Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/359

 to recommend the best and simplest way of teaching music. This led to an examination and partial adoption of Miss Glover's system, which was embodied in a series of articles on ‘Singing’ in the ‘Independent Magazine’ for 1842, in which the tonic sol-fa system was first advocated by Curwen. In the same year he became engaged to Miss Mary Thompson of Manchester, to whom he was married in May 1845. In June 1843 the first edition of Curwen's ‘Grammar of Vocal Music’ appeared, and from this time the adoption of the system spread with astonishing rapidity. About 1849–50 Curwen was engaged in compiling the ‘People's Service of Song,’ the tunes of which were harmonised by Mr. G. Hogarth, and at the same time he advocated the tonic sol-fa system in a series of papers which appeared in Cassell's ‘Popular Educator.’ In 1853 he delivered a course of lectures at Crosby Hall, which first called public attention to the system. At this time it was estimated that two thousand persons were engaged in learning the tonic sol-fa method; ten years later the number had increased to 186,000, while at the present day there are a million and a half of children learning to sing by this system in the elementary schools alone. In 1853 Curwen started the ‘Tonic Sol-fa Reporter,’ and in 1855 visited Scotland, lecturing on the new system. In April 1856 he was compelled by ill-health to leave England for seven months, which he spent at Langen Schwalbach, at Ziegelhausen on the Neckar, and in Switzerland. His letters from these places were afterwards published as ‘Sketches in Nassau, Baden, and Switzerland,’ 1857. On his return he devoted himself to the study of harmony, and in 1861 he issued a small work on the subject, which was followed by the establishment of ‘correspondence classes’ for teaching isolated students. In 1862 he visited Ireland, and in the same year read a paper on the tonic sol-fa system at the Social Science Congress in London. On the outbreak of the American war he sided ardently with the North, publishing various tracts on the subject, and organising the first Freed Slaves' Aid Society in England. About 1863 he recognised what was really the great danger of his system, viz. that it led to imperfect musical culture, and he henceforth devoted all his energy to raising the general standard of musical education among both teachers and students of the tonic sol-fa method. He also set to work on a series of manuals of instrumental music, and, in order to facilitate their printing, established a press at Plaistow, where most of his future publications appeared. In 1864 Curwen resigned his ministry and devoted himself entirely to music. He continued to lecture throughout the kingdom, and in the winter of 1866–7 was appointed Euing lecturer at Anderson's College, Glasgow. In 1870 he was elected a member of the school board of West Ham, on which he served for three years. In the autumn of 1873 he acted as one of the judges at the Welsh National Eisteddfod at Mold; in the following year he became engaged in a controversy with the education department, owing to the appointment as inspector of music in training colleges of Mr. Hullah [q. v.], who was notoriously hostile to the tonic sol-fa system. The opposition he met with here led eventually to the foundation of the Tonic Sol-fa College (incorporated in 1875), an examining body founded on a popular basis, which, by a system of certificates, chiefly granted by local examiners appointed by the college, insures that a certain standard of efficiency shall be attained by the teachers of the system. The first wing of the building was opened in 1879. On 17 Jan. 1880 Curwen sustained a great blow in the loss of his wife. In May he went to Manchester to visit a sick brother-in-law. He stayed at Heaton House, Heaton Mersey, Lancashire, and here he was suddenly taken ill, and after a few days' illness died on Wednesday, 26 May. He was buried at Ilford cemetery on 3 June. A portrait of him, presented as a testimonial in 1874, is now at the Tonic Sol-fa College. In addition to those already mentioned, the following are some of Curwen's chief works: 1. ‘Nelly Vanner,’ 1840. 2. ‘Child's own Hymn Book,’ 1841. 3. ‘Look and Say Method of Teaching to Read,’ 1842. 4. ‘People's Service of Song,’ 1850. 5. ‘Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book,’ 1859. 6. ‘How to observe Harmony,’ 1861. 7. ‘Songs and Tunes for Education,’ 1861. 8. ‘Commonplaces of Music,’ 1866, &c. 9. ‘New Standard Course on the Tonic Sol-fa Method,’ 1872. 10. ‘Present Crisis of Music in Schools,’ 1873. 11. ‘Musical Statics,’ 1874. 12. ‘Teachers' Manual,’ 1875. 13. ‘Musical Theory,’ 1879.



CURWEN, THOMAS (fl. 1665), quaker, was a useful and influential minister in the Society of Friends. In 1659 he is known to have been imprisoned, and suffered the distraint of his goods for non-payment of tithes, and also to have been imprisoned at Lancaster both in 1660 and 1663, probably for refusing to take the oath of allegiance. In 1665 he was again imprisoned at Lancaster for having created a disturbance in a church. In 1676 he