MUSIC IN ENGLAND. THE PROPOSED ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC. THREE ADDRESSES DELIVERED BV H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH, H.R.H. THE DUKE OF ALBANY, AND H.R.H. PRINCE CHRISTIAN, AT THE 'REE TRADE HALL, MANCHESTER, DEC. 12, iSSr, LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1882. PRICE ONE SHILLING. BRADBCRV, AC NEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS, LONDON. MUSIC IN ENGLAND. THE PROPOSED ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC. THREE ADDRESSES DELIVERED BY H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH, H.R.H. THE DUKE OF ALBANY, AND H.R.H. PRINCE CHRISTIAN, AT THE FREE TRADE HALL, MANCHESTER, DEC, 12, 1881. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, 1882. LONDON : BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. Mod* LibrftIT MUSIC IN ENGLAND AND THE PROPOSED ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC. H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH, having been moved into the Chair, said : - I have the pleasure of meeting you to-day as your Chairman, by the invitation of your Presi- dent, Mr. Ogden. * My object is to enlist your sympathy on behalf of Music ; and, more than that, to obtain an expression of your opinion that the time has arrived when the advancement of Music in Eng- land should be promoted by the establishment of a Central Public Institution, ranking in importance with the national Conservatoires on the Continent. This subject naturally divides itself into two parts, first, the aesthetic and historical .side of t * President of the Manchester Athenreum. of 3C52G31 Music in England and the Music, by which I mean the influence which Music exercises over mankind, and the history of its development in England ; and, secondly, the practical side of Music, under which I include the difficulties and expense of musical educa- tion, and the necessity of its being fostered by some public aid. My brother has consented to open the first part of the subject, I propose to follow him with observations on the second part. H.R.H. the DUKE OF ALBANY spoke as follows : MY LORDS, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN I am called upon by your Chairman to address you to-night on the subject of Music. The first requirement made of a speaker is to explain the nature of the subject on which he is about to address his audience. Yet I must begin by expressing my total inability to comply with such a requirement. Music must be felt ; its nature cannot be explained. " He who hath not music in his soul " will be none the wiser if Proposed Royal College of Music. 5 I tell him the number of vibrations which is supposed to constitute harmony as distinguished from discord ; and he who hath music in his soul will resent his ethereal art being brought down from Heaven to earth, and reduced to the rigid laws of a mathematical science. But even if it were possible to expound the nature of music and trace the ground of its influence, it would be unnecessary for me to attempt it here. In a city like Manchester, lying in the very heart of that Lancashire whose singing "has become a proverb in England a city which "has its own rooted and permanent musical institutions, its Cathedral, its Gentlemen's Con- certs, its numerous Choral Societies, and, above all, the constant presence of so eminent a musician as Mr. Charles 'Halle and his splendid orchestra it would be lost time to enter into any statement of the nature and advantages of music as a civilising element. I may justly charac- terise it as a refining and elevating influence in common life ; one of the best bonds of the family circle ; and one of the keenest, purest, and most delightful of pleasures. In this city, and in this room, we may take that for granted. Moreover, such disquisitions would be consuming time Music in England and the which might be more usefully employed in enforcing the practical object of our presence here to-night. That* object is to urge the importance and the desirability of establishing a national Conser- vatoire or College of Music, which shall afford to students the same advantages as those which are afforded in general learning by the univer- sities and colleges of the country, and in the other Fine Arts by the Government at South Kensington. Other institutions already exist for that purpose, and their success is a matter of notoriety. The Royal Academy of Music and the National Training School are both working in the direction which we aim at. And it cannot be denied that, in one sense, there is already more music in England than in any other coun- try. The most eminent artists of the Continent are to be heard here, and indeed do not consider their career complete until they have been to England. The best, newest, most advanced music of the Continental composers is performed here, often before it is published. The number of public concerts in London during the season is astonishing; it far exceeds those of any foreign metropolis, and is