‘Musick’ in Manchester 1744/45, Prof. Dr. Pauline Nobes

The survival of British concert programmes from the first half of the eighteenth century is rare. For Manchester, the records of the subscription series of sixteen concerts are unique.  

The concert programmes representing the first-ever public subscription concert series known to have been given in Manchester, have been until now almost entirely overlooked. Representing an important part of cultural heritage, they prefigure the remarkable musical tradition that was to accompany Manchester’s development into one of the leading industrial cities of Europe. 

The source of research was my chance finding of a centenary review written by John Harland for The Manchester Guardian (1844). It was published in 1867 by the Chetham Society and can be found on the open shelves in Manchester’s Central Library. 

The review contains a complete and scholarly transcription of a small account book dated 1st November 1744. Although the original is now lost, Harland describes his excitement at being ‘favoured with’ seeing this ‘curious MS book’. His uniquely detailed literary transcript reveals not only a detailed listing of the complete concert programmes, but also the names of the subscribers, the wardens, the musicians, helpers and others, payments made, music purchased and services such as the tuning of ‘ye harpsichord’, shedding light on the social and cultural milieu of Manchester at a crucial and sensitive time, the second Jacobite Rebellion. The subscription list includes many known Jacobite sympathisers, stemming from the principal, elite families of the town and surrounding area.  

Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) is thought by some to have been the ‘Mr. Anonymous’ included in the list of subscribers for the first quarter of the series. The following unsettled times, are the likely explaination for the halving of the nearly 200 subscriptions in the third quarter and the cessation of concerts after August 20th 1745. Some Jacobite subscribers, Officers of the Manchester Regiment, were sent for trial to London and executed. The heads of three were returned to Manchester, displayed on top of the Old Exchange. The Old Exchange now destroyed, was a centre for meetings and entertainments located near St. Ann’s Church may well have been the venue for the original concerts. 

Although sketchy at times with some, the transcript enables most of the compositions to be clearly identified, particularly those by well-known early eighteenth-century composers such as Handel and the Italians Corelli, Geminiani and Vivaldi. English composers include Humphries, Hayden, Howard and Felton. The latter, being featured tonight, is well-known for his Mancunian links. The gaps left by some cryptic descriptions such as ‘song’ or ‘lesson’ are filled in by identifying appropriate compositions amongst the works likely to have been available to the Music Society before 1744/45. The reconstructions draw on music known to have been purchased by the eighteenth-century Manchester concert society as well as pieces frequently performed, published or existing in manuscript at that time, some of which are co-incidentally held today in local archive treasures in Manchester, including the collection of Sir Newman Flower held in The Henry Watson Music Library. 

The historical format of these original programmes is typically varied in its musical genres and instrumentation, containing a mix of overtures, solo sonatas, concertos, cantatas and ‘songs’. Through the lists of disbursements, original performers are identified. ‘Mr. Wainwright’, ‘Mr Richardson’, ‘Mr. Whiteman’, played harpsichord, flute and violin. In addition, based on the repertory ‘Mr. Steemson and wife’, surprisingly paid equally (£1. 1s each), were probably the lead violinist, (named in each of the six fully documented concerts of the first quarter unlike Mr. Whiteman) and from the vocal range required in the named compositions, Mrs Steemson would have been a soprano. Of the Wainwright family, John Wainwright is reported to have been the most prominent musical figure, as both performer and composer (his most famous legacy being Christians Awake): he also became organist at Manchester Cathedral some years later, successor to Mr Betts. (Mr. Betts is listed in the 3rd concert, together with Mr. Wainwright, but earning 10s 6d., 3s more than Mr. Wainwright). 

The programme for tonight’s concert is the sixth of the sixteen reconstructions performed by Manchester Baroque. These performances started six years ago with the 275th celebration of the very first concert dated from November 2nd 1744. 

