Music In North East England 1500 1800

This collection situates the North-East within a developing nationwide account of British musical culture.

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.

This book breaks new ground in the social and cultural history of eighteenth-century music in Britain through the study of a hitherto neglected resource, the lists of subscribers that were attached to a wide variety of publications, including musical works. These lists shed considerable light on the nature of those who subscribed to music, including their social status, place of employment, residence, and musical interests. Through broad analysis of subscription data, the contributors reveal insights into social and economic changes during the period, and the types of music favoured by groups like music clubs, the aristocracy, the clergy, and by men and women. With chapters on female composers and listeners, music and the slave economy, musical patronage, the print trade, and nationality, this book provides innovative perspectives that enhance our understanding of music’s social spheres, the emergence of music publishing, and the potential of digital musicology research.

Featuring 102 music examples, this edited collection features contributions by leading scholars from the UK, United States, Australasia and Europe on what characterized the period. This collection focusses on the stylistic and cultural interchange that characterizes the musical period of the mid-Baroque (c.1650-1710). The idea of musical transition during this period is evident in two principal ways: geographical and chronological (the two often overlap). Chapters examine geographical transition by tracing the exchange of regional and national styles, while considering chronological evolution from the perspective of music theory, performance practice, source studies or specific repertoires. Studies range across instrumental and vocal music, both sacred and secular, and encompass some of the main European traditions prevalent at the time: Italian, German, French and English. The collection features contributions by leading scholars from the UK, the United States, Australasia and Europe. CARRIE CHURNSIDE is Associate Professor in Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (part of Birmingham City University).

The first full-length biographical study of Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994). The British-born Irish composer (Dame) Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) is best known today for her cycle of thirteen string quartets, composed over five decades. And yet, her oeuvre ranges from large scale choral works, to ballets, operas, and symphonic scores. Having studied with Charles Wood and Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, many of her compositions also garnered accolades from peers and established musical figures such as Gustav Holst, Donald Francis Tovey, and Henry Wood, among others. With access to a wealth of documentation previously unavailable, this book explores Maconchy's life and music within a greater consideration of the social and political context of the world in which she lived. While the influence of Bartók has been well documented, this book reveals the equally potent influence of Vaughan Williams on Maconchy's musical idiom. This book also discusses Maconchy's foray into administration and her advocacy of young composers through her work as the first woman to be elected Chairman of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain in 1959 and President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music following the death of Benjamin Britten in 1976. It will be required reading for those interested in the lives of women composers, twentieth-century British music, and musical modernism.

Traversing London's musical culture, this book boldly illuminates the emergence of Edwardian London as a beacon of musical innovation. The dawning of a new century saw London emerge as a hub in a fast-developing global music industry, mirroring Britain's pivotal position between the continent, the Americas and the British Empire. It was a period of expansion, experiment and entrepreneurial energy. Rather than conservative and inward-looking, London was invigorated by new ideas, from pioneering musical comedy and revue to the modernist departures of Debussy and Stravinsky. Meanwhile, Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, and a host of ambitious younger composers sought to reposition British music in a rapidly evolving soundscape. Music was central to society at every level. Just as opulent theatres proliferated in the West End, concert life was revitalised by new symphony orchestras, by the Queen's Hall promenade concerts, and by Sunday concerts at the vast Albert Hall. Through innumerable band and gramophone concerts in the parks, music from Wagner to Irving Berlin became available as never before. The book envisions a burgeoning urban culture through a series of snapshots - daily musical life in all its messy diversity. While tackling themes of cosmopolitanism and nationalism, high and low brows, centres and peripheries, it evokes contemporary voices and characterful individuals to illuminate the period. Challenging issues include the barriers faced by women and people of colour, and attitudes inhibiting the new generation of British composers - not to mention embedded imperialist ideologies reflecting London's precarious position at the centre of Empire. Engagingly written, Simon McVeigh's groundbreaking book reveals the exhilarating transformation of music in Edwardian London, which laid the foundations for the century to come.

Singing master Durham Hills created The Cashaway Psalmody to give as a wedding present in 1770. A collection of tenor melody parts for 152 tunes and sixty-three texts, the Psalmody is the only surviving tunebook from the colonial-era South and one of the oldest sacred music manuscripts from the Carolinas. It is all the more remarkable for its sophistication: no similar document of the period matches Hills's level of musical expertise, reportorial reach, and calligraphic skill. Stephen A. Marini, discoverer of The Cashaway Psalmody, offers the fascinating story of the tunebook and its many meanings. From its musical, literary, and religious origins in England, he moves on to the life of Durham Hills; how Carolina communities used the book; and the Psalmody's significance in understanding how ritual song—transmitted via transatlantic music, lyrics, and sacred singing—shaped the era's development. Marini also uses close musical and textual analyses to provide a critical study that offers music historians and musicologists valuable insights on the Pslamody and its period. Meticulous in presentation and interdisciplinary in scope, The Cashaway Psalmody unlocks an important source for understanding life in the Lower South in the eighteenth century.

Explores the political meanings that Italian opera - its composers, agents and institutions - had for audiences in eighteenth-century Britain.