CHAPTER II.
CHAMBER MUSIC INSTITUTIONS AND CONCERTS.
John Banister’s concerts — Thomas Britton, the musical coalman — Britton’s concerts — “Music Meetings” — Oxford Music School — Pepys’s Diary — Evelyn’s Diary — Frederick the Great — Bach and the Emperor — The Emperor Frederick’s compositions — Dando concerts — John Ella and The Musical Union — Analytical programmes and position of platform — Quartett Association — Dannreuther’s Musical Evenings — Sir Charles Hallé’s recitals — Monday Popular Concerts — Joachim — Various chamber music institutions — Japanese chamber music.
With the general advancement which we thus see had taken place in instrumental music, there naturally arose a desire for its performance, and this led to the establishment of Concerts, both private and public.
John Banister’s Concerts
Burney in his History of Music tells us that upon the decease of Baltzar the Lubecker, who was the first leader of King Charles the Second’s new Band of Twenty-four Violins, John Banister (1630-79), the first Englishman who seems to have distinguished himself on the violin, succeeded him. This musician was one of the first who established lucrative concerts in London. These were advertised in the London Gazette, and in No. 742, for December 30th, 1672, there is the following advertisement:—“These are to give notice that at Mr. John Banister’s house, now called the Music School, over against the George Taverne in White Fryers, this present Monday will be music performed by excellent masters, beginning precisely at four of the clock in the afternoon, and every afternoon for the future, precisely at the same hour.”
There are a number of such advertisements, and in the Gazette of December 11th, 1676, Banister’s performance is announced to be held at the Academy in Little Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where it was to begin “with a parley of instruments composed by Mr. Banister, and performed by eminent masters.”
In Mr. North’s Memoirs of Music we have a more minute account of these performances:—“Banister having procured a large room in White Fryers near the Temple Back Gate, and erected an elevated box or gallery for the musicians, whose modesty required curtains, the rest of the room was fitted with seats and small tables, alehouse fashion. One shilling, which was the price of admission, entitled the audience to call for what they pleased! There was very good music, for Banister found means to procure the best hands in London, and some voices, to assist him, and there wanted no variety, for Banister, besides playing on the violin, did wonders on the flageolet to a thro’ base, and several other masters likewise played solos.”
Banister had his first lessons from his father, who was one of the waits in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He left behind him a son, John, who became an excellent performer on the violin, and was one of King William’s band, and also played first violin at Drury Lane when operas were first performed there.
Thomas Britton, the Musical Coalman
In 1678, a year before the decease of the elder Banister, a club for the practice of chamber music, established by Thomas Britton, the celebrated small-coal man, had its beginning, and continued until 1714. Britton[7] (1651-1714) was born in Northamptonshire, and apprenticed to a London coal-dealer; he afterwards carried on business in Aylesbury Street, at the corner of Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell, as a small coal (probably charcoal) dealer. He seems to have been a man of progressive mind, and to have cultivated an extensive knowledge of many subjects, including both theoretical and practical music. His learning indeed seems to have led to his being regarded with suspicion on the part of certain narrow-minded and superstitious people, who attributed to him even so strange a mixture as atheism, Jesuitry, and magic.
MVSICA MORTALES DIVOSQVE OBLECTAT ET ORNAT.
A GROUP OF MUSICIANS.
There does not, however, seem to be any foundation for the imputations which were made against him, for he appears to have been a sincere, plain man, but endowed with fine natural tastes, which raised him so far above his class that he had to pay the usual penalty for such superiority.
Britton’s Concerts
As a result of his study of music he established the club to which reference has been made. Here weekly concerts were held in a large room over his place of business in Clerkenwell, and these became exceedingly fashionable. The performers were drawn from among the most distinguished musicians, professional and amateur, such as Pepusch, Wollaston (the painter), John Banister, John Hughes (the poet), and Abel Whichello. It is also said that Handel frequently played the harpsichord, but the records do not entirely agree on this point. These concerts, which seem to have been due to Britton’s personal influence, together with the mutual love for bibliographical and other studies held by many of his audience, were at first free, but afterwards a subscription was levied. There appears to be no doubt that many learned and titled people, such as the Earls of Oxford, Pembroke, Winchelsea, and Sunderland, were subscribers, and that they fully appreciated and acknowledged the high conversational powers and book learning of the musical small-coal man.
