Canterbury Cathedral & Canterbury Christ Church University
Church Music and Musicians in Britain 1660-1900: Between the Chapel and the Tavern
ABSTRACTS
Pamela M R T Barrowman
From darkness into light – the story of a congregation and its musical identity 1689-1908.
This paper is concerned with illuminating the path leading the Episcopalians of Glasgow from the violent
expulsion from the mediaeval Cathedral of St Mungo, where the florid pre-Reformation masses and motets of
Robert Carver and his contemporaries had been superseded by the severity of Precentor-led metrical psalms, to
the current home in the church of St Mary the Virgin, made Cathedral of the Diocese in the twentieth century.
This path leads through the obscurity and persecution imposed by the Scottish Penal Laws during which those
wishing to retain Episcopal church government were forbidden to worship in groups of more than four people
for fear of harsh penalties. Even after the repeal of these laws, political circumstances continued until 1805 to
divide the church into the two streams of Qualified – those congregations where the minister was prepared to
swear an oath of allegiance to the Hanoverian monarch, and in return were allowed to build churches and
worship publicly – and the Non-Juring – those where their loyalty to the Jacobite cause precluded this. These two
streams were reunited in Glasgow with the building in 1825 of Old St Mary’s Church in the centre of the city,
intended to seat a thousand people, complete with an organ and professional singers - men and women – to
lead the singing from the West gallery.
When half a century later the managers of this incumbency decided to follow the residential focus of the city
with a move to the current building in the West End, the metrical psalms of the Presbyterians and the mixed
choir in the gallery were left behind, and when the building was chosen as the Cathedral of the diocese in 1908
it was a fully robed, all male choir that would process in to sing services rich in plainsong and Anglican Chant,
modern hymnody, canticles and anthems from the English Cathedral tradition, and even a Latin mass setting by
Gounod on special occasions.
Prof. Charles E. Brewer (The College of Music, Florida State University)
British Anthems and Colonial Musicking in a Time of Rebellion
During the period before the start of open rebellion in 1775 anthems by British composers, such as Knapp,
Stephenson, Tans’ur, and Williams, were well-known in the British/American colonies. Using Josiah Flagg’s
Sixteen Anthems (Boston, 1766) as a focal point, an examination of contemporary sources reveals how these
transatlantic musical connections intersected with the changing political and religious climate in New England.
As in the Book of Common Prayer, anthems were primarily used by the different religious denominations of New
England for special occasions; for example three anthems from Flagg’s collection were sung on 22 December
1771 for the dedication of the new Baptist meeting house in Boston.
The colonists also drew upon the repertoire of British anthems written to commemorate specific political or
military events, such as Stephenson’s An Anthem Taken out of the 44 Chap. of Isaiah, written following the
victories of the Prussian Army at the Battles of Rosbach (5 November 1757) and Leuthen (5 December 1757).
This anthem was later adapted by John Stickney (Newburyport, 1774) and Andrew Law (Cheshire, CT, 1779),
both of whom, along with Flagg, were known patriots. The use of biblical texts to support a political theology,
as found in Stephenson’s anthem, was also common in the colonies and there is evidence that these British
anthems were sung at meetings and spinning parties in support of resistance to the Crown. This seditious use of
biblical texts and these trans-Atlantic anthems came to influence William Billings in works such as his
Lamentation over Boston.
Dr Erica Buurman (Canterbury Christ Church University)
‘Nothing is so amusing as a drunken fiddler’: ball room musicians in early nineteenth-century Britain
The London dancing master Thomas Wilson published a Companion to the Ball Room in 1816, in which he
included a short essay on ‘Ball Room Musicians’. Wilson laments the poor treatment such musicians often
received at public balls, and particularly condemns the practice of plying the performers with liquor in order to
make them drunk for the amusement of the assembly. While he concedes that there are many ‘whose talent will
not entitle them to the name of Musician’, Wilson nevertheless sympathises with the precariousness of the dance
music profession, and suggests that a system of professional certification and the creation of a centralised
pension fund might ‘render the profession still more respectable’.
