ABSTRACT
Deep and murky pool is the history of art music in Scotland during the nineteenth century. The fact that the Scots left their homeland in pursuit of musical ambitions seems to confirm that at that time Scotland promised little for a composer. The history of music is not identical with the successive emergence of individual composers, whether continuously or in a broken line. The relationship between the existence of musical institutions and the presence of compositional talent is not a straightforward one, though it may reasonably be argued that significant original musical composition is most likely to flourish when the necessary infrastructure is there. One of those institutions is informed critical writing about the state of musical life and its events. In the 1870s Glasgow Herald prospered, and T. L. Stillie was eager to see commercial success matched by equivalent artistic prowess.
