton, Stephen 278–280 payment of/to musicians 5, 51, 96–97, 105–108, 110–112, 115–128, 134–135, 165, 177, 185, 187, 190, 230, 241, 249–250, 255, 258, 306–307, 358, 362–363 Payne, Mr 136 Peck Francis 16, 20 Robert 16, 19–21, 33 Peckard, Peter 11 Peckett, Alexander 282 pedals, organ 107, 176 Peggy, John 220 Pelton (composer) 210 Pennines, north of England 87, 113 ‘penny readings’ 229 People’s Entertainment Society, London 308 Percival, Philip 68 Perez, S. 291

396

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

performance practice 19–20, 25–26, 27–28, 72, 78–79, 82, 102–103, 199, 205–206, 288 Perkins, Thomas 122 Persiani, Fanny 239, 244 Peterborough, east England 190 ‘Peterloo Massacre’ 199 Pevsner, Nikolaus 161 Pez, Johann Christoph 52, 57 Philharmonic Society, London; see concerts and concert series Phillips, Henry 259, 262 phonograph 153 piano transcriptions 352 pianos and pianists 167, 173, 186, 189, 242, 256, 259–260, 262, 266, 320, 352–353, 356–357, 360–361 Piantanida, Giovanni 121 Piatti, Alfredo 357 Pickles, Benjamin 104 Pickup, James 202, 212, 220–221 Pieltain, Dieudonné-Pascal 138, 140, 146–147 Pilkington, Matthew 73 Pilling, Betty 205 pipes and pipers Irish [uilleann] 155–157 ‘Blind Daniel’ 155 Scottish 155 Pitoni, Giovanni 275, 285 Pitt, Percy 351 Pizzolato, Antonio 120, 122 plagiarism 184, 354 plainchant, plainsong 6, 271, 274, 282, 284–289 Solesmes 287–289 Plaistow, London 224 Plato 225 Platt, Ralph 273 Playford, Henry and John 17–18, 24, 27–28, 30, 81, 160, 207 Pleasant Sunday Afternoon movement (P.S.A.) 318 Pleyel, Ignaz 125, 134–136, 139–140, 144, 146, 149 Plymouth, south-west coast of England 241, 253 ‘polite’ vs commercial 115–128 Pope, the 270, 276, 280, 284, 286 Pope, Alexander 169

Popper, David 358 Porta, Giovanni 63 Portsea, Portsmouth 328 Portsmouth, south coast of England 136, 328 Posterla, Costanza 121 Pothier, Joseph 287 Potiron, Henri 287 Potteries, the, Stoke-on-Trent 7, 223–235 Potterne, Wiltshire 163, 167, 176 Powell, Josiah Wolstencroft 227–233, 235 Preston, Lancashire 246, 252 Preston, Thomas 166–168, 171, 179 Price Robert 153–154 Uvedale 154 Priestly, John 89 Priestley, Joseph 177 prizes 223–235 professionalism and professionalization 5–6, 20, 79, 92–93, 108, 112, 115–130, 134, 166; see also amateurs programmes and programme notes 6, 239–240, 242, 249, 333, 336–339, 343–347, 349–376 Protestantism 278 Prout, Ebenezer 361 provincialism 3, 113, 258 psalms and psalmody 6, 26, 31, 48–49, 58, 97, 168, 174, 176, 179–181, 195–221, 229, 304 Pugnani, Gaetano 140 Punch and Judy shows 340 Purcell Daniel 20, 22–24, 42 Henry 1, 4, 23–28, 40, 50, 52–53, 56–58, 82, 84, 102, 209 ‘Celestial Music’ 27–28, 30, 39–43 Puritanism 99 Puzzi Giacinta (née Toso) ‘Mamma Puzzi’ 245 Giovanni 237–253 Pye, Kellow J. 259–260 Quarles I and II, Charles 50–52, 57–58 quartet parties 129–149, 260 ‘Queen Anne’ style (architecture) 314 Queensbury, Charles Douglas, Duke of 62 Quist, Captain 136

