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A rounded portrait of the Royal College of Music, investigating its educational and cultural impact on music and musical life.
List of contents
Introduction - beginnings and contexts, the themes of a history; Part I. Building and Consolidating (1883-1914): 1. The founding directors - George Grove and Hubert Parry; 2. The students; 3. Establishing the musical and educational ethos - concerts and curriculum; 4. The buildings and finances; Coda - the First World War; Part II. Renewal and conventionality (1919-60): 5. Hugh Allen's RCM and musical life between the wars, 1919-1937; 6. The years of austerity - George Dyson and Ernest Bullock, 1938-1960; Part III. Changing Musical Cultures (1960-1984): 7. Keith Falkner and rebuilding institutional confidence, 1960-1974; 8. Crossing the RCM century - David Willcocks, 1974-84; Part IV. Into its Second Century, 1984-2018: 9. A changed state of rivalry - the RAM, the 'centre of excellence' and the Gowrie review, 1982-92; 10. The new realities of accounting and assuring - securing the RCM's public funding in the 1990s; 11. Reimagining for the future; Epilogue - a prosopography.
About the author
David C. H. Wright became Reader in the Social History of Music at the Royal College of Music, London after a professional life spent in both music college and university environments. His writings range from the culture and economics of Victorian music publishing to the Prom seasons of William Glock and Robert Ponsonby in The Proms: A New History (2007). In 2013, he published a social and cultural history of the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music.
Summary
An insightful account of a fascinating musical environment by an historian with experience of music colleges and universities. Investigates the standpoints of British conservatoire music education, its musical culture (and its conflicts) and the funding that paid (very poorly) for it. For readers interested in society, culture and music.
