The Gentlemen of the Musical Society

FROM 1684 the entertainments held on St Cecilia's Day in London were organized by the Gentlemen of the Musical Society. Who constituted this society, and what was its role in promoting the annual Cecilian celebrations? The best sources of information regarding its membership are the names of stewards for the Cecilian feasts. Of the sixteen celebrations between 1683 and 1700, the names of some or all of the stewards are known for nine. The names are recorded in publications of odes and sermons, in the newspapers and other press and on tickets for the event, and in one instance, annotated on the back of a single-sheet copy of the poem circulated at the feast (Table 2.1). In 1691 Peter Motteux described the constitution of stewards as four ‘Persons of Quality or Gentlemen of Note’ and two ‘Gentlemen of their Majesties Music, or some of the chief Masters in Town’. In fact, the number of stewards increased over the period of the festivities. Four were named the first year for which a record exists (1684), and by 1695 there were eight, though the number of professional musicians remained constant at two. An investigation of the stewards reveals the diversity of the social and economic groups that supported the Cecilian celebrations, and that were, by implication, involved more widely in musical patronage and consumption in London during this period. The range of backgrounds evident among the stewards, and particularly the involvement of merchants and other men of business, helps to contextualize the increasing commercialization of music in London, in terms of both the growth in music printing and the development of the concert culture of the city.

Only two sets of stewards are known for the Cecilian feasts held before the hiatus of 1688–89, those for 1684 and 1686. Several of these persons can be linked circumstantially with the society of amateur musicians described by Roger North, who held weekly music meetings at the Castle Tavern on Fleet Street. As we have seen in Chapter 1, this group probably played an important role in the development of the Cecilian feast and likewise may have provided the foundation for the musical society that supported it. North's comments imply that he was himself a member of the group, and though he provides no dates, Jamie Kassler suggests his participation from about 1679 to about 1689.