In John Harland’s centenary review of the concerts, the fickleness of contemporary taste and favour is highlighted:  

“If we take away the illustrious Germans, Handel and Hasse, and the Italian Corelli, what is known of the rest? Of Geminiani we have a sort of dim remembrance, partly from finding him named in old novels and tales of the period’ but who were Tessarini, Vivaldi, Lusinga, or Alberti? Who our own countrymen, Felton and Humphreys?”  

Tonight’s concert programme dated May 14th 1745 features not only music by the “illustrious Germans, Handel and Hasse”, “the Italian Corelli”, but also two of “our own Countrymen” John Humphreys and William Felton. 

John Humphries (ca. 1707–ca.1733) 

There are two different spellings for the English composer John Humphries. In all five occurrences in the ‘Musick’ in Manchester transcript of records it is written as Mr. Humphreys. The musical output is now thought to be consistent regardless of the spelling (or use of initials J. S) and thus one and the same composer (in contradiction to the opinions of John Hawkins (General History of Music, 1776).  

In his short life Humphries composed 6 sonatas for solo violin and basso continuo, 12 trio sonatas and 24 Concerti Grossi. Humphries was known to have been a violinist and his use of Italian style in the solo sonatas, with both fugal and virtuosic passages, is reminiscent of the writing in Corelli’s Op. 5, whereas the trio sonata featured this evening is in keeping with the earlier style of Corelli’s Op. 1.   

William Felton (1713–1769)  

The English composer, Rev. William Felton, is reported to have attended Manchester’s Grammar school before studying at Cambridge. He received his M.A. in the same year his music was listed in two ‘Musick’ in Manchester programmes - May 14th 1745 ‘first organ Concerto of Felton’, July 23rd 1745 ‘MS concerto of Felton’. 

Felton was a composer and organist/harpsichordist. His music was well published and popular throughout eighteenth-century England. A later reprint of his Opus 1 is held at the Henry Watson Music Library in Manchester and contains a list-up of more than 100 subscribers. The names included are impressive, including six composers still well-known today - Mr. Avison, Mr William Boyce, George Frederick Handel, Mr Nichola Matteis, Master of Musick, Dr Pepusch and Mr John Stanley as well as several notable names from eighteenth-century Manchester’s high society, known supporters of the Jacobite cause who were additionally subscribers to the Manchester 1744/45 concerts - ‘The Rev. Mr. Clayton’, ‘Mr. Thomas Theodorus Deacon’, ‘Mr Thomas Dickanson, in Manchester’. ‘Felton’s Air’ or ‘Felton’s Gavot’ was played as the Jacobite ‘rebels’ retreated from Manchester in 1745. The Gavotte in question is the theme for a set of variations in the final movement of Felton’s 3rd Concerto of Op 1 (a version of the tune is still used in the Morris Dance tradition, for the dance called Ring O' Bells). 

Michele Mascitti (c.1664 – c.1760) 

Although un-named in the ‘Musick’ in Manchester programmes, the violin solos of Michele Mascitti were well-known in eighteenth-century England and serve well as optional fillers for the works with the minimalistic descriptions ‘violin solo’.  

Mascitti travelled from his Italian home, through Germany and Netherlands to finally settle in Paris where he was highly esteemed. His 116 works, exclusively for strings, include predominantly violin solos but also 12 trio sonatas and 4 concertos. In addition to the Parisian printed editions of Mascitti’s music, there are numerous later reprints, and his Op. 3 violin sonatas (1707) were published in England almost quarter of a century later. In addition, and by delightful coincidence, several of these Op. 3 sonatas including tonight’s sonata, were found in the same manuscript as a keyboard arrangement of ‘Musick’ in Manchester’s only ‘named’ Cantata, ‘On the Coast of Argos’ (now known to be composed by another of our country men George Hayden and held at the Henry Watson Music Library in Manchester’s Central library). 

© Prof. Dr. Pauline Nobes, Artistic Director