ABSTRACT
The British Vocal Album has for its object the making public all those vocal compositions by native musicians, which, from their high pretensions, present an insurmountable barrier to their reception by the publishing trade, who seem determined to print little but rubbish that proceeds from the pen of a British composer. Despite London being one of the great musical centres of Europe, early nineteenth-century English composers of 'serious' music struggled to escape from the second-class status to which they were habitually assigned. The Society of British Musicians had been founded in 1834 in protest at the poor representation of English music at the Philharmonic Society concerts, and specifically: 'For the Encouragement and Advancement of Native Talent in Composition and Performance'. By 1843 James William Davison had also begun his association with the German emigre Christian Wessel who had arrived in London and founded the music publishing firm of Wessel & Stodart in 1825.
