'These carried the numberings "First, Second," etc, as their promoters had the idea that in starting them, with the encouragement of Seniors like Dr Jackson, Mr Sedley Taylor & Dr C. V. Stanford, they were initiating something new in the history of the College'; there had been 'Formal Concerts occasionally given in the college' in the mid-nineteenth century, but 'nothing, so far as we knew, at all resembling the corporate musical efforts of musical societies with their concerts and less formal "smokers" which other Colleges had established and were maintaining in a flourishing condition'.
Hugh Cotterill initiated the concerts; also, 'mention should be made of W. R. Cookson, who was at the time secretary of the C. U. M. S. but more remarkable as an amateur of the woodwind, playing anything from the oboe to the bassoon'. When 'Cottie' went to Sandhurst, 'the responsibility for the concerts was thrust on [Yglesias]'; after he left it passed to A. A. Markham, now bishop of Grantham.
'The printed programmes are incomplete in one respect, it being an open secret that Mr Sedley Taylor would (and always did) sing some of his inimitable humorous songs'. Jackson 'usually took the chair'; the success of the first concert inspired Verrall and Stanford to write and compose 'a "Carmen Familiare" for the College, which thereafter always was sung to end the programme'.