on the increase every year, Proposed Royal College of Music, 7 Every one who is in musical society in London knows but too well how much public music there is ; it is a fact that in the height and struggle of the season it is impossible to keep pa'ce with the public performances, and that the recitals of the best players, and concerts where both pro- grammes and performances are alike remark- able, will often have a thin attendance owing to the physical impossibility of going to all. This, and similar facts familiar to everyone,, show what a large appetite for music the Eng- lishman has. How is it, then, that while such an abundance of music is brought to us and made for us, we often hear it said from the other side of the Channel that England is not a musical nation ? No doubt the accusation is often accompanied by remarks exhibiting a great ignorance, both of the past musical history of England, and of our actual condition ; but still, admitting that, is there no truth in the accusation ? In the first place we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the great artists whom England so delights to- hear and so liberally rewards are, with a very few brilliant exceptions, foreigners ; and that the bulk of the music which forms the programmes 8 Music in England and the of the good concerts is foreign. And when any unusual curiosity is felt in musical circles, is it not to hear the new work of some foreign com- poser, or the masterly interpretation of some great foreign player ? If we are a musical nation, why do we draw our supply of music so largely from abroad ? There is another fact which I would mention, and which seems to point in the same direction : I allude to the over-concentration, the want of diffusion, of music in England. The orchestras of the metropolis and of your own city are as good as can be found anywhere. In Bristol, also, I am glad to hear that a promising begin- ning has been made. But what is the fact with regard to other towns ? Is it not true that even immense hives of population like Leeds, Brad- ford, Glasgow, and Birmingham ; wealthy plea- sure towns like Brighton ; opulent and crowded places like Cheltenham and Leamington have no resident orchestras, but are obliged to depend on the overworked musicians of London and Manchester ? The result of this is, that in place of music forming a regular steady part of life, it comes in sudden surfeits, after long- protracted fasts. Instead of regular, perio- Proposed Royal College of M^lSlc. 9 dical series of concerts, the places I allude to are dependent on Musical Festivals at long in- tervals, full of hurry and excitement, and a- poor substitute for the constant presence of a good orchestra such as you have in Manchester. This certainly does lend some colour to the accusation of our foreign critics. Then, as to individuals a fact which cannot i'ail to strike a foreigner visiting England is the ignorance of music, or rather the absolute indif- ference to it, on the part of men of the greatest intellect, culture, and position. No doubt there are brilliant exceptions, but they are exceptions. It is too much the rule in England that a poet, a statesman, a theologian, a great natural philo- sopher, shall not only know nothing of music, but shall take no interest in it, or in its possible value as a civilising, humanising element in life, shall dismiss it altogether from his mind as a thing entirely apart from himself, a matter of no interest or moment, a curious sort of pheno- menal pleasure, which perhaps he puts on the same level as dancing, and willingly abandons to ladies or idle people as beneath the notice of an occupied or intellectual man. This, too, is rather against our credit as a musical nation. io Miisic in England and the But are these things a necessity ? Is it indis- pensable that the divinest and most impalpable ot all arts or influences, capable of affecting and exalting the soul as no other art, not even Poetry, can do, should be a thing apart from the mass of our greatest and best men should be either indulged in as a matter of fashion, or treated as a mere pastime, which has no connec- tion with the deeper emotions of the human mind ? I think not. I am sure not. I am con- vinced that the subject only wants to be pro- perly brought before the country, not merely by speeches or appeals, but by a properly organised system of instruction, such as that for which we are now pleading, for this discreditable state of things to be changed. Give the people of England the opportunity to take a deep and intelligent interest in this greatest of all civil- isers, and you w r ill see that from the highest to the lowest they will embrace the opportunity. The power is not wanting : it is only the oppor- tunity which has to be supplied. There is much, both in the past and the present, to encourage us in this movement. And first with regard to the past. It may not be generally known, but it is nevertheless admit- Proposed Royal College of Music. 