Britton’s books were sold after his death, and the catalogue was issued as “The Library of Mr. Thomas Britton, small-coal man, deceased, who at his own charge kept up a consort of musick above forty years in his little cottage. Being a curious collection of Books in Divinity, History, Physick, and Chimistry, in all volumes.”
His portrait by J. Wollaston, who was one of his supporters, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. So recently as 1892 concerts called the Britton Concerts were given in his memory at the Hampden Club, Phœnix Street, St. Pancras, London.[8]
“Music Meetings”
About the year 1680 the principal music-masters in London, perceiving an eagerness in the public for musical performances, caused a room to be erected in York Buildings and purposely fitted up for concerts, where the best compositions and performers of the time were to be heard. This was called the “music meeting,” and this room was for a long time the place where the lovers of music assembled at the benefit concerts of the most eminent professors of the art.
Oxford Music School
As regards the provinces, in 1665 a music school was founded at Oxford by the members of the old Oxford meetings which were suppressed during the Rebellion. Anthony Wood speaks of these meetings when King Charles was driven to Oxford. This new (1665) school, it is quaintly recorded, was furnished “with a number of instruments, including an organ of four stopps, and seven desks to lay the books on, at two shillings each.” Subscription concerts were given, and these Oxford gatherings were the first of which any account is to be met with, indeed they seem to have been the only association of the kind in the kingdom. (Hawkins, History of Music.)
For the common and ordinary people there were entertainments suited to their notions of music; these consisted of concerts in unison, as they were called, of fiddles, hautboys, trumpets, etc., performed in booths at fairs held in and about London, but more frequently in certain places called music-houses, of which there were many in the time of King Charles II.
Among the first of this kind was one known by the sign of the Mitre near the west end of St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was about the year 1664. The name of the master of this house was Robert Hubert, alias Forges, who besides being a musician was a collector of natural curiosities.
Another well-known place of this kind was in Stepney, where there was an organ and a band of fiddles and hautboys, and here at times dancing was allowed.
Pepys’s Diary
As quaintly casting light on the musical condition of things during this period, the following extracts from Pepys’s Diary may be given:—
“Oct. 1, 1667. To White Hall: and there in the Boarded Gallery did hear the musick with which the King is presented this night by Monsieur Grebus, the master of His musick; both instrumental (I think twenty-four viols.) and vocall; an English song upon Peace. But God forgive me! I never was so little pleased with a concert of musick in my life. The manner of setting words and repeating them out of order and that with a number of voices, makes me sick, the whole design of vocall musick being lost by it. Here was a great press of people, but I did not see many pleased with it, only the instrumental musick he had brought by practice to play very just.”
“Febry. 27, 1668. With my wife to the King’s House to see The Virgin Martyr, the first time it hath been acted a great while; and it is mighty pleasant; not that the play is worth much, but it is freely acted by Beck Marshall. But that which did please me beyond anything in the whole world was the wind-musique when the angel comes down; which is so sweet that it ravished me and indeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have been formerly when in love with my wife; that neither then nor all the evening going home and at home I was able to think of anything, but remained all night transported, so as I could not believe that ever any musique hath that real command over the soul of a man as this did upon me; and makes me resolve to practice wind-musique, and to make my wife do the like.”
Evelyn’s Diary
In Evelyn’s Diary of November 20th, 1679, we find the following:—“I dined with Mr. Slingsby, Master of the Mint, with my wife invited to hear musick which was exquisitely performed by foure of the most-renown’d masters: Du Prue, a Frenchman, on the Lute; Signor Bartholomeo, an Italian, on the Harpsichord; Nicolao, on the violin; but above all for its sweetnesse and novelty, the Viol d’amore of five wyre strings plaied on with a bow, being but an ordinary violin played on, lyre-way, by a German. There was also a Flute-douce, now in much request for accompanying the voice. Mr. Slingsby, whose sonn and daughter play’d skilfully, had these meetings frequently in his house.”
