In this post, I detail an instance of chasing valuable research material. In my key text, Phil Dodds’ 2023 book Music and the Cultural Production of Scale, a text by the son of Christian Ignatius Latrobe, John Antes is referenced. I sensed that this could provide a unique opportunity for counterpoint in my audio paper, to contrast the colonial father with the son, revealing a critical point about the mythologic language surrounding the church organ enabling its domineering presence.
I searched Google Scholar for John Antes Latrobe, first finding mention of him in Anna Peak’s 2010 dissertation, The Music of the Spheres: Music and the Gendered Mind in Nineteenth-Century Britain. However, it was only a reference in the footer. Still, this gave me more complete details surrounding the title and work of J. A. Latrobe that could enhance my search.
Quite miraculously, I found a scan of the very text I was seeking to reference, rather than an adjacent source: The Music of the Church Considered in its Various Branches, Congregational and Choral: An Historical and Practical Treatise for the General Reader, from 1831. I will assert that it is not for the general reader. It is for the most avowed enthusiast. Yet, a very specific section about the organ’s player’s power over a congregation was referenced in Dodds’ work, perhaps I could expand on that here.
The irony being that the exact page referenced, that I had hoped to expand upon and read further context of, had the only scanning error in the document across it. Finally finding a pdf of the complete book, I was able to read and cite the book in my audio paper’s bibliography.
Ultimately, I managed to verify the publishers through a portrait of them in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery. All this is to say, I am struck by the relative difficulty in referencing truly historical works. Online resources are often inaccessible, and it demonstrates to me the survival rate for information is often uncertain. Thankfully, in this case I was able to extrapolate upon the key text, which provided me with a core critical point of examination in my audio paper.