The Music Master
by Dr. Jonathan Taylor

This radio play is based on the remarkable and true story of a lost ‘English' composer: Joseph Emidy (c.1775-1835) was a black musician of the early nineteenth-century who overcame slavery and naval impressment to become a successful violinst and composer in Cornwall.

The play focuses on the relationship between Joseph Emidy and James Silk Buckingham, whose Autobiography (1855) forms the main historical source for the subject. Based around the events of c.1803-1807, the play is set after Emidy's arrival in Falmouth and his establishment there as a music teacher and composer, recounting the rest of the story through flashback sequences.

James Buckingham, eager to learn the flute, approaches Joseph Emidy as the only music teacher in Falmouth. Though initially shocked by his colour, Buckingham gradually learns Emidy's fascinating history and becomes acquainted with Jane Emidy, Emidy's wife. Impressed by his teacher's compositions, Buckingham travels to London to try to interest the great musician and impresario of the age, Johann Peter Salomon, in this music. Though Salomon is amazed by Emidy's talent, the other gentlemen present are unwilling to support any attempt to bring his symphonies and concertos to a wider audience. A huge row ensues, and Emidy and his wife return to Cornwall. The final scene takes place as Buckingham is writing his Autobiography , nearly fifty years later. Returning to him as an echo or ghost, Emidy tries to explain himself to Buckingham, finally predicting that all his music will be lost.