4 - Music for the theatre

Summary

In an 1845 issue of the London Musical World, editor Henry Lunn criticized the use of music in the contemporary theatre. He objected first of all to managements' abuse of audiences by requiring them to endure continuous and apparently irrelevant entr'acte music during the intervals. Secondly, he offered a sharp criticism of the pervasive style of “incidental” music designed to accompany the standard melodrama:

Tender strains usher in the “acknowledged heroine” and grim discords announce the villain; “hurries” are got ready for the combats and struggles and a comic song for the faithful countryman. As the principal female character has, of course, been inveigled from her native village, the overture must contain a reminiscence of her happy home, which reminiscence will probably be repeated during the final tableau.

For this, Lunn alleged, the theatre management wasted the services of a small orchestra each night. Moreover, the theatre’s music director (usually also a composer), was obliged to choose and lead such music, a procedure that Lunn called “a mere mechanical matter.”