Many books, articles and dissertations have been written about
classical music activities in London. An excellent general overview
of the subject is given in London: A Musical Gazetteer by Lewis
and Susan Foreman (Yale University, 2005). There have been a
number of studies of the more famous orchestras and musical
societies such as C. Ehrlich: First Philharmonic: a History
of the Royal Philharmonic Society (Oxford, 1995). The Promenade
Concerts have attracted a lot of attention over the years with
the latest study being The Proms: A New History by Jenny
Doctor, David Wright and Nicolas Kenyon. However, there has
been a distinct shortage of books about music-making in the
suburbs of the London, most especially in the working class
areas of the East End and south of the river. One honourable
exception to this is The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace
(Cambridge, 1995) by Michael Musgrave. Yet there has been little
analysis of the phenomenon of the huge increase in Victorian
times of public concerts and the large numbers of people from
all walks of life who attended them. The achievement of Far
from the Fashionable Crowd, as the title implies, is to
take the focus of attention away from Covent Garden, the Albert
Hall, and the Queen’s Hall and consider the musical activity
at venues such as the South Place Ethical Society, the Surbiton
Assembly Rooms and the Bermondsey Settlement. It addresses not
only fashionable concert-goers but also lower-middle and working
class attendance at musical events.
This book will appeal to a wide variety of readership well beyond
musicologists. Anyone who has a concern for the progress of
the working class in the nineteenth and early twentieth century
will find plenty of information to challenge preconceived notions.
For example, many political historians will imagine that the
entire music for the masses ‘project’ was simply a means of
‘improving’ the teeming multitudes of the poorer areas of the
city. Many will consider that the main protagonists in this
‘boom’ were inspired by a moral crusade of either Marxist fervour
or middle-class patronisation. The truth is much more complex!
Social historians will find much of interest in Bartley’s discussion
about how ‘respectable’ families saw their place in working
class society and how music was one of the ‘ladders’ to rise
in that society. Students of ‘progress’ will be fascinated to
see how the musical activities in the less-fashionable areas
of London were quickly overwhelmed by the rise of the cinema,
‘listening-in’ to the wireless, dancing and roller-skating.
However, it is a book primarily about music and to that end
it demands the attention of anyone who is interested in the
concert life – performers, venues and works played - in the
Capital.
The book covers two key topics – the Peoples’ Concert Society
which is examined in considerable detail and the performance
of classical music in London’s suburbs. The word ‘suburb’ here
includes both the suburban and the more working class areas
such as Bethnal Green and Mile End. The book is divided into
three main parts – The ‘Worker’s Concerts’, the Middle-Class
suburban concerts, and finally the ‘shared interests’ between
these two groups, such as the performers and the music performed.
There are a number of appendices covering subjects such as the
known venues for the Peoples’ Concert Society, a list of that
group’s ‘favourite’ works and an analysis of most played chamber
music extracted from some 2044 concerts! The bibliography is
impressive, being presented in three detailed sections – the
books, articles and diaries perused, dictionaries, documents
etc. (including WebPages) and relevant newspapers and journals
consulted. A comprehensive index is given that will be extremely
useful to future historians and musicologists.
I take as an example, the ‘case study’ (Chapter 8) on Woodford
in East London, which was deemed to be a cultural wilderness
in the 1890s. It had never attracted an artistic community:
classical music was virtually unheard in this collection of
villages. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century,
there was a huge increase in music-making and most especially
in the number of chamber music concerts of considerable quality
that attracted many fine musicians. Alan Bartley develops his
theme by outlining the social and economic history of the area.
He considers the various venues that had a potential for attracting
a musical audience, such as the Lecture Hall of the Congregational
Church at Woodford which seated 400 people and the Wilfred Lawson
Temperance Hotel and Hall. Then he discusses the explosion of
musical interest. There were orchestral concerts given by the
Woodford Orchestral Society and the Hillcrest Orchestra. Glee
clubs, such as the South Woodford Musical Society met at Miss
Must’s schoolroom. However, much of this particular case study
is given to the singular achievement of Ernest Markham Lee (1874-1956),
who had taken the post of choirmaster and organist at the Woodford
Green Church in 1896. Markham Lee is a name that many pianists
of a certain age will be familiar. He is responsible for a large
number of ‘character pieces’ for piano and also violin: he wrote
several musical textbooks including a study of Brahms orchestral
music. Yet, it is his role as the founder of the Woodford Green
chamber concerts that concerns the argument of this book. Bartley
examines in detail the development and the content of these
events. His achievement was summed up by a certain Dr. Percy
Warner who wrote that ‘You have not only given enjoyment to
many, but you have raised the standard of music throughout the
neigbourhood.’ It is a eulogy that could be applied to many
of the characters featured in this book.
Dr. Alan Bartley M.A. is the ideal person to have written this
book. He was born in London’s East End in 1933 and has long
had an appreciation of, and sympathy with, the history and culture
of all parts of the Capital. He extends this interest to include
native Londoners and those who have come from further afield
and have contributed so much to the life and culture of the
city. His career as an arts editor and musical journalist has
afforded him tremendous opportunities to explore a wide variety
of musical styles, including jazz and works from the 18th
& 19th centuries which are his prime interests.
Further experience in concert promotion and management has enabled
him to be in touch with a wide variety of performers and listeners
and has given him a good understanding of the difficult subject
of concert economics. However, it was the discovery of a little-studied
branch of Victorian philanthropy that encouraged working people
to develop an appreciation of classical music that led him to
explore the topic of this book.
The book is reasonably priced at £18.99 bearing in mind the
amount of scholarship and study that has gone into producing
it. The photographs, the detailed documentation, the quality
of the paper and printing all add up to a worthwhile production.
Furthermore it is a trajectory of musical, historical and even
political history that has been largely ignored over the years.
Dr Bartley has managed to capture much of the activities and
achievements of these ‘suburban’ concerts at a time when much
of the information becomes harder to trace. It is a book that
demands to be set alongside the various ‘standard’ histories
of the ‘West-End’ musical achievement.
John France
