The Apollonicon; or, Musical Album; An Interesting Harmonic Miscellany (London: sold by Clementi & Co., W. Hawes, and Keith & Co., 1832), title page (detail).
This list of professors and teachers of the harp, appended to The Apollonicon; or, Musical Album (London: sold by Clementi & Co., W. Hawes, and Keith & Co., 1832), is reproduced here with the aim of helping to identify and locate harpists and teachers whose names appear in concert announcements and reviews, harp makers’ ledgers, published tutors, and other sources. It is noteworthy that several taught both the harp and pianoforte; as each teacher appears only once, they are presumably listed according to their principal instrument.
Geographical scope
While the list of professional harp teachers encompasses fashionable suburbs such Kensington and Knightsbridge to the west and Regent’s Park Village and Islington to the north, that of pianoforte teachers reaches more widely, to more recently developed and mostly less affluent areas: Camden Town to the north; Hackney, Hoxton and Poplar to the east; and, to the south of the River Thames, Brixton Road, Kent Road, Camberwell, and Walworth. Of those in the piano list who also taught the harp, some are in less central areas than most in the harp list, such as St John's Wood and Edgware Road.
Gender and versatility
While acknowledging that the publishers' criteria for inclusion are unknown and that this single source will need to be compared with others, it is possible to make initial observations about gender, and professional specialism and versatility.
Note: the compiler of the list appears consistently to have given the title of women (Miss or Mrs), but did so only rarely for men (Mr or Dr). That this distinction might not be completely reliable is exemplified by the ‘Dulcken’ of Howland Street in the piano list; this might be either [Marie] Louise Dulcken (1811- 50), née David, who arrived in London soon after her marriage in 1828 and could already have been established as a teacher at 21 (she had performed a concerto by Herz at the Philharmonic Society on 1 March 1830, and was later in great demand as a teacher and taught Queen Victoria) or her husband. In accordance with the principle apparently intended, she is not counted here among the female teachers; this may be allowed for in considering the numbers and percentages of female piano teachers.
The harp list has 36 entries, of which one, for the Misses Miles, is plural. Counting the Misses Miles as two gives a total of 37 who primarily taught the harp; there were 9 female (24%), 8 'Miss' and 1 'Mrs', and 28 male (76%) teachers.
Of the male harp teachers: 4 also taught the piano, 2 singing, and 2 the violin.
Of the female harp teachers: 2 also taught the piano, 2 singing, and none the violin.
Taking account of the versatility of Parry junior (the only person to offer harp, singing and piano), 4 women and 6 men advertised at least one additional skill. There is notable versatility among the women: the proportion of women listed primarily as harp teachers who also advertised a second instrument or taught singing (44%) is significantly higher than that of men (21%).
The pianoforte list has 130 entries, 19 female (14.6%) and 111 male (85.4%). Of these, 9 (6.9%) also taught the harp: 3 female (2 Miss, 1 Mrs) and 6 male. Again there is a correlation between gender and versatility: of those listed primarily as piano teachers who also taught the harp, a higher proportion were women (15.8%) than men (5.4%).
While several piano teachers, including two women (Miss Caney and Miss Furrian), also taught 'thorough bass' or 'theory', none of those also teaching the harp did so.
Summary totals, combining the harp and pianoforte lists:
Total of harp teachers: 46 (9 as their second instrument)
of whom 12 (26%) female
34 (74%) male
Total of piano teachers: 136 (6 as their second instrument)
of whom 21 (15%) female
115 (85%) male
Total of teachers of harp and/or piano: 167
of whom 17% female
83% male
