ABSTRACT
The seed sown by Edmund Thomas Chipp proved after all to have fallen on fertile soil and with the merger of the Musical Society and the Classical Harmonists on 1 September 1874 the Belfast Philharmonic Society came into being and dominated the musical life of the city for the remainder of the century. Chipp was no negotiator, and his precipitate step in resigning both conductorships after less than three seasons did him no good and confirmed the hard-liners in both societies. It has to be said, of course, that the cheap organ concerts would have sealed Chipp's fate in any case. The Company may not have had the working classes in clear focus but it saw all too clearly that the way to make real economies was to halve the salary of the organist, and Chipp was not the man to try to negotiate a fall-back position.
