Archive item of the month – July 2020

Music Festivals in Britain

The eighteenth century saw the foundation of many private and public music societies. In the earlier part of the century, the majority of commercial aspects of public performances were primarily the result of theatre seasons, with the Lenten oratorio season for non-staged performances (with texts of religious content) drawing the biggest potential audiences. In 1715, the cathedral choirs of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester established the “Music Meeting” which became the Three Choirs Festival. Music festivals began across England, including Salisbury (1740), Birmingham (1768), and Norwich (1788). However, the real catalyst for the further expansion of this new commercial and/or philanthropic genre was the “Handel Commemoration” in London in 1784. This festival of Handel’s music was on a scale not seen before, and was reported across the country and beyond through many newspaper advertisements and accounts. In the following year, Charles Burney’s An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster-Abbey and the Pantheon, May 26th, 27th, 29th; and June the 3d, and 5th, 1784, in Commemoration of Handel was “Printed for the Benefit of the Musical Fund” (or “Fund for Decay’d Musicians” as The Royal Society of Musicians was then known). Burney’s lavishly produced Account was published in London, a smaller one in Dublin and in a German translation by Johann Joachim Eschenburg (1743-1820) printed in Berlin in the same year (Nachricht von George Friedrich Händel’s Lebensumständen, und der ihm zu London im Mai und Jun. 1784 angestellten Gedächtnissfeyer / Karl Burney, aus dem Englischen übersetzt vom Johann Joachim Eschenburg).

Archive item of the month – June 2020

William Hayman Cummings

(Sidbury 22 August, 1831 – London 6 June, 1916, RSM Member 00457): performer, collector, composer, academic and administrator

Oil painting of W.H. Cummings in doctoral robes by F.G.A. Butler (active 1900-1918).

Archive Item of the Month – May 2020

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and musicians in time of hardship or misfortune

Half-length portrait from the circle of William Hogarth (1697-1764): mid eighteenth century.

Archive Item of the Month – April 2020

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Water Music, HWV348-350

The oldest surviving score of Handel’s Water Music.  London: ca 1717-1719.

Archive Item of the Month – March 2020

March for March: Grand march [Hob. VIII/3bis]
composed expressly for and presented to The Royal Society of Musicians, London by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809).  London: 1792.

Archive Item of the Month – February 2020

Valentines’ day : Thomas Valentine (1759-1800) and his immediate family

RSM Member Thomas Valentine (A093) hailed from an extensive family of musicians from Leicester and moved to London in the late 1770s.  His name appears in the list of instrumentalists for the important and ground-breaking music festival held in London in 1784, namely the Handel Commemoration Concert at Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon (see An account of the musical performances in Westminster-Abbey and the Pantheon, May 26th, 27th, 29th and June the 3d and 5th, 1784 in commemoration of Handel by Charles Burney, London, printed for the benefit of the Musical Fund, 1785).  Valentine joined the Society of Musicians on 4 July 1784 just a few weeks following this festival and his application had been supported by Redmond Simpson (who compiled the financial accounts for the Handel Commemoration Concert) and notes that Valentine “has practised music for a livelihood upwards of seven years, is a single man, aged about 25, plays at Covent Garden Theatre, has many scholars”.