In Hawkins’s History under the date November 23rd, 1685, we find a copy of an advertisement of the publication of several sonatas “composed after the Italian way, for one and for two Bass Viols with a thorough Bass, by Mr. August Keenell,” and of their being performed at the Dancing School, Walbrook. Also at the school in York Buildings, some performances on an instrument called the Baritone by the same Mr. Keenell. Again on January 25th, 1693, it is stated that “at the Concert room in York Buildings will be performed Mr. Purcell’s Song composed for St. Cecilia’s day in the year 1692, together with some other compositions of his, both instrumental and vocal, for the Entertainment of His Highness Prince Lewis of Baden.”
Other institutions such as the Academy of Ancient Music, established in 1710, The Anacreontic Society (about 1770), the Ancient Concerts (about 1776) did much for the cultivation of good music, but they were not specially concerned with chamber music.
Of foreign doings, Hawkins relates that in 1598 “upon the arrival of Margaret Queen of Austria at Ferrara to celebrate a double marriage, between herself and Philip III. of Spain, and between Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella, the King’s sister, at the monastery of St. Vite the nuns performed a concert in which were heard Lutes, Double Harps, Viols, and other kinds of instruments.” Also in an Italian work of this period called Il Desiderio there occurs a long dialogue on the concerts which were then the entertainment of persons of the first rank in the principal cities of Italy, particularly Venice and Ferrara. The Accademia degli Filarmonica, an important Italian institution, was begun at Vicenza, exactly when is not now known, but certainly before 1565, for in that year the Accademia degli Incantenati was incorporated with it. To this “the nobility and gentry were used to resort once a week to entertain themselves with music.”
Frederick the Great
Brahms is reported to have said, “Be careful how you speak of the music of princes. One never knows who may have written it.” But even with this note of warning in mind, the story of the Emperor Frederick the Great of Prussia can hardly be passed over, seeing how influential must have been the support which he accorded to the art and to his musicians—Quantz, who composed so many works for the flute (the Emperor’s beloved instrument); C.H. Graun, the conductor; J.G. Graun, the violinist; and especially Philipp Emanuel Bach, a son of the great John Sebastian. The Emperor was accustomed to spend some £7000 a year on his Court music, which shows that it was an affair of considerable importance.
Bach and the Emperor
A pleasant and interesting account is recorded of the meeting of J.S. Bach with the Emperor. It was on a Sunday evening in the spring of 1747, as the Emperor was about to open his concert with a flute solo, the stranger’s list was brought to him. Having read it, flute in hand, he turned to the band and said excitedly, “Gentlemen, old Bach is come.” The flute was laid aside, and Bach was sent for at once, no time being allowed him even to change his travelling dress. The elaborately formal greetings over, Bach was invited to try the numerous Silbermann pianos distributed through the palace, the band following from room to room as he tried each instrument. Frederick expressed a desire to hear a six-part fugue, which Bach then improvised with the utmost skill on a theme given to him by the King. Next day, wishing to hear him on his more congenial instrument, the King escorted Bach to all the organs in Potsdam.
One outcome of this visit was the so-called “Musical Offering” which Bach wrote on his return to Leipzig. It consists of an elaborate working out of the royal theme named above, and the work is dedicated to the Emperor.[9]
It is said that the Emperor’s chamber concerts were dominated by himself and his flute, for virtually the only music performed was that of Frederick himself and his master, Quantz. Artistically there does not seem much to commend in this, and indeed, if accurately recorded, it raises serious doubts of the Emperor’s musicianship. But nevertheless the compositions which this remarkable man left behind him are of a kind to make one pause before accepting such a view of the matter, for at the command of the present German Emperor, and under the editorship of such eminent musical authorities as Spitta, Count Waldersee, and Barge, four volumes of these compositions have been published. They consist of twenty-five sonatas for flute and piano, and four concertos for flute and stringed orchestra.
