Indeed, it could be argued that England was the most musical country in Europe by the second half of the 18th century, judging by the amount of musical activity of all types. Musicians were not attracted to London from all over Europe by the prospect of becoming big fish in a small, stagnant pond, but because London was the largest and most exciting pond of all, where you did not need to be a big fish to make a fortune. These developments were not symptoms of weakness or decline, but evidence of a vibrant and complex musical life. (See Wind, ethnicity, and gender, and They come over ‘ere…)Īdducing Ferrabosco, Notari, and Draghi, Holman notes that as the scale of immigration increased,
Immigrants had played an important role in bringing new ideas from the continent ever since the reign of Henry VII.
But he unpacks the assumptions of even this limited definition: OK, he’s broadly following the continental critics here in equating “musical life” with art music-not all the diverse folk traditions, such as the musical life of taverns in East Anglia.
The most persistent observation on musical life in 18th-century England is that it was dominated by Handel and other immigrant composers, the implication being that native composers were too feeble, parochial, or conservative to offer them much competition. And it privileged the work of the professional secular male in concert music over all others, such as church musicians, amateurs, and women. It privileged instrumental music, especially those genres that used Viennese sonata form, over vocal music. It privileged what was perceived as the centre-Italy, Germany, and Austria- over the supposed periphery- Scandinavia, eastern and central Europe, France, the Iberian peninsula, and England. Of course, this agenda is part of a larger one that has more to do with 19th-century cultural politics than with a proper, balanced evaluation of the total corpus of 18th-century music. Nothing on earth is more terrible than English music, save English painting. These people have no ear, either for rhythm or music, and their unnatural passion for piano playing and singing is thus all the more repulsive. He dates it back further to a pithy 1840 comment by Heinrich Heine: Where he tellingly probes the description of 18th-century England as “Das Land ohne Musik” (cf.
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