Regency Pastimes: The Nobleman’s Catch Club and the Glee Club

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The Nobleman’s Catch Club was established in the early 1760s by nine founding members including the Earl of Eglinton, Earl of March and the Earl of Sandwich. The new club brought with it prizes for catches with the intent to support composition and performance of catches, glees, and canons. The original intent of the club is not recorded, but it’s often credited with supporting this type of vocal music into the future (The Catch Club in Eighteenth Century England, by Brian Robins (free.fr)) and having been influenced by the Madrigal Society.

A catch is a type of round or canon, or a musical composition where two or more voices repeatedly sing the same melody but start at different times.  A popular example is Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  Catches originated with hymnals and religious music, but began to find popularity with secular themes beginning in the 13th century.

The Catch Club was a “highly selective organization dominated by parliamentarians from both Houses that could afford, with the professional assistance of some of the best London singers…the performance of unaccompanied catches, glees, and canons” (Wollenberg, 2017).  It was made up of premier musicians, noblemen, politicians, and other esteemed men.  The Club did host a ladies night for female performances.  Prizes were given out to various composers and performances, until prizes were abolished in 1794.

The Club would meet in various locations including the Criterion, Almack’s and Willis’s rooms.  By the 19th century, the club began to shift from catches to glees and focused on professional, rather than amateur, performers.  It would continue to meet well into the Victorian era.

Catches tended to be more bawdy than glees, and tended to be influenced by the madrigal.

The Glee Club was founded in 1787 with their first meeting at the Newcastle Coffee House in the Strand.  For the next several years they bopped around, meeting after different coffee houses and taverns with a diverse group of men:

Samuel Webbe jun Samuel Harrison The Society removed to the Crown and Anchor in 1788 and continued there till 1790 then went to the Freemasons Tavern where they held their meetings till 1791 and afterwards returned to the Crown and Anchor where they have continued to meet and dine together on alternate Saturdays The subscribers at present are thirty in number thirteen honorary or musical members and seven perpetual visitors and they meet ten times in the season the meetings begin in December The society originally met twelve times The hour of dining is half past four o clock and the mem bers take their seats at the table according to seniority except the professional gentlemen who always take their places in the centre of the table on each side Each subscriber pays eight guineas for his ten nights and is entitled to introduce one visitor on alternate nights which visitor pays one pound The professional gentlemen have the same privilege with the subscribers The perpetual visitors have an equal privilege with the honorary members The business of the club is conducted by a committee consisting of the president vice president treasurer conductor deputy conductor and the secretary together with five other members which five are ballotted for annually There is also a messenger who delivers the letters previous to each meeting and attends in the room for the purpose of handing the books to the conductor when any glee ́is called for The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review (1820)

Glee would start to lose its supremacy around the 1850s, as larger choral performances would begin to be favored.

violinist In the year 1741 the Madrigal Society was formed for the encouragement of that species of composition the parent of the English glee In this species of musical writing our composers may decidedly lay claim to originality and have given us a national harmony equal to any thing we have imported from the continent To promote the practice of glee writing Lord Sandwich in 1762 alongst with several other noble amateurs established a society for awarding prizes for the best compositions of this species contributed by English composers Great emulation was excited by this attempt to stimulate native talent and Dr William Hayes Dr Arne Baildon Dr Cooke and Webbe were competitors for the rewards bestowed by the society Stafford Smith Atter bury Lord Mornington the Paxtons and Danby followed and in the two or three years which succeeded the establishment of this society the art of glee writing became very extensively diffused and greatly improved In 1785 Dr Callcott first sent in his contributions to the society and in 1787 the regular Glee Club was established which has been continued to the present day The successful candidate for the prize this year 1829 was Mr Elliott Webbe's Glorious Apollo was written for this club and is always the opening glee The Catch Club has a similar object to the Glee Club and for some years after its first institution it also distributed prizes This practice has been discontinued since 1812 The Concentores Society established in 1790 had a similar object to the Catch and Glee
Clubs To this society we are indebted for that delightful glee Peace to the Souls of the Heroes which Dr Callcott composed for one of its meetings The following will be found a tolerably accurate list of our principal glee writers Name Aldrich Dr H Native of Westminster Born Flour Died 1647 1710 Haydn George 1724 Eccles John 1730 1735 Travers John 1745 1758 Hayes Dr William 1760 1779 Arne Dr TA London 1710 1778 Boyce Dr William London 1710 1779 Alcock Dr John London 1715 1806 Nares Dr James Stanwell 1715 1783 Worgan Dr John 1744 1790 Jackson William Exeter 1730 1803 Bergh 1763 Battishill Jonathan London 1738 1801 Hayes Dr P Oxford 1739 1797 Long 1764 Baildon 1766 Harrington 1766 Arnold Dr S London 1739 1802 Dyne 1768 Corfe Joseph Salisbury 1740 1820 Webbe Samuel London 1740 Hooke James Norwich 1746 Hutchinson Dr 1772 Linley Thomas Bath 1795 Shield William Smalwell 1749 1829 Smith JS Gloucester 1750 1775 Atterbury 1778 to In 1822 this society announced a series of concerts consist entirely of British compositions executed by British performers They were given for two seasons only in 1823 and in 1824 VIEW OF MUSIC IN ENGLAND 373
Name Linley Thos jun Norris Chas BM Native of Born Flour Died Bath 1756 1778 Salisbury 1790 Mazzinghi Joseph London 1779 Mornington Lord 1735 1781 Paxton W 1779 Paxton S Sale John 1779 London 1758 Cooke Robert 1814 Storace Stephen London 1763 1796 Holder JWBM London 1765 Callcott Dr JW Kensington 1766 1821 Danby John 1786 Attwood London 1767 Greville Rev R 1787 Webbe Samuel jun 1770 Stevenson Sir John Ireland 1772 Hindle 1790 Cooke N Chichester 1773 Ayrton 1797 Harrison 1800 Stevens RJS 1800 i Beckwith Dr Norwich 1804 Spofforth 1806 Biggs 1810 Horsley William London 1774 Crotch Dr William Norwich 1775 Evans Charles 1828 Walmisley TF London 1783 Burghersh Lord 1784 Hawes William London 1785 Bishop WR London 1786 Knapton P York 1788 Knyvett W 1828 King MP 1828 Goss John Tareham 1800 Greatorex Thomas 1829 Willis 1829 Barnett John 1829 Clifton J 1829 Elliott J 1829 A History of Music (1830)

 

Wollenberg, S. Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain. (2017). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Read about Jane Austen and glee: Historical and Regency Romance UK: JANE AUSTEN: Glee Singing at Mansfield Park (historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com)

Read more about Glee and Catches in 18th Century England:

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