1st Edition
Music and Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Britain
In nineteenth-century British society music and musicians were organized as they had never been before. This organization was manifested, in part, by the introduction of music into powerful institutions, both out of belief in music's inherently beneficial properties, and also to promote music occupations and professions in society at large. This book provides a representative and varied sample of the interactions between music and organizations in various locations in the nineteenth-century British Empire, exploring not only how and why music was institutionalized, but also how and why institutions became 'musicalized'. Individual essays explore amateur societies that promoted music-making; institutions that played host to music-making groups, both amateur and professional; music in diverse educational institutions; and the relationships between music and what might be referred to as the 'institutions of state'. Through all of the essays runs the theme of the various ways in which institutions of varying formality and rigidity interacted with music and musicians, and the mutual benefit and exploitation that resulted from that interaction.
Contents: Introduction, Paul Rodmell; Part I Music Societies and Venues: The management of 19th-century Dublin music societies in the public and private spheres: the Philharmonic Society and the Dublin Musical Society, Catherine Ferris; Three madrigal societies in early 19th-century England, James Hobson; ‘A melodious phenomenon’: the institutional influence on town-hall music-making, Rachel E. Milestone; A home for the ‘Phil’: Liverpool’s first Philharmonic Hall (1849), Fiona M. Palmer; James Mapleson and the ‘National Opera House’, Paul Rodmell. Part II Music Education: Musical diplomacy and Mary Gladstone’s diary, Phyllis Weliver; The expansion and development of the music degree syllabus at Trinity College Dublin during the 19th century, Lisa Parker; The music exams of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, 1859-1919, David Wright; Resisting the Empire? Public music examinations in Melbourne, 1896-1914, Kieran Crichton. Part III Music and the State: Birmingham Cathedral, Royle Shore and the revival of early English church music, Suzanne Cole; On the beat: the Victorian policemen as musician, Rachel Cowgill; The British military as a musical institution, c.1780-c.1860, Trevor Herbert and Helen Barlow; Edward Jones ‘bard to the king’: the Crown, Welsh national music, and identity in late Georgian Britain, Meirion Hughes; Index.
Biography
Paul Rodmell is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of Charles Villiers Stanford (Ashgate, 2002) and has also written on music-making in nineteenth-century Dublin and opera in late-Victorian Britain.
'This collection adds usefully to Ashgate’s Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain series. Rodmell hopes that the book will demonstrate the sheer diversity of the period’s musical structures, the processes through which nineteenth century music became institutionalized and institutions musicalized, and the consequent growth in musicians’ self-confidence as they increasingly escaped from systems of patronage and sought both individual and collective improvement. It largely succeeds in these aims and certainly provides plentiful material for later scholars to build upon. Fertile territory has been thoughtfully marked out. NABMSA Newsletter
