Wish I had been there...

So the only person to blame is themselves. According to the Temperley article an unfortunate series of socially motivated occurrences basically added to the attitude of Victorians having to musical abilities. I thought that it was particularly interesting that the attitude that we now have about the era was born at that time. It makes a lot of sense that if a group of people are not interested in what a country is producing musically why would there be a sudden appreciation and interest in what they had accomplished over a hundred years later. He brought up the idea of the musical genius of the time being Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Verdi. Therefore when there was a movement in musicology to study the artistic aspects of musical history they were drawn to these genius giants of the 19th century thus glossing over the other composers of the era. He makes the argument that at this time England felt as though it was on top of the world. The country then didn’t have the nationalism needed for political gain to drive the musical choices and the genre. Again the excitement of the exotic is echoes in the choices of music that is acceptable in society. The Victorian upper class was once again drawn to the exotic of the foreign land and it was much more accepted for foreigners to be pursuing a musical career than in England. For men he points out that a musical career would make someone effeminate where as for women we see the amateur musician being the encouraged artist. The girl at the parlor piano who is practicing her way to a successful marriage. I loved his concluding thoughts about Victorian music being the “lost chord.” “The chord was heard only faintly by the Victorians themselves, being drowned out by sounds coming across the Channel.” (pg. 21) I think that this is such a great way to put it. How then can we find new life in this music that seems to be lacking because of the lack of interest in it? Or will the British always be too good for Victorian music and the sound of the late 19th century.