NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

CHAPTER NINE
THE MUSICALTHEATRES
Before exploring the musical aspect of Newcastle’s theatres let us pause again
to consider what sort of town Newcastle had become by the 19 th century. It was
the dawning of the Industrial age and outstanding personalities such as George
and Robert Stephenson, William Armstrong and the Hawthorn brothers amongst
others were making their mark. John Dobson and Richard Grainger a new breed
of architect and builder were transforming Newcastle from a town of half timbered
and brick construction into a modern city of classic proportions that would rank
with the most handsome cities in Europe. Industry was flourishing and between
1800 and 1850 the population of the town doubled – within a century from 1793
the population of Northumberland and Durham expanded from 300,000 to
1,800,000. The principal cause of this was the growth of industries such as
mining, shipbuilding and other engineering occupations. This hurricane pace of
growth created evil living conditions far beyond the capacity the public authorities
or private enterprise or the workers themselves could handle. The conditions in
which the majority lived were unimaginatively sordid. At the other end of the
social scale were the industrialists and the commercial classes who by reason of
their wealth and their control of economic life came to dominate local society and
culture. They wanted to be seen to extend their creations to the poorer classes
but it too often came across as patronising and moralizing and their attempts to
promote art and classical, or high class, music under their terms largely failed.
Another factor was the growing perception by the general public of classical
music being not so much enjoyable and entertaining as the preserve of
longhaired eccentrics. The well-known image of the maestro of this period with
his wild hair and unpronounceable foreign name did little to dispel this view. The
idea that ‘serious’ music was something to be listened to in wrapped silence and
then analysed and discussed in the most knowledgeable terms was not for
uneducated man. Later still in the Victorian era the nature of many of the choral
compositions with their ponderous music, semi-religious overtones and heavy
moral messages seemed to be in opposition to the often irreverent and bawdy
songs of local music halls, which were so popular with the larger body of ordinary
folk. It was thought by the ‘enlightened’ members of society that music of the
‘right’ kind had a certain moral value and even outside church it could be a
means of inspiring the workers towards virtuous and productive lives. But this
only served to widen the gap. In spite of all this the 19 th century saw a growing
appetite for music amongst the public in general and in the early part of the
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