1 1 ted by the most learned and most hostile of our Continental critics, that in the early discovery and practice of music England was in advance of all the nations of Europe by very many years. The little round or glee, " Summer is a-coming in," which is one of the choice musical treasures of the British Museum, is now accepted by the most learned antiquarians of England and Germany not only by Madden and Chappell, but by Coussemaker and Ambros as the work of a monk of Reading in Berkshire in or about the year 1226. This is more than a century and a half before the admission of Dufay to the Papal Chapel in 1380, which has hitherto been always taken as the earliest landmark in the history of modern music. We were a century and a half in advance of Flanders, Italy, or Germany. Moreover, this very early composition, instead of being grave and dull, is far more melodious and more attractive to the unlearned hearer than any music of the corresponding period in the foreign schools. In a word, this tiny glee, which is the germ of modern music the direct and absolute progenitor of the Ora- torios of Handel, the Symphonies of Beethoven, the Operas of Wagner, is a purely English crea- 12 Music in England and the tion, dealing with English sights and sounds the cuckoo, the blooming meadow, the bud- ding copse, the buck, the doe, the cattle, the sheep and lambs, of the pastures of Berkshire ; * while its music is animated in a very high degree by the truly English qualities of sense, fitness, proportion, and sweet, simple, domestic tunefulness. (I am happy to say that you will have an opportunity of judging of this for your- selves at the close of my remarks.) Advance a century or two and we shall find the same qualities still characterising the work of the English composers of the sixteenth century. Learned they are, sober, grave, religious ; in these qualities they are fully abreast of their foreign contemporaries. But in one respect they are even a long way ahead of them viz., in * " Somer is i-ciimen in Lhude sing cucu. Groweth seel, and bloweth mecl, And springeth the woode nu. Sing cuccu. Ewe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu. Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth, Merie sing cuccu, Cuccu, cuccu, Wei singes thu cuccu, Ne swik thu never nu." Proposed Royal College of Miisic. 1 3 spirit, rhythm, melody, practical interest, and beauty. Their pieces are not learned composi- tions, intended only for learned men, but are in a " tongue understanded of the people." The same spirit which gave us the Bible in our own tongue animated the musicians. The compositions of English writers of the sixteenth century, such as Edwardes, Farrant, Redford, Byrd, and the short motets of Tye compositions some of which are familiar to those who know the ex- cellent publications of Mr. Hullah or belong to choral classes these have a spirit, and sense, and expression which are too often wanting in the music of the Continent at the same date. So also with the madrigal writers of England. No doubt they learned that form of composition from Italy; but while they rival the Italians in ingenuity and skill, they far surpass them in the humour, the fire, and the 'sense of their music. Their madrigals are not only good music, they always fit, and illustrate, and intensify the words, and go to the heart of the hearer. In this particular we certainly had one strong element of a musical nation. In those days, too, music was practised as an ordinary accomplishment and necessary part of an 14 Music in England and the education. The writers of the sixteenth century supply many an amusing piece of evidence of the wonder and scorn with which the man was regarded who could not take his part in music as a regular element of life, and sing in a difficult madrigal or canon when put before him. In Shakespeare and Izaak Walton we find catches and songs introduced in general intercourse, so as to imply that a man of ordinary education was always able to take his part in them. Up to the seventeenth century, then, we can well claim to have been a musical nation. We started a hundred and fifty years before any other country. Our composers did not write merely for the learned, but tunefully, sensibly, for the people at large. Their object and their delight was to be sung at the fireside and round the family table ; and they were sung and enjoyed in the family to their hearts' content. But a change came. The Civil War and the Great Revolution of the seventeenth century, the development of commerce, and other external events of the eighteenth century, threw the energy of the country into other channels than Art, and especially than Music, and gradually led to that importation and that concentration Proposed Royal College of Music. 