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Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
from
PART I
-
Studies from Music and the English Public School (1990)
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
The series of articles contributed anonymously by John Graham to the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter and its successor, the Musical Herald, between 1888 and 1892 provide the eye-witness accounts incorporated in this chapter. The first school to be visited was Sherborne. [BR]
Sherborne in 1888
Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, August 1888, pp. 466–8
It is often taken for granted that, while elementary schools give music a fair share of attention, the art is neglected to a large extent in the curriculum of the great public schools of the country. The idea has got abroad that there is a lack of musical interest among high-school boys. Mr Joseph Barnby said recently that about ninety per cent of the boys at Eton College had no musical ear. This is not as it should be. It will be well to enquire the reason for this state of things. If the children of the poor can learn to sing so generally and so readily, it is evident that the youth of England have a latent talent for music, and the grand old doctrine, that singing is a universal privilege, must be preached until there is a great awakening among the schools of the upper classes. But before assuming that these schools are in a state of musical heathendom, it should be known what is their actual condition. Possibly they have some sort of music, and at least the experiences of the professors at these institutions deserve consideration.
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
from
PART I
-
Studies from Music and the English Public School (1990)
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
As with other enterprises, developments in public school music were abruptly halted by the declaration of war in 1914. For the next four years the shock of World War was felt in every sphere of national life. Two further years were then occupied by the slow process of demobilisation. A new spirit now made itself felt and it is no coincidence that this sense of invigoration was also found in the educational field, or that attempts were now made to establish music on a less tentative footing in public schools. What had already been achieved in some schools – and then placed in jeopardy by wartime decimation – proved to have been the disparate achievement of a handful of enthusiasts, each improvising as best he could to suit the needs of a particular situation. Attempts were now made to review individual aims and devise a less random approach.
An early manifestation of this activity occurred in a symposium on ‘Music in Public Schools’ published in Music & Letters in 1922–3. The paper's editor, A. H. Fox Strangways, was particularly well placed to initiate the event. After graduating at Oxford in 1882, then studying music at the Berlin Hochschule, he had taught modern languages in two public schools before succeeding Alan Gray as director of music at Wellington in 1893. Although he later gave up teaching for musicology and musical criticism, Fox Strangways' knowledge and experience of working conditions in public schools equipped him notably to lead an investigation of musical conditions there.
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Sir George Dyson's final sentence in his 1952 retrospective contribution to the 50th Jubilee Meeting of the Music Masters' Association (reproduced above, pp. 104–8), suggested that, ‘If in the next fifty years we can maintain the progress of the past two generations, the future of our music will be more than secure, it will be one of the highlights of our civilisation.’ He would surely have been delighted by the transformation of musical opportunities and standards in what are now known as Independent Schools, and amazed by the exceptional quality of the independent specialist music schools that emerged over the following thirty years or so.
In a Prefatory Note to Music and the English Public School, Bernarr Rainbow emphasised that the book had ‘been designed to allow contemporary writers to present their own accounts of salient features’. In writing a chapter about the specialist music schools, I have accepted this approach gladly. It would need individual school histories to do justice to the extraordinary stories and idealism that have created these centres of excellence, and each school has abundant information about its history and purpose available on its website. What follows makes no attempt to provide detailed consideration of each of these truly remarkable and successful schools, but represents my own experience and perceptions, albeit greatly enhanced by the colleagues and supporters with whom it has been my good fortune to come into contact during twenty-two years as a governor of two of the schools concerned.
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education
This is the first serious study of music in independent schools. The high standard of musical work in such schools has long been known but now Andrew Morris and his team have provided up-to-date details. There are contributions from seven individual schools - Bedford, Dulwich, Eton, Gresham's, St. Paul's, Uppingham and Worksop - as well as chapters about Girls' Schools, Preparatory Schools, Choir Schools and Specialist Schools. Andrew Morris was Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years and was President of the Music Masters and Mistresses Association in 1996-97. He is thus ideally placed to mastermind a substantial compendium of information which is eminently readable and absorbing. The book includes material from Bernarr Rainbow's study, Music in the English Public School (1990) and brings it up to date. As a historian, Rainbow looked back at how music developed in independent schools. Progress was slow, even tortuous, but Rainbow's fascinating documents, supported by his commentary, show how idealism won through and Morris and his colleagues bear eloquent witness to the very positive development over the last fifty years. ANDREW MORRIS taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years. He was President of the Music Masters' and Mistresses' Association from 1996-97 and President of the RAM Club at the Royal Academy of Music 2005-06. He has examined for the ABRSM for over thirty years. DR BERNARR RAINBOW is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education. CONTRIBUTORS: Catherine Beddison, Elizabeth Blackford, Timothy Daniell, Richard Mayo, James Peschek, Alastair Sampson, Graham Smallbone, Jonathan Varcoe, Myfanwy Walters, Nathan Waring, Robert Weaver, Hilary Webster.
Edited by
Andrew Morris, Taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years,Bernarr Rainbow, Widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education