City in north-west England on the Mersey estuary.
FRITZ SPIEGL (1–3), SARA COHEN (4)
The earliest reference to music in the Town Books occurs in 1541, when the mayor and corporation resolved that ‘theare shalbe hired a clercke that can syng his playne song and pryck songe and play the organs’. From then until the second half of the 18th century town musicians were frequently mentioned in the records, often for being troublesome. The duties of the Liverpool Waits included attendance at the houses of returning sea captains in addition to their normal work of sounding curfew and providing music for civic dignitaries. Waits are last mentioned in 1764 and were presumably disbanded not long after. The first music festival appears to have taken place in St Peter’s Church in 1766 under Dr Hayes of Oxford, with an orchestra from London.
Among local musical societies, or convivial clubs based on musical activities, were the Ugly Face Club (1743), at least part of whose aim was the singing of songs, and the Apollo Glee Club (1796). In 1786 a Music Hall to seat 1400 was opened in Bold Street, sumptuously built and lavishly appointed at a cost of £4526 6s. 4d. It was converted into a shop in 1836 and extensively rebuilt a few years later after fire damage and survives the redevelopment that has claimed other early Liverpool buildings. But the Music Hall was never used for concerts again; only the musical motifs betray its original purpose and it still retains at the rear the colonnade under which chair carriers and coachmen sheltered while waiting for patrons.
Outdoor music was available in the Ranelagh Gardens (now Ranelagh Place) in imitation of the 18th-century London establishment of that name (see London, §V, 4). Liverpool made an important contribution to music publishing with The Muses Delight (1754), which contained songs as well as treatises on singing and several instruments. The collection was engraved and published by John Sadler, who later became celebrated for his invention of transfer printing on pottery. A later edition is notable because it includes the french horn duets by the mysterious ‘Mr Charles’.
In August 1838 Johann Strauss (i) gave six concerts at the Royal Amphitheatre, inspiring some local imitators who, aware of the huge appeal of the new Viennese-style music, lost no time to turn Strauss into ‘Scouse’. The mid-19th century demand, in Liverpool as elsewhere, for freelance players to perform Strauss’s works is vividly documented in the surviving papers of the Rogers family. Charles Henry Rogers (b 1826) was a Welsh musician who settled in Liverpool, as did his brother George Frederick (1833–74). With their numerous offspring and other family members they formed the Rogers Family of Musicians. Their trade card offers all kinds of combination, including ‘A Brass Band furnished with Drums, Cymbals, etc.’ (see fig.1), and they acted not only as players but also fixers, instrument and sheet-music sellers and concert agents. Members of the Rogers family played in the Amphitheatre orchestra and the great houses in the area. There was even the occasional foray to London. The family’s documents and diaries for 1858–9, giving details of engagements and fees, show how hard a life jobbing musicians led at that time. By the end of the century most of them had succumbed to consumption.
The Liverpool Philharmonic Society owes its foundation to the enthusiasm of a group of music amateurs. They had met for some years during the 1830s in St Martin’s Church under the guidance of William Sudlow, a stockbroker and organist, their chief interest being choral music. In 1840 a society was constituted with the object of promoting ‘the Science and Practice of Music’; its orchestra consisted largely of amateur players. The task of conducting the choir and orchestra devolved upon various members in turn, but in 1844 the Swiss Jakob Zeugheer (also known as Zeugheer Herrmann) was engaged and he occupied the post for over 20 years. On 1 January 1850 Charles Hallé started his work in Manchester; his activities 35 miles from Liverpool were to have a powerful and lasting effect on the musical life of the seaport. He persuaded many musicians from London and Germany to live in Manchester, so for the first time a fair supply of fully professional players became available in north-west England; they welcomed the opportunity of supplementing their income with outside engagements, and the arrangement saved the Liverpool Philharmonic the expense of importing what was euphemistically described as ‘metropolitan talent’ from London. Conductors of the Philharmonic who followed Zeugheer were Alfred Mellon (1865–7), Julius Benedict (1876–80), Max Bruch (1880), Charles Hallé (1883), Frederic Hymen Cowen (1896–1913), Henry Wood, Thomas Beecham ‘and guests’ (from 1913). The period during and after World War I was one of uncertainty. The use of one pool of players to augment the amateurs and semi-professionals in both the Liverpool and Manchester orchestras continued to function, but less effectively. The depression forced many musicians to seek more secure employment in ships’ orchestras; some combined the occasional symphonic work the two orchestras offered with work in hotels, cafés and (until the arrival of talking pictures) cinema orchestras.