The generally disdainful attitude towards the dance music profession described by Wilson contrasts sharply with
the emergence of celebrity dance musicians in the early nineteenth century. While the average ‘ball room
musician’ may have struggled to earn a regular income, the renowned Scottish band leader Nathaniel Gow
(1763–1831) reportedly amassed a fortune of around £20,000 from his teaching, playing and publishing of
dance music (mostly in London and Edinburgh). Later decades were also to see an influx of fashionable foreign
dance band leaders with increasingly stellar career paths. This paper investigates the dance music profession in
the early nineteenth century with particular attention to entrepreneurial individuals such as Wilson and Gow,
thereby shedding light on an area of professional music-making that has traditionally received little attention
from music historians.
Dr Paul Collins (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick)
Belgian and German organist appointments to Catholic cathedrals and churches in Ireland during the late
nineteenth century
This paper examines the activities of mainland European organists in Ireland during the latter part of the long
nineteenth century. The period 1859–1916 saw the appointment of approximately ten Belgian and seventeen
German organists to Catholic cathedrals and churches in fifteen of Ireland’s twenty-six dioceses. These musicians,
ardent devotees of the Cecilian movement, provided stalwart musical leadership in a Church that had repeatedly
failed to afford its native musicians the opportunity to avail of proper training in liturgical music in Ireland.
Indeed, the absence of a training infrastructure in Ireland for aspiring church musicians—a situation that
endured until the late twentieth century—led to a reliance on the part of many Irish dioceses on the services of
foreign organist-choirmasters, who came mainly from the Lemmens Institute in Malines, the Kirchenmusikschule
in Ratisbon (Regensburg), and the school of music in Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen). While the appointment of these
organists was, understandably, a cause of concern in Ireland because of the limited number of organist posts
and the amount of unemployment in the music profession, the contribution of these Belgians and Germans to
musical life in their country of adoption was considerable. In addition to fulfilling their duties in the organ
gallery, they were active in founding music schools and directing bands and choirs, while those among them
who were composers produced arrangements of Irish folk songs. This period also witnessed the publication of
Pius X’s motu proprio (1903), and the effects of this document on the work of foreign organists in Ireland are
investigated.
Prof Jeremy Dibble (Durham University)
Abstract to follow
Dr Stephen Foster (Canterbury Cathedral)
‘People, Places and Performances: The Musical Map of Canterbury, 1725-1750’
In recent years much has been written about provincial concert life in eighteenth-century Britain. However,
Canterbury has hitherto escaped detailed attention, thus the history of the establishment and development of
musical life in the city and its surrounding area is not widely known. Also, the role played by the cathedral’s
musicians in its development has yet to be examined in detail. Was it similar to that in other cathedral cities, as
documented by Chevill (1993) and others, or did it follow a more individual path?
This paper will present the preliminary results of an investigation into the surviving evidence of early concert life
in Canterbury, uncovered from evidence in both published and manuscript sources available in local archives.
Reference will be made to the venues in which concerts and other entertainments took place, including, where
such information exists, the content of the programmes. This survey will also include an examination of the role
played by the Minor Canons and Lay Clerks of the Cathedral, where it can be identified, in the musical life of the
city during this period.
Karl Traugott Goldbach (Spohr Museum, Kassel)
Louis Spohr's Oratorio Calvary: Between the Scandal and the Liturgy
When Spohr's oratorio Calvary was performed at the Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Music Festival in 1839 it
gained success but also provoked a scandal. The Sunday before the performance the preacher in Norwich
Cathedral delivered a sermon against this very oratorio – in both his bishop's and Spohr's presence. From an
evangelical point of view there were several theological reservations against this work. In this case not only the
use of biblical texts for entertainment was a problem but also the oratorio's plot. While in continental Europe
and especially in Germany it was common to perform church music based on Christ's Passion this was nearly
forbidden in Great Britain. While in Germany in a lot of sacral music singers play the part of Jesus Passion
oratorios like Spohr's Calvary or Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives had to be revised in a way that a
narrator tells about Jesus' deeds but did not act in the drama.
According to a long tradition of research on Spohr this theological problems were the reason that Calvary
became forgotten after Spohr's death in 1859. On the contrary between 1874 and 1906 this oratorio were often
performed in the lent time. Moreover in the London parishes Brompton and St. Andrew's this oratorio was
arranged for the ”five o'clock Evensong on Thursday during Lent”.
Dr Richard Hall (Dorset Rural Music School)
The Bloxworth Carols
West Gallery music, the homely and often locally produced music which accompanied village worship in 18thcentury England, was largely swept away by Victorian notions of ecclesiastical musical respectability. This is a
matter of especial concern in Dorset; it is in the works of Thomas Hardy that this story is most vividly and
poignantly told.
