The Sound of the English Picturesque: Georgian Vocal Music, Haydn, and Landscape Aesthetics (Music and Visual Culture)

Synopsis

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.

Copyright:

2024

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781000985870

Related ISBNs:

9781003293378, 9781032275703, 9781032275796

Publisher:

Taylor and Francis

Date of Addition:

12/03/23

Copyrighted By:

N/A

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Outdoors and Nature, Social Studies, Music, Philosophy

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.