‘Against the Odds: The Early Musical Association, 1874-1914’, paper given at the 14th Biennial International Conference on Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain, University of York, 29 August 2025

Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain, a scholarly conference taking place biennially since 1997, met at the University of York in July 2025. Always a convivial conference, this particular meeting excelled in offerings planned by Prof. Rachel Cowgill and her committee. With keynote speakers from South Africa, Australia and the USA, live music, 56 papers, and excursions to York Minster or Harewood House, participants were spoiled for choice.

It's salutary to note how much this field has grown over the last 30 years, reminding us of the many unsuspected beauties and cultural achievements uncovered by recent research. One of those prompted my own paper on the early Musical Association, from 1944 Royal Musical Association (RMA). I explored the improbability in 19th-century Britain of creating a scholarly music society that would last. Four efforts between 1813 and 1874 failed. The fifth attempt, the Musical Association of mid-1874, succeeded by trying a radically different approach: no link to concert-giving, a leadership versed in British learned society procedures, and rules stressing original research.

Begun by determined people in metropolitan London, many from outside music, the Association adopted procedures emulating those of the British scientific community, above all the Royal Society. With an ethos of scientific research to instil rigour and method;

a motivational drive for collecting, cataloguing and studying several kinds of material - manuscript and printed music, books, periodicals, global instruments, regional folksong;

and the knowledge exchange inherent in sharing ideas with colleagues in other countries, occupations and industries, including the media and music businesses of all kinds, the Musical Association built a broad-based scholarly community admired in both Europe and America. Celebrating 150 years in 2024, this organization is no longer improbable. It’s still supporting scholars who advance knowledge in and out of academia.

‘Research, organization, delivery, your MNCB paper was excellent ... I look forward to reading the entire volume’

Dr Therese Ellsworth, Independent scholar, Cincinnati, Ohio

‘Great paper, Leanne’

Prof. Charles McGuire, Oberlin College & Conservatory

‘You are showing just how original and forward-thinking the Musical Association was, earlier than any comprehensive form of musicology in central Europe’

Dr Simon Kannenberg, Robert Schumann Hochschule, Düsseldorf

To see and order my book, The Royal Musical Association: Creating Scholars, Advancing Research (Boydell Press, 2024), go here.