Index Race Week 123–124; see also Assize Week; season, the Radcliffe, Mary 111, 113 railways 6, 177, 233, 237–253, 255, 331–334, 340 Raimondi, Ignazio 140, 185–186, 189 Ramsay, Allan 5, 61, 65–67, 71–74, 76–77, 84, 86 The Gentle Shepherd 5, 61, 65, 76–77, 86 Ramsden family (Greetland) 89 Ramsey, Robert 25 Randall, John 94–95, 111 Randall, Thomas 281 Randegger, Alberto 256 Ransome, David 31 ‘rational recreation’, music and 225–226, 297–298, 309, 319 Rauzzini, Venanzio 140, 144 Ravenscroft, Thomas 28–30, 337 Rawlings, Thomas 140 Rawtenstall, Lancashire 220 Ray, Martha 93 Reading, John 42 Reading, south-east England 240–241, 252, 349 Reed, Alexander 203 Reeve, John 141 Reid, T. Wemyss 322 Reform Acts (1832 and 1867) 163–164, 295 Reformation, the 273 Reinagle, Joseph 137, 143, 146, 149 Reinecke, Carl 345 Reissiger, Karl 266–267 Renaissance polyphony 6, 284, 286–288; see also Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da resorts see Bath; Bridlington; Margate Restoration, the 297 Rice, Mr 260 Richards, Mr 133 Richardson, John 272, 278, 282–283 Richardson, Vaughan 23–24 Richmond, Charles Lennox, third duke of 135–136 Richmond, north Yorkshire 95 Richter, Hans 357 Rigg, Darnley 220 Rinck, Johann Christian Heinrich 266 Ripon, north Yorkshire 52 Rizzio [Riccio], David 72

397

roads and road transportation 5, 11–12 Great North Road 4–5, 11–12 stage coaches 5, 11, 237 trams 314 Robertson, Dora 164 Robins, Brian 137 Rochdale, Lancashire 105, 209 Rogers, Benjamin 57 Rogers, Sir John 258 Rogers, Walter 20 Rogers, William 137–138 Rolle, Johann Heinrich 173 Romberg, Andreas or Bernhard 266 Rome 18–19, 62, 269–293 Ronconi, Signor and Madame 248 Root, George Frederick 210 Roseingrave, Thomas 50, 63 Rossendale, Lancashire 6, 195–221 ‘Rossendale players’ 197 Rossini, Gioacchino 239–240, 245, 249–250, 256, 266, 326 Rostoran, Richard 202, 218 Rotherham, south Yorkshire 190 ‘rotten boroughs’ 163–165, 174 Roubiliac, Louis François 97–99 ‘rough recreation’ 318–319 Royal Academy of Music 63, 259–260 Royal College of Music 335 Royal Society 9 Royds, John 100 Rubini Adelaide Comelli 246, 252–253 Giovanni 6, 237–253 Rushton, Julian 1 Russell, Dave 232, 316 Russell, William 167 Russia, Grand Duke Nicholas 190 Rysbrack, John Michael 47 Sacchini, Antonio 140, 144 sacred music; see choral music; liturgical music Saddleworth, Oldham 207 Sainsbury, John 184 Sainsbury, Dr William 177 St Cecilia 13, 16, 18, 20, 33–34, 133, 165, 325; see also Catholicism, Roman, Cecilians Odes for St Cecilia’s Day 4, 9–10, 22–24, 27–22, 36–38, 57, 215–216

