This volume is a welcome addition to the growing literature on musicians’ working lives. While the book's historical focus predates the modern, electronically mediated, music industries, the topics addressed here can be considered to be seen to be perennial ones for musicians across the ages regardless of their genre, location and employment status. The 10 chapters here deal with issues which resonate today such as musicians’ finances, their social status, the business of composition, gender, music in the military, church musicians, music criticism, teaching, workplaces and career patterns.

In her introduction Rosemary Golding outlines the importance of the concept of ‘the profession’ to historians of nineteenth century music. This is then qualified by her quickly noting that it is impossible to talk of a single music profession, so varied were the working practices undertaken. The rest of the book is a testament to this observation. However, it is the idea of professionalism – of careers, reasonable remuneration and working conditions which improve during the course of life – which is important here. The book shows how musicians sought to better their working conditions and the problems which they encountered along the way. Some 150 years after Golding's departure point, many of the same issues recur.

It is also noted in the Introduction that while the book is focussed on ‘the profession’, it is, in Golding's words, that ‘the multiplicity of sectors and identities rather than a single identifiable profession that comes to the fore’ (p. 10). Here the book's approach is to view the music profession as encompassing more than just performers and thus to include discussion of important intermediaries such as critics and agents. Methodologically it is the use of case studies which is to the fore – an approach which has the benefit of providing concrete examples of the issues at stake.

The chapters begin with Rebecca Gribble's analysis of musicians’ finances and social status in the eighteenth century, the latter being undermined by numerous tales of ‘raffish behaviour and excessive drinking’ (p. 13). More broadly Gribble notes an ambiguity about musicians’ social status, with artisanal characteristics being combined with non-artisanal ones, in ways which make it inappropriate, or even impossible, to talk of ‘the average musician’.

David Rowland's chapter on composers adopts a case study method via an examination of the career of Muzio Clementi, a composer who was also a partner in a large publisher company and thus benefitted from the works of other composers, dying ‘a very wealthy man’ (p. 45). Clementi's obvious business nous is shown to have aided him in a world where the publishing was developing and new markets opening up.

Issues of gender permeate the book and are specifically addressed in David Kennerley's chapter on the singer Eliza Salmon. This notes that for musicians in the 1790s ‘to be old was problematic, but to be old and female was doubly so’ (p. 53). Kennerley then outlines the formation of various benevolent societies for musicians, including the Royal Society of Female Musicians. He suggests that what was significant was not the amount of women working in music but the number of those doing so independently ‘i.e. not as a wife or child of a male musician’ (p. 57). He also highlights the virtues which those aiming to raise funds for Salmon in her dotage had to emphasise – selfless devotion to the profession and an image tied closely to prevailing gender norms (p. 63). That such an approach was ultimately unsuccessful – insufficient funds were raised for Salmon's wellbeing – is somewhat revealing. However, Kennerely suggests that overall the situation for women musicians illustrated ‘a marked possibility for improvement.. from the first half of the nineteenth century onwards’ (p. 67).

Helen Barlow's chapter on music in the British Army notes that in the late eighteenth century ‘As was common in the London music profession of the period, many players were “imported” from abroad’ and especially from Germany (p. 74). First employed within barracks, such musicians increasingly gave public performances. Barlow rightly notes that this was to cause increasing tension with civilian musicians who resented being undercut by their military counterparts (p. 81). However, the main success of her chapter is to point out what an important role the military could play in training what were often in essence ‘ab initio players’ (p. 85).

Another mainstay of musical employment – the Church of England – is the subject of Martin V. Clarke's chapter. Focussed on the Church's musical role in nineteenth-century Durham, the chapter shows that, while employment as a Church musician could be stable, it was also subject to fluctuations in the employer's income. Based on a series of short case studies Clarke concludes that ‘elements such as fluctuating remuneration, negotiation and conflict between musicians and church or chapel authorities and distinctive patterns of either high or low turnover of personnel persist(ed) throughout the period’ (p. 106). Thus God might prove to be as difficult an employer as mammon.