Recently there has been some revival of interest in music of this type but one small village has never allowed the
tradition to fall into neglect: Bloxworth can boast almost continuous performance of local carols every Christmas
since at least the early 19th century. The carol book now used at Bloxworth, however, dates from 1926, and is
clearly an attempt to achieve a compromise between old and new. It is the work of Willie Pickard-Cambridge,
the son of the then vicar of Bloxworth, Octavius Pickard-Cambridge, whose two curates allowed Octavius himself
to devote his life entirely to spiders and become a world-renowned expert on the creatures. Willie P-C,
meanwhile, regarded himself as something of an expert in his chosen musical endeavours, and in editing the
Bloxworth carols sought to produce a version which maintained something of their original vigour while at the
same time being scrupulously heedful of the 'rules' of musical grammar as he saw them. This paper will examine
the differences between the original carols and the P-C versions, offering a very distinctive example of changing
musical tastes in rural church music in the 19th century.
Dr Peter Horton (Royal College of Music)
Master Wesley: ‘The best boy he had ever had’
Such was the opinion of William Hawes, Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. He
supported his opinion by promoting his young charge at concerts in London, Bath, Brighton and elsewhere, at
which Samuel Sebastian Wesley (b. 1810) sang – sometimes in the chorus, sometimes as a soloist – alongside
some of the leading singers of the day. Venues included George IV’s private concerts at the Royal Pavilion, the
Concerts of Ancient Music, the Madrigal Society and, most significantly, the Bath Festival of 1824. At the last,
where he was advertised as one of the ‘Principal Vocal Performers’, he appeared alongside Angelica Catalani,
Eliza Salmon, John Braham and Henry Phillips, and this was probably the high point of his short career as a
singer. While his considerable vocal ability is of interest in itself, it must also account for the demanding treble
solos in his setting of the Creed and the anthems ‘O give thanks unto the Lord’ and ‘Trust ye in the Lord’: if he
could perform such numbers himself, other choirboys should have been equally capable. Drawing on such
resources as George Smart’s annotated programmes, press reports and his own reminiscences, this paper will
examine Wesley’s career as a treble soloist – the Ernest Lough or Aled Jones of his day – the part played by
Hawes in promoting his star chorister, and the way in which Wesley’s writing for the treble voice is likely to have
reflected his own singing.
Dr Kerry Houston (Dublin Institute of Technology)
The Hibernian Catch Club
Dublin has two ancient cathedrals. Christ Church cathedral is an eleventh century monastic foundation which
became a cathedral of the new foundation at the reformation. Saint Patrick’s cathedral was established in the
thirteenth century and remains as a cathedral of the old foundation. Both cathedrals had musical establishments
from earliest times and indeed they shared the same personnel for many centuries. The shared musical personnel
extended outside the choir stalls. The Hibernian Catch Club claims to have been founded in 1680 by the vicars
choral of the Dublin cathedrals and that even earlier the vicars had organised musical dinners. Accordingly, it is
likely that the Hibernian Catch Club is the oldest in existence. The source for the date 1680 is in an annotated
copy of the beggar’s opera belonging to George Ogle who was an MP for County Wexford in the 1760s. This
book was in the possession of William Grattan Flood but is now lost.
This paper will examine the evidence with regard to the foundation of the Hibernian Catch Club and outline its
history from the earliest surviving records to 1850. It will examine the often fractious relations between the vicars
choral and their ecclesiastical employers and provide some biographical details of some of the more colourful
members of the club. It will also provide an overview of repertoire written for the Club.
