Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T20:43:43.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Musical Chairs: The Construction of ‘Music’ in Nineteenth-Century British Universities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2011

Rosemary Golding
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London

Abstract

When, in 1838, the University of Edinburgh received General John Reid's bequest founding a Chair of Music, members of the Senatus were baffled by their duty to establish a Professorship in a subject previously absent from university curricula, at an institution with no apparent call, or desire, for musical instruction. There was, furthermore, no obvious precedent for such a post elsewhere. Oxford and Cambridge's music professorships dated back to the seventeenth century, but both had been virtual sinecures since not long after their foundation. The institution of the Royal Academy of Music in the previous decade provided no model for a university subject, as it catered primarily for young ladies and aspiring professional performers, with no obviously ‘academic’ form of study. German universities included musical study but were primarily concerned with history in terms of stylistic development, with compositional ends in mind. The trustees appointed to manage the Reid bequest faced the daunting task of creating an entirely new academic subject, which needed to be divorced from current musical study and practice in order to render it suitable for the university environment.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Corder, Frederick, A History of the Royal Academy of Music from 1822 to 1922 (London: F. Corder, 1922),Google Scholar gives an early timetable showing the subjects of harmony and counterpoint in addition to instrumental and vocal lessons. The initial studentships were equally divided among boys and girls (aged 10–14), and while the academy was intended ‘to bring up persons who may in after life devote themselves to the profession of music’ (see Cazalet, WilliamThe History of the Royal Academy of Music (London: T. Bosworth, 1854): 337Google Scholar ), Cyril Ehrlich has shown that in fact it contributed few instrumentalists to Britain's professional orchestras (see The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985): 99Google Scholar ).

2 See Blume, Friedrich, ‘Musicology in German Universities’, Current Musicology 9 (1969): 57.Google Scholar

3 ‘The Will of General Reid’ (Edinburgh University Library UA/Da 46.9): 12.

4 Ibid, 13.

5 Ibid, 14.

6 Parts II and III of Anderson, Robert D., Lynch, Michael and Phillipson's, NicholasThe University of Edinburgh: An Illustrated History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003)Google Scholar provide the most recent account of the university's development.

8 Charles Hague, Professor from 1799 to 1821, was a Cambridge resident, but did not hold any other official position there, while John Clarke-Whitfield, who succeeded him in 1821, continued as organist at Hereford Cathedral throughout his professorship and was never resident in Cambridge.

9 ‘Professor of Musick’ (Cambridge University Library UA/CUR 39.10): 20, dated 15 February 1875.

10 An analysis of the backgrounds and subsequent careers of Cambridge students during this period can be found in Anderson, C. Arnold and Schnaper, Miriam, School and Society in England. Social Backgrounds of Oxford and Cambridge Students, >Annals of American Research (Washington DC: Public Affairs Press, 1952)Google Scholar.

11 The idea of conspicuous consumption as a class marker was developed by Veblen, Thorsten in The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions (London: Macmillan, 1899).Google Scholar Veblen included the liberal arts together with social accomplishments among the ‘immaterial goods’ defining the leisured classes.

12 Wright, C.J., ‘Academics and their Aims: English and Scottish Approaches to University Education in the Nineteenth Century’, History of Education 8/2 (1979): 91–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 In 1844, for example, the initial election result returned 11 votes for John Donaldson, 10 for William Sterndale Bennett and 3 for Henry Hugo Pearson. On communication of his defeat, however, Bennett withdrew and, as his supporters were of the medical party (and Donaldson was a barrister by profession), they carried over their votes to Pearson, who was duly elected.

14 The means of election at Cambridge was regularly debated, and after 1875 was passed to a committee of specialists and professionals. This may have been a result of the anxiety surrounding the 1875 electon: canvassing was vigorous, with Henry Wylde offering free travel from London to Cambridge for voters intending to favour him, and the dominance of Macfarren's supporters led many other candidates to withdraw.

15 A lack of comparable documentation has precluded further comparison with elections at Oxford and Dublin. I have chosen to focus on the earliest discussions on the role of the music professor; hence, later elections are also not considered here.

16 Rohr, Deborah, The Careers of British Musicians 1750–1850: A Profession of Artisans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001): 41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Beedell, Ann V., The Decline of the English Musician 1788–1888 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992): 55.Google Scholar

18 Ibid, 60.

19 Definition of ‘science’ in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989): 648–9Google Scholar.

20 Performance was excluded from the university discipline of music (apart from the performance required of successful compositional exercises at Oxbridge) until Edinburgh introduced degrees in 1893.

21 The Musical World. London, Saturday, July 22nd, 1854’, The Musical World 12/29 (22 Jul. 1854): 489–90; 489.Google Scholar

22 Residence as a compulsory requirement for BMus degrees was introduced under Stanford in 1893.

23 ‘Minute Book of the Reid Trustees’ (EUL UA/Da 46.1) (23 Jun. 1838): 17.

