Bernarr Rainbow 
Music in Independent Schools 

The first serious study of music in independent schools, which bears eloquent witness to a high standard achieved over the last fifty years.


This is the first serious study of music in independent schools. The high standard of musical work in such schools has long been known but now Andrew Morris and his team have provided up-to-date information. There are contributions from seven individual schools – Bedford, Dulwich, Eton, Gresham’s, St. Paul’s, Uppingham and Worksop – as well as chapters about Girls’ Schools, Preparatory Schools, Choir Schools and Specialist Schools.

Andrew Morris was Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years and was President of the Music Masters and Mistresses Association in 1996-97. He is thus ideally placed to mastermind a substantial compendium which is eminently readable andabsorbing.

The book includes material from Bernarr Rainbow’s study,
Music in the English Public School (1990) and brings it up to date. As a historian, Rainbow looked back at how music developed in independent schools. Progress was slow, even tortuous, but Rainbow’s fascinating documents, supported by his commentary, show how idealism won through, and Morris and his colleagues bear eloquent witness to the very positive development over the last fifty years.


ANDREW MORRIS taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years. He was President of the Music Masters’ and Mistresses’ Association from 1996-97 and President of the RAM Club at the Royal Academy of Music 2005-06. He has examined for the ABRSM for over thirty years.

BERNARR RAINBOW (1914-1998) is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education. His seminal books are all published by Boydell and are listed on the back pages of this volume. His series of Classic Texts in Music Education is a major resource and in 1997 he foundedthe Bernarr Rainbow Trust which supports projects in music education.


CONTRIBUTORS: Catherine Beddison, Elizabeth Blackford, Timothy Daniell, Richard Mayo, James Peschek, Alastair Sampson, Graham Smallbone, Jonathan Varcoe, Myfanwy Walters, Nathan Waring, Robert Weaver, Hilary Webster.

Table of Content

General Editor’s Foreword

Editor’s Introduction

Music and the English Public School: Early History

Visits to Various Public Schools in the Late Nineteenth Century: Sherbourne, Uppingham, Harrow, Rugby, Clifton, Wellington, Eton, Winchester

Music in our Public Schools (1894)

The Topic Debated in
Music & Letters: Answers to a Questionnaire Distributed by Editor A. H. Fox Strangeways (1922)

The Oundle Phenomenon: Performances of
Messiah and the
B Minor Mass by the School (1922-3)

The Jubilee of the MMA (1952)

Public Schools and their Music (1927)

Boys and Music: Wellington, Harrow, Dulwich, Cheltenham, Marlborough (1936)

Bedford

Dulwich

Eton

Gresham’s

St Paul’s

Uppingham

Worksop

Girls’ Schools

The Earliest Years: The Work of Sam Dixon at Brighton College

Preparatory Schools

Choir Schools

Specialist Schools

The Independent Schools Curriculum Committee

The Work of the Music Masters’ and Mistresses’ Association