Dr Alan Howard (Selwyn College, Cambridge)
‘Thou didst thy former skill improve’: Contrapuntal Artifice in Purcell’s 1694 Te Deum and Jubilate
At the climax of his last great choral work, the orchestral Te Deum and Jubilate in D for St Cecilia’s Day 1694,
Purcell dusted off a contrapuntal motif familiar from the end of his much earlier consort Fantazia no.12 in four
parts. Moreover, he also used exactly the same compositional conceit in his examination of this motif—no
doubt, in fact, his choice of materials was motivated by the hunt for an idea suited to extreme contrapuntal
augmentation, to illustrate the words ‘world without end’. While interesting in itself, such artificial wordpainting is only one of many instances of the reuse of earlier materials in this work, an aspect which has
curiously attracted little comment. In fact, the whole of the Jubilate’s doxology forms a choral re-imagination of
the fantazia genre, in which each of the contrapuntal sections—and indeed many others from elsewhere in the
Te Deum and Jubilate—derives closely from the specific techniques and materials of earlier consort pieces. This
paper examines these reworkings from an analytical perspective, in order to shed light on Purcell’s creative
strategies in his later choral music. In effect, I argue, Purcell is treating his earlier music as a kind of
commonplace book: it is as if the re-conception of his artificial manner of composing in the new stylistic context
of the 1690s required the systematic re-examination of these familiar contrapuntal fragments, and their
associated compositional strategies, in order that he could be satisfied as to their full assimilation into his mature
style.
Eleanor Jones-McAuley (Trinity College, Dublin)
Music in Dublin Parish Churches in the Long Eighteenth Century: Sources, Subscriptions and Society
The eighteenth century was a period of comparative peace and prosperity for the city of Dublin. Church music
flourished under these favourable conditions, not only in the city’s two cathedrals but also in its many parishes,
where the performance of solo organ repertoire and the singing of metrical psalms were integral components of
worship. Despite the prevalence of this distinctly parochial tradition, however, the historiography of Dublin's
church music has largely been centred on the cathedrals, with few studies focussing on the musical culture of
parish churches.
This paper addresses this imbalance by examining the record books, account books, subscription lists and other
contemporary sources connected with these churches in order to establish a comprehensive picture of the role of
music and musicians in Dublin’s parishes during the long eighteenth century. In particular, this paper
investigates the relationship between music and cultural identity at a time when religious affiliation was heavily
associated with social and political allegiances.
In contrast to the cathedrals, which were highly politicised and often exclusionary spaces, evidence suggests that
a more accommodating and pragmatic approach to socio-cultural identity existed in the parish churches,
particularly in musical matters. The records of St. Michan’s church, for example, list both the local Catholic priest
and a senior Presbyterian minister among the subscribers to the organ fund in 1725. By focussing on the
neglected field of parochial music in Dublin, this paper offers a fresh perspective on issues of religious affiliation,
identity and society during this complex and often contradictory period of Irish history.
Dr Ian Maxwell (University of Cambridge)
“I cannot resist inserting some luscious Stainerisms”: Anglican Church Music Sources for the English
Musical Renaissance
The quotation from E. J. Moeran introduces this paper which presents the methodology underlying and the
preliminary results of a research project that is seeking to establish a set of objective criteria to identify and
categorise characteristic features of the genre of English music that is commonly referred to as the English
Musical Renaissance. While the styles of music composed within this genre are many and varied, there is a
recognisable but tenuous nature about much of the music emanating from composers as diverse as Elgar,
Vaughan Williams, Delius, Parry, Stanford and numerous others that may be conveniently labelled “Englishness”.
However, pinning down exactly why much of the music of these composers sounds “English” is difficult, mainly
due to such a quality being apparently unquantifiable and seemingly dependent upon informed perception.
It has previously been shown that the music produced by English composers during the second half of the
nineteenth century and first few decades of the twentieth has its origins particularly in nineteenth-century
German composers such a Brahms and Schumann and the various British folk traditions. However, the influence
of eighteenth and nineteenth century Anglican Church Music has received less attention. Using computerassisted “big data” analytical procedures, my research shows how Anglican Church music has fundamentally
informed and directed the underlying stylistic features that identify “Englishness”, and that, for the first time, a
plausible objective basis for evaluating this nebulous quality of English music is possible.
Dr David Newsholme (Canterbury Cathedral)
‘For this will we give thanks’: Thanksgiving celebrations at Worcester during the reign of Queen Anne
During the reign of Queen Anne, numerous days of national thanksgiving were declared in celebration of
Marlborough’s many victories throughout the wars of the Spanish succession. In this lecture, the nature of these
occasions at Worcester will be examined, focusing on musical provision at the Cathedral.
With special reference to William Davis (c.1675/6 – 1745), the city’s most prolific and accomplished composer,
the extent to which these occasions provided creative stimulus and incentive will be considered and evaluated.
