# Promenade concert > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Promenade_concert > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Promenade_concert.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promenade_concert > Source revision: 1235889329 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Musical performance}} {{for|the 1950s Canadian TV series|Promenade Concert}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{more footnotes|date=October 2011}} '''Promenade concerts''' were musical performances in the 18th and 19th century [pleasure garden](/source/pleasure_garden)s of [London](/source/London), where the audience would stroll about while listening to the music. The term derives from the French ''se promener'', "to walk". Today, the term ''promenade concert'' is often associated with the [BBC Proms](/source/the_Proms) summer [classical music](/source/classical_music) concert series founded in 1895 by [Robert Newman](/source/Robert_Newman_(impresario)) and the [conductor](/source/Conducting) [Henry Wood](/source/Henry_Wood).Jennifer Ruth Doctor, David C. H. Wright, Nicholas Kenyon: [https://books.google.com/books?id=GEYXAQAAIAAJ ''The Proms: A New History''] (2007) == Eighteenth century == [[File:Microcosm of London Plate 089 - Vauxhall Garden edited.jpg|thumb|right|Vauxhall Gardens, from the ''[Microcosm of London](/source/Microcosm_of_London)'', 1810]] Pleasure gardens, which levied a small entrance fee and provided a variety of entertainment, had become extremely popular in [London](/source/London) by the eighteenth century. Music was provided from [bandstand](/source/bandstand)s (known as ‘’orchestras’’) or more permanent buildings, and was generally of the popular variety: [ballroom dances](/source/ballroom_dances), [quadrilles](/source/quadrilles) ([medley](/source/wiktionary%3AMedley)s), [cornet](/source/cornet) solos etc. Other entertainments would have included [fireworks](/source/fireworks), [masquerade](/source/Masquerade_ball)s and [acrobatics](/source/acrobatics). There were 38 gardens which are known to have provided music. Perhaps the most famous of these were [Vauxhall Gardens](/source/Vauxhall_Gardens) (1661–1859), south of the [Thames](/source/Thames). Known at first as New Spring Gardens this was the favourite haunt of diarists [Samuel Pepys](/source/Samuel_Pepys) and [John Evelyn](/source/John_Evelyn). The music of [Handel](/source/Handel) was very popular here in the eighteenth century, and in 1738 there was even a statue erected of Handel playing the [lyre](/source/lyre). The Gardens were described as fashionable in the late 18th and early 19th century by [Fanny Burney](/source/Fanny_Burney) and [William Thackeray](/source/William_Thackeray). [Aristocracy](/source/Aristocracy) and [royalty](/source/Royal_family) mingled with the ordinary folk. On 21 April 1749 twelve thousand people paid 2s 6d each to hear Handel rehearsing his ''[Music for the Royal Fireworks](/source/Music_for_the_Royal_Fireworks)'' in Vauxhall Gardens, causing a three-hour traffic jam on [London Bridge](/source/London_Bridge). The music had been commissioned by the king in celebration of the [Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle](/source/Treaty_of_Aix-la-Chapelle_(1748)). The performance six days later in [Green Park](/source/Green_Park) was even more spectacular, especially when the building caught fire. The composer Dr [Thomas Arne](/source/Thomas_Arne) was appointed composer of Vauxhall Gardens in 1745. It was here that many of his [songs](/source/songs) achieved their great popularity. The musicians were housed in a covered building while the audience strolled outside. In the nineteenth century Sir [Henry Bishop](/source/Henry_Bishop_(composer)) was the official composer to the Gardens. Many of his songs, which include "[Home! Sweet Home!](/source/Home!_Sweet_Home!)", were performed there. Vauxhall Gardens remained a national institution until 1859.David Coke, Alan Borg. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=idsdkgAACAAJ Vauxhall Gardens: A History]'' (2011) Another prestige venue for promenade concerts was [Ranelagh Gardens](/source/Ranelagh_Gardens) (1742–1803). Here both musicians and audience were under cover in a gigantic [Georgian](/source/Georgian_period_in_British_history) [rotunda](/source/Rotunda_(architecture)) which can be seen in a painting of [Canaletto](/source/Canaletto) in the [National Gallery](/source/National_Gallery_(London)). It was here that [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](/source/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart) performed on the [harpsichord](/source/harpsichord) and [organ](/source/Organ_(music)) as a [child prodigy](/source/child_prodigy) in 1764. [Joseph Haydn](/source/Joseph_Haydn), too, appeared here during his visits to London. == Nineteenth century == [[File:Hengler's promenade concerts - Evanion collection (c.1880) - BL.jpg|thumb|right|A c. 1880 poster for promenade concerts at [Hengler's Circus](/source/Hengler's_Circus), on the site of the present-day London Palladium]] The term "promenade concert" seems to have been first used in England in 1838 when London’s [Lyceum Theatre](/source/Lyceum_Theatre%2C_London) announced ‘Promenade Concerts à la Musard’. [Philippe Musard](/source/Philippe_Musard) was a [French](/source/French_people) musician who had introduced open-air concerts in the [English](/source/English_people) style in [Paris](/source/Paris). Musard came to [England](/source/England) in 1840 to conduct concerts in the Lyceum Theatre. His programmes consisted of [overtures](/source/overtures), [waltzes](/source/waltzes), popular instrumental solos and [quadrilles](/source/quadrilles). The success of these concerts led to further musical promenade concerts, both in London and other places including [Bath](/source/Bath%2C_Somerset) and [Birmingham](/source/Birmingham). The [Crown and Anchor Tavern](/source/Crown_and_Anchor_Tavern) in the [Strand](/source/Strand%2C_London) gave a series of concerts with the band of the Theatre Royal, [Drury Lane](/source/Drury_Lane) under the direction of [Henri Valentino](/source/Henri_Valentino). In 1840 [Edward Eliason](/source/Edward_Eliason), leader of the orchestra of Drury Lane Theatre, started a series of ''Concerts d’été'' with an orchestra of nearly a hundred players. Soon there was also a series of ‘’Concerts d’hiver’’ under [Louis Antoine Jullien](/source/Louis_Antoine_Jullien) (1812–1860). Jullien was a sound musician whose performances were combined with outrageous showmanship: [Beethoven](/source/Beethoven) was conducted with a jewelled baton. With his extravagant clothing and long black hair and moustache he would go through a series of antics including having his white kid gloves brought to him on a silver [salver](/source/salver). He conducted with his back to the orchestra in order to face his audience, and his orchestra were often joined by the bands of the [Royal Artillery](/source/Royal_Artillery) or drummers from the [French Garde Nationale](/source/National_Guard_(France)). He died in a [lunatic asylum](/source/lunatic_asylum).[Carse, Adam](/source/Adam_Carse). ''The Life of Jullien'' (1951), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/730600 reviewed in ''Music & Letters'', Vol 34 No 1, January 1953] Jullien was succeeded by the English conductor [Alfred Mellon](/source/Alfred_Mellon) (1820–1867), and then [Luigi Arditi](/source/Luigi_Arditi) (1822–1903). Another notable conductor was [August Manns](/source/August_Manns) (1825–1907) who is associated with the Saturday concerts at [London’s Crystal Palace](/source/The_Crystal_Palace), the enormous glass building which housed the [Great Exhibition](/source/Great_Exhibition) in 1851.Wyndham, Henry Saxe. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aatZAQAAQBAJ August Manns and the Saturday Concerts]'' (2013) == Repertoire == The pleasure gardens were the chief institutions for the performance of music by English composers. Songs and vocal pieces were composed especially for them. [Strophic](/source/Strophic) [ballads](/source/ballads) were the staple diet. The songs were often on [pastoral](/source/pastoral) subjects, or [drinking songs](/source/drinking_songs), hunting songs or even songs on morbid subjects. Two famous songs written for the gardens were Arne's [Shakespeare](/source/Shakespeare) setting ''Where the bee sucks'', and [Charles Edward Horn](/source/Charles_Edward_Horn)'s setting of [Herrick](/source/Robert_Herrick_(poet))’s ''Cherry Ripe''. Gradually opera started to influence the style of music, and larger concerted pieces would be heard. Choruses from Handel's [oratorios](/source/oratorios) were often included. Instrumental music included the popular [concerto](/source/concerto). Organ music was played between the acts of [ballad opera](/source/ballad_opera)s (Vauxhall and Ranelagh both had organs installed). [Cremorne Gardens](/source/Cremorne_Gardens%2C_London) (1836–78) became Ranelagh’s natural successor in Chelsea during the Victorian period, presenting works by [Boieldieu](/source/Boieldieu), [Auber](/source/Daniel_Auber) and [Offenbach](/source/Jacques_Offenbach) in the 1870s.[https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2252166 Smolko, Joanna R. 'Pleasure Garden' in ''Oxford Music Online''] In the late 19th century concerts under August Manns explored works by well-known composers: [Brahms](/source/Johannes_Brahms), [Liszt](/source/Franz_Liszt), [Mendelssohn](/source/Felix_Mendelssohn), [Schubert](/source/Franz_Schubert), [Schumann](/source/Robert_Schumann), [Smetana](/source/Bed%C5%99ich_Smetana) and [Wagner](/source/Richard_Wagner). London audiences were starting to become more discerning and exploratory. In 1895 [Henry Wood](/source/Henry_Wood_(conductor)) began the series of promenade concerts that continue today as the [BBC Proms](/source/BBC_Proms). From the middle of the 20th century, open-air summer concerts at English country houses have revived the original tradition of the London pleasure gardens. ==See also== *{{wikt-inline|promenade concert}} ==Further reading== *David Cox: The Henry Wood Proms; British Broadcasting Corporation 1980; {{ISBN|978-0-563-17697-8}} *Article: “London” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie 1980; {{ISBN|978-1-56159-174-9}} *Michel Faul : Louis Jullien, musique, spectacle et folie au XIXe siècle - atlantica (2006){{ISBN|978-2-35165-038-7}}. See specific site : *Article: "Jullien et les concerts promenades: invention ou réalité de l'exportation d'une tradition française" in Le théâtre français à l'étranger au XIXe siècle, edited by Jean-Claude Yon, Nuveau Monde édition, {{ISBN|978-2-84736-364-7}} == References == {{Reflist}} ==External links== *http://www.vauxhallandkennington.org.uk/sgdetail.shtml *http://louisjullien.site.voila.fr Category:Classical music in London Category:Former parks and open spaces of London Category:Music performance --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Promenade concert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promenade_concert) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promenade_concert?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.