MUSIC.
MARY WAKEFIELD.
THE debt which music owes to the devotion of amateurs— using the word in the high sense which links it with dia. interested affection rather than dilettantism—has often been insisted on in these columns. Music does not only need creators and interpreters for its advancement: it also needs advocates, and the greatest musical advocates have been amateurs. Such was "G."—if a generation nurtured on Strauss has not forgotten the many-sided enthusiast for whom the initial stands—such, in a more limited sphere, but with not less fervour of expression, was A. J. Jaeger, and such was Mary Wakefield, the story of whose life and services to art has been told with perfect sympathy, taste, and judgment by her friend Mrs. Newmarch.* It was not an eventful life as lives are commonly judged. She came of a good North-country stock, established for several genera- tions in Westmorland as prosperous bankers and merchants and pUblic-spirited citizens. She was one of a large and happy family, the best of all schools ; her talent for music went hand in hand with a love of horses. and dogs ; she was clever, humorous, fearless, sociable, and popular ; she made hosts of friends in all grades of life; she sang and wrote and lectured; she was fond of travelling, but fonder of -her northern home; she founded the Westmorland Festival in...1885, conducted it for fifteen years, spent her health and strength lavishly in the service of art, and died in 1910 at the age of .fifty-seven. Such a career to an unthinking observer may not have been very conspicuous or significant,, yet it had some remarkable features and lent an extraordinary impetus, thanks to Miss Wakefield's. personal magnetism and energy, to one of the most fruitful and altogether satisfactory movements in modern British music. The amateur singer—and Miss Wake. field had an excellent voice, and for many yeitrs was immensely in request at concerts and entertainmentsis generally an egotist' and an individualist. Yet, while still a young woman and at the height of her popularity as a singer and composer of popular songs, she turned aside from the facile paths of .Social popularity to adopt the' role of musical mis- sioner to.the masses. That she must have contemplated the possibility. of becoming a professional singer is clear from what 'Mrs. Newmarch says in her opening chapter : "The force of social convention hindered her from becoming known " Mary Wakefield a Memoir. By /toga • Nowinarrit. Kendal : ,Atkineou and Pollltt.
to posterity in company with those who stand in the first rank among professional vocalists." Mrs. Newmarch is, we think, inclined to overestimate Miss Wakefield's gifts as a singer, considerable though they were. But we cordially agree with her as to the sure foundation on which the memorial Miss Wakefield built for herself in the world of music rests—" her truly democratic and nobly educative work in connexion with the inauguration of Competition Musical Festivals in rural districts." The impulse which led her into this field was largely the natural working of a generous and sympathetic nature, but Mrs. Newmarch traces two external influences.
One was her friendship with Ruskin, whose words, " Music fulfils its most attractive and beneficent mission when the masses of the people enjoy it as a recreation and a solace," sound the very keynote of the enterprise ; the other was .a visit which she paid in 1884 to the late Mr. Henry Leslie at Oswestry on the occasion of the coming of age of the Herefordshire Philharmonic Society. Miss Wakefield never had the smallest inclination to overlook the pioneer work of her forerunners, and frankly admitted her obligation to Mr. Leslie. In her own words :—
" He, who from his connexion with Wales had seen much of the virtues and, I must add, the vices of the Eisteddfods, discussed with me the possibilities of utilizing the idea [of competition] in many of its valuable attributes as a motive power for awakening musical sloth, more especially in the country districts. We both felt that the stimulus of competition was a valuable vital initia- tive, and we thought that the many evils that follow in its wake might be to a great extent avoided. So we passed on to plans and ways and means, and I resolved to start the ,Westmorland Festival. in 1885." •
