In recent years there has been a considerable revival of interest in music in eighteenth-century Britain. This interest has now expanded beyond the consideration of composers and their music to include the performing institutions of the period and their relationship to the wider social scene. The collection of essays presented here offers a portrayal of concert life in Britain that contributes greatly to the wider understanding of social and cultural life in the eighteenth century. Music was not merely a pastime but was irrevocably linked with its social, political and literary contexts. The perspectives of performers, organisers, patrons, audiences, publishers, copyists and consumers are considered here in relation to the concert experience. All of the essays taken together construct an understanding of musical communities and the origins of the modern concert system. This is achieved by focusing on the development of music societies; the promotion of musical events; the mobility and advancement of musicians; systems of patronage; the social status of musicians; the repertoire performed and published; the role of women pianists and the 'topography' of concerts. In this way, the book will not only appeal to music specialists, but also to social and cultural historians.

In recent years there has been a considerable revival of interest in music in eighteenth-century Britain. This interest has now expanded beyond the consideration of composers and their music to include the performing institutions of the period and their relationship to the wider social scene. The collection of essays presented here offers a portrayal of concert life in Britain that contributes greatly to the wider understanding of social and cultural life in the eighteenth century. Music was not merely a pastime but was irrevocably linked with its social, political and literary contexts. The perspectives of performers, organisers, patrons, audiences, publishers, copyists and consumers are considered here in relation to the concert experience. All of the essays taken together construct an understanding of musical communities and the origins of the modern concert system. This is achieved by focusing on the development of music societies; the promotion of musical events; the mobility and advancement of musicians; systems of patronage; the social status of musicians; the repertoire performed and published; the role of women pianists and the 'topography' of concerts. In this way, the book will not only appeal to music specialists, but also to social and cultural historians.

In eighteenth-century England, “variety” became a prized aesthetic in musical culture. Not only was variety—of counterpoint, harmony, melody, and orchestration—expected for good composition, but it also manifested in cultural mediums such as songbook anthologies, which compiled miscellaneous songs and styles in single volumes; pasticcio operas, which were cobbled together from excerpts from other operas; and public concerts, which offered a hodgepodge assortment of different types and styles of performance. I call this trend of producing music through the collection, assemblage, and juxtaposition of various smaller pieces as musical miscellany; like a jigsaw puzzle (also invented in the eighteenth century), the urge to construct a whole out of smaller, different parts reflected a growing desire to appeal to a quickly diversifying England. This book explores the phenomenon of musical miscellany in early eighteenth-century England both in performance culture and as an aesthetic. Chapters offer analyses of concert programming, early music criticism, the compilation of pasticcio operas and songbook miscellanies, and even the ways in which composers and performers shaped their freelancing careers. Musical miscellany, in its many forms, juxtaposed foreign and homegrown musical practices and styles in order to stimulate discourse surrounding English musical culture during a time of cosmopolitan transformation as the eighteenth century unfolded.

This collection of essays by some of the leading scholars in the field looks at various aspects of musical life in eighteenth-century Britain. The significant roles played by institutions such as the Freemasons and foreign embassy chapels in promoting music making and introducing foreign styles to English music are examined, as well as the influence exerted by individuals, both foreign and British. The book covers the spectrum of British music, both sacred and secular, and both cosmopolitan and provincial. In doing so it helps to redress the picture of eighteenth-century British music which has previously portrayed Handel and London as its primary constituents.

The first full length study of Sir George Thomas Smart (1776-1867), musical animateur and early champion of the music of Beethoven

Reveals how the musical benefit allowed musicians, composers, and audiences to engage in new professional, financial, and artistic contexts.

The north-east of England in the eighteenth century was a region where many different kinds of musical activity thrived and where a wide range of documentation survives. Such activities included concert-giving, teaching, tuning and composition, as well as music in the theatre and in church. Dr Roz Southey examines the impulses behind such activities and the meanings that local people found inherent in them. It is evident that music could be perceived or utilized for extremely diverse purposes; as entertainment, as a learned art, as an aid to piety, as a profession, a social facilitator and a support to patriotism and nationalism. Musical societies were established throughout the century, and Southey illustrates the social make-up of the members, as well as the role of Gentlemen Amateurs in the organizing of concerts, and the connections with London and other centres. The book draws upon a rich selection of source material, including local newspapers, council and ecclesiastical records, private papers and diaries and accounts of local tradesman, as well as surviving examples of music composed in the area by Charles Avison, Thomas Ebdon and John Garth of Durham, amongst many others. Charles Avison's importance is focused upon particularly, and his Essay on Musical Expression is considered alongside other contemporary writings of lesser fame. Southey provides a fascinating insight into the type and social class of audiences and their influence on the repertoire performed. The book moves from a consideration of music being used as a 'fashion item', evidenced by the patronage of 'big name' soloists from London and abroad, to fiddlers, ballad singers, music at weddings, funerals, public celebrations, and music for marking the events of the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars. It can be seen, therefore, that the north east was an area of important musical activity, and that the music was always interwoven into the political, economic, religious and commercial fabric of eighteenth-century life.