Music and National Identity in Victorian Britain
Bruno Bower to give lecture hosted by The Arts Society SW London
Canterbury Hall (Music Hall) 1856
June 17, 2025
The next talk to be hosted by The Arts Society SW London will be by Dr Bruno Bower on the subject of Music and National Identity in Victorian Britain.
The Victorians revered many of the same names that still fill concert programmes today, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven etc., composers who we often think of as 'German'. But how did this fit with the parallel contemporary desire to promote 'native' British music?
Musicologist Dr Bower has found some answers from an unexpected source: programme notes, a new form of writing for the nineteenth century. These texts tend not to emphasise nations for these composers, but instead use language that is much more redolent of empire; a very different kind of political entity
Dr Bruno Bower (FRSA, FHEA) is also performer, composer, and music editor. He has written and presented on subjects as diverse as Gilbert and Sullivan, John Cage, and Victorian polymaths, and has produced critical editions of music by Peter Gellhorn and Norman O’Neill. He teaches at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and runs adult education courses at Imperial College London and at various private institutions around London.
The talk is taking place on Monday, 14 July at 8 pm at The Community Church, Werter Road, Putney, SW15 2LL as well as on Zoom.
1875 Handel Festival
The talk is free for Members with non-Members asked to make a donation (£10) on entry.
Check the society’s website for details of how to register for the Zoom Lecture.
If you have never attended an Arts Society lecture before you are urged to join and find out about your local Arts Society. Visit the society’s website for further details.
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