Seeking a Philosophy of Music in Higher Education: The Case of Mid-nineteenth Century Edinburgh

In 1851-2 the Trustees of the Reid bequest at the University of Edinburgh undertook an investigation into music education. Concerned that the funds which supported the Chair of Music should be spent as efficiently and effectively as possible, they consulted professional and academic musicians in search of new forms of teaching music at university level. The investigation itself, and the resulting correspondence, illuminate the problems inherent in defining music for the academy. They reflect the difficult position of music as a profession, as well as its uneasy relationship with science and ideas of craft and genius. For modern music educators, such an investigation invites an opportunity to consider the basic tenets of music as an academic subject. The questions posed by the Edinburgh Trustees go to the heart of what it means to teach and study music, and demonstrate the value of historical perspectives for interrogating present-day norms and practice

The Society of Arts and the Challenge of Professional Music Education in 1860s Britain

Higher-level music education was in a poor state in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. In particular, the country’s most significant conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music in London, suffered from a lack of financial support, poor management, and a reputation for mediocre teaching and amateurish standards. Responding to the need for an overhaul, the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce launched an investigation into the management of the Royal Academy of Music in 1865. The Society’s Committee interviewed a range of high-profile figures from Britain and abroad. The reports and debates that ensued cast light not only on the state of the Royal Academy but also on the organization of professional music training across the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. Many of these discussions revealed important insights into attitudes toward musical training and its institutions, toward the music profession, and toward music itself. Musicians interviewed for the purpose of the Royal Academy report had varying opinions on the curriculum suitable for aspiring professional musicians, including the role of general education and theoretical music studies. The place of amateurs in such institutions was also an important part of the discussion, both in terms of the students admitted and institutional management. Fundamental divisions over the purpose and nature of professional-level education in music reflect both the changing nature of education and deep fractures in the music profession itself, offering valuable insights into the concerns and problems of the time

‘Appeasing the unstrung mental faculties’: listening to music in nineteenth-century lunatic asylums

Listening to music found a new context during the early nineteenth century, in the shape of large, closed institutions set up to house and treat the insane. In response to social reform as well as a growing problem of mental health, lunatic asylums for paupers were set up across Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century. Replacing the previous practices of restraint and containment, a system of ‘moral management’ dominated the new asylums. Patients’ lives were kept busy and ordered, with careful attention given to their employment, their diet and their recreational activities. Music played an important part in establishing the routine of the new institutions. Formal dances offered a social occasion, and a controlled environment within which the two sexes could meet. Both dances and concerts were used as a reward for patient behaviour, encouraging the kind of self-control which was seen as crucial to recovery and rehabilitation. Musical events acted as a diversion from the grim realities of institutional life, and played an important role in allowing patients to engage with religious observance. Musical experience could be active or passive; patients might engage by dancing or making music of their own, and their music might be symptomatic of illness or wellbeing. Using documents including formal records, patient notes and newspaper reports, it is possible to investigate some of the ways in which listening to music played a therapeutic role, and the particular place of musical experience in the lives of asylum patients

A novel and enigmatic two-holed shell aperture in a new species of suspension-feeding worm-snail (Vermetidae)

Shell aperture modifications are well known in terrestrial and aquatic gastropods, with apertural lip thickening and tooth development common in species with terminal (determinate) shell growth. In contrast, secondary shell openings are rare in snails and are largely limited to slit shells, keyhole limpets, and abalone of the Vetigastropoda. When such features occur in other groups, they are noteworthy and raise interesting questions concerning the functional/adaptive significance of these shell modifications. Here we report on one such modification in a newly described species of vermetid snail. Members of the worm-snail family Vermetidae are sessile, suspension-feeding caenogastropods found in warm temperate to tropical marine environments worldwide. As juveniles, vermetids permanently cement their shells to hard substrata and subsequently produce irregularly coiled polychaete-like shell tubes with indeterminate growth and typically a simple circular shell aperture. In one previously studied group (genus Cupolaconcha), the aperture can be covered by a shell dome with a central slit that retains its widest opening in the center of the aperture. Vermetid specimens collected in the barrier reefs of Belize and the Florida Keys show an extreme aperture modification previously unknown in Gastropoda, in which the shell opening is covered by an apertural dome that leaves two equal-sized circular holes, each corresponding to the inflow and outflow water exchange currents of the animal’s mantle cavity. The function of this perforated apertural dome is unknown, and it is in some ways antithetical to the suspension feeding habit of these snails. Further field and laboratory-based studies will be needed to clarify the functional significance and trade-offs of this unique morphology. The new taxon, which is not closely related to the previously described dome-building clade Cupolaconcha, is described and named as Vermetus biperforatus Bieler, Collins, Golding & Rawlings n. sp

Music teaching in the late-nineteenth century: a professional occupation?

