Musical Creativity in Restoration England is the first comprehensive investigation of approaches to creating music in late seventeenth-century England. Understanding creativity during this period is particularly challenging because many of our basic assumptions about composition – such as concepts of originality, inspiration and genius – were not yet fully developed. In adopting a new methodology that takes into account the historical contexts in which sources were produced, Rebecca Herissone challenges current assumptions about compositional processes and offers new interpretations of the relationships between notation, performance, improvisation and musical memory. She uncovers a creative culture that was predominantly communal, and reveals several distinct approaches to composition, determined not by individuals, but by the practical function of the music. Herissone's new and original interpretations pose a fundamental challenge to our preconceptions about what it meant to be a composer in the seventeenth century and raise broader questions about the interpretation of early modern notation.
• Provides a comprehensive account of how music was created and recreated by musicians in the late seventeenth century, allowing the reader to develop a fuller understanding of musical creativity • Challenges preconceptions about what 'composition' entails, including assumptions about originality and the primacy of the composer • Places individuals within the context of the institutions and cultures in which they trained and worked and emphasises the importance of collaborative creativity in the period
Contents
Part I. Creative Contexts and Principles: 1. Imitation, originality and authorship; 2. Sources and their functions; Part II. Creative Strategies: 3. 'Ye Fowle Originall in Score': initial invention and the functions of notation; 4. 'I have here sent ye full Anthems': serial recomposition and the culture of transmission; 5. 'For Seaverall Friends': private music and the study of musical texts; 6. 'His mind be filled with the materiall': arrangement, improvisation and the role of memory.
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