The Emperor Frederick’s Compositions
“An examination of the King’s musical MSS., made at the instance of the Minister of Education, has shown that the compositions, written entirely by the King himself, are not only of historical interest, but exhibit command of artistic form and talent for musical invention; a healthy musical life breathes through them; the slow pieces frequently surprise us by their beautiful melodies full of warm feeling, and by their brilliant passages. Such fervour inspires them that the publication of these noble works, which solaced the monarch amid the troubles of his country and in his old age, in the loneliness of his high office, will present the personality of the great King in a new and important aspect. The notion that Frederick merely sought an agreeable pastime in flute-playing will be removed by this edition of his works; his admirers will learn to see in old Fritz a creative musician of deep feeling and noble simplicity.”[10]
The following fragment, which is quoted from the slow movement (Grave) of the Emperor’s Third Concerto, will show better than any mere description the quality of his music, which certainly warrants the expressions given below from Professor Spitta’s preface to the edition referred to above:—
From the 3rd Concerto for Flute and Strings.
Frederick the Great.
“The form of the music is no doubt like that of his master Quantz, unoriginal and stereotyped, but his specialty lies in the simple musical thoughts, which flow freely and easily from him, as the natural adequate expression of inward emotions. Frederick’s musical personality is most clearly delineated in his Adagios. These compositions furnish the proof of the story that he often moved his hearers to tears by his adagio playing. They reveal a surprising tenderness of feeling, a soul which seeks its satisfaction in the sweet melancholy and tender, almost feminine, yet never effeminate plaintiveness. The lovely Siciliani of Sonatas 3, 16, and 25 charm like Watteau pictures, with their graceful figures and delicate colour harmony, at the same time not lacking German depth of feeling. More serious, darker feelings rise up in the Grave of the Third Concerto.... Certain it is, and remains, that his music affords the hearer deep insight into a unique soul-life, and for this reason alone its publication would be justified.”
Dando Concerts
In the year 1836 a series of Quartett Concerts were organised by Joseph Dando, a London violin professor. These concerts, which were continued until 1842, were held in the Hanover Square Rooms, and the artists associated with Dando were Henry Blagrove, Henry Gattie, and Charles Lucas. Dando is said to have been the first to introduce public performances consisting altogether of instrumental quartetts in London.
John Ella and The Musical Union
In 1845 a series of Morning Concerts for chamber music, under the title of “The Musical Union,” were commenced in London by John Ella (1802-88), a Yorkshireman, who, originally intended for the legal profession, became a violinist, and established himself in the metropolis. These concerts continued for some thirty-three years. In the year 1850 Ella also started another series under the title of “Musical Winter Evenings,” and they went on until 1859. At these concerts the best chamber music was performed by the leading artists, both English and foreign.
Analytical Programmes and Position of Platform
The Musical Union is said to have had its origin in chamber music meetings which were held at Mr. Ella’s residence in London, and it would be difficult to over-estimate the important influence which its doings have had on the taste for high-class music of this kind in England. To Mr. Ella is also due the introduction of analytical Programmes, which were unknown before. These were sent to the subscribers some days before the concerts, thus enabling all earnest students to acquaint themselves with the various points of interest in the works to be performed.
Another feature which is worthy of notice was that the Platform for the performers was placed in the centre of the concert hall (St. James’s Hall, Regent Street). It was a little raised from the floor, and the listeners sat in a circle around it. This custom has been recently (1901-2) revived at the concerts given by the Joachim Quartett, with, however, the somewhat serious difference that the platform is much too high, and this interferes with the comfort of those who are seated near to it. At the Musical Union Concerts of Mr. Ella the platform was much lower, and this worked well.
