PREFACE

Summary

The attention which has of late years been given by our Universities to the cultivation of music, and the endeavour to again make the degrees of Doctor and Bachelor in that faculty of substantial value, as marks of real musical erudition and culture on the part of the holder, as was formerly the case, have induced me to try and investigate the early history of these degrees, which are peculiar to the English Universities, and are practically unknown abroad. My researches have led me to the conclusion that they arose at a time when English music was in a very advanced stage of development, in comparison with that of the Continent, and English musicians in consequence took a high rank, not only among contemporary musicians, but among the learned men of the day; and that our Universities gave degrees of an honorary nature, without requiring any examination or exercise, to eminent English musicians as marks of honour and esteem, rather than as mere “licences to teach.” But in course of time, when less eminent musicians began to supplicate for these degrees, the Universities required some testimony as to the fitness of the applicant, and hence arose the necessity for the candidate to show that he had studied for a certain number of years; and in return for the favour of granting the degree a composition was demanded, to be performed before the University, as an addition to the ceremonies at “Act time”; and this became the exercise.