ABSTRACT
The University of Edinburgh was home to the first active Professor of Music during the modern period, due to the generous endowment of General John Reid. University officials sought various methods of appointing a Professor and defining the subject within the bounds set by the original statutes. The main theme of the debate was music's academic identity, chiefly focusing on the 'scientific' aspects of music. Musical science was clarified as a 'branch of liberal education', a term intended to stress its non-vocational form and suggesting science in the most abstract of guises. Music at Edinburgh was constructed as a 'science' in order to conform to contemporary educational aims and practices. The University authorities must have felt these contributed to the development of musical taste and could not detract from the standing of the Professorship provided they were held away from University premises.
