Restoration Cathedral Music, 1660-1714 (Oxford Studies in British Church Music) - Hardcover

Spink, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198161492 ISBN 13: 9780198161493

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1995

Synopsis

The Restoration of Charles II stimulated one of the greatest triumphs of Anglican cathedral music. A group of gifted men, led by Henry Purcell, succeeded in transforming the carefully preserved and revived traditions of the Golden Age of Tudor and earlier Stuart periods into a contemporary style that vigorously embraces the idioms of the French and Italian Baroque. But although perhaps a dozen masterpieces of the period remain in the cathedral repertory, few of us can have had any idea of the riches and variety of music awaiting rediscovery.

Ian Spink, a leading authority on seventeenth-century English music, has carried out a remarkable new investigation of the musical sources of the period and of the archives of every cathedral and choral foundation. The result is not only a largely unfamiliar picture of the musical life and circumstance of choral foundations, from the Chapel Royal to remote Carlisle, but also a fresh assessment of the music taking in not only the work of the great men of the age - Purcell, Locke, Handel - but also many lesser masters such as Humfrey, Blow, Clarke, Weldon, and Croft. For the first time, perhaps, the true character and shape of the Restoration period of musical history is revealed.

About this title

Review:

Explicit yet concise, the present book's title corresponds exactly to the scope of its contents ... Here, then, is a book of outstanding interest, which encompasses the entire repertory of church music in the United Kingdom immediately after the Stuart Restoration. The quantity of music which has been preserved will certainly surprise musicologists and music-lovers in France ... One has nothing but praise for the author's erudition ... and for the clarity of his account ... the book cannot be too highly commended for the quality and quantity of information which it presents, and for the extremely convenient way in which it presents it, thanks in part to the excellent index and to its numerous music examples, which are both clearly printed and accurate. (Jean Lionnet, Journal of the Royal Musical Association)

Spink has attempted a highly detailed, thorough-going study; he has tried, it would seem, to leave no stone unturned, and the result is a remarkable achievement. The book is organized in a way that will allow it to be read as a survey of the topic and consulted as a reference tool ... this is a magnificent book, which will provide a most secure foundation for all future investigations. I know that it will not collect much dust on my bookshelf. (Robert Shay)

It is hardly too fanciful to liken opening this book to lifting the lid of an unsuspected treasure chest...an immensely readable, uniquely definitive text that any musical scholar working in this field would surely have pledged his birthright to have written. (Choir and Organ)

Spink provides a lucid and detailed account of the intimate connection which existed between cathedral music, with its choirs and organs, and the state religion which under-pinned the divine right of the monarch...Wherever one lives in the country there will be something of interest, as Spink has provided a vignette of each cathedral and its music. (Early Music Today.)

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0198161492
• ISBN 13: 9780198161493
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 504