Commentators continued to rail against both the neglect of native composers and the poor taste of English audiences, seeing the two as linked. But whereas earlier critics had conceded that much foreign music was deservedly preferred to English music, it became increasingly common to ascribe this preference to ‘Fashion’, which compelled English composers to imitate foreign music or go unheard. In 1831 a new periodical carried a substantial article on the rule of fashion; it claimed that Henry Bishop was the only English composer to have acquired a reputation, but that his decline set in after he had made adaptations of Don Giovanni and Figaro, and English opera lost all appeal when Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Weber’s Der Freischütz entranced the public. The Athenæum extended its criticism of neglect to the Philharmonic Society, which had failed to support native composition. However, although the Philharmonic’s programmes were dominated by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber and other foreign composers, it was willing to trial native compositions: for example, a symphony by Cipriani Potter was trialled in 1829, and another was trialled and performed in 1833 and received high praise from the Literary Gazette.

The Belgian critic F.-J. Fétis contributed a view from abroad. He noted a combination of undeveloped taste and commercial pressure to meet expectations, by, for example, mixing opera with farce and melodrama. Many of his criticisms were still being echoed by English critics fifty years later: the short opera season patronised by the upper classes, the rule of fashion and the fixation of audiences on star singers who were able to demand high fees.

The desire for a national school was focused on opera. Hopes of progress were ignited in 1833 by a plan for an English national opera. The proposal was put forward in the hope that it would not be impeded by ‘idle jealousies’ – an indication of what was often to bedevil efforts to get composers to work together for the common good. The scheme, which prompted much comment in periodicals, advanced to the point where a committee was formed and a petition prepared. But eventually it came to nothing. Critics thought there was little chance of success as the public preferred foreign works.