A Study in Music, Community and Identity in a late nineteenth-century Scottish town

In recent years, a growing body of research has revealed music to be one of the most prominent features of nineteenth-century urban culture. Notable amongst this is the work of Simon Gunn, which has shown music to be a vital component of public culture amongst the Victorian middle classes in the English cities of Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. Dave Russell's social history of popular music in late-nineteenth-century England has also demonstrated the diversity of musical activity which existed across different regions and localities. ¹ Still, there remains a reluctance to site local, regional and national studies within a wider pan-British context. The writing of such a history has also been retarded by a historiography, particularly influential in Scotland, which tends to examine culture from a national perspective and evaluate nineteenth-century urban centres on the basis of their economic and occupational structures. ² While this study aims to redress the lack of attention to the local contexts of music in nineteenth-century Scotland, it also substantiates Ehrlich and Russell's comment that more detailed examination of the experiences of Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish urban centres will enhance our understanding of the place of music in nineteenth-century British society as a whole. The article itself aims to show how the Scottish town of Dundee, which has been so widely portrayed in terms of its overwhelming dependence on coarse textile manufacture, also sought to nurture and sustain a vibrant musical life. It will suggest that a key reason nineteenth-century Dundee has not been perceived as an especially musical city is the perpetuation of a bi-polarized definition of culture, exemplified in the critiques of the Frankfurt School, which has privileged 'high' forms and denigrated the popular, commercialized ones. It was the latter to which the inhabitants of Dundee were particularly receptive. ³ It will also demonstrate that in a period of rapid industrial expansion, social change and economic uncertainty, the unique properties of music made it one of the most accessible and effective means of exploring and expressing identity amongst the growing urban population. This article alsoaims to offer an insight into the experience of other towns, hence to stimulate comparative study. It suggests that while Dundee's musical environment was not necessarily unique, the distinctive interplay of economic, social and cultural conditions gave rise to patterns of musical activity, which may also be reflected in other towns of similar size and demographic structure, such as Bradford and Halifax. It also invites comparisons with Irish textile towns, such as Belfast and Derry, where the existence of a separate national musical tradition provides another common point of reference.

This article will focus on four broadly chronological developments which variously overlapped and diverged from each other. Firstly, itwill consider the extent to which the structures and attitudes of late nineteenth-century musical activity were inherited from an earlier period. Secondly, it will examine how, as Dundee entered its greatest phase of economic growth from the late 1850s, music fulfilled aspirations to status and refinement amongst the growing middle classes. Thirdly, it will examine how music was subsequently linked to contemporary ideology, namely the re-invigorated Liberalism espoused by the town's civic leadership, local press and other figures of paternalistic authority, who adopted music as an emblem of civic pride and appropriated it as a component of inclusive leisure provision. It will consider how, despite some initial success, ambitions to sustain a 'high' musical culture were frustrated by economic circumstances, as the buoyantjute economy entered a period of downward fluctuation from the late 1870s; and by a growing competition from commercial, popular forms. Fourthly, it will evaluate the extent to which Dundee's occupationaland social structure, and particularly the tastes and habits of its large working class and Irish constituents, shaped the character of a local musical culture which, by the end of the century, had developed into a dynamic and diverse one. Given that the presence of key individuals within certain localities was instrumental in creating a musical environment, this article will explore the role...