English city.
The musical history of Bath goes back no further than the early 18th century when from about 1704 the celebrated ‘Beau’ Nash first established the city as a fashionable resort. Nash soon promoted a subscription for a band of five or six musicians who were paid a guinea a week and who at first played under some large trees in a grove until the physicians persuaded Nash to permit them to play in the Pump Room itself. Eventually the little band was enlarged to seven players whose engagement at two guineas a week covered performances at the Pump Room in the mornings and at balls in the Assembly Rooms in the evenings. As early as 1747 ‘breakfast’ concerts were announced.
It was in Bath that William Croft died in 1727, and shortly before Handel died it was announced that he intended to visit Bath for his health, though in fact he was unable to do so. J.C. Smith, who was the son of Handel's amanuensis and who eventually inherited the greater part of Handel's manuscripts, lived in retirement there from 1774 until his death. The earliest musician of note to work in Bath was Thomas Chilcot, a competent composer and organist of Bath Abbey from 1728; he also organized concerts and introduced the music of Handel to Bath audiences, and he is the reputed teacher of Thomas Linley senior. Linley was the leading professional musician of his day in Bath and responsible for the regular series of subscription concerts until he undertook the London oratorios from 1774. All his six children were born in Bath, including Thomas Linley junior, who as a boy enjoyed the friendship of Mozart, and Elizabeth Ann, the famous singer who married Sheridan. William Herschel was organist of the Octagon Chapel from 1766 to 1782, a time when his astronomical pursuits were beginning to dominate his interests in music. Benjamin Milgrove, from at least the 1760s until his death in 1810, was precentor of the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, for which he published 16 hymns in 1769; he was also at one time a member of the Pump Room band. A knowledgeable amateur of music who settled in Bath in the 18th century was Henry Harington, a physician by profession who also enjoyed a reputation as a glee composer. He was associated with the beginnings of the Bath Catch Club and the Harmonic Society of Bath.
The famous male soprano Venanzio Rauzzini settled in Bath in about 1777 and joined with the violinist Franz Lamotte in managing the subscription concerts, which Lamotte appears to have continued in succession to Linley. Rauzzini took over sole responsibility in 1780. W.T. Parke in his Musical Memoirs stated that at these concerts he brought forward ‘a succession of singers of the first eminence, at a subscription amounting to no more than about two shillings and ninepence per night, being less than a third of those at the concerts in London’. Parke implied that Rauzzini lost money by this, but was defeated by opposition when he sought to increase the subscription. Haydn, on his visit to Bath in 1794, stayed with Rauzzini, in celebration of whose dog ‘Turk’ he wrote a round. Michael Kelly in his Reminiscences described musical evenings in Bath at Rauzzini's private residence. In 1807 Rauzzini engaged the soprano Catalani, who was a favourite in the city during the next 20 years. Following Rauzzini's death in 1810 the flautist Andrew Ashe (d 1838) continued the subscription concerts.
Despite the decline of Bath as a fashionable resort in the 19th century, it remained an important treatment centre, and continued to attract international musicians until the end of the century and beyond. The ‘Pump Room’ orchestra grew slowly until it was disbanded in 1939. From 1822 to 1827 the subscription concerts were administered and conducted by Sir George Smart; his own copies of the programmes for nine of these concerts are now in the British Library. The French conductor Jullien directed many concerts in the city with his Grand Orchestra between 1845 and 1859. Paganini played three times in 1831–2, and the violinist Joachim, the cellist Piatti and Bottesini, the double-bass virtuoso, performed frequently in Bath during the last half of the century. Jenny Lind gave four acclaimed recitals between 1847 and 1862, while the period 1827–65 witnessed many concerts of music from Italian operas given by leading singers of days, including Malibran, Viardot-Garcia, Mario, Grisi, Pasta, Lablache, Tamburini, Rubini and Donzelli. Liszt played three times in Bath in September 1840, Charles Hallé gave frequent piano recitals between 1855 and 1894, Clara Schumann made six appearances between 1867 and 1873 and Hans von Bülow gave four piano recitals in the period 1874–80. Other pianists to appear in the city during the last quarter of the century incuded Anton Rubinstein, Paderewski, Rosenthal, D'Albert and Dohnányi.
