From Chapel to Radical Secularism: the Role of Music and Gender at the Ethical Society

该项目研究了音乐在伦理社会从教堂到研究所再到社会的过渡中的作用;换句话说，从一个不符合宗教组织到一个人文主义社会。南方伦理协会以促进平等权利和自由思想而闻名。它是一个相互联系的进步组织网络的一部分，其成员往往有多个附属机构。这些团体中的许多人将创造一种另类文化视为他们“制造社会主义者”的使命的一部分。这包括音乐以及其他形式的创造性合作表达。南方伦理社会是一个空间，在那里，这一时期的进步人士可以在没有宗派纠纷的情况下相互接触，在那里，贝尔福特巴克斯所谓的“时尚”，如神学，素食主义和女权主义，可能是共同的利益，而不是对社会主义或激进政治的干扰。这个项目测试了音乐中对伦理社会的这种理解，在19世纪和20世纪初，性别角色已经被明确定义并限制在私人领域。音乐渗透到强调家庭参与的社会的社区生活中。例如，约瑟芬·特鲁普（Josephine Troup，1880-1913）创作了儿童歌曲，弗劳尔姐妹篇创作了赞美诗，妇女们参与了其他家庭和半家庭音乐，如儿童聚会。音乐在“崇拜”和取代它的东西中都有作用和价值;赞美诗和颂歌在该组织成为世俗组织后很久才被演唱和表演。该协会还有一个管弦乐队，对会员和非会员开放。更为人所知的是社会的长期运行音乐会系列，南广场周日音乐会（从1887年至今）和更多的巡回人民音乐会。这些有一个教育的目的，取代服务和站在旁边的讲座和辩论，这是和仍然是如此重要的组织的身份。音乐会是公开的和专业的。当然，在表演者中也有妇女，更不寻常的是，还有作曲家。一些名字脱颖而出，如伊迪丝·斯韦普斯顿，艾米·霍罗克斯，海伦·亨沙尔，阿维尼翁·凡尔纳。其中一些妇女与南方伦理协会的知名人士有关。这项研究将探讨他们作为音乐家的参与，以及他们在这个社区背景下提供的机会是否在其他地方复制。音乐会是否培育和推广音乐人才，使其能够在其他地方发展，还是仅限于社区？该项目还将研究节目，看看该协会的激进声誉是否反映在音乐活动中。在此过程中，它将与同时代的音乐会社会进行比较，并将比较音乐在其他激进社会中的功能，如费边社和社会民主联盟。博士项目的重点是迄今未研究的音乐收藏在人文图书馆和档案馆。这些包括广泛的南广场星期日音乐会档案，其中有详细介绍剧目和表演者的年度报告，委员会会议记录书籍和文件，音乐会节目，广泛收集的乐谱，节目规划目录，宣传材料，剪报和照片。图书馆的收藏还包括赞美诗书籍、国歌、儿童歌曲集和协会出版物中关于音乐活动的讨论，如《南方广场杂志》和《道德记录》。学生将在康威厅伦理学会与当前的观众接触，并寻求在主要伦敦，西北部和在线接触新的观众，以测试该项目的调查结果，激发辩论，促进反思。这种反思反过来又会影响到项目的讨论。学生将有机会与监督团队协商，从这些资源中制定一个博士项目。

The project examines the role of music in the transition of the Ethical Society from a Chapel to an Institute to a Society; in other words, from a non-conformist religious organisation to a Humanist society. The South Place Ethical Society is known for its promotion of equal rights and free thinking. It was part of a web of interconnected progressive organisations whose members often had multiple affiliations. Many of these groups saw the creation of an alternative culture as part of their mission of 'making socialists'. This included musical as well as other forms of creative cooperative expression. The South Place Ethical Society was one space in which progressives of the period could encounter one another free of sectarian disputes and where what Belfort Bax called 'fads', such as theosophy, vegetarianism and feminism, might be shared interests rather than distractions from socialist or radical politics.This project tests this understanding of the Ethical Society in the case of music, where gender roles in the 19th and early 20th centuries have been clearly defined and confined to the private sphere. Music permeated the community life of the society where there was an emphasis on family participation. For instance, Josephine Troup (1880-1913) composed children's songs; the Flower sisters composed hymns and women participated in other family and semi-domestic music, such as children's parties. Music had a role and value in both 'worship' and what replaced it; hymns and anthems were sung and performed long after the organisation became secular. The society also had an orchestra, which was open to both members and non-members. Better known is the society's long running concert series, the South Place Sunday Concerts (from 1887-present) and the more peripatetic People's Concerts. These had an educative purpose, replacing services and standing alongside the lectures and debates, which were and still are so important to the identity of the organisation. The concerts were public and professional. Women certainly numbered among the performers and, more unusually, composers. Some names stand out, such as Edith Swepston, Amy Horrocks, Helen Henschall, Adela Verne. Some of these women were related to prominent figures in the South Place Ethical Society. This study will explore their participation as musicians and whether the opportunities they were afforded in this community context were replicated elsewhere. Did the Society nurture and promote musical talent so that it could develop elsewhere or was it confined to the community? The project will also look at programming to see whether the radical reputation of the Society was reflected in musical activities. In so doing, it will make comparisons with contemporaneous concert societies and will compare the functions of music in other radical societies, such as the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation.The doctoral project focuses on the hitherto unstudied music holdings at theHumanist Library and Archives. These include the extensive South Place Sunday Concert Archive, which has annual reports detailing repertoire and performers, committee minute books and papers, concert programmes, an extensive collection of scores, catalogues for programme planning, publicity material, newspaper cuttings and photographs. The library's collection also includes the hymn books, anthems, children's songbooks and discussions of musical activities in the Society's publications, such as the South Place Magazine and Ethical Record. The student will engage with current audiences at the Conway Hall Ethical Society and seek to reach new audiences in mainly London, the North West and on-line to test out the findings of the project, to stimulate debate and facilitate reflection. This reflection will, in turn, feed into the project's discussion. The student will have the opportunity to fashion a PhD project from these resources in consultation with the supervisory team.