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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Music Music and Elite Identity in the English Country House, c.1790-1840 by Leena Asha Rana Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2012 2 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Music Doctor of Philosophy MUSIC AND ELITE IDENTITY IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE, c.1790-1840. by Leena Asha Rana In this thesis I investigate two untapped music book collections that belonged to two women. Elizabeth Sykes Egerton (1777-1853) and Lydia Hoare Acland (1786-1856) lived at Tatton Park, Cheshire, and Killerton House, Devon, respectively. Upon their marriage in the early nineteenth century, they brought with them the music books they had compiled so far to their new homes, and they continued to collect and play music after marriage. I examine the vocal music in Elizabeth’s and Lydia’s collections, and I aim to show how selected vocal music repertoires contributed toward the construction of landed elite identity in these women and their husbands, concentrating on gender, class, national identity and religion. In chapter one, I concentrate on songs that depict destitute and suffering individuals to move both listeners and performers to compassion. The songs are topical and provide insights into contemporary understandings of sympathy and landed elite responsibility for the distressed. In chapter two, I focus on the ingoing and outgoing movements of music in the country house, and the consumption of foreign music in the home. I divide the chapter into two sections, first examining Elizabeth’s Italian vocal music that she collected during her girlhood years in London and York in the 1790s. The Italian music that Elizabeth brought to Tatton complemented other Italian objects and items in the home. Italian culture appealed to the Egerton family both before and after Elizabeth and Wilbraham married. In the second section, I investigate Lydia and her family’s journey to Vienna for the Congress in 1814-1815. Lydia took away with her a book of vocal music to remind her of home in a foreign environment. While away in Vienna, the Aclands attended concerts and music salons, and they purchased music books to bring back home to add to their collection. In the final chapter, I concentrate on the man of the house at music and I consider the social expectations, duties and responsibilities that had befallen our landed elite men, Thomas Dyke Acland and Wilbraham Egerton. I discuss Thomas’s and Wilbraham’s musical engagements and occasions for performing music, and how men’s music-making contributed to a masculine identity. By placing the vocal music in broader social and cultural contexts, reading personal correspondence, newspaper articles, account books and diaries, we can begin to understand what our families thought about music, and how they used and experienced music in and around their homes, forming an important part of their lifestyle. i ii Contents List of Music Examples ................................................................................................................................ vii List of Images ..................................................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................. xiii Declaration of Authorship .......................................................................................................................... xv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................... xvii Introduction: Music-Making in the English Country House, c. 1800 ....................................... 1 Chapter One- Performing Compassion and Acts of Charity: Songs to Rouse Sympathy ................................................................................................................................................................................ 23 1.1 Singing at Home ........................................................................................................................... 26 1.2 Contextual Issues ......................................................................................................................... 29 1.2.1 Definitions ............................................................................................................................. 29 1.2.2 Wilbraham Egerton’s and Thomas Acland’s Acts of Charity ......................... 31 1.2.3 Poverty in Britain ............................................................................................................... 34 1.3 An Education for Girls ............................................................................................................... 36 1.4 Compassionate Songs ................................................................................................................ 40 1.4.1 Children Songs: Orphan and Beggar Girls .............................................................. 42 1.4.2 Children Songs: Orphan Boys ....................................................................................... 61 1.4.3 Slave Songs ............................................................................................................................ 70 1.4.4 Fallen and Wronged Women Songs .......................................................................... 85 1.5 Performances of Compassion: Concluding Thoughts ................................................ 96 Chapter Two- Home and Away: Musical Tours to Italy and Vienna .................................... 99 2.1 At Home with the Egertons: Music and the Family’s Consumption of Italy . 103 iii 2.1.1 Italy Comes to Tatton Park: Initial Contact, c. 1720s ..................................... 103 2.1.2 Italy Comes to Tatton Park: Roman Neoclassicism and the Grand Tour, c.1780- 1790 ........................................................................................................................................ 107 2.1.3 Elizabeth’s Italian Connection: Music Collecting During Girlhood, c. 1790 ................................................................................................................................................................109 2.1.4 Italian Objects at Tatton Park .................................................................................... 127 2.2 Away with the Aclands: English Domesticity Abroad ............................................. 137 2.2.1 ‘A Traveller’: Personal Music-Making in a Foreign Country ....................... 139 2.2.2 Social Life in Vienna ....................................................................................................... 142 2.2.3 Concert Life in Vienna ................................................................................................... 143 2.2.4 Singing Lessons for Lydia ............................................................................................ 149 2.2.5 Fanny von Arnstein’s Music Salon ........................................................................... 152 2.2.6 Reflections on the Acland’s Escapade .................................................................... 157 2.3 Back at Home: A Conclusion ................................................................................................ 158 Chapter Three- The Man of the House at Music: Masculinity and Sociability ............... 159 3.1 Music and Paternalism ........................................................................................................... 165 3.1.1 The Egertons’ Commitments at Provincial Music Festivals, c. 1780-1830 ................................................................................................................................................................166 3.1.2 Thomas Dyke Acland and Paternalism ................................................................. 174 3.1.3 Wilbraham and Thomas: Fathers of the Family and Local Residents .... 178 3.1.4 Paternal Landowners..................................................................................................... 179 3.2 Male Sociability and Friendship ........................................................................................ 180 3.2.1 Thomas’s Boys’ Clubs .................................................................................................... 188 iv 3.2.2 Wilbraham’s Clubs .......................................................................................................... 199 3.2.3 Music at