Marsh of Chichester: Gentleman, Composer, Musician, Writer 1752-1828 (review)

The Otter Memorial Papers, established in 1987, are a local history series focused on Chichester. This paper is the first in the series devoted to a musician. John Marsh was a discovery of the late Charles Cudworth, and his value to the study of English music history has been steadily growing in recent times. That value derives not so much from his importance or influence at the time as from the fact that he recorded most of his long life in minute detail, in a well-written journal that survives in thirty-seven volumes at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. The first twenty-two volumes, covering the years up to 1801, were published in 1998 in an edition by Brian Robins that is clearly the main source for the present book, though the authors have also consulted the later volumes as well as many other sources.

Only five of the eleven contributors are music specialists, and one of these, Robins, has written on a non-musical topic, 'John Marsh and the Chichester Volunteers'. For Marsh was, as the title emphasizes, a gentleman with manifold interests, which he pursued with unusual energy. It is not surprising that scholars in other disciplines have also found the journal significant, or that it has been mined by local historians of Chichester. The rich social life that emerges, including its musical aspects, often recalls the world of Jane Austen; but Marsh engaged with many sides of life that were virtually excluded from her novels, including local politics, religion, science, technology, the visual arts, and the condition of the poor. These matters are well described in Alison McCann's opening chapter.

However, McCann is surely mistaken in treating music as one of Marsh's 'lighter diversions' along with ventriloquism, optical illusions, and globes (p. 25). It was his overmastering passion, and it must have taken up more of his time than any other activity, if one judges by the number of his compositions, arrangements, and performances. He has a good claim to have written more symphonies than any other British composer (thirty-nine, as against Havergal Brian's thirty-two, though Brian would clearly win hands down in a tally of minutes of music or pages of orchestral score). Ian Graham-Jones thinks it is 'unfortunate that only his published works survive' (p. 43). I would say rather that it is fortunate that his inherited wealth allowed him to publish many works himself, ensuring their survival. Only a few glees are extant in manuscript. Commercial publishers of the time would not invest in music of very modest merit by a man with only local influence and reputation. The music, like the journal, is valuable not because it is of superlative quality, but because it exists in bulk and can help us to understand its period. It is technically proficient but lacking in originality, surprise, or memorability. Graham-Jones provides a good survey of the contemporary styles represented in Marsh's music (pp. 45–6).

More important are the many lively passages quoted from the journal about the stages in his composition of a piece (pp. 38–42). He had a particular interest in the organ, to which two chapters are devoted. Martin Renshaw, in a one-page history of the organ in the Church of England, misleadingly attributes the relative scarcity of church organs before 1800 to puritan opposition, whereas in fact it was chiefly due to lack of resources. He then offers an interesting description of Marsh's chamber organ. Alan Thurlow, the current organist of Chichester Cathedral, summarizes an entertaining dispute between one of his predecessors, William Walond, and John Marsh, and assesses Marsh's church music in a realistic fashion. The remaining 'musical' chapter, by Nicholas Plumley, adds rich detail to fill out our picture of domestic music-making of the period, already well drawn in the work of the late Stanley Sadie. Plumley, alone among the contributors to...