Quartett Association
Another effort for the spread of a knowledge of chamber music was started in London in the year 1852 by Messrs. Sainton, Cooper, Hill, and Piatti. It was called the Quartett Association. Six concerts each season were given, at which the most eminent artists performed. These were held at Willis’s Rooms, but after the third season they were abandoned for want of sufficient public support.
Dannreuther’s Musical Evenings
Among a number of other attempts of a like kind may be mentioned Mr. Edward Dannreuther’s Musical Evenings, which upheld a high ideal, for it is well known that Mr. Dannreuther, while an earnest apostle of the new school of music, is no less zealous for the old, as the range of the programmes which he set forth at these concerts, and his masterly interpretations of Bach and Beethoven, abundantly prove.
Sir Charles Hallé’s Recitals
The late Sir Charles Hallé (then Mr. Hallé) began in 1861 his celebrated Chamber Music Recitals, the first eight concerts being taken up with a presentation of the whole of the Piano Sonatas of Beethoven. There can be no doubt that these recitals, along with Hallé’s musical work in other directions, have had a most beneficial effect on our national taste.
Monday Popular Concerts
No account of British chamber music would be complete without a notice of the Monday Popular Concerts which were commenced in London in 1859. The first concerts were of a miscellaneous character, consisting of old ballads and well-known instrumental pieces. They had, however, but moderate success. The director, Mr. Arthur Chappell, in conference with Mr. J.W. Davison, the musical critic of The Times newspaper, then decided to try a series of good chamber music concerts. The first of these was announced as a Mendelssohn Night, and was, of course, made up entirely of chamber music by that composer; and afterwards a Mozart, Haydn, Weber, and a Beethoven night were severally tried. Still success did not follow, and the concerts were very nearly abandoned. Chiefly, however, owing to the determination of Mr. Chappell, a further series were tried, and as these produced a financial profit, the venture was continued, with the result that the concerts eventually became firmly established as the leading chamber music institution in England.
“The One-hundredth Popular Concert,” says Mr. Hueffer,[11] “was given on July 7th, 1862, when, according to The Times, more than one thousand persons were refused admission for the want of space—a statement in itself sufficient to show the broad popular basis on which the concerts were by that time founded. In 1865 the Saturday Afternoon Concerts were added to those given on Monday evenings, and on May 15th of the same year one of the most important events in the history of this institution—the first appearance of Madame Schumann—took place. The programme on that occasion was devoted entirely to the works of her husband, which, in those days, were thought by the public and the press to be the abstruse effusions of the modern spirit, but which are now as generally, and almost as highly appreciated as those of Beethoven himself. Five years later, in 1870, Madame Norman-Neruda was added to the list of executants, and has remained one of the prime favourites of these and English audiences generally, ever since. In the season of 1873-74 more than common attention was paid to contemporary talent, the names of Saint-Saëns, Rubinstein, Rheinberger, Raff, and other then living composers playing a prominent part. The cause of this inroad upon established tradition is partly to be found in the appearance at the piano of Dr. Hans von Bülow, who, here as everywhere else, exercised a beneficial, but, so far as the popular concerts were concerned, a passing influence. There are few names of eminence absent from the list of executants who have appeared on and off. The one-thousandth performance was given on April 4th, 1888.”
Joachim
Among the other artists who constantly played at the “Monday Pops.” were Piatti, who for very many years occupied the position of leading ’cellist, and his brother-artist of world-wide repute, Dr. Joseph Joachim, the violinist. Although Joachim’s connection with the art of music is by no means limited to any one branch, yet it is in the realm of chamber music that we have chiefly felt his strong influence in Great Britain, and as an upholder of a high and pure standard of musical taste he obtains without doubt the grateful adhesion of all the serious musicians of our land. Were it for no other reason than his steadfast advocacy of the high claims of the works of Johannes Brahms, and for his presentation, under those conditions of a faultless rendering which they imperiously demand, of the later Quartetts of Beethoven, we, and the entire musical world, owe him a deep debt of gratitude.
THE JOACHIM QUARTETT.
JOACHIM. HAUSMANN. WIRTH. HALIR.
