| Biography | The Wandering Minstrels was a highly-fashionable 19th-century orchestral society made up entirely of amateur musicians. The players were drawn from the ranks of the aristocracy and the military, and came together initially to perform music for the entertainment of their friends. But they quickly moved on to give concerts in public. These were mainly fundraising concerts, which they staged to raise money for national and local charities. Over their 38-year history they raised more than £16,000 for good causes, a huge sum in those days. They also started a new trend, in the form of the 'smoking concert' - an exclusive social gathering at which gentlemen (and occasionally ladies) would gather to drink, dine, and listen to high-quality music and (the gentlemen only) to smoke.
The orchestra named themselves 'the Wandering Minstrels' because they travelled around the country to give their concerts. The name was probably a slightly tongue-in-cheek one: the so-called wandering minstrels of earlier times had been musicians at the bottom end of the social scale. They had travelled from town to town, scraping a living from their playing. The Victorian Wandering Minstrels were right at the other end of the social spectrum, and didn't need to earn a living from music. They performed for their own enjoyment and for philanthropic purposes. |