City in England, in South Yorkshire. Except for the activities of the town waits, there is little to record of music-making in Sheffield before the 18th century. At the parish church of St Peter and St Paul (the cathedral since 1913) a group of instrumentalists accompanied the singing until a modern organ by G.P. England was installed in 1805; in the nonconformist chapels, modest choral services were fairly common. But it was the opening of St Paul’s Church (1740) that made possible oratorio performances on a large scale, especially after the Snetzler organ was constructed (1755). A musical society was in existence by 1758; later, subscription concerts were held in the Assembly Rooms (1762). Before the 19th century, an impetus to musical effort came from the necessity of raising money for charity, and when the Sheffield Infirmary was founded (1797) an ambitious festival was arranged. Sheffield musicians took part in the Yorkshire Choral Concert and other events; by 1800 the nature of Sheffield society was such that there were excellent prospects for professional teachers and performers.
Under the Million Pound Act Sheffield gained four new churches, at one of which, St Philip’s (1828), an elaborate choral tradition developed in the era of the Anglican revival. The town possessed no sizable concert room until the Music Hall was built in 1824; this made commercial concert-giving possible and enabled concert promoters to engage such artists as Thalberg, Jenny Lind, Paganini and Sivori. With the improvement of rail communications, opera companies mounted ‘seasons’ at the Sheffield Theatre (1762) every year and similar productions were put on at the Surrey and Alexandra theatres. The singing-class movement encouraged the formation of choral societies (the Vocal Union, Sacred Harmonic Society etc.); but no permanent orchestra was established until the pianist J.M. Wehli (1832–87) formed the Sheffield Orchestral Union, which survived until Wehli left to tour abroad. There had been several unsuccessful attempts to put on regular choral festivals; it was not until the growth of civic pride after about 1860, however, that prospects improved considerably. The abundant enthusiasm for Tonic Sol-fa in Sheffield was responsible for, among other things, enhancing the career of a great English choral trainer – Henry Coward (1849–1944). Out of the local Tonic Sol-Fa Association (1876) evolved the Sheffield Musical Union, which Coward directed until its dissolution in 1938; this choir undertook several foreign visits, culminating in a world tour (1911). Coward also conducted the first major Sheffield Musical Festival (1895) and acted as chorus master for the triennial series that began in 1896. These important events were conducted by Manns, Weingartner, Henry Wood and others, the carefully selected festival chorus being accompanied by London orchestras in programmes that included a high percentage of commissioned works. Although interrupted by World War I, the festivals were belatedly resumed in 1933 and 1936, by which time the City Hall (1932) had superseded the Albert Hall (1873) and the Victoria Hall (1908) as the main concert centre. In 1937 the Albert Hall (then used as a cinema) burnt down and its fine Cavaillé-Coll organ destroyed.
The period from 1880 to 1920 was the richest in Sheffield’s musical history. Professional concerts were innumerable and on the operatic stage local singers occasionally assisted visiting companies; amateur music-making, as represented by such societies as the Collegiate Orchestral Society, the Choral Union and the Teachers’ Operatic Society, was prodigious, with musicians of all kinds finding scope for remunerative employment. In 1899 Henry Coward formed the Sheffield Professional Orchestra; for some years promenade concerts were given in the Albert Hall under J.A. Rodgers (1866–1920), a gifted pianist, organist and critic. Music contributed to social welfare, with the corporation sponsoring band performances in the parks and ‘Court and Alley Concerts’ in densely populated districts. Church and chapel festivals were frequent and brass bands (of which the most famous was perhaps the Dannemora Band) were well supported by factory managements; other notable events of the time were the competitive festivals. The outbreak of war in 1914 did not seriously jeopardize musical affairs. Fund-raising recitals were popular and choral societies continued to thrive; on a more professional level the ‘Five O’Clock Concerts’, started by Marie and Lily Foxon in 1915, soon became famous. The Foxon sisters enjoyed a high reputation as teachers of singing and the piano respectively; equally successful were their activities on the concert platform.
The interwar years in Sheffield were marked by a decline in the enthusiasm for mass choral performance; some societies held their own, but greater interest was now taken in orchestras and soloists of national repute. The era of radio and the ‘talkies’ had an adverse effect on local enterprise and the Depression meant that new ventures were short-lived. The well-established Amateur Musical Society (1864) and the Musical Union were dissolved at about the same time, being succeeded by the Philharmonic Society (1935) which supports the (amateur) Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra. In 1943 the corporation agreed to underwrite the scheme whereby the Hallé and other orchestras perform regularly in the City Hall under the auspices of the Philharmonic Society. Since 1945 such organizations as the Sheffield Bach Choir, the Oratorio Chorus, the New Sheffield SO and the South Yorkshire SO have helped to maintain the high standards for which Sheffield musicians have long been respected.
The opening of the Crucible Studio (part of the Crucible Theatre complex in Tudor Square) in 1971 provided an additional venue for concerts by the locally based Lindsay String Quartet. This ensemble has been the mainstay of annual festivals run in collaboration with visiting celebrities. The Crucible Theatre’s thrust stage lends itself to large-scale performances by the semi-professional South Yorkshire Opera and touring companies, while the Lyceum Theatre (1897, refurbished 1990) hosts a variety of musical events. The university drama studio is used for chamber opera, musical comedy and recitals.
Apart from William Sterndale Bennett, Sheffield has produced no noteworthy composer. It can, however, boast a number of distinguished teachers (Frederick Dawson, the Foxons, G.F. Linstead), ecclesiastical musicians (T.T. Trimnell, T.W. Hanforth, J.W. Phillips, Tustin Baker, Graham Matthews) and concert performers (Eva Rich, Peter Glossop, Kendall Taylor). In music education the record of Sheffield’s schools and colleges is excellent. The City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra has been a training ground for many professional instrumentalists. At a critical period (1919–31) the university was fortunate enough to have as its vice-chancellor William Henry Hadow, during whose term of office the James Rossiter Hoyle Chair of Music was established. The successive occupants of the chair, F.H. Shera, J.S. Deas, Basil Deane, Edward Garden and Eric Clarke, have maintained an excellent relationship between the university and the city, and such musicologists as Denis Arnold and Gilbert Reaney were trained there.
A. Cavaillé-Coll: Le grand orgue de la nouvelle salle de concert de Sheffield (Paris, 1874)
E.D. Mackerness: Somewhere Further North: a History of Music in Sheffield (Sheffield, 1974)
E.D. Mackerness: ‘Sheffield’s Cultural Life’, The History of the City of Sheffield 1843–1993, ii, ed. C. Binfield and others (Sheffield, 1993), 453–62
E.D. MACKERNESS