The Royal Musical Association

Charting the history of the Royal Musical Association over 150 years: from scientific roots and the long resistance of British universities to music study, to bringing UK musicology to worldwide recognition.

This book is the first comprehensive history of the Royal Musical Association. Drawing on extensive archival material and exploring a host of colourful people, it paints an absorbing picture of scholarly achievement in Britain across 150 years.

Founded in London in 1874 as a learned society for musical research, the Association emulated the venerable Royal Society in welcoming diverse backgrounds, but went further by including women. Charting its scientific roots and the long resistance of British universities to music study, the narrative shows how the Association published a strong body of research independently, blossoming from 170 members in the 1870s to more than 1400 today.

Early joiners included the scientists William Pole and John Tyndall (a founder of climate science), the art historian Elizabeth Eastlake, and musicians from John Stainer to Agnes Zimmermann. Their goal was to 'investigate' and 'discuss' music rather than perform it or give concerts. Because no member was yet trained in what would later be called musicology, the papers covered an eclectic range of scientific, ethnographic and historical questions, broad in scope and responsive to heard music. Whether measuring acoustic phenomena, studying popular music or deciphering manuscripts of early polyphony, the Association promoted wide engagement as well as the establishment of academic musicology.

Meanwhile, members including W.B. Squire, Edward J. Dent, Thurston Dart and Stanley Sadie transformed public understanding. Their work in music library development, opera, Musica Britannica, early music, criticism and music lexicography helped gain global recognition for British scholarship. With arts study under pressure in the current uncertain climate, the Association's recent concern for real-world issues in diversity, practice-based research and the vital role of music in schools remains true to its founding spirit.