The Careers of British Musicians, 1750–1850

The Careers of British Musicians, 1750–1850
Author: Deborah Rohr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2001-09-06
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1139429302

The study of the social context of music must consider the day-to-day experiences of its practitioners; their economic, social, professional and artistic goals; and the material and cultural conditions under which these goals were pursued. This book traces the daily working life and aspirations of British musicians during the sweeping social and economic transformation of Britain from 1750 to 1850. It features working musicians of all types and at all levels - organists, singers, instrumentalists, teachers, composers and entrepreneurs - and explores their educational background, their conditions of employment, their wages, the systems of patronage that supported them, and their individual perceptions. Deborah Rohr focuses not only on social and economic pressures but also on a range of negative cultural beliefs faced by the musicians. Also considered are the implications of such conditions for their social and professional status, and for their musical aspirations.

Migration and Transfer from Germany to Britain 1660 to 1914

Migration and Transfer from Germany to Britain 1660 to 1914
Author: Stefan Manz
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2012-02-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110918412

The series Prinz-Albert-Forschungen (Prince Albert Research Publications) publishes sources and studies concerning Anglo-German history. It includes outstanding works in German and English which significantly enhance or modify our understanding of Anglo-German relations. These are supplemented by critically edited sources designed to offer access to previously unknown documents of crucial importance to the Anglo-German relationship.

Muzio Clementi and British Musical Culture

Muzio Clementi and British Musical Culture
Author: Luca Lévi Sala
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2018-06-14
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1351800884

Recent scholarship has vanquished the traditional perception of nineteenth-century Britain as a musical wasteland. In addition to attempting more balanced assessments of the achievements of British composers of this period, scholars have begun to explore the web of reciprocal relationships between the societal, economic and cultural dynamics arising from the industrial revolution, the Napoleonic wars, and the ever-changing contours of British music publishing, music consumption, concert life, instrument design, performance practice, pedagogy and composition. Muzio Clementi (1752–1832) provides an ideal case-study for continued exploration of this web of relationships. Based in London for much of his life, whilst still maintaining contact with continental developments, Clementi achieved notable success in a diversity of activities that centred mainly on the piano. The present book explores Clementi’s multivalent contribution to piano performance, pedagogy, composition and manufacture in relation to British musical life and its international dimensions. An overriding purpose is to interrogate when, how and to what extent a distinctive British musical culture emerged in the early nineteenth century. Much recent work on Clementi has centred on the Italian National Edition of his complete works (MiBACT); several chapters report on this project, whilst continuing to pursue the book’s broader themes.

Music and Academia in Victorian Britain

Music and Academia in Victorian Britain
Author: Rosemary Golding
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-04-29
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317092627

Until the nineteenth century, music occupied a marginal place in British universities. Degrees were awarded by Oxford and Cambridge, but students (and often professors) were not resident, and there were few formal lectures. It was not until a benefaction initiated the creation of a professorship of music at the University of Edinburgh, in the early nineteenth century, that the idea of music as a university discipline commanded serious consideration. The debates that ensued considered not only music’s identity as art and science, but also the broader function of the university within education and society. Rosemary Golding traces the responses of some of the key players in musical and academic culture to the problems surrounding the establishment of music as an academic discipline. The focus is on four universities: Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge and London. The different institutional contexts, and the approaches taken to music in each university, showcase the various issues surrounding music’s academic identity, as well as wider problems of status and professionalism. In examining the way music challenged conceptions of education and professional identity in the nineteenth century, the book also sheds light on the way the academic study of music continues to challenge modern approaches to music and university education.

The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical

The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical
Author: Robert Gordon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 777
Release: 2016
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0199988749

The first comprehensive academic survey of British musical theatre from its origins, The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical offers both a historical account of musical theatre from 1728 and a range of in-depth critical analyses of key works and productions that illustrate its aesthetic values and sociocultural meanings.

