My Musical Life

Hugh Reginald Haweis (18381901) was a clergyman and writer. Published in 1884 this memoir deals with one of his great interests: music. He was a proficient violinist and his musical writings included books on church bell-ringing violins and the best-selling Music and Morals (also reissued in this series) which had reached its sixteenth edition by his death. As curate of St James Westmoreland Street he used musical events as a way of turning an empty church into a fashionable one. He acted as music critic for Truth and the Pall Mall Gazette in addition to lecturing and writing on religious subjects. The book recounts a lifetime of making and enjoying music and conveys Haweis'' emotional response to music from an early age. It is a record of nineteenth-century musical performances and changing tastes which also demonstrates Haweis'' belief in the reforming influence of music on morals and society.