1 - On the State of Music in English Private Society and the General Prospects of Music in the Future

Summary

London Institution, 8 April 1858 Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, 27 April 1859

Having been engaged by the council of this institution to deliver four lectures on music, it appeared to me that I could not better employ the opportunity than by choosing those subjects which would immediately appeal to the sympathies of English amateurs, and of all those interested in the progress of music in this country.

Under this feeling, I have, for this evening's lecture, selected a theme which I have long had at heart, viz. an enquiry into ‘the state of music in English private society’. For my second lecture, I propose to bring before you a subject which I trust you will find of the greatest interest, viz. the influence upon the progress of music in this country caused by the visits of illustrious foreign musicians to England from Handel to Mendelssohn.

On the third evening, I shall endeavour to do justice to those of our own countrymen to whom our gratitude is due for their masterly and melodious contributions to the vocal music of England, and my concluding lecture will be devoted to a speculation upon the chances of English music and English musicians in the future.

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I have already said that my subject of this evening, viz. ‘the state of music in English private society’ as distinguished from music to be found in English concert halls, is one which I have very much at heart.

How often have I been startled at the question ‘Is England a musical nation?’ My first idea of an answer to this question has been ‘Who can doubt it?’ What country pays more for music than England? Note the strides which music has made within the last thirty years. Consider the time when the Philharmonic Society (happily still existing!) and the Ancient Concerts did all the work of art in public performance, saving the music heard at the benefit concerts of a few eminent professors,1 who annually gathered their friends and pupils around them for the purpose of exhibiting their powers in those branches of performance for which they were celebrated.