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Revealing the connections between the veneration of national landscape and eighteenth-century English vocal music, this study restores English music's relationship with the picturesque. In the eighteenth century, the emerging taste for the picturesque was central to British aesthetics, as poets and painters gained popularity by glorifying the local landscape in works concurrent with the emergence of native countryside tourism. Yet English music was seldom discussed as a medium for conveying national scenic beauty. Stephen Groves explores this gap, and shows how secular song, the glee, and national theatre music expressed a uniquely English engagement with landscape.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, Groves addresses the apparent 'silence' of the English picturesque. The book draws on analysis of the visualisations present in the texts of English vocal music, and their musical treatment, to demonstrate how local composers incorporated celebrations of landscape into their works. The final chapter shows that the English picturesque was a crucial influence on Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons. Suitable for anyone with an interest in eighteenth-century music, aesthetics, and the natural environment, this book will appeal to a wide range of specialists and non-specialists alike.
List of contents
List of figures
List of musical examples
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I
1 Coloured for sight and sound: picturesque landscapes and the muse
2 An English picturesque absence?
3 The abstract and the colloquial picturesque
PART II
4 Walks and prospect views: solo song and the glee in England
5 From Lake Windermere to the Bay of Naples: picturesque scenery, subjects and situations in English musical theatre
6 The picturesque oratorio: Haydn's art in nature's clothing
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Stephen Groves completed his PhD at Southampton University in 2012. He previously held posts as Teacher of Academic Music and Head of Strings at Merchant Taylors’ School, and Director of Music at Watford Grammar School for Girls. He is currently editor of www.greatbritishwine.com.
Summary
Revealing the connections between the veneration of national landscape and eighteenth-century English vocal music, this study restores English music’s connections with the picturesque. This book explores this gap, and shows how secular song, the glee, and national theatre music expressed a uniquely English engagement with landscape.