15 of it of which I spoke before, and to its dissocia- tion from the ordinary daily pleasures of life. This first showed itself in Handel's residence here, and the establishment of the Italian Opera by the nobility and gentry in A.D. i 720. The native school of music had been broken up, and to the rich gentry it was less trouble and more practical to employ Handel to write operas and bring over Italian singers, than to re-establish the English school of composers and performers. Handel, however, was sensible enough to see the absurdity of thus forcing a foreign tongue on the country, and his English Oratorios were his practical protest against such an anomaly. But still the mischief was done. After Handel came Haydn, who could pro- bably have resided here as Handel did, had he arrived earlier in life; and almost in our days we have had Mendelssohn. The Italian Opera went steadily on, and reached its climax about 1850. But we must not suppose that though the native English music was overlaid by this inva- sion of foreigners, it was therefore extinguished. No ; the stream ran on underground, often in no weak or turbid current. First there were the 1 6 Music in England and the Cathedrals, which both kept up the knowledge and tradition of our old Church music, and supplied fresh compositions. No one could forget Tallis, Byrd, Farrant, Gibbons, or Purcell, as long as seven services and a dozen anthems by them were sung in each cathedral every week. Then there were the English Ballad-Operas to a truly surprising extent ; not learned, not refined, often wanting in taste, but abounding in melody and spirit. Then there was the great school of Glee writers, who flourished from about 1750 and onwards, and produced prodigious quantities of music in a form and style peculiarly English. The Philharmonic Society was founded in 1813, the Royal Academy of Music in 1823, the Sacred Harmonic Society in 1832, and then came the movement headed by Mr. Hullah's classes in 1839, for training large bodies of persons to sing a movement countenanced by the Government of the day, imitated by Mainzer and others, and which spread more or less all over England. Thus we see that the succession has never failed. The torch of English Music has always been handed on, and now again the same fire burns which blazed so brightly in the days of Elizabeth and James. And no one who looks at what has been Proposed Royal College of Music. 1 7 happening in England in this connection during the past twenty-five or thirty years can doubt that, if properly tended and fed, this sacred flame may yet burn even more brightly, and with a more radiating, beneficent, and melting heat, than before. Think of the great spread of education since the date I last named ; the increased and increasing interest in music ; the establish- ment of so many series of concerts in London , the crowds who attend them ; the help which is given by the explanatory programme books- now so common; the excellent and abundant publications of Novello and others ; the spirit and enterprise of the great publishing firms, almost rivalling those of Leipzig and Vienna : the many musical societies; the increase in- the number of pupils at the Roya] Academy of Music, the National Training School,, and other more private establishments ; the number of young English musicians who- repair to the music schools abroad ; the very hopeful energy at Oxford and Cambridge ; the recent great improvement in the Provincial Festivals; the extraordinary run of musical pieces such as Mr. Sullivan's operettas ; lastly, the way in which music now takes its place c 1 8 Music in England and the as an ordinary topic of conversation. What astonishing energy, and what deep and wide love of music in the country, does all this betoken ! True, as I said at the outset, far too much of it is done by foreigners. The old traditions of the Italian Opera are too strong upon us, and we sit down quietly and think that because we do not make our own music for ourselves, therefore we cannot do it could not do it, however much we tried. But, ladies and gentlemen, we will not allow that this is the case. Englishmen are in .all essential qualities the same that they were in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and I am convinced that if proper means and methods were afforded them they would become a musi- cal nation in the best sense of the word. It only wants the use of the same means and the patient expenditure of the same time that have been so successful in Germany, to enable us to rival the Germans. Recollect the state of things in Germany exactly one hundred years ago. The same struggle was then going on in Mannheim, Dresden, and Vienna, between the native and the foreign element in music, as is now going on in Proposed Royal College of Music. 