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Concert Life in Eighteenth Century England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Stanley Sadie
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Extract

The Period following Purcell's death has long been looked upon as one of the Dark Ages of English music. It is unquestionably true that Britain took a long time to produce her next really great composer, but our readiness to accept a musical back seat and our refusal to make unjustifiable claims on behalf of British music have tended to blind us to the true facts of the musical life of eighteenth-century England. The fact that Handel prospered here, that Haydn wrote some of his finest music for London audiences, and that whole hosts of minor masters settled here—J. C. Bach and Geminiani, for example—surely tells us a good deal about the standards of taste pertaining among London audiences. In fact, concert life in eighteenth-century England as a whole had a variety and vitality to which it would be hard to find a parallel. Not only were concerts held in the fashionable London salons, but in the ‘Great Rooms’ of taverns in villages which today are barely large enough to find a place on a map.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 85 , 1958 , pp. 17 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1958

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