24 Letter from Robert Brown to the Vice-Chancellor, recommending Donaldson, dated 25 May 1841 (NLS MS 3443 Fol. 240).

25 Ibid.

26 Testimonial for Donaldson [n.d.] (EUL UA/Da 46.9).

27 Printed letter from Donaldson dated October 1841 (EUL UA/Da 46.9).

28 See Scottish Universities Commissioners, Ordinance No. 34 (Edinburgh No. 8): Regulations for Degrees in Music, 3 August 1893 (Edinburgh: HM Stationery Office, 1893)Google Scholar.

29 See Stanley, Glenn, ‘Historiography’, in Grove Music Online ed. Macy, L., www.grovemusic.com (accessed 17 October 2006)Google Scholar for an extended discussion of historiographical models of this period, particularly among German authors.

30 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(1), letter from Sterndale Bennett to Vice Chancellor dated 21 January 1856.

31 Ibid., 4(2), printed letter from Sterndale Bennett to members of the Senate [n.d.].

32 Together with his testimonials in 1844, Mainzer included a petition from the ladies of his Edinburgh singing class (EUL UA/Da 46.9).

33 Preface to Book 3 of Mainzer's testimonials, 1844 (EUL UA/Da 46.9).

34 Crotch, William, Substance of Several Courses of Lectures on Music, repr. and intro. Rainbow, Bernarr, Classic Texts in Music Education (Clarabricken: Boethius, 1986): 14.Google Scholar

36 See especially Bashford, Christina, ‘Learning to Listen: Audiences for Chamber Music in Early Victorian London’, Journal of Victorian Culture 4/1 (spring 1999): 2551, andGoogle ScholarThe Pursuit of High Culture: John Ella and Chamber Music in Victorian London (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007): 137–40, andGoogle ScholarDale, Catherine, ‘Britain's “Armies of Trained Listeners”: Building a Nation of Intelligent Hearers’, Nineteenth-Century Music Review 2/1 (2005): 93114Google Scholar.

36 EUL UA/Da 46.9 [n.d.]] printed 18 September 1841.

37 See ‘Professor of Musick’, 24(3), dated 13 February 1875.

38 Crotch, William, Substance of Several Courses of Lectures on Music (Clarabricken: Boethius, 1986 [1831]): 34.Google Scholar

39 Scott, Derek B., From the Erotic to the Demonic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003): 43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 ‘Professor of Music – Musical Faculty’, letter dated 12 February 1856 (CUL UA/CUR 39.10.1).

41 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(17), dated 24 January 1856 (underlining in original).

42 ‘Fife and Drum’, in The Musical World, for example, complained that written papers in musical techniques, introduced at Oxford in 1855, tested only ‘working out’ rather than compositional talent and genius. See The Musical World 33/32 (11 Aug. 1855): 522.Google Scholar

43 Letter of 4 December 1843 (EUL UA/Da 46.9).

44 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(31), dated 13 December 1843. Mendelssohn (dated 2 October 1840) and Vincent Novello (n.d.) also referred explicitly to Flowers’ affinity with Bach; Spohr (dated 26 January 1848) commented on his ‘distinguished knowledge as a Harmonist and Contrapuntist’. These are printed in the same booklet, which had first been prepared for Flowers’ applications to Oxford in 1848 and 1855.

45 William Crotch had similarly used ‘specimens’ to describe his 1807 publication of musical examples relating to his Oxford lectures. See Specimens of various styles of music, referred to in a course of lectures, read at Oxford & London, and adapted to keyed instruments by Wm. Crotch, Mus.Doct. Prof. Mus. Oxon (London: Printed for the author by R. Birtchall, 1807)Google Scholar.

46 Bishop made only half-hearted attempts to offer lectures, and was unwilling to reside more than a few months in Edinburgh. His idea of the professorship was, however, far removed from that of the Reid Trustees who felt obliged to remove him from office in November 1843 after failing to establish a class. See ‘Minute Book and Scroll Minute Book of the Reid Trustees’ (EUL UA/Da 46.2) (Oct.–Nov. 1843).

47 The Musical World 19/15 (5 Apr. 1844): 125.Google Scholar

48 The Musical World 19/14 (4 Apr. 1844): 119.Google Scholar

49 Quoted in ibid., 118.

50 On both movements see Rainbow, Bernarr, The Choral Revival in the Anglican Church, 1839–1872 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2001), andGoogle ScholarHillsman, Walter, ‘The Victorian Revival of Plainsong in English: Its Usage under Tractarians and Ritualists’, in Studies in Church History Vol. 28: The Church and The Arts, ed. Wood, Diana (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992): 405–15;Google Scholar on Cambridge in particular, see Adelmann, Dale, The Contribution of Cambridge Ecclesiologists to the Revival of Anglican Choral Worship 1839–62 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997)Google Scholar.

