The Music Trade in Georgian England (review)

The title of this substantial volume, although a correct description of its contents, may perhaps lead the reader to expect a more comprehensive survey of the subject than is in fact present. ‘Georgian England’ covers a period of over a century, but, with one exception, these essays focus on the period from about 1770 to 1830. The exception is John Small’s essay ‘The Development of Musical Copyright’, which surveys the topic from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. At 154 pages this is by far the largest contribution and indeed might almost have been issued on its own as a monograph. Small’s comprehensive account shows an admirable command of both the legal and commercial aspects. The major development in the eighteenth century revolved round a series of legal cases in the 1770s, which finally led to confirmation that copyright could reside in works other than ordinary printed books. The upshot was that from around 1780 printed music started to be registered regularly at Stationers’ Hall, as publishers began to see advantage in thus protecting their works from piracy. Small, incidentally, might have mentioned the present-day legacy of this — the continued presence in various libraries of the free deposit copies that were a prerequisite of registration. Even though many publishers neglected to register works, without this provision many British music publications would have disappeared without trace.

‘Music Trade’ is a significant term in the title, for this volume is by no means solely concerned with bibliographical matters. From the time John Playford set up shop in London in the mid-seventeenth century, those who published and sold music scores most commonly also dealt in musical instruments and accessories, whether of their own manufacture or bought in. This remained standard practice well into the nineteenth century and indeed, in some cases, into the twentieth. Scholars, however, have tended to divide into music bibliographers and organologists, each primarily interested in only one side of a firm’s business. It is a virtue of the present volume that it brings both aspects together, with some of the authors spanning both fields. In the first section ‘Longman, Broderip, and their Successors’, Jenny Nex, Curator of Music Instruments at the Royal College of Music, begins by dealing with the history of the Longman & Broderip firm, its partners and premises, though when considering their wares she concentrates on their instrument making. By way of contrast Michael Kassler, in the following essay, ‘Broderip & Wilkinson’, one of Longman & Broderip’s successors, devotes himself to their publishing activities. David Rowland, however, dealing with another of the successor firms, headed by Muzio Clementi with various partners, contributes two essays: one on ‘Clementi’s Music Business’, focusing chiefly on the manufacture and sale of pianos; and another on ‘Clementi as Publisher’. What is most striking in all these contributions is the effect on research of the greatly increased ease of access to official and other documents — such as legal, insurance, and livery company records — which the internet has made possible.

On a different topic the young scholar Yu Lee An has used her New Zealand doctoral work on music publishers’ catalogues to survey the ‘Periodical Music Collections of John Bland and his Successors’. Publication of music in series — intended at least to be issued on a regular basis — was one means by which publishers sought to boost their trade by attracting subscriptions, and John Bland was one of the leading purveyors. Catalogues of the contents were often printed within the publica tion, or issued separately (sometimes with musical incipits), and offer Yu Lee An a valuable tool for tracking and dating the various offerings.

The final section of the volume, ‘New Technologies’, is solely the work of Michael Kassler. Two of the three essays concern the work of that inveterate and multi-faceted inventor Charles Stanhope (from 1783 Earl Stanhope). Best known to readers of this journal as the inventor of the successful Stanhope press, his enquiring spirit also took...