The Naughty Nineties Music Hall And The Close Of Two Empires

FLORENCE FARR: ‘THE NEW WOMAN’ 

Actor, writer and director Florence Farr was a renaissance woman of the 1890s. An intimate of George Bernard Shaw, who called her ‘The New Woman’, and WB Yeats, she was a feminist who led by example. She also was a priestess of The Golden Dawn, a secret society whose members included Yeats, Shaw and theatre impresario Annie Horniman. THE BRITISH MUSIC HALL Music Hall was the dominant form of British popular entertainment in the late nineteenth century. Halls varied widely in size and glamour and attracted all echelons of society. Performers like Marie Lloyd and Vesta Tilley were household names and commanded enormous salaries. Popular culture starts here. 

ELLIS ISLAND: GATEWAY TO AMERICA –

Beginning in 1890, New York’s Ellis Island Immigration Station was the point of entry into the USA of over ten million people. Many were fleeing persecution and oppression; most had had an arduous journey across the Atlantic; all wanted a new life. A significant number went on to reach of the top of their profession - particularly in the entertainment industry.

THE BIRTH OF THE BLUES: THE ROOTS OF BLACK MUSIC 

Twenty-five years on from the abolition of slavery, black Americans were finally taking control of their own music. There were hints still of work songs - even distant echoes of African music - but Emancipation allowed the development of gospel, blues and ragtime - an important precursor of the jazz which followed ten years later. The reverberations are still being felt. 

THE NOT-SO-BELLE EPOQUE 

The 1890s saw peace descend on Western Europe; people spent freely, not least on frivolity; it was also an era of scientific and technological advancement. On the surface music reflected these apparently good times but as the fin-de-siècle loomed nearer, an edginess and ambiguity crept in that before long had turned into radical new departures.

FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY: THE EMPIRE LEICESTER SQUARE 

Fin de Siècle - exactly what it was. The Old Queen was on her way out with the millennium.  The map of the world that was painted red was slowly losing its glow as competition from other would-be imperialists increased. With a focus on Africa and naval competition the sun was setting on the British Empire. The Boer War was a symptom of an ailing geopolitical ambition. There were new kids on the block as the collapse of empires in the Far East and Europe warned that they had begun to outlive their purpose.

A WALK ON THE DARK SIDE: IMMIGRATION AND JACK THE RIPPER 

As the coming storm of the First World War approached and Europe seemed to be riven with strife and imperial decline minorities and majorities looked for a safe haven from persecution and a golden future. Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Jews, and indigenous Europeans started to criss cross the world looking for the elusive dream of prosperity and security. They came in their thousands to Britain, some thinking they had landed in America. Others successfully crossed the Atlantic to the Goldener Medina, the United States of America. They brought skills talent and labour with them – but the body kept trying to reject them. They lived in poverty stricken ghettos an incubation atmosphere for both talent and violence.

THE WHIPLASH OF CREATIVITY: ART NOUVEAU 

In a brief period of perhaps twenty years a style made itself uniquely global as the world of art seemed to coalesce on a form that is placed in the fin de siècle and yet in contradictory terms is called “Art Nouveau” The name varied from county to country. Jugendstil in German speaking countries, Stile Liberty in Italy, Modernism in Spain, Modern Stye in England along with a parallel universe of Arts and Crafts. A phenomenon of a style that inhabited every aspect of life from humble kitchen implements to excessively decorated hand-crafted furniture. Buildings were adorned with organic decorations and the battle was on between the functional and the beautiful 

THE SCAPEGOAT COMPLEX:   MY REPUTATION, OH MY REPUTATION    DREYFUS

As the struggle for world dominance became more and more apparent some societies turned inwards on themselves driven by a resurgence of Populist Racism. In the heat of trade and military competition a number of European nations determined that their form of government and cultural traditions were under attack. Reaching back to historical “greatness” they were determined to expel the corruption from the social and political motherland. This was no time for “other” and in France a Jewish soldier became the centre of a scandal that divided the nation.

THE GILDED AGE:  ECONOMIC DECLINE AND SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION 

The 1890s heralded in a new age of worldwide economic depression in which the response was escapism. This showed itself in the form of entertainment, of decoration, and significant social strain in terms of moral conduct. Yet at the same time it was an age of rapid progress in railways, motor cars, electricity, and on the cusp of the new millennium the first flight by mankind. This was a time of giant ships crossing the high seas and wireless telegraphy heralding a new age of communication…a second Industrial Revolution 

The five sessions are as follows: 

7th Jan

14th Jan

21st Jan

28th Jan

4th Feb