398

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Saint-Saëns, Camille 335, 345, 361 Sainte-Colombe le fils 64 Salford 208, 295, 300 Salisbury, Edward 50–51, 57–58 Salisbury, Wiltshire 95, 133, 143, 163–165, 176, 325, 327 Salmon, Eliza 188 Salomon, Johann Peter 2, 138, 140, 186 Saltpietro, Giovanni 135 Sandwich, John Montagu, fourth earl of 90, 93, 100, 103, 111; see also Hinchingbrooke Sankey, Ira D. 198 Sapio, Mr 173 ‘Saul and the witch of Endor’ 24–26, 30–31; see also Purcell, Henry Saville, William 109 Scarborough, Yorkshire, north coast of England 121, 282, 331–332 Scarlatti, Domenico 63 Scarlatti, Francesco 62 Schmid, Ferdinand X. 290–291 Scholes, Percy 375–376 schools and colleges; see also Sol-fa, Tonic; Sunday schools day schools 210 Dr Samuel Ogden’s Free School, Halifax 94 Enborne School 21 Eton College 55, 91, 95, 255 Exeter Cathedral Song School 262 Haddington Grammar School, Edinburgh 76–77 Independent Academy at Daventry 209 Manchester Grammar School 91, 95 Revd Louis Maidwell’s school, Westminster 27, 30 St John’s School, Leeds 263 St Joseph’s Orphanage and Industrial School 313 Salisbury Cathedral choir school 164–165 Stonyhurst College 210, 271, 287, 289 Whitefriars music school, London 1 Winchester College 255 Schubert, Franz 239, 345 Schumann, Clara 357, 362 Schwindl, Friedrich 140–141 Scotland and Scottish music 4–5, 61–86, 152, 155, 157–160, 190–191, 317, 333,

336, 341, 351; see also Aberdeen; Edinburgh; Glasgow; opera, Scottish; pipes and pipers, Scottish lowland Scots 4, 61, 65–67, 84, 86 seascapes, musical 336 season, the 2, 6, 64, 111, 119–120, 123, 133, 237, 239, 250, 263 Sechter, Simon 274, 284–285, 289 Sedgewick, Obadiah 18, 20, 35 Seede, Brice 165, 178 self-help 296–297 self-improvement 107–108, 224, 296–297, 303, 310, 312 sermons 10, 53, 57, 165–166, 172 charity sermons 199–200, 206 serpent 199, 204 services (religious) 110, 169, 172, 198, 210, 318 anniversary service 199–200 charity service 329 service of song 313, 320 set pieces 6, 202, 209, 217, 220 Seven Years War 94 Seward (composer) 210 Seymour, Jane 195 Seymour, William 288 Shakespeare, William 160, 319, 375 Sharp, Granville 47–48 Sharp, Revd Samuel 190 Sharpe, Miss 168 Shaw, Geoffrey 331 Shaw, George Bernard 375 Shaw, Lancashire 105, 110–111, 124, 207, 328 Shaw, Thomas 120, 123, 140, 142 Sheffield, Yorkshire 105, 187, 192, 207, 266, 325, 329–330, 332, 340, 351–352, 357 Shenton, Thomas 199 Shepherd, Mr 307 Shepley, Mr W. 321 Sherburn, Yorkshire 188 Shibden Hall (Halifax) 89 Shore, John 23 Shutky (composer) 275 Sibly, Stephen 136 Silvester, John 258 Simpson, Mr 133 Skinner, Revd John 175 Skipton, north Yorkshire 203

Index Smail, John 88–90, 109 Smart, George 256, 326, 330 Smart, Henry Thomas 326, 346 Smiles, Samuel 296–297 Smith, Bishop Thomas 272 Smith, David 104 Smith, Father 187 Smith, Horace (pseud.), see Chatfield, Paul Smith, Mr (Norwich) 134 Smith, Mr (Stalybridge) 307 Smith, Mr C. 135 Smith, Robert 273 Smith, Samuel 264 Snetzler, John 96–98, 100–102, 107 sociability 90, 92–93, 105, 108–112; see also gentleman Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge 169, 172 Society of the Gentlemen Lovers of Musick see music societies and singing clubs Sol-fa, Lancashire 205 Tonic 7, 210, 223–235, 316 Burslem Tonic Sol-fa Choir (‘Tonics’) 223, 228–233 North Staffordshire Tonic Sol-fa Association 234 Tonic Sol-fa Association 308 Tonic Sol-fa Association Festivals, Crystal Palace 230, 331 Tonic Sol-fa College 226, 234 Tonic Sol-fa College President’s Prize 226, 234 Tonic Sol-fa Reporter 224, 230–231 Somervell, Arthur 336, 346 sonatas 4, 11, 17–20, 30, 34–36, 47–48, 50–51, 56, 63–64, 67–69, 73, 78–86, 167, 189, 267, 356 songs and vocal music 4, 9–44, 45–59, 65–77, 83–84, 86, 126, 132, 167–171, 237–253 297, 315; see also choral music; choral societies; choruses and choirs; music societies and singing clubs; street music Sons of the Clergy 9–10 Southwick, Northamptonshire 14–15, 19, 26, 32, 37 Sowerby, Halifax 89, 99–101, 105 Spain and Spanish musicians 4, 62–63, 141, 282–283