David O’Shea (Trinity College Dublin)
‘From Provincial to Colonial: The Expatriate Career of James Cooksey Culwick (1845–1907)’
Whereas Charles Villiers Stanford and Charles Wood both forsook their native Ireland to pursue illustrious
musical careers in England, their lesser known Staffordshire-born contemporary James Cooksey Culwick left
England at the age of twenty-one, and from humble beginnings as a schoolmaster in Co. Offaly he gradually
rose to the prominent position of organist of the Chapel Royal of Dublin Castle, advancing on his own merits
from provincial obscurity to the epicentre of colonial prestige.
During Culwick’s tenure as organist of the Chapel Royal, from 1881 until his death in 1907, he played a vibrant
role in Dublin’s musical life, and was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. He was made an honorary Doctor
of Music by the University of Dublin in 1893, and he was involved in the establishment of the Feis Ceoil, Ireland’s
national music festival. His circle of friends included influential musicians in England and Ireland, such as Arthur
Henry Mann of King’s College, Cambridge, and Sir Robert Stewart of St Patrick’s Cathedral. His extant
compositions are varied in style and genre, and include choral and organ music, as well as songs, piano works
and chamber music.
This paper will discuss Culwick’s remarkable career path, providing details of his activities at the Chapel Royal, his
compositions for choir and organ, and his wider work as a conductor, organist, educator and scholar.
Danielle Padley (University of Cambridge)
Charles Garland Verrinder: Between the church and the synagogue
Charles Garland Verrinder (1834-1904), an Anglican organist and composer, has been undervalued in accounts
of Victorian church musicianship. Originally a boy chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, he trained as an organist
under Sir George Elvey. In 1862 he received a degree in Music from Oxford University, and was awarded the
prestigious Lambeth Degree in 1873. However, the most unusual aspect of his career was the juxtaposition
between his work as a church musician and his role as the first organist of the West London Synagogue of
British Jews – a post he retained for forty-five years.
The West London Synagogue, founded in 1840, was the first ‘Reformed’ synagogue in Britain. By introducing
the choir and organ into regular worship the congregation hoped to signify their modern, ‘British’ identity, thus
furthering their religious and social status among the English middle and upper classes. It is not difficult to see
evidence of Verrinder’s Anglican background in his writing and arranging of synagogue repertoire, some of
which is still performed today. A contemporary of John Stainer and Charles Villiers Stanford, Verrinder wove
church-inspired customs into his music for the Synagogue whilst adhering to the congregation’s desire to
preserve traditional Jewish melodies. Through this combination, he helped to create a new Anglo-Jewish
musical identity. Additionally, he frequently contributed public letters, lectures, compositions, and
performances, in which he promoted Jewish music to a wider audience. This paper will explore Verrinder’s use
of church musical practice within his synagogue writing, and his involvement in Jewish-Christian discourse.
Chris Price (Canterbury Christ Church University & Canterbury Cathedral)
Two Canterbury Musicians: the contrasting careers of Thomas Goodban and W H Longhurst
The only visible remnants of the Canterbury Catch Club (1779-1865) presently on display for visitors to the City‘s
museum are two portraits which belonged to the Club: one of St Cecilia, complete with organ, cherubs, and a
few lines of Dryden, and the other of Thomas Goodban, the son of the tavern keeper in whose premises the
Club met for its first half century. For forty years Goodban organised and led the Club’s orchestra in the formal
concert which began the Club’s weekly meetings throughout the winter months, and for two periods of his life
he sang in the cathedral choir, as chorister and Lay Clerk. It is enjoyably ironic that Goodban’s portrait remains
on display whilst those of his social superiors who ran the Club – and who summarily sacked him in 1845 –
languish in dusty obscurity in the vaults, but he deserves to be remembered for his tremendous commitment to
this sociable music-making, and for his tireless work as an inventive and imaginative music educator.
William Henry Longhurst also began his musical career at the Cathedral – and never left, serving successively as
chorister, Lay Clerk, Assistant Organist and Organist before retiring on a full pension granted by a grateful Dean
and Chapter in 1898. By then, he had become an extremely important figure in the musical life of the city,
having taken over from Goodban as conductor of the Catch Club Orchestra, organising and conducting other
concert series, and composing and publishing, whilst combining all this with his own busy teaching career. The
affection and respect he commanded by the end of his life would have come as a surprise to anyone who knew
Longhurst as a young man; he had been one of the Lay Clerks who petitioned mutinously for a pay rise in 1848
– to the point where they hired a local notary, Charles Sandys, to go over the heads of the Dean and Chapter to
petition Parliament on their behalf.
