Tonic Solfa College

[Niobe Hennigan]

JohnCurwen fused established principles and effective devices into a logical scheme of aural training that could be handled by a competent teacher with limited knowledge of music, and readily understood by pupils who had no instrumental experience.

Greatness was thrust upon John Curwen. He was celebrated for his remarkable skill as a teacher when young and only turned to teaching music at the request of others. The method that he evolved over the rest of his long career gained him an acknowledged place in the history of musical education.

John Curwen was an English writer on music and best known for adapting and popularising a method for teaching sight-singing called Tonic Sol-fa which was based on the Norwich Sol-fa teaching method devised by Sarah Anna Glover (1786 - 1867).

A more complete account of John Curwen's life can be found in 'Memorials of John Curwen' compiled by his son, J. Spencer Curwen, published in 1882 by J. Curwen & Sons and printed at the Tonic Sol-fa Press in Plaistow[1].

John Curwen was born 14 November 1816 at Hurst House in Heckmondwike, Yorkshire and christened 11 March 1817 at Lower Chapel Independent in Liversedge, Yorkshire[2] by Rev Thomas Hale of the Upper Chapel. John's birth was registered on 15 May 1821 in the parish of Birstall[3]. He was the eldest son of the Rev Spedding Curwen, an independent minister of an old Cumberland family, and Mary Jubb.

John's father was Independent minister at Heckmondwike, Yorkshire when he married Mary Jubb in 1814. Mary was a woman of education and culture; and had been engaged in teaching before her marriage and which she resumed afterwards. John's elder sister, Mary Jubb Corwen, died a few months after John was born. His father resigned the pastorate of the Lower Chapel at the end of 1817 and moved to Cottingham, Yorkshire where he held a similar post. It was here that Mary died after a long illness, leaving her sons John and Tom, born in Cottingham, to mourn their loss with their father. At the beginning of 1824, their father moved to Barbican Chapel, London and took a house near London Fields, Hackney where the boys were sent to a boarding school at Ham near Twickenham. In the summer of 1828, they moved to Frome, Somerset where John's father became the minister of Zion Chapel. They remained there for the next 11 years.

At the age of 16, John entered Wymondley Independent College in Wymondley, Hertfordshire, a Dissenting Academy, to prepare for the independent ministry. A few months after his entrance as a student, the college was moved to London and changed its name to Coward College. Here, the students attended the newly-founded University College on Gower Street for classics and mathematics; and studied divinity under their own tutors. John looked back at these times with delight as they mixed with the larger life of a nonsectarian college gaining both toleration and culture. This is where John showed his intense interest in teaching children and developed his 'Look and Say' method of teaching reading. John studied the writings of progressive teachers of the day and this had a major influence on all his future work.

In 1838, John was appointed assistant minister at the Independent Chapel in Basingstoke, Hampshire where he also kept a small school. It was from here that he was invited to lecture elsewhere on educational matters. In 1841, he took up a new post as co-pastor at the Independent Chapel in Stowmarket, Suffolk. He became more involved in educational matters and his health began to suffer with this additional responsibility. After 18 months at Stowmarket, with his health deteriorating further, he resigned his pastorate and moved in with his father at Reading, Berkshire. With his health restored, John resumed his ministerial duty in early 1844 by accepting a new pastorate at the Independent Chapel in Plaistow, Essex where he remained until 1864.

During his life at Basingstoke, John became acquainted with Mr T Vanner and his family, and to one of the daughters of this gentleman, Fanny Vanner, he became engaged. However, she died of consumption soon into the engagement, her death having been preceded by that of a younger sister, Nelly. It was the short life of Nelly Vanner and her death, that tempted John into his first serious effort at authorship. 'The History of Nelly Vanner' was a great success and passed through 14 editions. It was a child's book, and was written at a time when there were few books for children. The child's point of view is taken and was written in language that a child could easily understand. John was soon invited to address meetings and conferences of teachers outlining his progressive teaching views.