51 Adelmann, , Cambridge Ecclesiologists, 36.Google Scholar

52 The Ecclesiologist 15/104 (Oct. 1854): 307–10;Google Scholar quoted in Adelmann, , Cambridge Ecclesiologists, 90Google Scholar.

53 ‘Professor of Musick’, 24(19–23), non-attributed newspaper cuttings relating to the 1875 election [n.d.].

54 ‘Professor of Music – Musical Faculty’, letter dated 12 February 1856.

55 The Church of Scotland Psalmody Committee conducted classes for divinity students at Edinburgh from 1865, but these had no formal connection with the teaching of the music professors. See ‘Minutes of Senatus’ (EUL UA/ Da 31), 3/90 (23 Dec. 1865); the classes were reported in The Scotsman (26 May 1866): 7.

56 Ibid.

57 The Cambridge Chronicle(1 Mar. 1856): 1.

58 Anderson, and Schnaper, , School and Society in England, 6.Google Scholar

59 General histories of the Scottish universities have often traced an ‘anglicization’ of the university system, as Scottish middle classes aspired towards the status of the English universities. See, in particular, Davie, George E., The Democratic Intellect: Scotland and her Universities in the Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1961).Google Scholar

60 The Musical World 43/3 (21 Jan. 1865): 36.Google Scholar

61 The Musical World 43/4 (28 Jan. 1865): 52.Google Scholar

62 Cambridge University Reporter (20 Feb. 1877): 256.Google ScholarPubMed

63 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(21), letter from Propert to the Vice-Chancellor dated 26 January 1856.

64 Ibid., 4(22), letter from Propert to the Registrar (Romilly) dated 4 February 1856.

65 Contained in printed testimonials for Henry Hugh Pearson (1844). Walmisley was himself in possession of a Cambridge Arts degree (EUL UA/Da 46.9).

66 Letter from Lady Pembroke to Lord Haddington [n.d.] (NLS MS 3444 fol. 265).

67 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(25). In a letter in support of Hopkins dated 29 January 1856, for example, Robert Whiston says he cannot comment on Hopkins’ ‘musical & playing qualifications, because I am not scientifically or learnedly a judge’.

68 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(17).

69 Ibid.

70 Nicholas Temperley, writing on the subject of musical ‘xenophilia’ in the nineteenth century, demonstrates the preference for continental performers and composers among upper-class English circles. While continental composers and musicians enjoyed a high status in British society, the same profession was unsuitable for an Englishman of good standing. See ‘Xenophilia in British Musical History’, in Nineteenth Century British Music Studies, ed. Zon, Bennett, vol. 1 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999): 319Google Scholar.

71 Goss on Sterndale Bennett, 1844 in testimonials for William Sterndale Bennett, 1844 (EUl UA/Da 46.9).

72 While French and Italian musicians (often those already living in London) also provided references, it is the German connections that emerge most consistently and regularly as important among the testimonials.

73 ‘Professor of Musick’, 4(31) printed testimonials of George French Flowers for the 1856 election.

74 Ibid., 4(32), dated 23 February 1856. Bennett also included among his papers for the same election a letter on his behalf from Thomas Wood, calling particular ‘attention to those from the late much lamented Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Dr. Louis Spohr’. See ibid., 4(3), letter from Thomas Wood to the Vice-Chancellor dated 21 January 1856.

75 ‘Minute Book’ (16 Jun. 1841): 50.

76 Ibid, 353–4.

77 Horsley recalled, ‘the first families in England eagerly sought his society’, and commented: ‘I never met with a man who came up more to the standard of a Christian, a scholar and a gentleman.’ See Horsley, Charles Edward, ‘Reminiscences’, Dwight's Journal of Music 32/20 (11 Jan. 1873): 361–3.Google Scholar Max F. Müller (1823–1900), a classical scholar and amateur musician advised by Mendelssohn to ‘keep to Greek and Latin’, wrote in his memoirs that ‘Mendelssohn was, in fact, a man teres et rotundus [Horace, Satirae 2.7.86: ‘polished and well-rounded’]. He was at home in classical literature, he spoke French and English, he was an exquisite draughtsman, and had seen the greatest works of the greatest painters, ancient and modern’. See ‘From the Memoirs of F. Max Müller’, in Mendelssohn and his World, ed. Todd, Larry R. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991): 252–8Google Scholar.

78 Mussulman, Joseph A., Music in the Cultured Generation: A Social History of Music in America, 1870–1900 (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971): 63.Google Scholar

79 See Rodmell, Paul, Charles Villiers Stanford (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002): 278–80 and 326–7, andGoogle ScholarKnight, Frida, Cambridge Music (Cambridge: Oleander Press, 1980): 84 and 107–8Google Scholar.