399

Spalding 128 Spark, Fred 326–327 Spark, William 264, 266, 268 Speer, C.T. 360 Spitalfields, London 92 Spohr, Louis 257, 264, 266–267, 281, 326 sports, organized 3, 297 Stabilini, Hieronymo 62 Stadler, Johann Wilhelm 275, 288 Staffordshire, west midlands, England 223–235; see also Potteries, the Stalybridge, Manchester 7, 299–323 Stamford, Lincolnshire 4, 9–44; see also music societies and singing clubs Stamitz, Johann 140 Standish, Wigan 207 Stanford, Charles Villiers 336–337, 339, 346, 349, 356 Stanley, John 136 Stansfield, George 89, 97, 99–102 Stationers’ Hall, Ludgate, London 9, 22–23 Staudigl, Joseph 239 Steeple Gidding, Huntingdonshire 13 Steffani, Agostino 4, 48, 52, 56 Steill [Steil], John 63, 74–75 Stephens, John 164 Stevens, R.J.S. 210 Stimson, James 336 Stoke-on-Trent, west midlands, England 7, 223–235, 300 Stopford, Thomas 95, 110, 113 Stratton, Stephen S. 353, 372 Strauss, Richard 351 street music 151–161 string bands 204, 210, 313 string quartets 5, 129–149; see also chamber music Stuart [Stewart], Alexander 72, 77 Stukeley, William 11, 16 Sudlow, Edward 145 Suffield, Robert 274 Suffrein, Mr 266 Sullivan, Arthur 346, 360 Sunday schools 199–200, 210, 220 Sunderland, north-east England 95, 115 Sunderland, Susan 307 Sussex, south-east England 153 Swindon, Wiltshire 177 Switzerland and Swiss musicians 118, 120

400

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Sympson, Christopher 202, 216 syndication 353 Tadolini, Giovanni 243 Talke, Staffordshire, 234 Tallis, Thomas 56–57, 281 Tamburini, Antonio 237, 244 Taunton, south-west England 253 taverns and public houses, music in 17, 94, 297 Chippenham Angel Inn 166, 173 White Hart Inn 166 Edinburgh Cross Keys Tavern, High Street 63, 75 Halifax Church Tavern 91 Old-Cock, Southgate 91, 109–113 Ring O’Bells 91 Talbot Inn 100 London Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand 92 Free Mason’s Tavern 2 Twelve Bells alehouse, Bride Lane, Fleet Street 92 Oxford Mr Hall’s Tavern 17, 20 Stalybridge Friend and Pitcher Inn, Caroline Street 321 Taylor, Edward 241, 252 Taylor, George 281–282, 286 Taylor, William Cooke 195 Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il’yich 346, 353, 372 tea and buns 233 before an evening rehearsal 304 gardens 297 parties 231, 313, 316 party and concert 308, 311, 320 rooms 303 Techter, D. 290 temperance see alcohol Temperley, Nicholas 166 Temple Newsam House (Leeds) 187 Tenducci, Giusto Ferdinando 62 Tennant, J.M. 264 Terry, Richard 276, 287, 290 Test Act, repeal of (1829) 295

