© National Portrait Gallery, London
Samuel Wesley by William
Dickinson, published in 1778
by J. Walker, after John Russell
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There was an abortive attempt to
organise another festival in 1861 which
failed due to the rivalry between the city’s
two choral societies, the Leeds Choral
Society led by Robert Senior Burton iv and
William Spark’s own Madrigal and Motet
Society, and so it was not until 1873 that
another festival got underway.
The musical director of these first festivals
was the eminent London conductor (and
Freemason) Sir Michael Costa. He and
William Spark first met in 1852 in Bradford
when the foundation stone of St George’s
Hall was laid, an event conducted with full
Masonic ceremonial. They met again at the
first Bradford Music Festival in the following
year. Spark was the younger of the two men
by about 10 years and admits in his book
Musical Memories that he felt somewhat
frightened by Costa’s austere manner and
sharp conversation.
A shared love of music and possibly also
their Freemasonry brought the two men
closer: Spark was later invited to dine with
Costa at his house in Eccleston Square in
London and Costa travelled to Leeds for
Spark’s installation as Master. Spark believed
that Costa was “the most popular chef
d’orchestre that ever resided in England”.
The exhibition also addresses the question
of what is the future of Lodge music. Pipe
organs are steadily disappearing from Masonic
halls to be replaced by electronic keyboards
and the declining number of organists means
that even these keyboards become redundant
and are replaced by a CD player.
Although the pipe organs installed in
Masonic halls were often modest affairs
designed to support corporate singing, a
modern researcher has recently called for
them to be recorded on the National Pipe
Organ Register even if they cannot be
retained.
“The tonal consistency of these modest
English instruments, by whichever organ
builder, across many decades and in all parts
of the country, makes it possible to view
these Masonic pipe organs of the 19th and
early 20th centuries as a distinct type. They
not only represent a significant part of
English Freemasonry’s cultural heritage but,
arguably, they also make a distinctive
contribution to the nation’s wider cultural
heritage. However, as a consequence of
their private location and their modest scale,
these instruments have been overlooked by
the organ cognoscenti, and are unlikely to
compete successfully for public funding
towards the cost of their maintenance or
restoration. Indeed, it is the costs of
maintaining these otherwise modest and
unremarkable instruments that has led to
many being removed and replaced by
electronic alternatives, without any
systematic attempt to record what is lost” v
Some pipe organs have been preserved.
One example is the organ by Norman and
Beard Ltd of London (1912) in the Lodge
room known as The Greek Temple, at the
Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street
Station, London. This imposing and highly
decorated Edwardian space is Grade 1 listed
and so the survival of its otherwise typically
modest Masonic pipe organ has been
guaranteed by its being integral to the Lodge
room’s original design.
Despite the completeness of the furniture
and fittings in this Lodge room it is no
longer used for Masonic meetings, but the
instrument is intact and playable. At
Freemasons’ Hall itself, a fine one-manual
chamber organ c. 1793 in an attractive
mahogany case, by Robert & William Gray
of London, is currently being carefully
restored by Michael Broadway for use in
Lodge Room 3.
The Freemasons’ Liber Musicus
exhibition runs until May at the Library and
Museum.
This article draws on a talk given by the author,
who is Director of the Library & Museum of
Freemasonry, to Leeds and District Lodge of
Installed Masters No. 7918 in March 2005.
References
i. Robert Dennis Chantrell (1793-1872) was briefly
a member of Lodge of Fidelity in 1838-39, then
Savile Lodge (then No. 677) from 1839-45,
joining from Lodge of Unanimity No 179 in
Wakefield.
ii. Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) was
initiated in Palladian Lodge No. 141 (now No.
120), Hereford on 17 September 1833 (shown as
Westley in the register) and joined St George’s
Lodge No. 129 (now No. 112) in Exeter on 10
December 1835. He resigned in 1840. No details
of any Lodge memberships in Leeds are known.
iii. J W Reddyhoff, History of the Lodge of Fidelity
No 289: 1792-1992, (Leeds, 1994).
iv. Robert Senior Burton (1820-1892) was initiated
in Lodge of Fidelity in 1845 but his membership
appears to have lapsed the following year.
v. Andrew Pink, English Masonic Lodges, Pipe
Organs and National Heritage 2007
http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk. The author wishes to
acknowledge Andrew’s work in the preparation
of this article.
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