Building upon the developing picture of the importance of British music,
musicians and institutions during the eighteenth century, this book
investigates the themes of composition, performance (amateur and
professional) and music-printing, within the wider context of social,
religious and secular institutions.
British music in the era from the death of Henry Purcell to the
so-called 'Musical Renaissance' of the late nineteenth century was once
considered barren. This view has been overturned in recent years through
a better-informed historical perspective, able to recognise that all
kinds of British musical institutions continued to flourish, and not
only in London. The publication, performance and recording of music by
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British composers, supplemented by
critical source-studies and scholarly editions, shows forms of music
that developed in parallel with those of Britain's near neighbours.
Indigenous musicians mingled with migrant musicians from elsewhere, yet
there remained strands of British musical culture that had no
continental equivalent. Music, vocal and instrumental, sacred and
secular, flourished continuously throughout the Stuart and Hanoverian
monarchies. Composers such as Eccles, Boyce, Greene, Croft, Arne and
Hayes were not wholly overshadowed by European imports such as Handel
and J. C. Bach. The present volume builds on this developing picture of
the importance of British music, musicians and institutions during the
period. Leading musicologists investigate themes such as composition,
performance (amateur and professional), and music-printing, within the
wider context of social, religious and secular institutions.
