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The phrase Dutch concert designates:
– (literally): a musical performance in which each participant plays or sings a different tune;
– (figuratively): a confused or discordant medley, a hubbub, a racket.
This is one of several phrases in which the adjective Dutch is used derogatorily or derisively—cf., for example, to take Dutch leave—and the following from The Dutch and the English, published in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 25th November 1950 [page 2, column 2]:
How little the Englishman once trusted the Dutchman! The English language is rich in expressions which are derisive of the Dutch. When we speak of a Dutch auction, or of Dutch courage, or of Dutch concert, or of Dutch gold, or of Dutch nightingales (that is, frogs) we imply that the Dutch were rather less than honest, or deficient in valour or other good qualities we expect of other men. And there was a time when an Englishman could not be more emphatic in a refusal than when he said “I’m a Dutchman if I do”!
Much of this is a survival of the days when Holland and England were rival world powers. It enshrines a great deal of prejudice that must have been quite unjust.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase Dutch concert that I have found:
—Two preliminary notes:
a) this phrase was used in a similative context as early as 1759 (cf., below, quotation 4);
b) this phrase was used to designate practices that were deemed useful to singers and musicians (cf., below, quotations 5 & 6):
1-: From a sarcastic text about “modern” song-writing, published in The Connoisseur. By Mr. Town, Critic and Censor-General (London: Printed for R. Baldwin) of Thursday 12th June 1755 [No. 72, page 431]:
Fearing lest this method of song-writing should one day grow obsolete, in order to preserve to posterity some idea of it, I have put together the following dialogue as a specimen of the modern manner. […] As all the lines are taken from different songs set to different tunes, I would humbly propose that this curious performance should be sung jointly by all the best voices, in the manner of a Dutch concert, where every man sings his own tune.
2-: From a letter ‘To the Citizen’, by ‘Plain Dealer’, published in The London Chronicle: Or, Universal Evening Post (London, England) of Thursday 18th August 1757 [page 166, column 2]:
As soon as Shop is shut, the Drummer gets into the Kitchen, and makes such a Racket, that the Cook spoils the Supper for want of being able to hear her Mistress’s Order about the Time of having it ready. Mr. Violin is very busy in his Apartment; and the German Fluter gives us to understand, that no Pains shall be wanting to make him perfect, for he plays all Night.
Thus I have a Dutch Concert under my Roof perpetually.
3-: From Conclusion of the Plain Dealer’s Letter, published in The London Chronicle: Or, Universal Evening Post (London, England) of Saturday 20th August 1757 [page 174, column 1]:
The Apprentice begins his Drum […]. There goes two Hours more of Noise.—The Journeyman, now [illegible word] awake, begins his Harmony, and in less than an Hour the Dutch Concert is begun again.
4-: From a review of Ode on the glorious Victory obtained by the allied army in Germany, under the command of his serene highness prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, over the French, under marshal Contades; at Thornhausen, near Minden, on the first day of August, 1759 (London: Dodsley, 1759)—review published in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature (London, England) of September 1759 [page 247]:
There are a variety of methods of celebrating victory; by a bonfire in the streets; by a catch at a club; by a song in the public gardens; by an additional bowl of punch as a whip to the reckoning; by getting drunk; by running mad; and by writing odes Pindaric. The present loyal soul has mixed his voice in the universal shout; and to confess a truth it is as distinct as the best of them: for if we compare the medley of writers on this joyful occasion to a Dutch concert, where every person plays his own tune, he must surely be best heard who sings so loudly, and who sings so long. Some critics have been of opinion, that to follow the flights of Pindar, we should often soar above the understanding. Our poet is his trusty squire in this respect, and sometimes flies, not only above our comprehension, but his own: his very shadow dares not follow him.
5-: From An Essay towards a Rational System of Music (Glasgow: Printed for the Author, 1770), by John Holden [part 1, chapter 2, page 11]:
When a person has fixed his attention on one sound as a key note, if other sounds accidentally intrude upon his ears, which belong to a different key, they have often a most disagreeable effect […].
He that will resolutely go on with his own tune, when such sounds interfere, finds himself under a necessity of confining his attention closely to his own notes; and, as it were, shutting his ears to these incompatible sounds. The Dutch concert † is a most admirable lesson for this purpose.
† So called, in burlesque; when a company of musicians fall to, all at once, each singing or playing a different tune on a different key, and in a different mood of time, as his own choice happens to lead him; and he that can hold out his tune longest, is esteemed the best performer.
It is a droll enough task, especially for a singer, to keep his own tune, and at the same time to be upon the watch, so as to be able to point out any other of the company, when he goes wrong.
6-: From The Present State of Music in France and Italy: Or, The Journal of a Tour through those Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for a general History of Music (London: Printed for T. Becket, 1771 [erroneously dated 1721]), by the English organist, composer and music historian, Charles Burney (1726-1814) [page 325]—the following is dated Naples, Italy, Wednesday 31st October 1770:
This morning I went with young Oliver to his Conservatorio of St. Onofrio, and visited all the rooms where the boys practise, sleep, and eat. On the first flight of stairs was a trumpeter, screaming upon his instrument till he was ready to burst; on the second was a French horn, bellowing in the same manner. In the common practising room there was a Dutch concert, consisting of seven or eight harpsichords, more than as many violins, and several voices, all performing different things, and in different keys […]. The jumbling them all together in this manner may be convenient for the house, and may teach the boys to attend to their own parts with firmness, whatever else may be going forward at the same time; it may likewise give them force, by obliging them to play loud in order to hear themselves; but in the midst of such jargon, and continued dissonance, it is wholly impossible to give any kind of polish or finishing to their performance; hence the slovenly coarseness so remarkable in their public exhibitions; and the total want of taste, neatness, and expression in all these young musicians, till they have acquired them elsewhere.
7-: From Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds, dated Sunday 10th January 1773, by Daines Barrington, published in Philosophical Transactions, giving some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in many Considerable Parts of the World (London: Printed for Lockyer Davis, 1773) [volume 63, part 1, page 267]:
If a dozen singing birds of different kinds are heard in the same room, there is not any disagreeable dissonance (which is not properly resolved), either to my own ear, or to that of others, whose judgement on such a point I can more rely.
At the same time, as each bird is singing a different song, it is extraordinary that what we call harmony should not be perpetually violated, as we experience, in what is commonly called a Dutch concert, when several tunes are played together.
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