Introduction

There has always been a strong musical tradition in the Isle of Man, with a particular love for singing and dance music. The violin seems to have been extremely popular but harps and pipes had died out long before the 1800s if, indeed, they had been employed at all. The repertoire was affected by constant contact with musicians from other parts of the British Isles and further afield. Within the Island there are strong indications that music crossed language, social and religious divides, often with interesting results. Methodists, for example, introduced new words to a tune which was probably a medieval carol: ‘In excelsis Deo’ became ‘For I Have a Sweet Hope of Glory in my Soul’. Melodies which began life as plainchant were recycled and adapted as ballads and dances.

Church Music

There were four distinct styles of church music in the Isle of Man in the 1830s.

First, surviving in the remoter country areas were remnants of the old-style Gaelic psalm-singing, wild and discordant to our ears, a reminder of the Byzantine origins of the Celtic church.

Second, in most of the parish churches clerks raised the hymns, ‘lining-out’ the metrical psalms for the congregation to echo, in the style widely practised throughout most of the British Isles.

Third, on special occasions ‘West Gallery’ musicians amazed the congregations, but often dismayed the clergy, by providing splendid anthems with instrumental accompaniments in the style of Purcell and Handel. Some of this music was locally composed, but most was copied painstakingly into precious manuscript books from numerous published collections. Some two dozen surviving manuscripts offer an insight into the social lives of ‘West Gallery’ musicians, many of whom were artisans who learned their musical skills through joining such bands and providing music for polkas, quadrilles and quicksteps as well as psalms and hymns.

Fourth, the introduction of surpliced choirs accompanied by organ music was a novelty which attracted churchgoers but was often detrimental to the standard of congregational singing, although it generated printed collections of hymns specially designed for use in Manx churches. In 1799 came the first collection of hymns in Manx, based on ‘Wesley and Watts, etc.’, printed in Douglas and republished with additions in 1830 and 1846.