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Letting off Steam

Railways and Musical Life in Nineteenth Century Britain

Introduction

The initial development of the world's civilizations has always depended on the ease of communication between one group of men and another. In Ancient Egypt, for instance, the Nile provided not only the irritation necessary for the successful cultivation of crops but also a reasonably satisfactory means of communication between the many towns and settlements built on the banks of the river. As time passed, however, the countries whose civilization depended on transport by water to be invaded by hordes of barbarians who possessed a faster means of communication: the horse.

For 2,500 years the ran on horseback remained both the symbol of power and of civilization. But the horse also limited the progress of civilization since it was an animal, incapable of sustained speed over a long period of time, possessing in average speed of only 12 miles per hour. The Industrial Revolution in Britain saw the widespread use of the stationary steam engine to pump water out of mines and to haul wagons up inclined planes. The railway had been in existence in some form since the early seventeenth century. It was not long before the two were put together and in 1804 Richard Trevithick produced a steam engine which was powerful enough to push itself along on wheels: the "Iron Horse", had been invented.

Before the railways came

Before the coming of the railways, travel of any sort was expensive and slow. To the performing musician, for whom fast travel has always been a necessity, this presented problems which appeared insurmountable. Britain's roads were in an appalling, condition, so it was difficult for any wheeled vehicle to progress along them at any reasonable speed.

The virtuosi of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as Paganini, favoured the post-chaise which was a light, fast carriage. Unless they were rich enough to possess their own (in which case they would still have had to hire horses every ten miles or so), post-chaises proved expensive - a journey from London to Manchester costing £10 - £15 and taking three or four days, depending on the season. (For comparison, a farm labourer earned on average £10 per annum).

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, singers in particular were finding that they had to spend a good deal of their time touring in the provinces. By the 1790's all-night travelling had become an occupational hazard: a Miss Leake sang a role in My Grandmother at Drury Lane, and on the following night had one in The Children in the Wood in Birmingham. Performing musicians, at least, were in need of a much faster, cheaper and reliable means of transport.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain

The Industrial Revolution was of far greater social than economic significance. It created new communities on a vastly larger scale than the towns and villages of pre-industrial society. In many of the larger towns and cities, such as Doncaster, Sheffield and Chester, musical societies had been formed towards the end of the eighteenth century.

With the growth, particularly in the north of England, of a large working class, it was only natural that they too should show great interest in practical music-making. The most popular manifestation of this was the choral society, often a development of non-conformist chapel choirs, which performed the oratorios of Handel, Haydn and others. People from many different walks of life combined together to furnish their communities with the best music that lay within their capacity.

Picked singers were often asked to sing in the larger regional festivals of such towns as Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and those of the Three Choirs. Before the coming of the railways, transport to and from these festivals always proved a problem, as can be seen from this report by William Willington of the Newcastle Festival of 1824:

Mr James Cordwell ... and several other Lancashire chorus singers, were engaged to sing at the festival ...; Mrs Shepley and some other female singers were engaged to sing there. There were no railways then, only one stagecoach, and all the seats in this were occupied. They started about six o'clock on Sunday night. These veterans said there was nothing for it but walking, consequently they set off and walked all Sunday night and got well into Yorkshire by light on Monday morning. To make matters worse it rained most of the night. They called at a roadside inn, got breakfast, a good rest, and got straight to St. Nicholas Church, and found the principals, band and chorus, rehearsing "Israel in Egypt". The chorus was rather unsteady the rehearsal went on afterwards to the conductor's entire satisfaction.

Fifteen years later they could have made the journey in around two hours and for the cost, per person, of the breakfast they ate.

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