Concert life in eighteenth-century Britain

"The collection of essays presented here offers a portrayal of concert life in Britain that contributes greatly to the wider understanding of social and cultural life in the eighteenth century. All the essays taken together construct an understanding of musical communities and the origins of the modern concert system. This is achieved by focusing on the development of music societies; the promotion of musical events; the mobility and advancement of musicians; systems of patronage; the social status of musicians; the repertoire preformed and published; the role of women pianists and the 'topography' of concerts. In this way the book will appeal not only to music specialists, but also to social and cultural historians."--Jacket.

Introduction / Simon McVeigh -- Concert topography and provincial towns in eighteenth-century England / Peter Borsay -- Clergy, music societies and the development of a musical tradition : a study of music societies in Hereford, 1690-1760 / Elizabeth Chevill -- Competition and collaboration : concert promotion in Newcastle and Durham, 1752-1772 / Roz Southey -- Musical culture and the capital city : the epoch of the beau monde in London, 1700-1870 / William Weber -- 'The first talents of Europe' : British music printers and publishers and imported instrumental music in the eighteenth century / Jenny Burchell -- Musicians and music copyists in mid-eighteenth-century Oxford / Donald BUrrows and Peter Ward Jones -- The catch and glee in eighteenth-century provincial England / Brian Robins -- The string quartet in London concert life, 1769-1799 / Meredith McFarlane and Simon McVeigh -- Music and drama at the Oxford Act of 1713 / H. Diack Johnstone -- The pleasures and penalties of networking : John Frederick Lampe in the summer of 1750 / Roy Johnston -- 'So much rational and elegant amusement, at an expence comparatively inconsiderable' : the Holywell concerts in the eighteenth centur…