Promenade concert

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 1950s Canadian TV series, see Promenade Concert.

Promenade concerts were musical performances in the 18th and 19th century pleasure gardens of London, where the audience would stroll about while listening to the music. The term derives from the French se promener, "to walk".

Today, the term promenade concert is often associated with

the Proms summer classical music concert series founded in 1895 by Robert Newman and the conductor Henry Wood.[1]

Eighteenth century

Vauxhall Gardens, from the Microcosm of London, 1810

Pleasure gardens, which levied a small entrance fee and provided a variety of entertainment, had become extremely popular in

songs achieved their great popularity. The musicians were housed in a covered building while the audience strolled outside. In the nineteenth century Sir Henry Bishop was the official composer to the Gardens. Many of his songs, which include "Home! Sweet Home!", were performed there. Vauxhall Gardens remained a national institution until 1859.[2]

Another prestige venue for promenade concerts was

National Gallery. It was here that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed on the harpsichord and organ as a child prodigy in 1764. Joseph Haydn
, too, appeared here during his visits to London.

Nineteenth century

Hengler's Circus
, on the site of the present-day London Palladium

The term "promenade concert" seems to have been first used in England in 1838 when London’s Lyceum Theatre announced ‘Promenade Concerts à la Musard’. Philippe Musard was a French musician who had introduced open-air concerts in the English style in Paris.

Musard came to

Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand gave a series of concerts with the band of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane under the direction of Henri Valentino. In 1840 Edward Eliason
, leader of the orchestra of Drury Lane Theatre, started a series of Concerts d’été with an orchestra of nearly a hundred players.

Soon there was also a series of ‘’Concerts d’hiver’’ under

Beethoven was conducted with a jewelled baton. With his extravagant clothing and long black hair and moustache he would go through a series of antics including having his white kid gloves brought to him on a silver salver. He conducted with his back to the orchestra in order to face his audience, and his orchestra were often joined by the bands of the Royal Artillery or drummers from the French Garde Nationale. He died in a lunatic asylum.[3]

Jullien was succeeded by the English conductor Alfred Mellon (1820–1867), and then Luigi Arditi (1822–1903). Another notable conductor was August Manns (1825–1907) who is associated with the Saturday concerts at London’s Crystal Palace, the enormous glass building which housed the Great Exhibition in 1851.[4]

Repertoire

The pleasure gardens were the chief institutions for the performance of music by English composers. Songs and vocal pieces were composed especially for them.

drinking songs
, hunting songs or even songs on morbid subjects.

Two famous songs written for the gardens were Arne's

Boieldieu, Auber and Offenbach in the 1870s.[5]

In the late 19th century concerts under August Manns explored works by well-known composers:

Henry Wood began the series of promenade concerts that continue today as the BBC Proms
. From the middle of the 20th century, open-air summer concerts at English country houses have revived the original tradition of the London pleasure gardens.

See also

Further reading

  • David Cox: The Henry Wood Proms; British Broadcasting Corporation 1980;
    ISBN 978-0-563-17697-8
  • Article: “London” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie 1980;
    ISBN 978-1-56159-174-9
  • Michel Faul : Louis Jullien, musique, spectacle et folie au XIXe siècle - atlantica (2006)
    ISBN 978-2-35165-038-7. See specific site : <http://louisjullien.site.voila.fr
    >
  • Article: "Jullien et les concerts promenades: invention ou réalité de l'exportation d'une tradition française" in Le théâtre français à l'étranger au XIXe siècle, edited by Jean-Claude Yon, Nuveau Monde édition,
    ISBN 978-2-84736-364-7

References

  1. ^ Jennifer Ruth Doctor, David C. H. Wright, Nicholas Kenyon: The Proms: A New History (2007)
  2. ^ David Coke, Alan Borg. Vauxhall Gardens: A History (2011)
  3. ^ Carse, Adam. The Life of Jullien (1951), reviewed in Music & Letters, Vol 34 No 1, January 1953
  4. ^ Wyndham, Henry Saxe. August Manns and the Saturday Concerts (2013)
  5. ^ Smolko, Joanna R. 'Pleasure Garden' in Oxford Music Online

External links

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