“Marsh and the Age of Reason”, 18 April, 6pm
Lynden Cranham, the Consort of Twelve’s continuo cellist, provides the background.
This article originally appeared in the Chichester Society newsletter, March 2026
Chichester’s period instrument ensemble, The Consort of Twelve, begins its 2026 season on Saturday 18 April at 6.00pm in the Assembly Room. We’re delighted that the director will be violinist Julia Bishop.
Our inspiration has been the rich musical life of Chichester’s gentleman-composer John Marsh. We arranged the concert date unaware of the coincidence that on 16 April 1787 Marsh was staying at the Dolphin in Chichester, overseeing arrangements for moving with his family into their new home in the Pallants. On 17 April he ‘took complete possession’ of the house and would live there until his death in 1828.
Discussions have been greatly facilitated by Lucy Cox, our soprano soloist, and by local historian Alan Green – particularly for his excellent suggestion that we present the concert at the Assembly Room, which has many Marsh connections. Alan also lent me The John Marsh Journals, The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer, a series of fascinating Jane Austen-like accounts of Georgian Chichester, with descriptions of walking through the ‘Broyle coppice and the green lanes of Graylingwell’, locally-based military bands, visits to ‘take a dish of tea’ and dancing at assemblies.
Although the ‘old’ Assembly Room in the Pallant was still used when Marsh arrived, the ‘new’ Room in North Street had been completed by 1783. In October 1787 Marsh played violin in the first subscription concert to be held there. He subsequently became manager of these subscription concerts.
A great organ enthusiast, John Marsh was involved in decisions concerning the installation of a music gallery and an organ. When pieces of the instrument arrived by wagon he immediately unpacked them and started arranging the pipes on the Assembly Room floor. Wherever John Marsh went he collaborated enthusiastically in concerts and was a keen chamber-music player. Our programme incorporates repertoire by composers he particularly admired. For example, Marsh frequently played Mozart ‘quartettos’, and enjoyed Boccherini’s two-cello quintets so much that he adapted the first cello parts for the viola in case ‘2 good violoncellos could not be had’!
We will play a Mozart string divertimento; Lucy will sing his famous Exsultate Jubilate and also Boccherini’s beautiful Stabat Mater. Marsh described hearing part of an organ voluntary by English composer John Garth, and I will play one of Garth’s cello concertos.
Marsh’s own compositions are also represented: his string quartet in B flat and a Prelude and Fugue for harpsichord duet, played by David Gostick and Richard Barnes. Roger Parker will read extracts from Marsh’s Journals.
