Newman and Music

Adoremus Bulletin

By Susan Treacy November 15, 2009

Online Edition: November 2009

Vol. XV, No. 8

John Henry Newman and Music

by Susan Treacy

Cardinal Newman’s eloquence as a preacher and as a writer is well known; less well known is his gift for and appreciation of music. Throughout his long life, Newman approached music as a performing musician (violinist and chamber music), composer, and writer on music.

Newman’s love for music was probably encouraged by his father. John Henry Newman began to study the violin at ten years of age. His boyhood diary records his early progress: February 26, 1811: “began music”; March 1-3: “a lesson of music”; March 20: “began a tune”; March 23: “began themes”; April: “began duets”.1 In 1813, John Henry recorded that he had become “much better at bowing”. As a result, his father suggested getting a new violin: “If the Doctor approves of it, buy the Cremona”.John Henry’s sister Jemima became an accomplished pianist and “his two brothers used to accompany him in trios, Frank playing ‘the bass’”. 

At Oxford Newman was very active as a violinist in chamber music. Tom Mozley, husband of Newman’s oldest sister, Harriett, described Newman’s skill by saying that he had “attained such a proficiency on the violin that had he not become a Doctor of the Church, he would have been a Paganini”.