Since its inception in 1840 the Liverpool Philharmonic Society has supported its own choir – indeed in its earlier years the choir was the society: when Bruch arrived in 1880 he was designated musical director of, principally, the society, not the orchestra. The considerable Welsh population has provided ample talent for the large Liverpool Welsh Choral Union, active continuously (usually in collaboration with the Liverpool PO) since 1849 – so much so that in 1878 the Welsh National Eisteddfod was held not in Wales but Birkenhead, on the other side of the Mersey. By contrast, the even larger Irish population in Liverpool has generally opted for folk music clubs and ceilidhs.
The Liverpool PO survived the depression and the first two years of World War II largely through the efforts of Louis Cohen, formerly one of its second violinists, who kept the players together by forming and conducting his own Merseyside SO and Merseyside Chamber Orchestra. The influx of large numbers of servicemen (combined with a shortage of other entertainment) caused a boom in symphony concerts. In 1942 Malcolm Sargent became the orchestra’s resident conductor and attracted many of London’s top-ranking instrumentalists to Liverpool, partly because of the valuable recording work he was able to secure and partly because Liverpool, unlike London, had by then ceased to be a target for German bombs. Conditions were still difficult in London, and the combination of various circumstances raised the reputation of the Liverpool PO to its zenith; through its recordings it was probably the best-known orchestra in Britain. In 1948 Sargent was succeeded as musical director by Hugo Rignold. Wartime audiences had forced the society to broaden its policies. Its activities had hitherto been enjoyed almost exclusively by the upper classes: evening dress had been obligatory in most parts of the Philharmonic Hall, and to some parts admission was denied to ‘tradesmen’ whatever their dress. Rignold’s appointment was bitterly opposed by a section of the society on the grounds that he had come to symphonic music via jazz (as a viola player in Jack Hylton’s band). Intrigues and counter-intrigues resulted in an unsettled period for the orchestra (now once again without its ‘metropolitan talent’ and recording contracts), culminating in ‘industrial action’ by the Musicians’ Union. At about this time an innovation was made in concert-giving which reflected the new spirit brought about by wartime conditions: the introduction of Industrial Concerts, with single-price tickets sold in offices and factories. It was a successful way of retaining the audiences recently gained and did much to offset the inevitable postwar slump in attendances. Efrem Kurtz and John Pritchard were joint musical directors of the Liverpool PO from 1955 to 1957, when the latter took sole charge. Charles Groves became director in 1963. He was succeeded in September 1977 by Walter Weller, followed by David Atherton in 1980, Marek Janowski in 1983 and Libor Pešek in 1987. Pešek and the orchestra introduced music by Suk and Novák to British audiences, and made many foreign tours. Special links were forged between the orchestra and Pešek’s homeland, including an association with the Prague Spring Festival. In 1997 he was succeeded by another Czech conductor, Petr Altrichter. The Liverpool PO was granted the prefix Royal in 1957.
The Philharmonic Society has possessed its own concert hall almost from its formation. The design of the first Liverpool Philharmonic Hall was entrusted in 1844 to John Cunningham, a noted pioneer architect who specialized in cast-iron structures that were amazingly advanced for the period, but the conservative members of the committee rejected his proposed design ‘in the horse-shoe shape’ and insisted on a more conventional building. This was completed and opened in 1849 (fig.2) with a four-day music festival: its acoustics were universally agreed to be superb. It was destroyed by fire in 1933; a new hall was designed by the Liverpool architect Herbert J. Rowse and this time the society accepted an unconventional shape, ‘like a megaphone with the orchestra at the narrow end’. The hall was the first to be built with an interior based on scientific acoustical data; it was opened in 1939 and the acoustics pronounced excellent, if a little dry in places. Architecturally it resembles many picture palaces of the 1930s and was in fact designed to double as a cinema, having a full-size screen which can be raised from beneath the platform, as can a Rushworth & Dreaper organ whose pipes are hidden behind decorative grilles at each side. The entrance hall has notable engraved glass panels by Laurence Whistler. The Royal Liverpool PO was for most of the 20th century the only orchestra in the country able to rehearse and keep its library and administration in its own building. In 1995–6 the building underwent a major refurbishment, including a long overdue ‘warming’ of the hall’s acoustics, platform enlargement and an extension housing a hospitality and administrative wing, the Peter Moores Suite, named after the Philharmonic Society’s principal benefactor.
