Hullah, John (EN)

Hullah John Pyke, *27 June 1812 Worcester, †21 February 1884 London, English teacher, composer, and organist. He began his musical education in 1829 in the piano and composition class of W. Horsley. In 1833 he studied singing with D. Crivelli at the Royal Academy of Music. He was involved in composition only in the early period. He wrote the opera The Village Coquettes staged in London on 5 December 1836 at St. James’s Theatre to a libretto by Ch. Dickens (60 performances; the score was destroyed in a fire at a theatre in Edinburgh). Two subsequent operas staged at Covent Garden – The Barbes of Bassora (comic opera, staged on 11 November 1837) and The Outpost (staged on 17 May 1838) – were unsuccessful. In 1837 Hullah became organist at Croydon Church. Under the influence of an article by H.F. Chorley published in “The Athenaeum” on the widespread teaching of singing in France, he became interested in vocal pedagogy. In 1839, in Paris, he became practically acquainted with the system of music education developed by G.L. Wilhem, and subsequently began to promote this system in England. In 1840, on the initiative of the educator and director J.K. Shuttleworth, Hullah began teaching singing at the newly opened teacher training college in Battersea (now University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth). The impressive results of instruction encouraged the educational authorities to open in 1841, under Hullah’s direction, a singing school for teachers at Exeter Hall in London, and subsequently in Manchester as well as in most public schools, including Eton, Winchester, Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors’, and King’s College in London.

In 1842, in the pages of the “Westminster Review”, W.E. Hickson critically assessed the Hullah–Wilhem system. This system consisted in teaching sight-reading using solmization, but always in reference to the key of C major. Despite the criticism, Hullah published in 1843 a textbook that became compulsory in schools, while his school at Exeter Hall prospered until 1849, training numerous teachers. The school also ran classes for amateur singers; there was also a student choir conducted by Hullah; in 1847, among other initiatives, a series of historical concerts was organized illustrating, in chronological order, the beginnings and development of English vocal music. At the same time, from 1844 to 1874 Hullah was professor of vocal music at King’s College, later also at Queen’s College and Bedford College in London. He also taught in six London teacher training colleges. In October 1849 he began to conduct classes at St Martin’s Hall in Long Acre, in a building officially opened on 11 February 1850, specially erected as a centre for the choral movement. In 1860 the building was completely destroyed by fire, which was a misfortune for Hullah, who bore serious financial obligations connected with its construction.

After the death of W. Horsley in 1858, Hullah assumed and held until his death the post of organist at Charterhouse, where he had already (since 1841) supervised the singing class. In 1861 he delivered a series of lectures on the history of modern music at the Royal Institution. In 1864 he lectured at the University of Edinburgh. In 1866–67 he conducted concerts at the Edinburgh Philharmonic, and in the following year he received a medal at the Paris Exhibition, though without satisfaction, as a similar medal was awarded to the Chevé system of singing instruction, which he regarded as outdated. In 1870–73 Hullah was conductor of student concerts at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1872 he was appointed government inspector for music. In 1877 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. In 1878 he became a member of the Società di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Istituto Musicale in Florence. For many years he directed the annual concert of children from metropolitan schools at the Crystal Palace. In 1878 he presented a paper on music education at the Social Science Association in Cheltenham, and in the same year he undertook a foreign journey to prepare a report on the state of music education in continental schools. In 1880 and again in 1883 he suffered strokes that caused paralysis, which ultimately contributed to his death. He published many books and articles on vocal pedagogy and music theory, as well as numerous collections of choral works; he composed mainly songs, about 50 of which were published. His editorial work was of greater significance. He wrote for “The Saturday Review” from 1855, and later for “The Guardian” and “Fraser’s Magazine”. He served as the model for the character Lenharty Davy in E. S. Sheppard’s novel Charles Auchester.

Hullah’s activity earned him among his contemporaries the title “apostle of music.” He contributed to securing a permanent place for music in school curricula and, above all, to the development of the amateur choral movement in England. The Hullah–Wilhem system was soon supplanted by the Tonic Sol-fa system, developed in parallel but not previously supported by the government, and promoted in England by J. Curwen.

Literature: [F. Hullah] Life of John Hullah, London 1886, e-book Cambridge 2013; Dickens’s correspondence with John Hullah: hitherto unpublished from the Collection of Count de Suzannet, ed. W. Dexter, London 1933, B. Rainbow The Land without Music. Musical Education in England, London 1967, D. Leinster-Mackay John Hullah, John Curwen and Sarah Glover: A Classic Case of ‘Whiggery’ in the History of Musical Education?, “British Journal of Educational Studies” XXIX no. 2 (1981), pp. 164–167; B. Rainbow Four centuries of music teaching manuals, 1518–1932 , Woodbridge 2009; D. Southern John Ruskin and the Choral Master John Pyke Hullah, “Carlyle Studies Annual” XXVII (2001), pp. 243–247.