19 London and Manchester. Mozart's great operas, IdomeneOy Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosl fan Tutte, La Clcmenza di Tito, were all Italian operas. Anfossi, Salieri, and a host of other composers from the southern side of the Alps, held the ground against the Germans, just as Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians now hold it against the English. Mozart wrote but two German operas the Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (1782), and Die Zauberflotc. Rossini expelled Beethoven from the field, even in Vienna. It is curious to read in Mozart's and Schubert's letters the same lamentations over the prevalence of Italian works at the theatre, and the neglect of German ones, that we still hear so frequently in regard to our own English operas. The failure of Schubert's many operas and the long delay in the appreciation of such masterpieces as the Zaubcrflote and Fidelio were in a great measure due to the fact that they were native and not Italian works. Their time was not then come. But the national cause is always sure to triumph in the end. For look at what has happened since, and remember that the immense fabric of German dramatic music, the great national school of the theatre, to which Weber and Spohr, Marschner c 2 2O Music in England and the and Kreutzer did so much, and on which Wagner has now placed so mighty a cupola, has all been reared in one hundred years. Time will not permit me to examine the details of this extraordinary growth ; but I may say that it is mainly due on the one hand to the universal elementary instruction in music founded by Frederick the Great in 1745, and on the other hand to the great Conservatoriums or Music- schools established from time to time in the principal cities. The latter are the complement of the former. The people learn the elements of music as a matter of course, with the rudiments of other knowledge, and on the same footing, and they have afterwards the opportunity of carrying their musical talent to full development in the great music-schools. Thus by degrees a thoroughly musical people has been formed ; a people whose love for music does not reside only in a single class, but in whom it is an unconscious, living, reigning, pervading force, animating all classes, from the lowest to the highest. With them music is not a luxury, enjoyed only by the few who can afford the time and money for it ; it is a daily, necessary, regular element of life. That great musical public, by the exercise of its Proposed Royal College of Music. 2 r taste and judgment, has, in its turn, created a demand for music in all its forms and branches, and has led to that supply which is so marvellous a thing in the great country of which I am speak- ing. No doubt Germany has had a peculiar advantage in the orchestras maintained at the Courts of the different princes, to which there is nothing answering in England. But the Elemen- tary Education and the great Central Schools are within our reach, and it will be strange, indeed, if Englishmen cannot and will not find the means of carrying to a practical conclusion what they see to be wanted, even when it is a far vaster undertaking than that now before us. The Conservatoire, or College, is the subject of to-day's meeting; and, my Lords, ladies, and gentlemen, I trust that I have shown you some reasons for according to it your energetic and enthusiastic support. 22 Music in England and the H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH then rose and said : There is a point my brother has not dwelt upon, namely the influence of Music on man- kind, and on its aesthetic characteristics, nor has he described to us the large share which Music has in some of the greatest crises of life. Some of us no doubt have not forgotten the effect of the Wedding March, played in church after a certain momentous event in our lives. But there are other aspects of life hardly less serious than a wedding, and in which music can take a share. There is Religion, in the ceremonies of which even the most savage nations make some attempt at music. The step from the discordant drums which surround the Car of Juggernaut, to the services of the English Church, or the lofty strains of Beethoven's Great Mass, is one not unworthy of examination. There is the resolution which music can infuse into a body of soldiers, who can have their fatigue Proposed Royal College of Music. 23 lightened and their step quickened even by the simple notes of the drum and fife, and who by the martial sound of the War March may be animated to face the greatest dangers. I might mention the remarkable effects of music on the inhabitants of mountainous countries. Certain tunes are, I believe, prohi- bited in the Highland Regiments, because of the intense longing for home which they produce in the men on foreign service. The same is the case with the Swiss, and this desperate desire for home, excited and aggra- vated by the national music of the country, has even been classified as a distinct disease under the name of nostalgia. I should also have liked to hear something about the manner in which music seems to be entering into the pleasures of the people, by competitions of bands, and by open-air perform- ances in Parks and Pleasure-grounds. But my brother has taken a different line in his observations to you ; and I am bound to say that what he said struck me with great force, and I gathered from your reception of his remarks that you also found them convincing. The knowledge