Music criticism is the subject of Peter Watt's chapter which shows a growing respectability for criticism and journalism more widely from the late nineteenth century. Case studies are again used to show how different approaches to music criticism emerged as part of a process of professionalisation which had an obvious parallel amongst those workers on whom the criticism was focussed.

Golding's own chapter is on teaching and a salient reminder of both how important it was (and remains) as a source of income, but also how it was (and continues to be) looked down upon. She suggests that the problem for musicians was not so much a shortage of organisations which sought to look after their interests (and to divide professionals from amateurs), but a plethora of them. Golding concentrates on the fortunes of the Union of Graduates in Music (UGM), which was founded as a professional association for music teachers in 1893, the same that the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union formed. Golding shows that many musicians disliked the word ‘union’ (p. 133) and illustrates the ways in which the UGM sought to distance itself from trades unionism. As moves towards the unionisation of musicians continued apace in the late nineteenth century, the UGM continued to support its version of professionalism – primarily here via attempts to design a registration scheme for music teachers – over notions of music being a trade which required union organisation. This was a highly important ideological divide and Golding makes the key point that in the eyes of the UGM ‘Professionalism was about serving the public, rather than (the) self interest’ (p. 145) which trade unionism was deemed to represent. Importantly, ‘Professionalism implied a public status (while) women were often relegated to the private sphere’ (p. 146). Overall Golding illustrates that attempts to unite musicians as workers were continually undermined by narrow minded conceptions of both what a musician was and should be.

Sophie Fuller takes up issue of women's employment in the next chapter. This again features case studies, in this instance of three women – Oliveria Prescott, Rosalind Ellicott and Rosabel Watson – active around the turn of the twentieth century and ‘well-known and respected while they were alive but little-known today’ (p. 149). The chapter emphasises the importance of the formation of women's musical organisations such as ‘Ladies’ Orchestras’. Fuller rightly suggests that her subjects’ varied tales ‘challenge assumptions about male dominance of the music profession in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries’ (p. 165), although it would have been good to know more about who was making such assumptions.

John Mullen's chapter on Music Hall is another reminder of how popular that artform was and how it provided a model for much of the modern popular music industries, particularly in ownership patterns. Here Mullen highlights how initial patterns of individual hall ownership were increasingly replaced by forms of conglomeration in ways which bring to mind the modern machinations of companies such as Live Nation. Under capitalism, capital tends to seek monopoly, while workers often resist such processes in instances such as the 1907 Music Hall strike. Mullen shows that Hall owners combined to try and break the strike, which was eventually effectively settled by government arbitration. He also examines the fate of musicians in the First World War and reminds us that it was the situation of the average worker, rather than the star, which was most often at stake during such momentous events. Seeking to move from the ‘lower classes’ to the ‘respectable working class’ could often prove to be a hazardous journey.

Simon McVeigh's chapter on Edwardian concert careers is superbly written and again shows the benefits of case studies, here of Myra Hess, Percy Grainger and the Chaplin Sisters. He notes the difficulties in making concerts profitable and the implications that this had for performers. While factors such as family connections, education and international reputation could help such workers, McVeigh suggests that they faced a powerful triumvirate – ‘conductors, promoters and agents’ (p. 193). As ever, musical careers were heavily mediated. McVeigh gets the last lines of the book, saying of his case studies:

This should not surprise us. However, it should remind us of how difficult it is to maintain a career in music, something which this admirable book does throughout. While sometimes the stars shine brightly, more often than not their glow is temporary and it is always underpinned by the harsher lives of those beyond the spotlight. Artistic work remains collective, even when its public face is that of the individual.

Inevitably in an edited collection some chapters appeal to the reader more than others. However, the diversity on display here acts more as a strength than a weakness. Importantly it means that there is at least something for everyone with an open mind and an interest in the historical development of the music industries and musical careers. The fact that the chapters are of a consistently high standard is also salutary. So if at first sight some readers of this journal might think that this volume is not for them then they should think again. Meanwhile for the growing bands of researchers interested in musical careers of all sorts, this book is a gem.