This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. ‘So Much Neglected?’ An investigation and re-evaluation of Vocal Music in Edinburgh 1750 – 1800 Thomas Hayward Edwards PhD The University of Edinburgh 2015 ABSTRACT This thesis gives a comprehensive account of the vocal music performed in Edinburgh between 1750 and 1800. One of its aims is to highlight the importance of vocal music to a contemporary audience, an area which has hitherto been neglected in investigations into the musical culture of the city in the eighteenth century. It also attempts to place the Edinburgh Musical Society in the wider context of the vibrant concert and musical culture which developed through the second half of the century. The study attempts to demonstrate the importance of singing, not just within concerts, but as an integral part of many other social and cultural aspects of life, including: gentlemen’s clubs, schools, and the city’s churches. The careers of singers, as impresarios and teachers, and the influence they held over prevailing tastes and culture are examined. In addition to discussing the many foreign musicians active in the city this investigation also traces the impact of native born singers and teachers. It calls into question the assertions made by previous studies which suggested the primacy of instrumental music over vocal music and it attempts to demonstrate that the interest in, consumption of, and participation in vocal music grew over the course of the century. It also attempts to show that vocal music became a dominant influence following the demise of the Musical Society. The information contained in this account has been drawn from previously neglected newspapers and other archival sources, such as diaries, personal letters, the archives of the Musical Society preserved by Gilbert Innes, the Sederunt Books of the Musical Society, the repertoire of the Harmonical Society and published works on music, culture and history. The repertory itself has also been closely examined. By means of this work it has been possible to examine and expand the whole spectrum of musical life in the Scottish capital and thus establish the thriving vocal musical culture which existed at the time. 2 I certify: (a) that this thesis has been composed by me, and (b) either that the work is my own, or, where I have been a member of a research group, that I have made a substantial contribution to the work, such contribution being clearly indicated, and (c) that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Signed: Thomas Hayward Edwards 22nd April 2015 3 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 8 PART ONE: VOCAL MUSIC FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND EDUCATION Chapter 1 Public Concerts 1: Benefit Concerts 22 1.1 Italian arias 31 1.2 Airs from Handel’s Oratorios 40 1.3 Contemporary English songs and ballads 50 1.4 Scots Songs 54 Chapter 2 Public Concerts 2: Subscription Concerts and other Concerts 61 2.1 Subscription Concerts in Edinburgh 62 2.2 Vocal Music in other concerts 76 2.3 Vocal Music as a spur to Patriotism 82 Chapter 3 Music for Gentlemen’s Leisure 87 3.1 Vocal Music in the Edinburgh Musical Society’s meetings 90 3.2 Musical Society Catch Club 104 3.3 The New Edinburgh Catch Club 105 3.4 The Edinburgh Harmonical Society 114 3.5 The Freemasons 128 Chapter 4 Music in the Theatre 133 4.1 Incidental Music in Plays 136 4.2 Ballad Operas and English Masques 145 4.3 Italian Opera 151 4.4 Oratorios at the Theatre Royal 157 Chapter 5 Music in the Pleasure Gardens 162 5.1 Early attempts at Pleasure Gardens in Edinburgh 163 5.2 Comely Gardens and Edinburgh’s Ranelagh 167 Chapter 6 Vocal Music and Education 182 6.1 Music and Gentlemen Amateurs 183 6.2 Private Singing Teachers 185 6.3 The Edinburgh Musical Society and Musical Apprenticeships 198 6.4 Vocal Music and Education in schools 206 4 PART TWO: VOCAL MUSIC AS AN AID TO PIETY Chapter 7 The Edinburgh Musical Society and Devotional Concerts 216 7.1 Funeral Concerts staged by the Edinburgh Musical Society 217 7.2 The Musical Society and Oratorios 223 Chapter 8 Vocal Music in the Church 239 8.1 Vocal Music in the Kirk 239 8.2 Vocal Music in the Episcopal Church 254 CONCLUSION 262 Appendices A Benefit Concerts 1751-1756 273 B Benefit Concerts 1775-1780 275 C Benefit Concerts 1778-1792 277 D Musicians staging Benefit Concerts 1751-1756 279 E Musicians staging Benefit Concerts 1775-1780 280 F Musicians staging Benefit Concerts 1788-1792 281 G Analysis of Handel’s solo arias recorded in this thesis 282 H Giuseppe and Christina Passerini’s First Subscription Series 284 I Giuseppe and Christina Passerini’s Second Subscription Series 286 J Index of Vocal Music belonging to Musical Society, 1782 288 K Vocal Music copied for the Edinburgh Musical Society 295 L Edinburgh Musical Society and the performance of Oratorios 297 BIBLIOGRAPHY 302 5 ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS CM Caledonian Mercury d penny (12d = 1s) EA Edinburgh Advertiser EEC Edinburgh Evening Courant EHC Edinburgh Herald and Courant EMS Edinburgh Musical Society EWJ Edinburgh Weekly Journal gn guinea (1gn = £1.1s or 21s) NAS National Archives of Scotland n.d. Not dated s shilling (1s = 12d: 20s = £1 sterling) SM Scots Magazine All quotations from contemporary sources and documents are given with original spelling and punctuation All references to money are expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. Full names of all persons referred to are given where possible. If a first name is not known a title is used. 6 To Lovers of Music, particularly of singing ... I think it constitutes one of the purest, most innocent, and delightful entertainments. It gives a pleasing variety to the sweets of society, and renders a company cheerful and happy. It diverts the mind in a greater degree that any thing I know of from the important cares of business. As men, as men of business, and in all our relative situations, we have cares and anxieties which are not to be too much listened to, lest they make us melancholy, nor too little attended to, lest they bring on our ruin. To alleviate such, company is intended, and no part of our amusements in company seems to have a right to be called rational, by a better claim than music. Caledonian Mercury, 11 April 1785 7 INTRODUCTION In 1785 a group of gentlemen amateurs joined together to form the Edinburgh Harmonical Society. They existed, it was reported, to fill a gap in the musical life of the city: The object this Society has in view is to promote the cultivation of Vocal Harmony in general, and of Sacred Music in particular... there is good reason to believe, that such an institution will be of great utility in this country, where vocal harmony has of late been so much neglected.1 One purpose of this study is to try to discover whether the founders of the Harmonical Society were correct to summarise the performance of vocal music in the city as ‘so much neglected’ and to try and establish how important vocal music was to musical culture in Edinburgh. This will be the first study dedicated to the performance and propagation of vocal music within eighteenth century Edinburgh. The eighteenth century history of Edinburgh has been well-documented, and the best overview of the development of the cultural and artistic life of the city in the Enlightenment can be found in Edinburgh: the Golden Age by Mary Cosh.2 Despite its extensive analysis of the literary, theatrical and philosophical development in the city, Cosh has little to say about music and the part it played in cultural life: she even suggests that public musical performance at the turn of the nineteenth century was something of a rarity.3 Despite its many excellent features, Cosh’s study significantly underestimates the importance of music in the everyday cultural life of the city, and, I believe, fails to see how music, especially vocal music, penetrated into the daily lives of the citizens of Edinburgh. This may in part be because Cosh has followed the picture presented by David Johnson in Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century.4 No study of music in Scotland in the eighteenth century would be possible without reference to Johnson’s book, which was the first modern study to investigate the importance of musical culture in Scotland in that period. Johnson was the first to consider the Edinburgh Musical Society in the whole musical context of the times, including: folk music, music in the theatre, and music in aristocratic houses. Johnson’s work was in many ways ground-breaking 1 The Scots Magazine or General Repository of Literature, History and Politics (hereafter SM), 47 (1785), 153.