CHAPTER V - THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PROFESSORS OF MUSIC AT THE UNIVERSITIES

Summary

One of the objects of residence at the Universities is that students may attend lectures, and receive tuition in the subjects in which they are to be examined; and Professorships and Lectureships in the arts and faculties have from time to time been established for this purpose. But music has always occupied a position in the Universities peculiar to itself. It has never really ranked as a faculty, and no residence has, as far as can be discovered, ever been demanded for musical degrees; for the residence occasionally required in early graces was quite exceptional, and was not of the nature of that imposed on the ordinary members of the University. The “Scholar in Music” has invariably sought his tuition elsewhere, generally at a Cathedral, or Collegiate Church or Chapel, and has never been under any obligation to attend lectures; his whole connection with the University having been limited to supplicating, performing his exercise, and receiving his degree. Hence, up to 1626, no provision was made for public lecturing on, or teaching of music; for the “Music Lecture” described in Chapter iv. cannot be considered as being intended to instruct candidates for degrees in music. The lectureships in the seven liberal arts (which included music), said by Wood to have been founded by Humphrey the “Good,” Duke of Gloucester, in 1439, seem to have been little more than the ordinary lectures given by the Regent Masters, for which Duke Humphrey supplied 129 volumes. Hüber says: that these were the first chairs established at Oxford, and that they very soon very soon vanished.