At an early stage in his ministerial career he showed a great interest in teaching and it was this which drew his attention to the educational value of music. Though he himself was an amateur, it led him to the elaboration of the system with which his name is chiefly connected. In autumn 1841, he attended a conference of Sunday School teachers in Hull where school and congregational singing was discussed. John was requested to recommend the best and simplest way of teaching music. He appealed to others for guidance on this and received a copy of a book that outlined a new method of teaching music to children written by Sarah Glover, the daughter of a clergyman, who taught a very successful system of musical instruction in Norwich. This led to the partial adoption of Sarah Glover's system and a series of articles written in 1842 advocating the tonic sol-fa system. In June 1843, the first edition of John Curwen's 'Singing for Schools and Congregations' appeared and this led to the rapid adoption of the system.

John married a year after arriving in Plaistow and used what spare time he could find on music by only revising his earlier book. The new edition was ready for publication by 1848, and John and his wife agreed to risk their combined savings to publish it with a new title of 'A Grammar of Vocal Music'. For the next 6 years, John personally campaigned to make Tonic Sol-fa more widely known with lectures, classes and publications of which the following are some examples:

In November 1855, he was obliged to tender his resignation due to his failing health but was persuaded to postpone his resignation and to take a long holiday instead. In April 1856, John and his family left England and spent seven months at Langen Schwalbach, at Ziegelhausen on the Neckar, and in Switzerland. His letters from these places were afterwards published as 'Sketches in Nassau, Baden and Switzerland' in 1857. On his return he devoted himself to the study of harmony, and in 1861 he issued a small work on the subject, which was followed by the establishment of 'correspondence classes' for teaching isolated students. On the outbreak of the American war he sided with the North, publishing various tracts, and organised the first Freed Slaves' Aid Society in England. He also set to work on a series of manuals of instrumental music, and in order to facilitate their printing, established a press at Plaistow, where most of his future publications appeared. In 1864, John resigned his ministry and devoted himself entirely to music. He continued to lecture throughout the kingdom, and in the winter of 1866-7 was appointed the Euing lectureship in music at Anderson's College, Glasgow.

In 1864, John announced in the 'Tonic Solfa Reporter' his intention to improve the movement's teachers with the formation of a 'Tonic Solfa School' concerned with the training and examining of music teachers. It was 10 years later in 1874 that he affirmed this ambition to establish a permanent college and he launched a campaign to raise the money for this purpose. It took until 1879 to raise the funds and building work commenced on a site purchased at Forest Gate. On 14 May 1879, John laid the foundation stone inscribed to the memory of Sarah Glover who had died in 1867. The first wing of the building opened in July 1879. The Tonic Sol-fa College became the headquarters of the movement.

John continued to correspond with Sarah Glover throughout her life and described her work in an article in the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter for December 1867 on the occasion of her death. He did often acknowledge the origins of the Tonic Sol-fa system in papers and lectures. He visited her in her 82nd year and in conversation referred to some charges of plagiarism made by a French musical journal. Sarah replied "Do not concern yourself to vindicate my originality, let the question be, not who was the first to invent it, but is the thing itself good and true and useful to the world".

In June 1842, John gave a series of lectures to Sunday School teachers in Manchester and Salford and at the first lecture, the chairman of the lecture, Joseph Thompson, invited John to stay with him. Joseph Thompson had two unmarried daughters living at home and John fell in love with the younger of the two daughters, Mary. The union was opposed for some time by Joseph and his wife solely because of his slender means but eventually they gave way and allowed the engagement to proceed.[9]

John's wife died on 17 January 1880 at the age of 59[15] and in May he went to Manchester to visit a sick brother-in-law. He stayed at Heaton House in Heaton Mersey, Lancashire and it was here that he was suddenly taken ill and died after a few days illness on 26 May 1880 at the age of 63[16]. The funeral took place at the City of London Cemetery in Ilford, Essex on the Thursday afternoon of 3rd June 1880 where a large number of friends assembled, estimated at two to three thousand persons.

John Curwen is remembered in Heckmondwike with a memorial in Green Park and by Curwen Crescent. The Spen Fame Trail managed by the Spen Valley Civic Society commemorates John Curwen with Plaque 17 at Heckmondwike Green. In Plaistow, he is remembered by Curwen Primary School and Curwen Community Centre. Curwen Primary School celebrated the 200th birthday of John Curwen. A website developed by Dr Robin Stevens also commemorates the Curwen Bicentenary. A commemorative plaque by the Basingstoke Heritage Society can be seen on the URC Church in London Street, Basingstoke where John Curwen was a minister.

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