textile industry 5, 11, 87–113, 130, 166, 195–221, 299, 303–307, 312, 316 Thalberg, Sigismond 248, 259 theatre and theatres 199, 241, 298, 318–319 Bath Orchard Street Theatre 166 Theatre Royal London Covent Garden 123, 257 Drury Lane 123 English Opera House 256–257, 268 Haymarket Theatre 64 Her Majesty’s Theatre 239, 245, 250, 253 King’s Theatre, Haymarket 63, 65, 135, 244–245 Lincoln’s Inn Fields 63 Royal Italian Opera (Covent Garden) 239 St James’s Theatre 239 Manchester Manchester Theatre Royal Newcastle Newcastle Theatre Royal 118 Oxford Sheldonian Theatre 134, 152 Plymouth Theatre 253 Stalybridge Victoria Theatre 313, 318–319 Thompson, Herbert 335–336, 351 Thompson, J. 272 Thompson, Thomas 126 Thomson, William 72 Thorly, Mr 307 Thornhill family (Fixby) 89 Tinker, Mr 113 Toeschi, Carl Joseph 140–141, 146 Toghill, Revd 135 Torquay, south-west coast of England 253 touring and tourism 153, 190, 332, 340, 357 touring musicians 2–4, 6, 61–86, 87–88, 137–139, 183–193, 228, 237–253, 258–259, 262, 272, 308, 311–312, 317, 319 Tovey, Donald 337, 375 town halls 7, 9, 295–323 Ashton-under-Lyne 299, 312–314 Birmingham 300, 327

Index Brighton 249, 252, 300 Bristol 327 Burslem 229 Derby 300 Droylesden 299 Dukinfield 299 Durham 273 Halifax 296 Hyde 299 Leeds 302, 311 Liverpool 327 Manchester 296, 300, 302, 327 Mossley 299 Norwich 327 Oxford 154 relationship with music halls 317–318 Salford 300 Stalybridge 7, 299–323 venue used by Catholic Church 316–317 Stamford 9, 16, 20 Stoke-on-Trent 300 Tozer, Albert Edmond 276–277, 287, 290 training, musical 21–22, 47–48, 52–53, 105, 107, 111–112, 135, 164–165, 167–168, 184–186, 188, 202, 207, 261, 306; see also mass singing movement; schools; Sol-fa, Tonic Travis, Edward 279, 290 Travis, Mr 113 Tudor, Joseph 155 Tudway, Thomas 48, 54, 56–58 Tunbridge Wells, Kent 249, 252 Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent 228–229, 235 Turin, Italy 245 Turle, James 281 Turner, William 42, 181 Turney, John 185 Tussaud’s, Madame 272 Tweedy, J.M. 271–272 Twining, Thomas 88 Tye, Christopher 56, 177 Tytler, William 64, 79 Urbani, Pietro 62, 72, 86 urbanization 3–4, 10, 177, 295, 321 Ushaw, Durham, Roman Catholic seminary 270–274, 278, 283–285, 287–289, 291 utilitarian views of music 297–298

401

Utrecht (1713), Peace of 54 Valentini, Giuseppe 4, 52, 56 Vanhal, Johann Baptist 140 Vatican, the 269–293 Vaughan, Thomas 188 Vaughan Williams, Ralph 331 Venice, Italy 62 Venturini, Francesco 57 Veracini, Antonio 52 Verdi, Giuseppe 210, 251, 337, 346 Verdier, Pierre 283 Vert, Nicholas 357 Victoria, Queen 204, 245, 309 Victoria, Tomás Luis de 230 Vienna, Congress of 189 Viennese Classicism 286, 288 Viner, Revd Mr 127 viol and viola da gamba 9, 18–21, 33, 35, 61–86, 228 Viotti, Giovanni Battista 138 Virginia Company 11 Visconti, Gasparo 52 Vivaldi, Antonio 78–80, 84, 86 vocal music see songs and vocal music; also choral music; choral societies; choruses and choirs voluntary associations see clubs, associations, and societies; militia, military music Waddington, George 281 Wade, John 321 Wade, John Francis 289 Wagner, Richard 335–337, 346, 351, 358 Wainwright Anne 209 John 95, 209 Richard 209 Robert 95, 107, 209 Waite, Revd John James 216, 223, 227, 229 waits, town and city 4, 20–21, 54, 79, 154 Wakefield, Mary 331 Wakefield, William 165 Wakefield, Yorkshire 88, 112–113, 183, 188, 190, 192–193, 207 Walburge, Richard 13–19, 21, 32, 35, 37 Wales and Welsh music, 152–153, 157–60, 235, 255, 276; see also festivals, Eisteddfods