The amateur Societa Armonica was founded in 1847 and was separate from the Philharmonic Society. It gave concerts until 1909, conducted by, among others, Henry J. Wood, Vasco Akeroyd, Gordon Stukely and the German-born Alfred E. Rodewald, who also conducted the Liverpool Orchestral Society in 1884. A friend of Elgar as well as Hans Richter, Rodewald introduced Liverpool to Richard Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung and works by Rachmaninoff. In 1911 the Rodewald Concerts Society was founded in his honour for the promotion of celebrity chamber music concerts given by international artists.
From about 1900 until at least the 1930s Liverpool had a Post Office Choral Society which performed choral and orchestral works under the direction of Percival Ingram, but their programmes and other records were lost when the Victoria Street post office was bombed in 1941. The Liverpool Male Voice Choir was formed in the early years of the 20th century and, apart from periods of decline during the two world wars, survives with a healthy membership. The Liverpool Music Group (1949), drawn mostly from members of the Royal Liverpool PO and ranging from quartets to a chamber orchestra, presented for many years lighthearted concerts of 18th- and 19th-century music and an annual April Fools concert. The Liverpool Lieder Circle (1968), formed by Celia Van Mullem, promoted regular concerts to help students and young professionals embark on their singing careers. The two foregoing organizations and the Rodewald Concerts Society have been in abeyance since about 1990, but Royal Liverpool PO musicians have filled some gaps with several ensembles that perform in small halls for schools and music clubs. The semi-professional Liverpool Mozart Orchestra has been in continuous operation since 1951, and seeks out young professional conductors and soloists, but has moved its meetings to Birkenhead Town Hall. There are also several long-established amateur operatic societies in the city.
Apart from the Philharmonic Hall, venues used for concerts at various times have included the main St George’s Hall (1851) which, however, because of its cavernous acoustics, is considered less suitable for orchestral concerts than organ recitals on its 1855 Willis Organ. This is the instrument over which W.T. Best presided from that year, an appointment he held from 1851, combining it with that of organist to the Philharmonic Society (1848). The St George’s Hall Small Concert Room, on the other hand, has been found ideal for chamber music. Large orchestral concerts have taken place in the Methodist Central Hall, smaller orchestral and chamber concerts in the Bluecoat Hall situated in the former Bluecoat School (1717). The concert hall of the Wellington Rooms (1815) – former assembly rooms that once housed a dancing academy – has also offered spacious facilities and good acoustics, but during the 1970s became an Irish club and beer hall, temporarily renamed the Irish Centre, until it closed in 1997. However, during its Irish period it often resounded to Irish folk music. Even the Minstrels Gallery of the 18th-century Town Hall has occasionally hosted small period orchestras.
The proximity of Wales and Ireland, together with the continuous influx of sailors and other travellers, combined to give Liverpool folk music a special vitality. The Spinners folk group (active from 1958 to about 1990) began as a skiffle group but instead of turning, like most others, to rock and roll, remained true to the folk movement. Their guitars stayed non-electric and, with a minimal commercial veneer, they were influential in keeping real Liverpool folk music alive. Certain folk roots doubtless also played a part in the beat-group cult of the 1960s. The former Beatle Paul McCartney founded and partly funded the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (1996). It is housed in McCartney’s old school, the Liverpool Institute, formerly the Mechanics’ Institution (1835). One of its aims is to support the traditionally ad hoc creation of pop stars and other entertainers with a basis of theoretical and practical training, also offering courses in ancillary arts disciplines such as management. The Mechanics’ Institution’s original circular lecture theatre makes a fine and intimate hall for chamber music.
The University of Liverpool has a music department giving theoretical and practical tuition. The first Alsop Professor of Music was Gerald Abraham (1947), succeeded by Basil Smallman (1965) and Michael Talbot (1986), with Robert Orledge (1988) holding the Personal Chair in Music. The department also embraces the Institute of Popular Music (1988), under the directorship of David Horn, where a degree course in popular music is available. There is an extensive music library of standard works and a separate library of popular music, as well as the John Lennon Resource Centre.