that you look with favour uponi 24 Music in England and the our object, encourages me to lay before you the few words I have now to offer of a more prosaic kind, and to endeavour to enlist your sympathy in the great subject of musical education, by pointing out to you the toil, the time, the energy, the money, which must be expended in making the complete musician, even where Nature has done her part and formed a human being en- dowed with the rare capacity to become one by adequate training. I have already said that my object is to elicit such an expression of feeling in favour of music in this great assembly, and by the means of this assembly, in the city of Manchester, as will act with effect on the public and the Government, and induce them to take up the art of music as an art which deserves to be fostered by public contribu- tions, and to have its civilising and cheering influence extended to the poor as well as to the rich throughout the United Kingdom. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us consider what education in music means, and on this subject I can speak with some confidence, as for many years past I have taken a great interest in musical education, and have, in the intervals of freedom from my professional duties, Proposed Royal College of Music. 25 presided at the meetings of the governing body of the Training School at South Kensington, and personally directed my attention to the system of education pursued there and to its results. I will take, for example, the case of a boy who intends to become a professional pianist. He begins at an early age he must practise for as many hours a day as his physical and mental strength will admit of, and he cannot expect to attain sufficient excellence to earn his bread until after the- expiration of many years. During all this time he cannot follow any other calling or make a sixpence by any other pursuit. Now what has he to learn ? First, as respects mechanical skill, as I have already stated, he must play the pianoforte for many hours a day. Secondly, he must learn harmony and counter- point. Thirdly, he must learn the principles of musical composition ; and of course, in addition to his musical culture, he must qualify himself in ordinary learning. Musical biographies are accessible enough ; and let anyone examine the lives of the great musicians, and he will see what unremitting 26 Music in England and the toil, what close application, what unwearied effort it has required to form a Mozart, a Mendelssohn, or a Sterndale Bennett. How are these various branches of knowledge and technical skill to be acquired ? The instrumental skill must be taught by an experienced teacher, who must devote much time to this pupil alone. Harmony, counterpoint, and the principles ot composition may be taught in classes, but each of these sciences requires a teacher of great ability, and probably a separate teacher in each department. Now, compare this system with an ordinary school. Any reasonable number of boys can be classi- fied and educated in reading, writing, and arith- metic together. The same principle applies to the higher branches of learning, classics or mathematics ; they are taught in forms or classes, and no boy requires as a general rule the individual attention of a separate teacher to be devoted to him. But, ladies and gentlemen, imagine a class of thirty boys playing their pianos at the same time and in the same room ! Mind and body alike shudder at what would Proposed Royal College of Miisic. 27 be the result to the teacher ; and to the pupils taught it is clear that no knowledge whatever could be thus imparted. Another great element in music is what I may call physical space. The hall in which I am now addressing you contains space enough, if properly portioned out, to teach a considerable grammar school ; but however arranged, it would only suffice for the instruction of a very moderate number of musi- cians with their organs, pianos, violins, and other sound-producing instruments. Then compare the expense of the actual mate- rials for teaching music with the materials for teaching grammar. A few books bound in dingy calf, or in still more dingy boards, are the only requisites for instruction in ordinary learning ; but a pianoforte, worth half the books in an ordinary bookseller's shop, is a necessity if a boy is to learn a sonata by Beethoven, or a fugue by Bach. I have merely selected the piano as an illus- tration as being the instrument with which the greater part of my audience is most familiar ; but the organ, the violin, indeed every de- scription of instrument, with some immaterial 28 Music in England and the exceptions, are expensive in about an equal degree. And is singing any less expensive ? To begin with, a singer must learn instru- mental music, not in the same perfection, but almost, if not quite, at the same expense as if he or she intended to be a professional instrumental musician. Three languages at least must be learned in addition to English in the case of an English vocalist Italian, French and German. It is true that these languages can be taught in the ordinary way, and do not demand any special conditions, but recollect that they are the superstructure, not the foundation, of the musical education of a singer, and that a singer must, in addition to music, be possessed at least of the ordinary acquirements of a well-educated person, and, pray remember, ladies and gentle- men, that whilst the vocalist is acquiring the foregoing knowledge a portion of each day must be devoted to singing, and four or five years must elapse before his or her course of study can be completed under the most favourable conditions. Another consideration affecting Music is this : Proposed Royal College of Music. 