The Guitar in Victorian England : A Social and Musical History

The guitar could be taken anywhere: a boat, a village hall, a workhouse. Its social and musical history therefore touches upon many aspects of Victorian life such as the growth of leisure activities, the rise of music hall, parish entertainments for good causes and the freedoms newly enjoyed by women.

In 1893 Clara Lindow sang the ballad Dreamtide to her own guitar accompaniment in the Cumbrian hamlet of Lowick. A writer for the local newspaper not only admired her ''marked skill and ability'' but also considered the concert to be a sign of ''the onward march of light and learning in our time''. Amateurs like Miss Lindow were at the heart of a Victorian revival of guitar playing, especially for accompanying the voice, which has never been fully acknowledged and has often been denied. This book is a ground-breaking history of the guitar and its players during the era when the Victorians were making modern Britain. The abundant newspaper record of the period, much of which is now searchable with digital tools, reveals an increasingly buoyant guitar scene from the 1860s onwards. No part of Victorian life, from palace to pavement, remained untouched by the revival.