Venanzio Rauzzini and the Birth of a New Style in English Singing

Venanzio Rauzzini and the Birth of a New Style in English Singing
Author: Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2022-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 100053684X

Since the eighteenth century, the one-to-one singing lesson has been the most common method of delivery. The scenario allows the teacher to familiarise and individualise the lesson to suit the needs of their student; however, it can also lead to speculation about what is taught. More troubling is the heightened risk of gossip and rumour with the private space generating speculation about the student–teacher relationship. Venanzio Rauzzini (1746–1810), an Italian castrato living in England who became a highly sought-after singing master, was particularly susceptible since his students tended to be women, whose moral character was under more scrutiny than their male counterparts. Even so in 1792, The Bath Chronicle proclaimed the Italian castrato: 'the father of a new style in English singing'. Branding Rauzzini as a founder of an English style was not an error, but indicative of deep-seated anxieties about the Italian invasion on England’s musical culture. This book places teaching at the centre of the socio-historical narrative and provides unique insight into musical culture. Using a microhistory approach, this study is the first to focus in on the impact of teaching and casts new light on issues of celebrity culture, gender and nationalism in Georgian England.

The Sound of the English Picturesque

The Sound of the English Picturesque
Author: Stephen Groves
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2023-12-04
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000985911

Revealing the connections between the veneration of national landscape and eighteenth- century English vocal music, this study restores English music’s relationship with the picturesque. In the eighteenth century, the emerging taste for the picturesque was central to British aesthetics, as poets and painters gained popularity by glorifying the local landscape in works concurrent with the emergence of native countryside tourism. Yet English music was seldom discussed as a medium for conveying national scenic beauty. Stephen Groves explores this gap, and shows how secular song, the glee, and national theatre music expressed a uniquely English engagement with landscape. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Groves addresses the apparent ‘silence’ of the English picturesque. The book draws on analysis of the visualisations present in the texts of English vocal music, and their musical treatment, to demonstrate how local composers incorporated celebrations of landscape into their works. The final chapter shows that the English picturesque was a crucial influence on Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons. Suitable for anyone with an interest in eighteenth- century music, aesthetics, and the natural environment, this book will appeal to a wide range of specialists and non- specialists alike.

Music & the British Military in the Long Nineteenth Century

Music & the British Military in the Long Nineteenth Century
Author: Trevor Herbert
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2013-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199898316

The first book to explore the contribution made by the military to British music history, Music & the British Military in the Long Nineteenth Century shows that military bands reached far beyond the official ceremonial duties they are often primarily associated with and had a significant impact on wider spheres of musical and cultural life.

The Musician as Entrepreneur, 1700-1914

The Musician as Entrepreneur, 1700-1914
Author: William E. Weber
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2004-11-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253057760

To be successful, a musician often has to be an entrepreneur: someone who starts a performing venue, develops patrons, and promotes the project aggressively. Accomplishing this requires musicians to acquire social and business skills and to be highly opportunistic in what they do. In The Musician as Entrepreneur, 1700–1914, international scholars investigate cases of musical entrepreneurship between around 1700 and 1914 in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. By uncovering the ways in which musicians such as Telemann, Beethoven, Paganini, and Liszt conducted their daily business, the authors reveal how musicians reshaped the frameworks of musical culture and, in the process, the nature of the music itself.

Music and the Middle Class

Music and the Middle Class
Author: William Weber
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1351557556

First published in 1975, Music and the Middle Class made a trail-blazing contribution to the social history of music, bringing together sociological and historical methods that have subsequently become accepted as central to the discipline of musicology. Moreover, the major themes of the book are ones which scholars today continue to grapple with: the nature of the middle class(es) and their role in cultural definition; the concept of taste publics distinct from social status; and the establishment of the musical canon. This classic text is reissued here in Ashgate's Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain series, though of course the book ranges beyond its study of London to discuss in detail the contrasting concert life of Paris and Vienna. This edition features a substantial new preface which takes into account the significant work that has been done in this field since the book first appeared, and provides a unique opportunity to assess the impact the book has had on our thinking about the European middle class and its role in musical life.