Englishness in Music
Subtitle: from Elizabethan times to Elgar, Tippett and Britten
Publisher: Thames Publishing
Published: 1999
Place of publication: London, United Kingdom
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780903413282
Subjects: English music
Genres: Music
Description: James Day brings an enviably urbane and pragmatic mind to his discussion of many aspects of our national life and culture over the last 400 years and their influence on our music.
The book is not intended to be a formal history of English classical music. However, six composers in particular - Purcell, Handel, Sullivan, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten - receive detailed comment, as the whole tapestry from the Elizabethans onwards is examined in identifying the influences which have fashioned that blend of the eclectic and the cosmopolitan that has always been characteristic of English art - not least music - at its best: ‘pathos without sentimentality, vitality without coarseness, and mockery without malice’, as Mr Day neatly puts it.
He wears his learning lightly as he builds his argument. The analysis of, for example, Elgar’s Falstaff demonstrates his perception and sympathies in no uncertain terms. All readers who acknowledge that there is more to music of quality than a set of well-ordered notes will find him an enthusiastic and thoughtprovoking guide.
Table of contents: pagenum: v
title: Preface; title: What is 'Englishness'?
pagenum: 1
label: 1; title: The Fair Oriana and the 'Golden Age'
pagenum: 14
label: 2; title: Henry Purcell: The Complete Restoration Man
pagenum: 40
label: 3; title: An Honorary Englishman? George Friedrich Handel
pagenum: 63
label: 4; title: 'With Fitful Glimmer'
pagenum: 78
label: 5; title: Paying for it
pagenum: 98
label: 6; title: The Victorian Dilemma: Sublimity or Utility?
pagenum: 118
label: 7; title: The Clown who would be Hamlet: Sir Arthur Sullivan
pagenum: 137
label: 8; title: 'Knight, Gentleman and Soldier': Edward Elgar
pagenum: 151
label: 9; title: The Rebel Conformist: Ralph Vaughan Williams
pagenum: 173
label: 10; title: Kicking over the traces - well, sort of
pagenum: 196
label: 11; title: Britten: Reading from Left to Right?
pagenum: 209
label: 12; title: Epilogue: Is there Life after Britten?
pagenum: 223
label: 13; pagenum: 237
title: Index of names; pagenum: 241
title: Index of works