Robin Darwall-Smith & Susan Wollenberg 
Music in Twentieth-Century Oxford: New Directions 

The first book-length study of musical education and culture in twentieth-century Oxford.


Music has always played a central role in the life of Oxford, in both the city and university, through the great collegiate choral foundations, the many amateur choirs and instrumentalists, and the professional musicians regularly drawn to perform there. Oxford, with its collegiate system and centuries-long tradition of musical activity, presents a distinctive and multi-layered picture of the role of music in urban culture and university life.


The chapters in this book shed light on music’s unique ability to link ‘town and gown’, as shown by the Oxford Bach Choir, the city’s many churches, and the major choral foundations. The twentieth century saw the emergence of new musical initiatives and the book traces the development of these, including the University’s Faculty of Music and the University Opera Club. Further, it explores music in the newly-founded women’s colleges, contrasted with the musical society formed in 1930 at University College, an ancient men’s college. The work of Oxford composers, including George Butterworth, Nicola Lefanu, Edmund Rubbra, and William Walton, as well as the composer for several ‘Carry on’ films, Bruce Montgomery, is surveyed. Two remarkable figures, Sir Hugh Allen and Sir Jack Westrup, recur throughout the book in a variety of contexts.


The volume is indispensable reading for scholars and students of musical life in twentieth-century Britain, as well as those interested generally in the history of Oxford’s thriving cultural life.

Table of Content

Foreword –
Eric Clarke


1. Setting the Scene –
Robin Darwall-Smith and Susan Wollenberg


Part I – Town and Gown

2. Music in the Town –
Robin Darwall-Smith and Susan Wollenberg

3. The Oxford Bach Choir, 1896-1997 –
Robin Darwall-Smith

4. Music in the City Churches –
Peter Ward Jones



Part II – Collegiate Music-Making

5. The Choral Foundations –
Timothy Day

6. Music in the Oxford Women’s Colleges, 1879-1939 –
Susan Wollenberg and Melanie von Goldbeck

7.The Balliol Concerts –
Susan Wollenberg

8. The University College Musical Society, 1930-2000 –
Robin Darwall-Smith


Part III – University Institutions

9. The Oxford University Opera Club –
Susan Wollenberg with an afterword by Michael Burden

10. The Development of the Faculty of Music –
Susan Wollenberg

11. Oxford Composers –
John Caldwell

12. ‘For the purpose of encouraging the practice and knowledge of chamber music’: The Oxford & Cambridge Musical Club, 1899-1940 –
Ian Maxwell


Index

About the author

IAN MAXWELL is an Honorary Research Fellow, Music Department, University of Sheffield.