(b Norwich, 13 Nov 1786; d Malvern, 20 Oct 1867). English teacher. Daughter of the incumbent of St Laurence’s, Norwich, as a young woman Glover attained local celebrity for the excellence of the children’s choir which she trained for her father’s church; and in 1835, in response to frequent requests, she published an account of her method with the title Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational (London and Norwich, 1835, 2/1850/R). Her system, evolved during 20 years of teaching in local schools, was based on a new notation of sol-fa initials with doh always the major tonic. To avoid the duplication of initials existing between sol and si, she renamed the 7th degree te, allowing the capital letters D, R, M, F, S, L, T to represent the rising major scale. Pulse and rhythm were indicated by equally spaced barlines with subsidiary beats separated by equidistant punctuation marks. In her own teaching, instead of drilling beginners to memorize facts and symbols, Glover set them singing straight away, deducing theory from practice as experience grew. After learning to pitch intervals from her ‘Norwich Sol-fa Ladder’ (a primitive modulator) her pupils went on to sing canonic exercises and a selection of songs and hymn tunes arranged for soprano and contralto and printed in her sol-fa notation. Only when they could sing competently from sol-fa was staff notation introduced. In later life, John Curwen was anxious to acknowledge the debt which tonic sol-fa owed to Glover – perhaps partly because he had published his first amended version of her system in 1841 without securing her approval.
For illustration see Norwich sol-fa ladder.
J. Curwen: The Art of Teaching, and the Teaching of Music: being the Teacher's Manual of the Tonic Sol-Fa Method (London, 1875/R1986 as The Teacher's Manual of the Tonic Sol-Fa Method)
L. Brown: ‘Reminiscences of Miss Glover’, The Tonic Sol-Fa Jubilee: a Popular Record and Handbook, ed. J. Curwen and J. Graham (London, 1891)
B. Rainbow: The Land without Music: Musical Education in England, 1800–1860, and its Continental Antecedents (London, 1967)
B. Rainbow: ‘The Glass Harmonicon Rediscovered’, Music in Education, xxxviii (1974), 18
P. Bennett: ‘Sarah Glover: a Forgotten Pioneer in Music Education’, Journal of Research in Music Education, xxxii (1984), 49–65
BERNARR RAINBOW