The Music Profession in Britain, 1780-1920

New Perspectives on Status and Identity

Rosemary Golding

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351965743
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Classical Music

Professionalisation was a key feature of the changing nature of work and society in the nineteenth century, with formal accreditation, registration and organisation becoming increasingly common. Trades and occupations sought protection and improved status via alignment with the professions: an attempt to impose order and standards amid rapid social change, urbanisation and technological development. The structures and expectations governing the music profession were no exception, and were central to changing perceptions of musicians and music itself during the long nineteenth century. The central themes of status and identity run throughout this book, charting ways in which the music profession engaged with its place in society. Contributors investigate the ways in which musicians viewed their own identities, public perceptions of the working musician, the statuses of different sectors of the profession and attempts to manipulate both status and identity. Ten chapters examine a range of sectors of the music profession, from publishers and performers to teachers and military musicians, and overall themes include class, gender and formal accreditation. The chapters demonstrate the wide range of sectors within the music profession, the different ways in which these took on status and identity, and the unique position of professional musicians both to adopt and to challenge social norms.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables
• Preface
• Notes on contributors
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. The finances, estates and social status of musicians in the late-eighteenth century
• 2. Composers and publishers in Clementi’s London
• 3. Professionalisation and the female musician in early-Victorian Britain: the campaign for Eliza Salmon
• 4. The British Army and the music profession: the impact of regimental bands on the status and identity of professional musicians
• 5. Church musicians in nineteenth-century Durham
• 6. The rise of the professional music critic in nineteenth-century England
• 7. Music teaching in the late-nineteenth century: a professional occupation?
• 8. Women musicians and professionalism in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries
• 9. Musicians, singers and other artistes as workers in the British music hall, 1900–1918
• 10. Building a concert career in Edwardian London
• Select bibliography
• Index