ABSTRACT
The prebendaries at Durham Cathedral formed a small and extremely active clique of gentlemen with substantial interests in music. The societies met in private, to allow the gentlemen members to escape the cares of business and the home, and to enjoy the twin pleasures of company and music. The identities of the wealthy amateur music-lovers and the nature of their activities can be difficult to establish, and must be gleaned from a number of fragmentary sources –dedications of music, subscribers' lists, references in private papers and correspondence. Professional musicians could be a more integral part of the society, members rather than employees; this system operated in the York Musical Society, the only Northern society for which detailed records survive. Charles Avison's views on the subject, as a composer principally of instrumental music, were inevitably different, although cautiously expressed. Surface agreements in the writings of John Brown and Avison hid fundamental differences of opinion.
