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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2011

Rosemary Golding
Rosemary Golding
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
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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
Information
Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , November 2009 , pp. 19 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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7 Ibid.

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.

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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.

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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).

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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).

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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

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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).

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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.

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

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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): 3–19Google 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

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