402

Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914

Walkeley, Anthony 57 Walsh, John 80, 94 Wanless, Thomas 57 Warley, Halifax 99 Warlock, Peter 331 Water, Rossendale 204, 213–214, 217–218, 221 Waterbarn, Rossendale 199 Waterhouse, John and Samuel 89, 97, 100 Watts, Isaac 203 Waugh, Edwin 195 Webbe the elder, Samuel 278, 283–285, 288–290 Webbe the younger, Samuel 283 Weber, Carl Maria von 267, 273, 290–291, 326, 346 Weigl, Joseph 283 Weldon, John 40, 50, 56 Welker (music publisher) 169 Wellington, Duke of 242, 281 Wells, south-west England 10, 21, 24 Wemyss, James, Earl of 66 Wesley John 96 Samuel 256, 282 Samuel Sebastian 6, 255–268, 282 Wesleyan Chapel, Rossendale 202 West, James 104–105 West, Revd Lewis Renatus 175–176 West-Gallery music; see psalms and psalmody West-Gallery Music Association 210 West Indies 177 Westminster, London 278 Wetherell, Anthony 273 Wetherherd, C. 105 Wetwang, east Yorkshire 56 Whalley, Lancashire 209 Wheatley, Revd Dr 289 Whewell, James 233–235 Whitaker, Henry 204, 209, 218 Whitby, the Synod of 270 White daughters of John 191 Edward 191–192, 264 John 5, 183–193 Maria Sarah (née Noke) 189 Mary (née Sharp) 184 White, Thomas 283 Whitehaven, north-west England 128

Whitehead, J.W. 320 Whitehead, Ralph 305 Whitehouse, W.E. 353 Whitely, Natty 104 Whittles, Henry 206 Whyte, Laurence 73 Wigan, Lancashire 46–47, 207 Wilde, Francis 104 Wilhem, Guillaume Louis Bocquillon 223, 264 Wilkinson, John 213–214 Wiltshire, south-west England 6, 163–181 Winchester, Hampshire 23, 95, 137, 268, 327 Windsor, west of London 135, 141 Windsor, J.W. 167, 177, 179, 181 Wing, Buckinghamshire 22 Wingham, Thomas 360 Winn, Cyril 331 Winter, Mr 173 Winter, Peter von 290 Wiseman, Cardinal Nicholas 278 Witt, Franz Xavier 275, 284–285, 289 Wölfl, Joseph 189 Wollaston, C.B. 176 Wolrich, Thomas 88 Wolverhampton, west midlands, England 95 Wombell, George 228 Wombell’s Menagerie 228 Wood, Henry 256 Wood, Joanna 111, 113 Wood, Laurence 104–105 Wood, Miss (Chippenham) 173 Woodyear, Mr 143 Worcester, west midlands, England 255–256, 325–326, 351; see also festivals, Three Choirs word-books 53, 350, 352 Wortley, Leeds 188 Worton, Devizes 176 Wright, Thomas 117, 119, 124–126 Yalden, Thomas 22 York, Yorkshire 4–5, 10, 45–59, 112, 115–128, 184–192, 207, 266, 325, 327–332, 337, 340; see also cathedrals, abbeys, and minsters; music societies and singing clubs

Index Archbishop’s Consistory Court 91, 97, 99–102 York’s March, Duke of 204 Yorkshire, north-east England 5, 87–113, 124, 183–193, 206–209, 230, 257, 304, 326, 328–347; see also festivals

Youens, Charles 283 Young, David 76 Zamboni, Giovanni Giacomo 62 Ziani, Pietro Andrea 52 Zimmerman, Franklin 25, 82

403