Music of the Raj: A Social and Economic History of Music in Late Eighteenth Century Anglo-Indian Society PDF
Preview Music of the Raj: A Social and Economic History of Music in Late Eighteenth Century Anglo-Indian Society
RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page i Music ofthe Raj RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page ii RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page iii Music of the Raj A Social and Economic History of Music in Late Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Indian Society I W 1 RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page iv 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford University Press is a department ofthe University ofOxford. It furthers the University’s objective ofexcellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing woldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark ofOxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Ian Woodfield The moral rights ofthe author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing ofOxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope ofthe above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN ––– Typeset by Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd., Guildford & Kings Lynn RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page v To Thérèse RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page vi RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page vii Acknowledgements During the ten years that I have worked on this book, I have benefited greatly from the advice and assistance ofcolleagues and friends, who have suggested many new lines ofthought and who have drawn my attention to sources that I would otherwise have missed. I should like to thank Gerry Farrell, Richard Widdess, Martin Stokes, Simon McVeigh, Jan Smaczny, and Donald Burrows. An especial debt ofgratitude is owed to my long-time colleague Cyril Ehrlich, who was influential in my transi- tion from the field oflate medieval organology to that ofthe social history ofmusic in the eighteenth century. A symposium entitled ‘The History of North Indian Music: th–th Centuries’, held at the Rotterdam Conservatorium on – December under the efficient organization ofJoep Bor and Jane Harvey, pro- vided a chance to hear presentations and thought-provoking discussions from a wide range ofscholars working on the history ofIndian music. The major collections of Anglo-Indian letters discussed in this study are in the National Library ofWales and the British Library. I acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of staff there. Above all the India Office Library at Blackfriars was my haunt during vacations for many years, and the efficiency ofits reader services was much appreciated. Major Williams of the National Trust arranged for me to visit Powis Castle to look at a collection ofmusic belonging to the Clive family. Other assistance was provided by the Gloucestershire Record Office, the Somerset Record Office, the Newspaper Library at Colindale, the Victoria and Albert Museum. From the inception of this project, Bruce Phillips at Oxford University Press was most supportive and encouraging, and generous financial support has been provided by the Queen’s University ofBelfast. I. W. RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page viii RAJPR 9/25/2000 5:21 PM Page ix Preface ‘Ofall kinds ofmusical activity the least documented is, understandably, domestic music-making. At its extent and its social spread in England during the eighteenth century we can only guess.’ Thus Stanley Sadie in Music in Britain: The Eighteenth Cen- tury.1Notwithstanding the lack of first-hand accounts by amateur musicians, it is accepted that the growth ofrecreational music-making among the middle classes, now an economically powerful group, influenced profoundly the development of musical culture in eighteenth-century England. Newly affluent and with leisure time to devote to their hobby, musical amateurs influenced almost every aspect of professional and commercial musical activity: they provided the audiences for the emerging traditions of the public concert; their need for tuition increased the opportunities for music teachers, stimulating a great influx of Italian and German musicians; their appetite for new keyboard instruments led to the emergence of London as the leading centre for the technical development and the commercial retail ofpianofortes; and their demand for new repertoire stimulated a phenomenal increase in the publication ofeasy domestic music. The growing vitality ofmusical life in London is easy to document, but the effects in the shires were as obvious: musical clubs and societies flourished; circulating music libraries were set up; ‘coun- try’ music retailers established businesses, acting as agents for the major London firms; systems oftransport for the carriage ofinstruments were put in place; and an informal annual calendar of special events, effectively music festivals, came into being. All ofthis activity has left a wealth ofevidence, mainly ‘public’ or ‘semi-public’ in character, in the form ofnewspaper advertisements, publishers’ catalogues, minute books ofsocieties, and subscription lists. Material ofthis kind is certainly ofgreat value in tracing the development of middle-class musical tastes. Analysis of the repertoire of provincial music societies, for example, illustrates an undiminished enthusiasm for Corelli throughout the century, and the successive phases in the reception ofHaydn’s music can be followed through in newspaper advertisements of the programmes of leading concert organizations. The musical preferences of more specific groups are also amenable to study. In a recent account of the rise of ‘ancient’ music, lists ofpatrons ofone ofthe main societies devoted to its promotion have been shown to reflect the influence ofclass and political allegiance on support 1 H. Diack Johnstone and R. Fiske, eds., Music in Britain: The Eighteenth Century(Oxford: Blackwell, ), .
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