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Musically, London has often stood in the shadow of its European cousins. In early studies of the Classical period, musicological attention was usually concentrated on the leading Viennese composers, with only passing reference to England in so far as it related to the careers of these masters. The situation began to change in the 1950s with Charles Cudworth's and Stanley Sadie's pioneering studies of eighteenth-century England, and in recent years several English towns and cities have been the focus of further research. Investigations into London's burgeoning eighteenth-century musical life have revealed the capital's important role in developing modern performance standards and the evolution of a ‘canonic’ repertory, but most research has been centred around public concerts. Despite this increased scholarly attention, there are many frustrating gaps in our knowledge about these activities, and the dearth of information is even greater for most private concerts. There is, however, rich surviving documentation pertaining to the series conducted for nine successive years by the sons of the Revd Charles Wesley (1707–88), co-founder with his brother John Wesley (1703–91) of Methodism. Until now, scholars have failed to make full use of the Wesley materials, partly because of their scattered locations, but also perhaps from a sense that the concerts stood only on the periphery of London concert life. Nevertheless, a closer examination of the Wesley records—and a comparison between them and what is known about more public concerts—shows that these concerts were not as marginal an enterprise as is sometimes assumed.
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
THE OCEAN HAS long defined British identity, in terms of both how Britons view themselves and how their country is regarded abroad. Citizens’ pride in the country's maritime tradition – and its navy's command over the seas – had been growing since the era of the Elizabethan sea-dogs, and was reflected in the famous encomium Shakespeare assigned to John of Gaunt in 1595: ‘This precious stone set in a silver sea, / Which serves it in the office of a wall / Or as a moat defensive to a house, / Against the envy of less happier lands; / This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England’. When the Kingdom of Great Britain was forged in 1707, the watery perimeter that Scotland, England, and Wales shared helped mitigate some of the persistent cultural differences among them. Britain's ability to defend and control the surrounding waters was increasingly emphasized in an effort to submerge some of its constituent countries’ underlying competitiveness. Unlike nations whose territory was defined by invisible, often arbitrary land-based lines, Great Britain's marine border meant that ‘the image of the sea has been the image of the nation’.
These changes in British attitudes towards the ocean were reflected in the nation's poetry and music. By the eighteenth century, songs increasingly focused on ‘Gloriana's sailor-heroes who had circumnavigated the globe, singed the King of Spain's beard, swept the oceans of pirates and Catholics, and thereby opened up the sea-routes across which English migrants would travel, and English trade would flow, until Britannia majestically ruled the waves’. Much of Britain's maritime identity was built on two ways of viewing the ocean: first, as the gateway to a global marketplace, and second, as the protective border – ‘the liquid fence of Neptune’ – that could be defended by a strong navy. Music helped shape national attitudes towards these two dimensions, in formats ranging from simple vocal broadsides to elaborate instrumental and theatrical works. The nautical references in eighteenth-century British music fostered a sense of British – as distinct from English, Scottish, or Welsh – patriotism, entertained listeners with depictions of love and relationships, and awakened a sense of increased social responsibility among citizens.
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
For centuries, the sea and those who sail upon it have inspired the imaginations of British musicians. Generations of British artists have viewed the ocean as a metaphor for the mutable human condition - by turns calm and reflective, tempestuous and destructive - and have been influenced as much by its physical presence as by its musical potential. But just as geographical perspectives and attitudes on seascapes have evolved over time, so too have cultural assumptions about their meaning and significance. Changes in how Britons have used the sea to travel, communicate, work, play, and go to war have all irresistibly shaped the way that maritime imagery has been conceived, represented, and disseminated in British music. By exploring the sea's significance within the complex world of British music, this book reveals a network of largely unexamined cultural tropes unique to this island nation. The essays are organised around three main themes: the Sea as Landscape, the Sea as Profession, and the Sea as Metaphor, covering an array of topics drawn from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first. Featuring studies of pieces by the likes of Purcell, Arne, Sullivan, Vaughan Williams, and Davies, as well as examinations of cultural touchstones such as the BBC, the Scottish fishing industry, and the Aldeburgh Festival, The Sea in the British Musical Imagination will be of interest to musicologists as well as scholars in history, British studies, cultural studies, and English literature.
ERIC SAYLOR is Associate Professor of Musicology at Drake University.
CHRISTOPHER M. SCHEER is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Utah State University.
CONTRIBUTORS: Byron Adams, Jenny Doctor, Amanda Eubanks Winkler, James Brooks Kuykendall, Charles Edward McGuire, Alyson McLamore, Louis Niebur, Jennifer Oates, Eric Saylor, Christopher M. Scheer, Aidan J. Thomson, Justin Vickers, Frances Wilkins
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)
Edited by
Eric Saylor, Associate Professor, musicology (Drake University),Christopher M. Scheer, Associate Professor, musicology (Utah State University)