Of course it is obvious that to call these concerts Monday Popular Concerts was, at the commencement, almost a jocose perversion of the facts, seeing that they were so badly attended; yet, as some one afterwards said, “Mr. Chappell (when the concerts at first proved unpopular) took a bolder course than to alter his title; he altered the public taste instead,” and thus the name became an entirely appropriate one. That these concerts should, during recent years, have declined in public interest is a matter for regret, but no doubt a variety of causes has contributed to this result. Among these must be reckoned the competition of orchestral performances, for which there has grown up a strong public taste; the neglect in the Monday Popular programmes of the newer and novel compositions; and the death or absence of some of the most distinguished chamber music performers. At the same time it is hardly to be believed that chamber music concerts will be allowed to die out, and there is indeed already strong evidence of a revival in this direction in London, which shows that this, the purest form of abstract music, is still held in high esteem amongst us.
Various Chamber Music Institutions
Other British chamber music institutions which should be mentioned are the Cambridge University Musical Society (1843), the Cambridge University Musical Club (1871), the Oxford University Musical Union (1884), the People’s Concert Society (1878), the concerts at South Place, Finsbury, where reigns a specially eclectic taste, and good annotated programmes are provided; and the flourishing Oxford and Cambridge Universities Musical Club, established, largely by the untiring efforts of Dr. Horace Abel, during the year 1900 in the old Sir Joshua Reynolds’s House, Leicester Square, London; also the Schulz-Curtius Concerts.
During the season 1902-3 a new series of important chamber music concerts were inaugurated by Messrs. J. Broadwood & Sons, the well-known pianoforte makers, at St. James’s Hall, London. The original prospectus announced the following artistes, most of whom have appeared:—The Bohemian Quartett, the London Trio (Miss Amina Goodwin, Messrs. Simonetti and Whitehouse), the Wessely Quartett, Mr. Clinton’s Wind Instrument Quartett (Messrs. G.A. Clinton, W.M. Malsch, A. Borsdorf, and T. Wotton), the Grimson Quartett, the Brodsky Quartett (Messrs. Adolph Brodsky, R. Briggs, S. Speelman, and C. Fuchs), and the Gompertz Quartett (Messrs. Rd. Gompertz, C. Jacoby, E. Kreuz, and J. Renard). The Kneisel (American) Quartett and the Moscow Trio have also recently been heard at these concerts. Messrs. Broadwood have also organised another series of chamber music concerts in the city of Manchester.
The direction of the Monday Popular Concerts has also been undertaken by Professor Johann Kruse, who was well known as a member of Dr. Joachim’s Berlin Quartett. The Joachim Chamber Concerts will also be continued, the artists, as before, being Messrs. Joachim, Halir, Wirth, and Hausmann. Mr. Willy Hess’s Quartett, the Newland Smith Trio, Messrs. Metzler’s concerts, the Mozart Society’s concerts, and those of Mr. Donald Tovey (which are of high importance), are among the Chamber Music Institutions that have recently come into notice.
In many of our provincial towns and cities, too, societies for the cultivation of chamber music are, in a quiet way, doing excellent work. These are too numerous to set forth in detail; but, as exemplifying the good influence which it, like many such institutions in other places, has for a long time exerted, the Chamber Music Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne may be mentioned. This Society a while ago set an example, which might well be followed by others, in commissioning our English composer, Villiers Stanford, to write a string Quartett (op. 44 in G major), which was performed at one of the Society’s concerts shortly after it appeared.
Japanese Chamber Music
It has been stated by a writer,[12] who, by the way, is not afraid boldly to declare the truth “that the amateur is the backbone of a nation’s music”—that a Chamber Music Society has been founded through the influence of an English amateur at Tokio, in Japan. He tells us that the violinist who leads at these concerts has been engaged by the Japanese Government to teach at the Tokio Conservatoire, and that he has already turned out some excellent Japanese pupils, at any rate so far as technique is concerned, one girl especially having become a really good viola player.