The music teacher and composer John Pyke Hullah (1812–84) is best remembered for his 'singing school for schoolmasters'. Through his dedicated efforts music was embedded into the school curriculum, and his inspiration influenced the rapid growth of amateur choral societies in Britain. Professor of vocal music at King's College, London, from 1844 to 1874, Hullah was elected to the committee of management of the Royal Academy of Music in 1869 and in 1872 became the first government inspector of music in teacher training colleges. Published in 1862, this accessible history of music from plainsong to the mid-nineteenth century, which Hullah divided into four periods, was first given as a course of six lectures at the Royal Institution in 1861. A further series of lectures, The Third or Transition Period of Musical History, is also reissued in this series in its 1876 second edition.