John David Loder, writer of the well-known violin tutor, General and Comprehensive Instruction Book for the Violin (1814), was for a time (c1820–35) in business as a music publisher in Milsom Street, Bath. Andrew Loder, probably the uncle of John David Loder, published music from 4 Orange Grove, Bath, between about 1820 and 1826. Two distinguished organists were born in Bath – James Kendrick Pyne (b 1852, son of J.K. Pyne senior, organist of Bath Abbey, 1840–90) and T. Tertius Noble (b 1867).
The earliest Assembly Rooms in Bath, known as ‘Simpson's Rooms’, on the Terrace Walks, were opened in 1708 and burnt in 1820. In 1728 the New Assembly Rooms (‘Wiltshire's Rooms’) were opened on the opposite side of the Terrace Walks, and afterwards became the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution. For many years both were used for concerts, but were superseded when the present Assembly Rooms in Bennett Street (known as ‘The Upper Rooms’) were built in 1771.
A series of international classical and jazz concerts, supplemented by occasional opera, dance, world music and non-musical events. It lasts for 17 days in May–June, and is organized by the Bath Festivals Trust with funds from Bath City Council, South West Arts, sponsors, charitable trusts and other donations. The Festivals Trust succeeded the former Festival Society in 1993, and is also responsible for other kinds of festival at different times of the year (literature, film etc.).
The 18th-century architecture of Bath’s principal buildings, dating from its social heyday as a spa, has both influenced and circumscribed the nature of the music festival, which seeks to turn its surroundings to artistic advantage. The lack of any large auditorium other than Bath Abbey has led on occasion to additional concerts within the festival scheme in the neighbouring cities of Bristol and Wells.
The festival was instituted in 1948 as ‘The Bath Assembly’ under the artistic direction of Ian Hunter. It featured musicians of international repute in association with visiting orchestras and ensembles, in programmes almost entirely devoted to music of the 18th century. Thomas Beecham associated himself with the festival in 1955 (and conducted a production of Grétry’s rarely heard Zémire et Azor), but mounting financial deficits forced a reconsideration of festival policy.
After being suspended in 1956–7, it was resumed on a broader musical basis under the management of Ian Hunter, at whose invitation Yehudi Menuhin became involved and was appointed artistic director from 1959. An orchestra Menuhin had formed in London to conduct for recording purposes became the Bath Festival Orchestra, and served as the nucleus for most of the concerts (it was renamed the Menuhin Festival Orchestra after his and Hunter's connection with Bath ceased in 1968). Michael Tippett was associated in 1969 and was the sole artistic director for five festivals, 1970–74, aiming to change the 18th-century bias to achieve a wider appeal and to focus attention on new music.
Tippett’s successor was William Glock (1975–84), who in 1979 obtained Arts Council support to extend the festival from ten to 17 days, introduced more artists of international distinction and obtained festival commissions for new music to balance the concerts of early music he also favoured. William Mann was artistic director in 1984, and brought a strong Hungarian flavour to the programmes; he was succeeded by Amelia Freedman, who in successive years featured music from different European countries and from the USA in turn. She also incorporated jazz (which first appeared in the Menuhin era via John Dankworth) as a regular element in festival programmes.
After a year with two programme directors, Nicholas Kraemer and Jolyon Laycock, Tim Joss was appointed artistic director and chief executive in 1995, pursuing a programme policy that embraces early, 18th- and 19th-century and contemporary music, jazz, world and folk. The commitment to contemporary music and new commissions is being reaffirmed, and an education programme, linked to the main concert programme, has been set up.
A. Barbeau: Life and Letters at Bath in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1904)
L. Melville: Bath under Beau Nash and after (London, 1907)
‘Dotted Crotchet’ [F.G. Edwards]: ‘Bath: its Musical Associations’, MT, xlix (1908), 695–704
C. Black: The Linleys of Bath (London, 1911)
WATKINS SHAW/FRANK BROWN (1), NOËL GOODWIN (2)