NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

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standards in his writing and had exercised some influence over his local contemporaries. In addition he had sought to educate his audiences through his subscription concerts and not simply entertain them by pandering to popular public taste. For ninety years following the death of Charles Avison no other musician had any effect on the musical life of the town until a very talented professional musician from London took up an appointment as Council Organist and revitalized the town’s flagging musical life. His name was William Rea. 40
CHAPTER SEVEN DR WILLIAM REA I had not heard of William Rea before I began researching Newcastle’s musical history and, I am sad to say, nor had anyone else I spoke to in Newcastle. All my inquiries met with a complete blank, it were as though he had never existed. Yet it would be no exaggeration to say that after Avison he did more to promote a higher musical culture in Newcastle than anyone else did. As I thumbed my way through collections of old programmes his name kept reappearing. It seemed at various times he fulfilled the role of council and church organist, pianist, conductor, choir master, arranger, organizer, lecturer and many other things besides. The man’s energy astounded me and very soon I found Dr Rea demanding my full attention. Unlike Avison, Rea was not a native Tynesider and I very soon found myself puzzling again over what made this man with such musical potential decide to bury himself in an organist’s post in England’s most northerly outpost I don’t profess to know the answer even now and may never know but I can say that the town’s musical history would have been the poorer without him. In the same way as Charles Avison had done he did much to promote Newcastle as one of the leading provincial music centres in the country and much more than Avison he worked hard at bringing music of a high standard to the ordinary people of the town. William Rea was born in London on 25 th March 1827. From being young he showed a remarkable aptitude for music and at an early age was placed under Mr Joseph Pitman, an eminent musician, who invented the pedal organ and introduced Bach’s fugues into England. Rea made such rapid progress that before he was in his teens he was acting as deputy to his master, who held the appointment of organist at Spitalfields. In his eagerness to study harmony under Schnyder von Wartensee, Rea took himself to the Continent. At sixteen years of age he was studying piano, composition and instrumentation under Sterndale Bennett (1816-75) and by 1843 had secured an appointment as organist at Christ Church, Watney Street. Two year later he appeared as soloist in a piano concerto at a concert sponsored by the Society for British Musicians, formed in 1834 with the objective of advancing native talent in composition and performance. Shortly after, he was appointed organist at St Andrews Undershaft but soon vacated the post to go abroad again. In 1849 he went to Leipzig, where he studied under Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), a brilliant pianist and head of the Piano Department at the Conservatory, and also under Ernst Friedrich Eduard 41
Page 1 and 2: NEWCASTLE’S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN I
Page 3 and 4: A History of Music in Newcastle upo
Page 5 and 6: my project with a professional man,
Page 7 and 8: then even in the villages for music
Page 9 and 10: CHAPTER TWO CHARLES AVISON Charles
Page 11 and 12: given in Newcastle. They were held
Page 13 and 14: easoned defences and the citation o
Page 15 and 16: that he is saddened at the transito
Page 17 and 18: men sought Royal Patronage, popular
Page 19 and 20: Avison and began playing the violin
Page 21 and 22: musical dramatist, his arias are st
Page 23 and 24: features, Hawdon’s compositions i
Page 25 and 26: two music academies listed in the D
Page 27 and 28: An ootlandish chap seun appeared on
Page 29 and 30: CHAPTER FIVE THE GRAND MUSIC FESTIV
Page 31 and 32: to Handel Oratorios and I suspect t
Page 33 and 34: CHAPTER SIX THE HARMONIC SOCIETY In
Page 35 and 36: would also have been audience parti
Page 37 and 38: 1826. According to Mackenzie’s 18
Page 39: successful, such as (once again!) H
Page 43 and 44: exclusive civilised affairs, with t
Page 45 and 46: although I can find no evidence tha
Page 47 and 48: In a cemetery now largely overgrown
Page 49 and 50: direction. That is until 1888 when
Page 51 and 52: acceptable standards and he got out
Page 53 and 54: century at least the divide between
Page 55 and 56: the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind
Page 57 and 58: Musical Comedy as we came to know i
Page 59 and 60: In 1887 Augustus Harris took over t
Page 61 and 62: eat, drink or smoke whilst the ente
Page 63 and 64: disposal a substantial orchestra un
Page 65 and 66: only the finest artists. The printe
Page 67 and 68: Cesar Franck. One novel feature int
Page 69 and 70: especially for these bands and they
Page 71 and 72: playing, coupled with the means of
Page 73 and 74: that continued until 1914. One of t
Page 75 and 76: thought of performing with a bunch
Page 77 and 78: She danced a full programme of well
Page 79 and 80: The appearance in Newcastle of Enri
Page 81 and 82: Renaissance. His teaching staff wer
Page 83 and 84: Music at 125 Northumberland Street,
Page 85 and 86: There is surely no need to insist -
Page 87 and 88: alone limited attendance at these c
Page 89 and 90: 1936: 17 th June. There had been a
Page 91 and 92:
CHAPTER FOURTEEN END OF A GOLDEN AG
Page 93 and 94:
the fact that the town did not have
Page 95 and 96:
iography, Hess’ biographer, who c
Page 97 and 98:
CHAPTER FIFTEEN CULTURE AT A PRICE
Page 99 and 100:
London Symphony and the Halle Orche
Page 101 and 102:
high at this period and the audienc
Page 103 and 104:
audience (who had already paid for
Page 105 and 106:
deterioration into a musical backwa
Page 107 and 108:
work cut out convincing the local c
Page 109 and 110:
country. Amers died in 1936 and God
Page 111 and 112:
Author’s Note Since completing th
Page 113 and 114:
Select Bibliography Anderton, H.O.,
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