Music teaching formed an important source of income for many musicians in the nineteenth century, whether as part of a ‘portfolio’ career, to support composing or performing activities, or as part of the ‘flood’ of private teachers in the expanding market of the last quarter of the century. As such, however, it hads a reputation as a low-status part of the profession. This was particularly true given its association with female teachers, many of whom were part-time, unqualified and often ill-equipped. Sources from throughout the century suggest music teaching was a thankless task, with musicians such as William Sterndale Bennett working extensive hours in order to make ends meet, and other teachers complaining of being undercut by young ladies charging as little as 6s an hour. The first part of this chapter will explore the nuances of status and practice in the music teaching profession, using published sources on the profession as well as reports and stories from the press. Attempts to professionalise music teaching in the last decades of the nineteenth century cast a new light on the status of this part of the music profession, and this case study forms the second part of the chapter. The Union of Graduates in Music and the Incorporated Society of Musicians were both involved in a scheme to introduce registration for music teachers, largely in response to government plans to register all secondary school teachers. While many were in favour of ousting ‘bogus’ music teachers, the practicalities of developing a formal scheme for accreditation or establishing basic professional standards were significant obstacles. Responses to formal inquiries reveal the complexities of managing professional identity, this time from the perspective of senior members of the music profession. The ongoing difficulties in the relationship between the UGM and ISM also expose fractures within the profession, especially where formal accreditation and class identity were at stake. The ultimate failure to secure registration for music teachers was predominantly due to the lack of recognised accreditation, as well as the problems of identifying bona fide professionals among the mass of part-time and unqualified practitioners

(Re)-configuring the idea of the Conservatoire in late-nineteenth-century London

Late-nineteenth-century London boasted a wealth of opportunities for aspiring professional musicians to gain musical training and employment. Despite this flourishing musical life, however, status as a professional musician was problematic: often associated with immorality, low social status and poor general education, musicians struggled to define themselves as a profession in the same way that many employment groups had done during the century. The different characters and values of the conservatoires are testimony to such a fragmented profession. This chapter focuses on the definition and function of the conservatoires with respect to contemporary ideas of professionalisation, education and status. In particular, I examine how the conservatoires were compared with the universities in terms of their contributions to professional and social identity, and the problems which complicated their development

Music and Academia in Victorian Britain

Music was an anomalous subject in the universities of nineteenth-century Britain. The institutionalisation of music as an academic subject came at a time when the music profession suffered low status, and music itself was commonly conceived as a feminine accomplishment. Universities, on the other hand, remained the bastions of upper-class male domination, with a non-vocational, liberal agenda. By the end of the century, music degrees were available at the major universities, candidates numerous, and lectures on musical subjects common. However, debate continued about the relationship between the universities and conservatoires, and the relative demands and status of the different degrees. Moreover, university music remained uneasily situated between liberal and professional studies. This study captures the tensions that resulted from conflicts of educational ideology and practical reality, and traces the construction of university ‘music’ within a tight-knit matrix of social, institutional, and professional identities. At the core of the book are four case studies, which examine the responses of University institutions to the problem of music. At Oxford and Cambridge, the presence of music dated back centuries, but its status as a degree subject in the context of liberal educational ideals was a particular issue. At Edinburgh, a generous benefaction required the institution of a professorship and invention of a subject, while at London pressures from conservatoires conflicted with and challenged educational outlooks. The identity of music as a science, and its relationship with the church, are of particular interest. Ideas of professionalisation and regulation through university accreditation were also important. Finally, non-musical factors such as residence and arts requirements are shown to have been crucial to the development of music qualifications

Organ Recitals, education, repertoire, and a new musical public in nineteenth-century Edinburgh

The duties of the Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh included public musical performances in the form of annual ‘Reid festival’ concerts. The concerts sat uneasily between entertainment and education, and were a source of tension and trouble from the institution of the Professorship in 1837. Herbert Stanley Oakeley, Professor from 1865 to 1891, introduced a series of organ recitals to bridge the gap between his educational role as professor and the public face of the orchestral concerts. Using the recitals to introduce his audience to new music or to allow repeated hearings, Oakeley had an enormous influence on the repertoire heard and the reception of new music in Edinburgh during this period

Finding Musicology in nineteenth-century Britain: contexts and conflicts

Music has long been a degree subject in British universities. Yet its academic form and status changed dramatically during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This chapter examines the introduction of history and analysis within music programs, the development of ‘musical science’ outside the university and ongoing debates about the ways in which academic musical studies should relate to musical practice, between the early nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth. These changes are related to concerns about the status of musicians, as well as the perceived paucity of talent within British composition. It is clear that, while music long held a place at many university institutions, the position of musicology as a core discipline was not settled until the mid-twentieth century