These two provincial musicians serve as fascinating case studies illuminating that period of fraught negotiation in
a society increasingly concerned with matters of social status and respectability, in which musicians were anxious
to be accepted as professionals worthy of note rather than artisans purveying entertainment of dubious worth.
Dr Robert G. Rawson (Canterbury Christ Church University)
Pepusch and Handel at Cannons: Anglican liturgy versus Continental Theatricality
The secularisation of English church music was a slower process than was most of its Continental counterparts.
Following the Restoration the French influence was strong indeed, but after the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 a
certain conservatism continued to dominate aspects of Anglican liturgical music. Whilst Purcell, Blow, Croft and
a few others contributed concertante works as occasional pieces, most liturgical music, even that for the Chapel
Royal, was primarily for voices and continuo and composed in a sacred style which was distinct from the
primarily Italianate theatrical style. Among the leading composers in the first decades of the early 18th century
to offer another approach was two German immigrants: Handel and Pepusch. Handel’s Chandos Anthems have
found lasting recognition in the repertoire, but Pepusch’s, perhaps bolder works, have not. This paper makes a
case, in particular, for Pepusch’s theatrical approach; in particular is the former’s take on the Magnificat in
English—a vibrantly-scored work with trumpets, winds and strings—a setting without parallel of its time in
stylistic terms. During the same period, both composers were considering their approaches to theatrical music in
English—an expected scenario on the Continent, but a largely unexplored one on these shores.
Brian Robins
John Marsh in Church… and Tavern
Few musicians have left us more valuable information on the state of church music in England during the latter
half of the 18th century and early years of the 19th than the dilettante John Marsh. Born in Dorking in 1752,
Marsh spent much of his long life living in or near the cathedral cities of Salisbury (1776-83), Canterbury (178387) and Chichester (1787-1828, the year of his death), carefully recording in his journals many aspects of
musical and social life, in both of which his participation left a lasting mark. Having taught himself on the organ
in Salisbury, Marsh subsequently often deputised at the cathedral organ both there and in Canterbury and
Chichester. His compositions include a substantial catalogue of organ music in addition to cathedral anthems,
hymns and chant. His extensive writings, too, were not infrequently devoted to the topic of church music, in
particular in an article from 1785 entitled ‘Thoughts on the abuse of Cathedral Music’.
The proposed paper will seek to draw together just some of the threads of Marsh’s interest in and involvement
with church music – the topic could probably alone sustain a conference! – in particular drawing on his
observations and not infrequently acerbic criticism of church musicians and the standard of performance he
found not only in leading cathedrals and university colleges but also more humble parish churches.
Dr Sandra Tuppen The British Library
Giovanni Battista Draghi: an Italian in London
The Italian composer Giovanni Battista Draghi lived and worked in London from the 1660s to his death in 1708.
Most of his surviving music is secular; it includes songs, keyboard music, a trio sonata and a St Cecilia’s Day ode,
‘From harmony, from heav’nly harmony’. Despite his long association with the chapel of Charles II’s Catholic
queen, Catherine of Braganza, just one sacred work by Draghi is known to survive: a substantial vocal piece
entitled ‘This is the day the Lord hath made’, scored for ATB and organ. Performance material for the work is
preserved at Canterbury Cathedral Archives in the hand of Daniel Henstridge. A further manuscript - copied by
James Hawkins - is held among the Ely Cathedral manuscripts at Cambridge University Library.
In this paper I will consider possible reasons for the composition of this work and examine the surviving
manuscripts for clues as to how it was performed. I will demonstrate how subtle changes were introduced in
the course of copying the work and preparing performance parts, and will use this work to make broader points
about the value of examining non-autograph sources to develop an understanding of the way a work was
received. The influence that Draghi’s St Cecilia’s Day ode had on English composers has been recognised by
scholars. I will demonstrate that the process of assimilation of outside influences was a two-way one, and that,
in ‘This is the day’, Draghi drew on English models.
Jon Williams (Canterbury Christ Church University)
'It's all about that bass…': English Bass Singers of the Restoration and early Hanoverian Periods
Abstract to follow