If Music be the food of Love...

Musicians Teachers of Music in the census returns for Stornoway.
Those appearing in more than one decade are highlighted in bold.

1841
Angus Morrison, 25, Musician, Mallan(?) Lane, Stornoway, b. Ross & Cromarty

1851
Barg(Male) Steven, 45, Musician, North Beach, b. Thurso

1861 None returned (Plenty of Teachers but none specifically identified as Teacher of Music)
1871 none returned (Plenty of Teachers but none specifically identified as Teacher of Music)

1881
Isabella Brotherton, 24, Teacher of Music, 47 Cromwell Street, b. Stornoway
Margaret Morrison, 47, Teacher (Music), Cromwell Street, b. Stornoway

1891
Nathaniel W P McLeod, 19, Musician, 8 Lower Sandwick Road, b. Dunfermline

Margaret Morrison, 57, Teacher of Music, Breyton House, Bayhead Street, b. Stornoway
Margaret A Morrison, 23, Teacher of Music, 61 Cromwell Street, b. Stornoway
Ann W McPherson, 20, Teacher of Music, 48 Point Street, b. Stornoway
Maggie J Greeneield, 17, Teacher of Music, Free Church Manse, b. Glasgow

(Isabella MacKinlay, 30, Music Teacher, Claymore (Vessels), b. Glasgow)

1901
Margaret Morrison, 67, Teacher of Music, 26a North Beach Street, b. Stornoway
Isabella I Gorman, 54, Music Teacher, 61, Cromwell Street, b. England
Maggie Ann Morrison, 33, Music Teacher, Craigmore Villa, b. Stornoway
Annie W Macpherson, 30, Music Teacher, 48 Point Street, b. Stornoway
Jeannie Morrison, 17, Music Teacher, 1 Bayhead Street, b. Stornoway

There are very few Musicians here but the presence of each of them is significant as it demonstrates that music played a sufficiently important role to enable people to make a career of it.

We can see the growth between 1881 and 1901 in the numbers of Teachers of Music but whether these ladies were employed in schools, purely in a private capacity, or in a combination of the two is not yet known to me.

There are plenty of possible avenues here for further exploration but, for the moment, I shall leave these music lovers to 'play on'...