BBC Radio 3 The Essay: The Music Appreciation Movement

In the early twentieth century a prominent British movement sprang up under the title 'Music Appreciation', with the aims of introducing to 'ordinary' listeners 'great' or 'serious' music, and teaching them 'the art of listening'. Radio became a chief means by which this misson was to be accomplished, while books, adult education courses and regional 'Music Travellers', also contributed to a new educational field. In this series of four essays, musicologist and cultural historian Richard Witts explains the movement's origins, ambitions and idiosyncrasies, and clarifies why it fell out of favour in the second half of the twentieth century.