Page 209 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2023. Glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo ▪︎ Music societies in the long 19th century: Between amateur and professional culture. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 6
P. 209
music societies in ireland during the nineteenth century
from alcohol for the rest of their lives. It is said that on one occasion he
took the pledge from between 120,000 and 150,000 people during a three-
day period in Limerick. Over the course of his career as leader of the tem-
perance movement between 1838 and his death in 1856 he administered the
pledge to several million people. The highpoint of his successes was reached
in 1842/43 while the famine put a temporary end to much of his activities
(in those years Mathew began travelling abroad, preaching temperance in
Scotland, England and the US). Later attempts to revive the temperance
movement in Ireland in the 1870s and 1890s were much less successful.
Yet the temperance movement consisted not just of preaching, it de-
veloped an entire infrastructure as Father Mathew and his fellow temper-
ance campaigners realised that adherence to the pledge needed to be mon-
itored, as well as giving people who no longer go to the pub something else
to do. This was where music became important. As Maria McHale points
out, “[m]usical expression satisfied a number of criteria as it provided suita
ble recreation in which temperance and religious sentiments could be prom
ulgated.”48 The movement created a large number of brass bands that ac-
companied the singing of hymns during the open-air mass events – at one
point there were 33 temperance bands in Cork alone.49 Some of these bands
still exist today, albeit now detached from their original function.
Brass bands were not for everybody, though, and more emphasis was
put on singing as an activity that required less training and less expen-
sive “equipment” in the shape of instruments. In 1842 Mathew invited the
renowned German singing teacher Joseph Mainzer to Cork who offered
sight-singing classes for large numbers of people. Mainzer – a member of
the British “singing-class movement” – had published his instruction man-
ual Singing for the Masses in 1841 and now put his method to good use in
the service of the teetotallers, stating: “I hope that for the future the motto
for your standard will be ‘Music and sobriety, sobriety and music.’”50 Accord-
ing to Maria McHale
Mathew was keen that the people adopt the system not only for their
own benefit and for the purposes of healthy distraction and amuse
48 Maria McHale, “Singing and Sobriety: Music and the Temperance Movement,” in
Music in Nineteenth-Century Ireland [Irish Musical Studies 9], eds. Michael Murphy
and Jan Smaczny (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 178.
49 Gavin Holman, “Thirsty Work – Brass Bands and the Temperance Movement in
the 19th Century,” Humanities Commons (2018): 2, http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/bm-
fa-3k07.
50 Mainzer quoted in McHale, “Singing and Sobriety,” 175.
207
from alcohol for the rest of their lives. It is said that on one occasion he
took the pledge from between 120,000 and 150,000 people during a three-
day period in Limerick. Over the course of his career as leader of the tem-
perance movement between 1838 and his death in 1856 he administered the
pledge to several million people. The highpoint of his successes was reached
in 1842/43 while the famine put a temporary end to much of his activities
(in those years Mathew began travelling abroad, preaching temperance in
Scotland, England and the US). Later attempts to revive the temperance
movement in Ireland in the 1870s and 1890s were much less successful.
Yet the temperance movement consisted not just of preaching, it de-
veloped an entire infrastructure as Father Mathew and his fellow temper-
ance campaigners realised that adherence to the pledge needed to be mon-
itored, as well as giving people who no longer go to the pub something else
to do. This was where music became important. As Maria McHale points
out, “[m]usical expression satisfied a number of criteria as it provided suita
ble recreation in which temperance and religious sentiments could be prom
ulgated.”48 The movement created a large number of brass bands that ac-
companied the singing of hymns during the open-air mass events – at one
point there were 33 temperance bands in Cork alone.49 Some of these bands
still exist today, albeit now detached from their original function.
Brass bands were not for everybody, though, and more emphasis was
put on singing as an activity that required less training and less expen-
sive “equipment” in the shape of instruments. In 1842 Mathew invited the
renowned German singing teacher Joseph Mainzer to Cork who offered
sight-singing classes for large numbers of people. Mainzer – a member of
the British “singing-class movement” – had published his instruction man-
ual Singing for the Masses in 1841 and now put his method to good use in
the service of the teetotallers, stating: “I hope that for the future the motto
for your standard will be ‘Music and sobriety, sobriety and music.’”50 Accord-
ing to Maria McHale
Mathew was keen that the people adopt the system not only for their
own benefit and for the purposes of healthy distraction and amuse
48 Maria McHale, “Singing and Sobriety: Music and the Temperance Movement,” in
Music in Nineteenth-Century Ireland [Irish Musical Studies 9], eds. Michael Murphy
and Jan Smaczny (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 178.
49 Gavin Holman, “Thirsty Work – Brass Bands and the Temperance Movement in
the 19th Century,” Humanities Commons (2018): 2, http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/bm-
fa-3k07.
50 Mainzer quoted in McHale, “Singing and Sobriety,” 175.
207
