Hearts, bodies and minds
‘Master of Music’
Malcolm Tozer describes the evolution of an extraordinary musical tradition Music played little part in the education of British children before 1853 when Edward Thring was appointed headmaster of Uppingham Grammar School in the English Midlands. Thring created an innovative holistic curriculum for the two dozen boys of this rural boarding school and he appointed a musician as the third addition to his staff to form a teaching team of five. By the time of Thring’s death in 1887, the school roll numbered three hundred and there were six full-time musicians. The early appointments, almost all from Prussia, stayed only a year or two, but later ones made Uppingham their permanent home. Above all, over the course of four decades, Paul David, a member of the Mendelssohn and Schumann circle and a friend of Brahms, raised music to a high level of distinction and a uniquely broad level of participation. In addition, through his lifelong friendship with Josef Joachim, he attracted many celebrated musicians to perform to and play alongside his boys. None of this, however, would have happened but for an unlikely meeting in Rome just before Christmas 1852. Edward Thring, then a curate and occasional teacher, was interrupted on one of his leisurely journeys through Europe by a summons from his parents to go to Rome. His younger brother was hoping to marry a young lady from Prussia, a match that his parents thought unsuitable. The problem was resolved when Thring proposed to Marie Koch himself, but her acceptance meant that he must find full-time employment. He rushed back to England to seek the headship of a school and was runner up for Durham School. The successful candidate left a vacancy at Uppingham Grammar School, and Thring started there as Headmaster on September 10th, 1853. After their wedding in Edward Thring, Marie and Anna
December 1853, Marie joined Edward in School House and together they set about constructing what Thring later called ‘the great educational experiment.’ Marie’s youngest sister, eighteen year-old Anna, also came to Uppingham and lived with the Thrings, serving as the headmaster’s secretary until his death in 1887. Cultural and commercial links between England and the German states were strong throughout the nineteenth century. These Anglo-Prussian associations were the foundations on which Edward and Marie Thring’s marriage was built and their life’s work transformed a small country grammar school with a purely local reputation to a three hundred strong public school of national renown. The first priority was to recruit more pupils, and the numbers in the school doubled every two years through the 1850s, reaching Thring’s self-imposed limit of three hundred in September 1865. The school’s name, Uppingham Grammar School, which dated back to 1584, was quietly dropped and exchanged for Uppingham School, a more suitable title for one of the increasing number of ‘public schools’ for sons of the professional and aristocratic classes. The second priority was the curriculum and the men to teach it. As with all contemporary public schools, lessons in Latin and Greek, English literature, mathematics, and divinity dominated the timetable. These subjects were taught by Thring and the other housemasters, mostly graduates of Cambridge University and many in Holy Orders. But, from the outset, Thring wanted a broader and more rounded curriculum, one that suited boys of all abilities and not just the cleverest. His marriage to Marie caused him to look toward Prussia and its
Joseph Joachim, 1899
Paul David, 1907
Spring 2019
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