Northumbrian Baroque

Eighteenth-century Britain was awash in music. London—a cosmopolitan capital with aristocrats and flourishing middling classes who had money and time to devote to leisure—offered music-lovers unmatched opportunities to hear music in opera houses and theatres, public and private concerts, taverns and assembly halls, pleasure gardens, and churches. Musicians from across Europe flocked to London, where they could earn livelihoods as freelance performers, teachers and composers. Roz Southey's Music-making in North-East England during the eighteenth century joins other studies showing how the craze for music was not limited to London, but flourished in other English urban centres as well. Her primary focus is music-making in Newcastle, Durham, York and environs.

Southey valiantly undertook the essential task of combing local newspapers and archival holdings in search of mentions of music, musicians and musical activities. She is at the mercy of whatever evidence chanced to survive, so there probably was more music-making than she can report; nonetheless, from this scattered evidence Southey builds up a picture of the rise and varied fortunes of music-making and the careers of musicians in the northeast. Threatening to dominate her story—on account of his numerous compositions, concert promotion, his well-known Essay on musical expression (1752) and other writings—is Charles Avison, and Southey works deliberately to give other musicians their due.

Southey presents her subject in five parts: music in concerts, theatre and as popular entertainments; music as an art and science practised by gentlemen and amateurs; music as an aid to piety in the cathedral and parish churches; music and nationalism in time of war and peace; and music as a commercial opportunity for making a living.

Public concerts are first recorded in York in 1709, and Newcastle three years later. At first one-off events, concerts were offered in series in the late 1720s. Often organized by prominent musicians, rivalries developed between groups, and Durham and Newcastle seemed to have markedly different tastes. Music was also heard in theatres, and popular entertainments were offered by the city waits and at dances and assemblies. In addition, private music-making was supported and practised by the gentry (Sharp and Dolben families), private groups (the prebends at Durham Cathedral) and private music societies.

For critical or aesthetic comment about the art of music, and the uses to which it should be put, Southey has the benefit of the writings of Avison and John ('Estimate') Brown, and she provides lively accounts of the quarrels and polemics they entered. Most of the newspaper reviewing cited, however, is uninformatively bland and polite approval.

Sacred music was probably a major part of many people's musical life, whether at cathedral, parish church, private devotion or oratorio. The choristers and singing men of Durham Cathedral played a central role in the area's sacred and secular music. In addition to cathedral services, the choir sang at the Sons of the Clergy festivals, inaugurations of parish organs, and charity services. The choir also sponsored concert series in the city, which competed with those sponsored by Avison from Newcastle.

For the parish churches, Southey describes the local organs, organists, performance practice, choirs, charity children choirs, singing teachers and psalm singing. Psalm singing was an especially fertile field for reformers and publishers of psalm books. Southey suggests that the reservations of Avison and the disapproval of Brown may explain why Handel's oratorios did not take hold in Newcastle until the late 1770s, whereas Durham's musical life was dominated by Handel from the 1740s. As is to be expected, toward the end of the century oratorios became the staple of music festivals throughout the region.

As in London, foreign musicians had an advantage over native ones; but native composers were able to capitalize on patriotic and national music. The French Revolutionary Wars brought a measure of prosperity to the region's musicians and a surge of military band music.

Music was a means of livelihood as well as an art; and the final part of the book surveys the training...