NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

CHAPTER SIX
THE HARMONIC SOCIETY
In the second half of the 18 th Century there was a shift in cultural authority
away from the church and monarchy to the state and private associations. The
reasons for this sea change lay partly in the fact that the funds for church music
schools fell into decline and the growth of cities and the rise of Parliamentary
Government brought about new kinds of leadership that reshaped musical life in
general. There were also changes in the way music was being perceived, less as
an accompaniment to more pleasurable activities and more as a science in its
own right. The rapid growth of industrial towns such Newcastle in the 19 th
Century led to their attempts at emulating London’s amenities in the arts and not
least in music. Initially town halls, especially those with an organ began serving
as concert halls. This period also saw the rise of all manner of amateur musical
establishments, often led by local professionals, ranging from Harmonic and
Choral societies to dance schools, musical academies and schools of music.
This belated recognition of the importance of music within society could not be
ignored by those outside musical circles and as early as June 1798 permission
was given to the Music Society in Newcastle to use the rooms of the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Newcastle, once a fortnight, for private concerts. The Lit
and Phil, as it is affectionately known, was founded in 1793 as a forum for the
exercise of intellectual thought aimed primarily at improving society as a whole,
with only Religion, the practical branch of Law, Physics and Politics, being
deemed prohibited subjects of conversation within its rooms. In the following
century it hosted lectures on the Science of Music as well as allowing piano
recitals and talks on all manner of musical subjects from the Northumbrian pipes
to Wagner’s operas. The subsequent flowering of musical life in Newcastle
during the 19 th Century is fascinating and revealing and justifies a book in itself
but we shall have to content ourselves with only the briefest summary of this
period.
Charles Avison is credited with introducing the first public concerts given in
the town, and these coincided with the setting-up of the Newcastle Music Society
around 1737. Regardless of which came first Avison’s public concerts were
among the first of their kind in any provincial town and the Newcastle Music
Society was one of the first of its kind in the country. It was well ahead of its time
and put Newcastle on a par with London. The idea of the subscription concert,
enabling the organisers to assess the size of the audiences for accommodation
purposes, and settle matters of finance before the concerts took place, proved
very popular with promoters in those early days. From 1800 onwards there
seems to have been a proliferation of self sponsored concerts bearing the name
of the promoter/performer in the title; the Volunteer Band Concerts, Cliffords’
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