The evils of musical competition are too well known to need illustration—the endless repetition of pieces, too often of inferior quality, leading ultimately to a good deal of envy, hatred, and uncharitableness on the part of unsuccessful competitors. The adjudicators need to have the nerve of a football referee, and it is alleged that on one occasion they had to be smuggled away from the .scene of operations in order to avoid the vengeance of irate partisans. Miss Wakefield did not invent musical competitions. What she did was to develop their good side and minimize the evil. The distinguishing features of the Kendal festivals were three- fold : "competition as a stimulus to study and practice of music ; the stern elimination of money prizes ; and the study of music for combined singing apart from "competition." As Mrs. Newmarch neatly puts it, the first principle is a con- cession to human weakness, the second is a safeguard against it. From the very outset Miss Wakefield set her face resolutely against "pot-hunting," adopting instead a system of grants which went to all the choirs equally to assist them in their general expenses. But the third principle of the " Wake- field" type of competition festival is the most original and fruitful
"To Mary Wakefield alone belongs the idea of uniting the contesting choirs together in the performance of works not in-
cluded in the scheme of competition. In her own words : 6It is
the development of this non-competitive movement side by side with the competition in which I am so greatly interested. I do not believe the thing can endure without it, at all events in country districts, and I am sure three times the advance in music is made by its means. . .1 For petty jealousies and local rivalries must needs vanish when the choirs stand up together to sing a Bach Cantata, or such choruses as The Re- deemed of the Lord' from Brahms's Requiem. What I might describe as the moral effect of these combined performances is obvious. A number of choirs who have been hotly contesting for a day or two in the small pieces forget all rivalry and the bitterness of failure when they unite to do their best in some great masterpiece, before an interested and apprecia- tive audience. The combined singing, therefore, counteracts the narrowing tendencies of competition and becomes the greatest element of solidarity in the movement. Other factors of import- ance in the success of the Wakefield Competition Festival, though somewhat subordinate to the three named above, are the care exercised in the choice of music ; the encouragement of juvenile competition and combined singing ; and lastly its broadly demo- cratic and altruistic appeal."
On this side of Miss Wakefield's work Mrs. Newmarch rightly lays especial stress. Her chief aim was "to bring the greatest musio within the reach of the greatest number " ; and she found in these festivals "a social platform whereon every one, irrespective of religion, politics, class, or education, can meet freely with a common cause, ideal, and interest." For the first
fifteen years that followed the inauguration of the Com- petition Festival Miss Wakefield was ohoirmaster-ii-chief, conductor, and chief organizer, travelling about from centre' to centre night after night in all weathers, holding rehearsals. of the music selected for combined performances. The pro-. gress of the movement was rapid and unchecked. In the third year the chorus was numerous enough to justify the performance of a combined work. At the' sixth coin:. petition there were 635 competitors ; by 1892' 10,200, vocalists had taken part in the annual contest at Kendal ; and in 1900, the year of Miss Wakefield's retirement from active conductorship, the adult Festival Choir numbered 600 voices..
In 1904 the services of the Queen's Hall Orchestra, with. Sir Henry Wood as conductor, were enlisted, and from that date onward, by the wise provision of Miss Wakefield, sym- phonic music has always been a feature of the festival pro- grammes. These, by the way, are printed in an appendix at: the end of the volume, and illustrate in a most striking way the steady enlarging of the scope of the festival and the- widening of its artistic horizon. Nothing is more remarkable in the recent history of British music than the extraordinary progress made by the choirs of the North of England in the, choice of music and the efficiency of its performance. Their repertory includes the most difficult and exacting compositions of all ages and schools, and among the various influences which. have led to this fine efflorescence none has been more stimu- lating than the competition festivals inaugurated by Miss. Wakefield. Her latter years were 'clouded by ill health, but she retained her keen interest in the movement until her death. in September 1910. At this moment there are no fewer than one hundred festivals of the " Wakefield " type in England. Their value, not only from an educative point of view, but as an incentive to composers, is attested by the express evidence of our leading. composers. Mary Wakefield was indeed happily inspired. when she devoted her life to applying the co-operative prin, ciple to the musical enlightenment of the masses. It was: right that the debt which they owe to this generous enthu, siastic woman should be told at length, and it could not have, been better done than in Mrs. Newmarch's admirable memoir..
• C. L. G.
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