J.H. Ashley

Mr J.H. Ashley was a music teacher active in Cape Town between 1850 and 1870.

Also referred to as Mr Ashley or simply Ashley in some sources.

Biography

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As teacher

He introduced the Tonic Solfa method into the country, offering classes at the YMI and Club (Young Men's Institute and Club, later known simply as the YMI).

Performer in theatre

A member of the short-lived City Amateur Theatrical Society in Cape Town in 1854. He played the upholsterer "Furnish" in The First Floor (Cobb) on 21 August 1854.

Director of music and theatre

He was musical director for performances oratoria and other works, such as Handel's The Messiah, The Flower Queen, or The Coronation of the Rose, A Summer Day (Leveridge, based on the scene with the witches from Macbeth), and the children's operetta The Picnic (Thomas).of The Flower Queen, or The Coronation of the Rose (May, 1866), A Summer Day (1870), The Picnic (November, 1872).

Organiser and founder of various societies

In 1858 he founded the Cape Town Choral Society, with which he directed a number of oratoria, cantatas, and other "concerts of vocal music" in Cape Town over the years.

In 1870 he is again teaching the tonic solfa method at the YMCA in Cape Town and had apparently founded a Tonic Solfa Choral Union which put on oratoria and other musical works, such as Handel's Messiah, The Flower Queen, or The Coronation of the Rose, A Summer Day (Leveridge, based on the scene with the witches from Macbeth), and the children's operetta The Picnic (Thomas).

According to Bosman (who is really unclear about the specific relationship), he had a rival in the musical director Mr Bucke, who had founded (or perhaps taken over?) the Cape Town Choral Society in 1872 (or earlier, again Bosman has contradictory information about this).