Victorian Cathedral Music in Theory and Practice

Victorian Cathedral Music in Theory and Practice
Author: William J. Gatens
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1986-11-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780521268080

This is a critical assessment of Victorian cathedral music, unique in its detailed treatment of the cultural intellectual, philosophical and religious issues that shaped the composer's creative world and so influenced compositional practice. Among the issues investigated by William Gatens are the status of music in Church and society, the Victorians' views on the moral dimension of music, the aesthetic implications of Christian orthodoxy and notions of stylistic propriety. The careers and works of seven eminent composers - Thomas Attwood, T. A. Walmisley, John Goss, S. S. Wesley, F. A. G. Ouseley, John Stainer and Joseph Barnby - are discussed in some detail with emphasis on anthems and fully composed service settings. These provide specific illustrations of stylistic trends and the practical effects of theoretical principles. The study seeks to correct some of the misunderstandings and distortions that were common among earlier twentieth-century writers on the subject.

The Contribution of Cambridge Ecclesiologists to the Revival of Anglican Choral Worship, 1839-62

The Contribution of Cambridge Ecclesiologists to the Revival of Anglican Choral Worship, 1839-62
Author: Dale Adelmann
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2019-05-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429803818

First published in 1997, this book asks how an ecclesiastical climate was created in which Anglican choral worship could flourish in the mid-nineteenth century. Dale Adelmann draws on a wide range of sources, including diaries, correspondence, pamphlets, newspapers and critical writings, to answer this question. His research reveals the hitherto unrecognized extent of the influence of the Cambridge Camden Society (1839-62) in the revival of Anglican choral worship, in particular through the auspices of its periodical The Ecclesiologist, but also through the dedicated efforts of the remarkable individuals who promoted the Society’s aims in their writings, lectures, and in their own parish churches. The study examines the arguments that were framed in defence of choral worship and the often heated debates they initiated between both individuals and institutions. In so doing, it provides a re-evaluation of the place of Anglican choral worship in mid-nineteenth-century musicological and ecclesiastical history, and demonstrates the role of Cambridge ecclesiologists as primary force behind its rival.