The Advancement of Music in Enlightenment England: Benjamin Cooke and the Academy of Ancient Music by Tim Eggington (review)

The Academy of Ancient Music, founded in 1726 as the Academy of Vocal Music, holds an important position in the history of music in London as being one of the earliest organisations to perform music from past generations of composers. The initial repertoire performed at this musical club, which served as a mixing pot for leading professional musicians, aristocratic enthusiasts, and music theorists, concentrated on sacred music and madrigals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (including works by Palestrina, Byrd, Marenzio, and Victoria), but also soon began to combine this with more contemporary repertoire within the club's regular concert series. The task Tim Eggington tackles in his new book is to reassess the activities of the Academy of Ancient Music through the lens of enlightenment thought using the example of Benjamin Cooke (1734–1793), organist of Westminster Abbey and conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music concerts for most of the second half of the eighteenth century. The until-now-largely-forgotten Cooke was a respected composer, organist, teacher, and theorist in Enlightenment London and conducted research into Greek theories of music, science, and ancient music—as Eggington points out, he therefore serves as an ideal example for the modi operandi of eighteenth-century academicians who employed enlightenment methods for musical ends (p. 2). In seven chapters, Eggington aims to re-examine the foundation of the Academy of Ancient Music and its development until the death of its first conductor Johann Christoph Pepusch in 1752 when Cooke, Pepusch's pupil, took over. This is followed by chapters on Cooke's early career and his association with the Academy of Ancient Music from 1752 until 1784, the position of music history and theory within the Academy, and a detailed discussion of Cooke's compositions and theoretical publications.

The opening chapter on the foundation and early years of the Academy presents a coherent overview of the organisation's activities, covering topics such as its founding members, the 'Orders' (i.e., rules for members), the music library, early academic activity, and two events which shaped its early development—the appointment of the composer and diplomat Agostino Steffani as the president in absentia in 1727 and the Bononcini affair in the same year. Eggington shows how Steffani's appointment as president highlights the academic nature of the Academy by choosing a composer who, in the minds of academicians, was almost equivalent to the quality of Corelli owing to the reputation of Steffani's vocal chamber duets and their combination of polyphony and monody. Steffani's position in London's educated circles is further highlighted by two biographies being published in his honour in ca.1758 (John Hawkins) and 1779 (Giordano Riccati). As a diplomat and Apostolic Vicar in northern Germany, as well as having published a treatise on music in 1694, Steffani's academic credentials made him an ideal candidate for president of the Academy. Unfortu -nately, however, Steffani died in February 1728 having served only eight months. From a letter by John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont, Eggington suggests that Steffani's sudden death precipitated the 'Bononcini affair', in which the composer Giovanni Bononcini was accused of plagiarism for performing a madrigal by Antonio Lotti under his own name, at first denying the accusation (pp. 28–9) and resulting in a split at the Academy, with Bononcini's supporters, the most prominent of which was Maurice Greene, leaving to set up their own musical club—the Apollo Society / Academy.

Eggington's second chapter concentrates on Benjamin Cooke's early career and musical education, setting the scene for his later involvement in the Academy of Ancient Music and highlighting that Cooke's interests lay primarily with the Academy, rather than his post as organist of Westminster Abbey. Of particular interest is Cooke's early education, which he received from Pepusch...