The Royal College of Music and its Contexts

Introduction – beginnings and contexts, the themes of a history; Part I. Building and Consolidating (1883–1914): 1. The founding directors – George Grove and Hubert Parry; 2. The students; 3. Establishing the musical and educational ethos – concerts and curriculum; 4. The buildings and finances; Coda – the First World War; Part II. Renewal and conventionality (1919–60): 5. Hugh Allen's RCM and musical life between the wars, 1919–1937; 6. The years of austerity – George Dyson and Ernest Bullock, 1938–1960; Part III. Changing Musical Cultures (1960–1984): 7. Keith Falkner and rebuilding institutional confidence, 1960–1974; 8. Crossing the RCM century – David Willcocks, 1974–84; Part IV. Into its Second Century, 1984–2018: 9. A changed state of rivalry – the RAM, the 'centre of excellence' and the Gowrie review, 1982–92; 10. The new realities of accounting and assuring – securing the RCM's public funding in the 1990s; 11. Reimagining for the future; Epilogue – a prosopography.