Liverpool Hope University College, formed in 1995 from a merger of teacher training colleges, has a music department under the direction of Stephen Pratt. Its Concordia Concert Society specializes in performing new (and lesser-known old) works, encouraging young artists and composers.
Of the numerous instrument manufacturers active in Liverpool from the 19th century (Ward, J. & H. Banks, Jordan, Stansfield, Vassiere, Maybrick etc.) the only major organ builder to survive is Rushworth & Dreaper. The technical director of the firm is Alastair Rushworth, of the fifth generation since William Rushworth (i) founded the firm. The magnificent Rushworth Collection of Musical Instruments was founded by William (ii), who employed full-time scouts to find early instruments throughout Europe. In 1967 it was bought by the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and is now in the Liverpool Museum, where it forms approximately half of the museum’s collection of European musical instruments. It includes a Snetzler chamber organ (1776) and a Stein-type fortepiano (c1800) with probable Beethoven associations.
The Liverpool Public Library was founded as a result of the ‘free libraries’ movement initiated by Liverpool philanthropists during the 19th century. It had a fine music section, with important manuscsripts, comprehensive music reference shelves and a good orchestral library. Some material was lost during the bombing of World War II but unfortunately even more has been dispersed since in regular book sales, in response to the city council’s demands for economy. The services of a music librarian have been dispensed with and the music library now concentrates on providing a CD library.
Liverpool has a rich and varied tradition of popular music-making. Early in the 20th century its grand music halls attracted the most successful entertainers of the time; during the 1930s and 40s local dance bands performed in the city's numerous dance halls; in the 1950s and 60s the city's folk and country music scenes flourished, with some local musicians still referring to Liverpool as the ‘Nashville of the North’; and for many years cabaret music has continued to attract audiences to Liverpool pubs and social clubs and to well-known cabaret venues such as the Wooky Hollow.
The city is best known, however, for its rock and pop music which has earned it a worldwide reputation. There was, for example, the so-called ‘Liverpool Sound’ of the early 1960s involving the ‘Merseybeat’ bands that had emerged out of the skiffle groups of the 1950s. The most famous of these was the Beatles, who performed in many city venues, including the notorious Cavern Club which was originally a popular traditional jazz haunt. In the late 1970s and early 80s the city spawned other nationally and internationally renowned bands such as China Crisis, the Real People, Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. During the 1990s Liverpool bands such as Cast, Space and the Lightning Seeds continued to top the charts. A thriving contemporary dance scene also developed in the city, supported by new music businesses such as the internationally famous Cream.
These and other popular music scenes have been shaped by Liverpool's unique social, cultural, political and economic characteristics. As a port the city had a direct shipping link with America; it was also situated close to the Burtonwood airbase which for many years housed US servicemen who regularly visited Liverpool clubs and venues. Such connections helped bring American musical influences (jazz, country, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll) into Liverpool at an early stage, influencing the city's popular music culture. Liverpool's musical life has also been shaped by its Irish, Jewish and African immigrants. Jewish music businesses, for example, helped support bands such as the Beatles during the 1960s, while Irish musical influences are detectable in various local popular music styles and in the city's strong tradition of music performance in pubs.
History of the Liverpool Musical Festival (Liverpool, 1827)
W.I. Argent: Philharmonic Jubilee: Half-a-century of Music in Liverpool (Liverpool, 1889)
Liverpool’s 700th Anniversary Celebrations (Liverpool, 1907) [with music]
R. Meyrick-Roberts: The Organ at Liverpool Cathedral (London, 1926)
A.E. Hull: ‘The Opening of the Liverpool Cathedral Organ’, The Organ, vi (1926–7), 150–53
G. Benham: ‘The Organ at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool’, The Organ, vi (1926–7), 145–9
W.A. Roberts: ‘The New Organ at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall’, The Organ, x (1930–31), 129–35
R. Whitworth: ‘The Organ in the New Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool’, The Organ, xxv (1945–6), 163–9
S. de B. Taylor: Two Centuries of Music in Liverpool (Liverpool, 1976)
P. Rushton: Catalogue of European Musical Instruments in Liverpool Museum (Liverpool, 1994)