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The first extended account of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, better known as ABRSM, has influenced the musical lives and tastes of millions of people since it conducted its first exams in 1890. This ground-breaking history explores how ABRSM became such a formative influence and looks at some of the consequences resulting from its pre-eminent position in British musical life. Particular emphasis is given to how free ABRSM has been to impose its musical view of things and to what extent its exams respond to the circumstances and musical preferences of its customers. The book’s exploration of how ABRSM has negotiated music’s changing social, educational and cultural landscape casts fresh light on the challenges facing music education today.
David Wright’s comprehensive history of the Board from its origins in 1889 to the present day represents a significant and original investigation. Not only is it the first extended account of ABRSM, but it sets the institution and its work firmly within its historical and cultural context. ABRSM’s exams were exported all across the Empire, and this study shows how both exams and examiners made a telling cultural contribution to the idea of the ‘British World’. It relates the exams to changing historical perceptions about musical education as well as to attitudes about the value of music as a social and recreational activity. By demonstrating the impact of the Board’s commercial success in dominating the grade exam market, the book shows how this has had significant consequences for the organization of British musical training and for the formation andsustaining of a particular sort of British musical culture.
Before his retirement, David Wright was Reader in the Social History of Music at the Royal College of Music, London.
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, better known as ABRSM, has influenced the musical lives and tastes of millions of people since it conducted its first exams in 1890. This ground-breaking history explores how ABRSM became such a formative influence and looks at some of the consequences resulting from its pre-eminent position in British musical life. Particular emphasis is given to how free ABRSM has been to impose its musical view of things and to what extent its exams respond to the circumstances and musical preferences of its customers. The book’s exploration of how ABRSM has negotiated music’s changing social, educational and cultural landscape casts fresh light on the challenges facing music education today.
David Wright’s comprehensive history of the Board from its origins in 1889 to the present day represents a significant and original investigation. Not only is it the first extended account of ABRSM, but it sets the institution and its work firmly within its historical and cultural context. ABRSM’s exams were exported all across the Empire, and this study shows how both exams and examiners made a telling cultural contribution to the idea of the ‘British World’. It relates the exams to changing historical perceptions about musical education as well as to attitudes about the value of music as a social and recreational activity. By demonstrating the impact of the Board’s commercial success in dominating the grade exam market, the book shows how this has had significant consequences for the organization of British musical training and for the formation andsustaining of a particular sort of British musical culture.
Before his retirement, David Wright was Reader in the Social History of Music at the Royal College of Music, London.
€32.99
Table of Content
Introduction: the Context for a HistoryMusic Exams and Victorian Society
Competing for Candidates: TCL, ABRSM and the Society of Arts
The ABRSM Idea and the First Exams, 1889-91
The Early History, 1892-1920
The ABRSM and the ‘British World’
The Inter-War Years
The ABRSM in Wartime
The Post-War ABRSM
Too Much Success: the 1960s and 1970s
The Reconstitution: 1983-5
Reconnecting with its Market: the Smith Years, 1983-1992
Redefining its Role: the Morris Years, 1993-2009
Appendix I: Speech and Drama Exams
Appendix II: ABRSM Personalia, 1889-2009
Language English ● Format PDF ● Pages 288 ● ISBN 9781782040156 ● File size 5.0 MB ● Publisher Boydell & Brewer ● City Woodbridge ● Country GB ● Published 2013 ● Downloadable 24 months ● Currency EUR ● ID 6946025 ● Copy protection Adobe DRM
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