29 an instrumentalist, except in so far as relates to mere mechanical skill, and still more a vocalist, like a poet, is born, not made. No art will confer an ear, no education will give a voice, and, similarly, education may bring out, but it cannot give those peculiar qualities of mind and finger which make a great player or singer. To have music, then, in perfection, you must search through every class of society, and pick up the diamond, however rough it may be, where it is to be found. You may polish and perfect it by Art, but unless it have by Nature the real qualities of a diamond, it will never shine. Therefore, gentlemen, I think I have said enough to show you that musical education requires to be conducted on principles more extensive, and on a wider basis than any other education ; and that if music is to be promoted in its highest and be c >t form, external aid must be afforded to a considerable amount, and teachers adequate to the demand must be supplied to a greater extent than has hitherto been possible. What, then, is the remedy for this state of things ? In France there is the National Conservatoire, 3O Music in England and the in Paris, aided by an annual State subvention of ; 10,000 ; at Vienna there is also a Conserva- toire, with a large State subvention. At Berlin the Royal High School for Music receives ^7,500 a year; the Royal Conservatoires of Brussels and Liege have 8, 100 ; whilst in Flor- ence, Milan, Naples, Petersburgh, Moscow and Stockholm, and even in Prague, Stuttgart, Wurzburg, Toulouse, and other less considerable towns of the Continent, Schools of Music will be found recognised or aided by Government. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am not pre- pared to say that nothing is done for music in England, but I must revert once more to what I stated at first. I am here to enlist your sympathies on behalf of a central Institution. I acknowledge, with my brother, that much good and useful work has been done by existing schools throughout the country, but what I look to is an Institute having a greater scope, a wider basis, and a more authoritative position; and occupying in effect, relatively to Music, the same position that the Royal Academy of Arts occu- pies in relation to Painting. In the case of England, I am aware that the Proposed Royal College of Music. 3 E State and the public ought to go hand-in-hand in any undertaking of this description; and what I submit to you is, that our object should be to form a College of Musicians in England on a more permanent and extended basis than has hitherto existed competent to teach and speak with authority ; and, further, that the Institution so formed should be assisted by the public, and be recognised and subsidised by the State. To meet the necessary expenses of educating pupils of merit who are unable to pay their own expenses, Scholarships should be founded, and should be obtainable by open competition. Honorary Fellowships should also be bestowed upon persons eminent in the musical world, and Fellowships should be established, carrying with them pecuniary advantages, to aid rising musi- cians in that trying hour when, though able and willing to exercise their profession, they lack the necessary opportunity. To establish such a College requires the sympathies of the public, and without asking for any formal resolution, all I am earnestly anxious for at the moment is that you, and through you the city of Manchester, should express its opinion that the advancement of music by public 32 Music in England and the aid is a subject worthy alike of the attention of the Government and of the country. Manchester took the lead in promoting the study of painting by the Exhibition of 1857 an occasion I well recollect, having, as a boy, accompanied the Queen and my lamented father to visit it in June of that year. I am sure I need not doubt that Manchester, which in Mr. Charles Halle's splendid orchestra possesses w r hat may be called a permanent " Exhibition of Music," and has also one of the most musical populations in the United King- dom, will now take the same lead in Music that she took in Painting on that occasion. The Chairman then called upon H.H.R. PRINCE CHRISTIAN, who said : May it please your Royal Highnesses, my Lords, ladies, and gentlemen, the Duke of Edin- burgh and the Duke of Albany have explained the benefits conferred on mankind by the culti- vation of music, the difficulties attending that cultivation, and the necessity of public aid and public recognition to secure the success of any scheme for the promotion of musical culture in Proposed Royal College of Music. 