Training the Nation’s Musicians during and after the First World War: Tradition, Change and Social Mobility at the Royal Manchester College of Music

This study of Manchester conservatoire training during and immediately after the Great War is an outcome of the research project ‘Making Music in Manchester’, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and was a collaboration between the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) and community partners, Manchester Central Library and the Hallé Concerts Society. It focuses on musical life and training at the Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM) to consider the extent to which the war made a difference to musical life at the College. The first part of this study examines the RMCM in the years leading up to the Great War, starting with the celebrations in the region to mark the twenty-first anniversary of the College in 1914 and examining the typical repertoire in the College’s public performances. Part two focuses on the impact of war on student numbers, gender balance, instruments played and any changes in repertoire. It discusses the conundrum of performing Wagner, on which perspectives differed sharply between Paris and Manchester. The final section examines the impact the temporary presence of ex-service students – who had been given Government grants to study music – had on the ecology of the RMCM and its mission to serve the North of England.