ABSTRACT
Music teaching formed an important source of income for many musicians in the nineteenth century to support composing or performing activities, or as part of the 'flood' of dedicated private teachers in expanding market of last quarter of the century. This chapter pays particular attention to attempts the Union of Graduates in Music (UGM) made to define professional identity and improve status, and the ways in which the character of profession, music teachers in particular, made this an impossible task. It is well documented that in the early nineteenth century, many performers took on teaching as a sideline, usually to boost income in the context of unreliable fees from composing or conducting. The shield of the UGM features the arms of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Dublin and Durham. The Union's drive to deliver a scheme for registration of music teachers took place within a context of regulation, both of general teachers and within music.