33 England. It remains for me to occupy a very small portion of your time in stating shortly the practical steps that have been taken, and are still being taken, to carry into effect the objects mentioned in the address of the Duke of Edin- burgh. . As long ago as the i3th of July, 1878, a meet- ing was held at Maryborough House, under the presidency of the Prince of Wales, for the pur- pose of taking into consideration the advance- ment of the art of music in the United Kingdom. The meeting was attended by the most influential supporters of music and the most representative musicians of this country. The object of the meeting was, as I have said, to take into con- sideration the advancement of music in the United Kingdom, by establishing a College of Music on a more permanent and extended basis than any existing institution. In aid of the project it was suggested that an endeavour should be made to obtain the assent of the Royal Academy of Music and the National Training School of Music to amalgamate and become part of the more extended institution. An executive committee, of which the Prince of Wales named me Chairman, was appointed to 34 Music in England and the carry this object into effect. After long negoti- ations, with which I need not trouble you, the Royal Academy expressed a disinclination to accept the proposal made to them, while the Training School cordially accepted it. Under these circumstances it became necessary to proceed independently with our plan. The preparation of the scheme for the Royal College necessarily occupied a long time, but in the year 1880 a draft Charter was completed, and the Prince of Wales was graciously pleased to be- come the petitioner to the Privy Council for that Charter. Considerable delay, as is usually the case in such matters, has occurred, and the Charter is still under consideration. The subject is so important that I may, perhaps, be allowed to state some of the most material portions of the Charter. " The purposes are the advancement of the art of Music by means of a central repre- sentative body, charged with the duty of pro- viding musical instruction of the highest class, and having a capacity to exercise a powerful in- fluence on the cultivation, practice, and regulation of the art and science of music, and, further, having in view the promotion and supervision of musical instruction, as may be thought most Proposed Royal College of Music. 35 conducive to the cultivation and dissemination of the art of Music in the United Kingdom." The President is the Prince of Wales. The governing body consists of a council and executive com- mittee. The Charter contemplates the foundation of scholarships, which shall provide for the gratuitous education, and even the maintenance in certain cases, of those who having shown themselves, by competition, worthy of such a boon, are unable to maintain and educate them- selves. On the other hand, the Royal College opens its doors to those who, able to pay for their education, are desirous of obtaining the advantages of a strict collegiate course of musical training. It is hoped also that Fellowships will be endowed, which will enable distinguished pupils on their leaving the College to maintain themselves until they have acquired by their exertions a sufficient indepen- dence. The details of the Charter would scarcely be interesting to a meeting such as the present, but they have been settled, with the greatest con- sideration, with a view to providing the best practical means for advancing music in England as an ennobling profession. I must apologise, ladies and gentlemen, for having said so much 36 Music in England. on a scheme in which I am myself so deeply interested, but Manchester is a practical city, and it is well that you should be aware that in coming here we are not only prepared to praise music in our addresses, but are able to say that we have devoted a large portion of our time, and are willing to devote still more, to the practical advancement of music. We ask, ladies and gentlemen, to be assisted in our efforts by all those who, after hearing the addresses made this evening, concur in thinking that Music is an art which both the rich and the poor are intended to enjoy ; and we ask your sympathy and co- operation in advancing throughout the United Kingdom the cultivation of this noble art by encouraging and aiding an institution by means of which those who have been endowed by Providence with genius or talent, though not with wealth, may acquire an independence for themselves, and exercise a beneficial influence on their country. HRADPL'RY, AGNBW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFR1ARS.