Musicology in Great Britain (1982-1985)

Musicology in Great Britain (1982-1985)Author(s): Barry CooperSource: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 58, Fasc. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1986), pp. 1-8Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/932935 .

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Musicology in Great Britain (1982-1985) BARRY COOPER (ABERDEEN)

1. Performance Musicology in Great Britain continues to cover the very wide range of subject

matter noted by David Fallows in the two previous articles in this journal, which surveyed the period 1945-1982 (Vol. LII [1980], p. 38-68, and Vol. LV [1983], p. 244-53; the present article covers the approximate period 1 July 1982 to 30 June 1985). But two topics have tended to occupy a relatively large amount of attention in the last few years - English music (see below) and research related to performance. The former is hardly surprising since in almost all countries a disproportionately large amount of research is devoted to the music of that country. The latter, however, seems to stem from a characteristically British approach to music: ever since at least the time of Morley practical music has tended to attract more interest in Britain than theoretical (and in recent years musicological) speculation, and so performance-related musicology has a deep-rooted past. It has certainly been very conspicuous in the last three years; and since much of it leads to actual performances rather than additions to the musicological literature it is all too easy for it to be undervalued.

One of the most outstanding examples of this type of musicology was a series of radio broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Corporation, at Christmas 1984, of ten reconstructed liturgies. In each case a particular place, year and date was selected and an attempt made to reconstruct the entire liturgy 'as it might have been conducted'; all the appropriate plainsongs and, where relevant, suitable polyphony were included, and even such things as the sound of bells and footsteps. The reconstructions ranged chronologically from Metz Cathedral, 25 December 902, to Mexico City Cathedral, 28 December 1656, with the longest (the Chapel of Mary Tudor, 25 December 1557) lasting about four hours. A large part of the necessary research was done by Nick Sandon, though naturally several other scholars were also involved.

Another notable example of performance-related research is the 1982 recording, by the Medieval Ensemble of London, of the secular music of Ockeghem (D254D3), resulting in a complete edition of the chansons on record preceding any complete edition in print. There are several other early-music groups and performers who bring considerable amounts of musical scholarship to their performances, among the most successful being the Taverner Consort under Andrew Parrott, whose own researches have at times produced unexpected performance practices which he has been prepared to defend vigorously in the pages of Early Music (a journal that bears striking witness to the British penchant for performance-related musicology). Meanwhile certain other scholars such as Clifford Bartlett are heavily involved in practical but behind-the-scenes musicology in connection with performances of early music from a wide period.



2 B. Cooper: Musicology in Great Britain (1982-1985)

Performance-related musicology has not been confined to early music. A major recent achievement has been Brian Newbould's completion of no fewer than three unfinished Schubert symphonies. This type of 'reconstructive' musicology requires a mixture of diverse skills - a combination of careful scrutiny of fragmentary source material, a keen analytical eye so as to know what the composer might and might not have done, and a high level of ability at traditional 'style composition' which some British universities still regard as important. Similar reconstructions and

completions of various kinds, both large-scale and small, have been attempted by a number of other British scholars in recent years, a notable though controversial

example being the so-called 'Roman Vespers' of Handel, of which a careful liturgical reconstruction has been prepared by Watkins Shaw and Graham Dixon (Novello, forthcoming).

2. Conferences Musicological conferences have been an important area of growth in Britain in the

last 20 years. Not only have they been a stimulus to research and to presentation of

particular topics but they have also been of immense benefit in facilitating informal contact between scholars working in related fields. The annual Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Music, held since 1972, has recently attracted considerable numbers of overseas scholars -notably Americans who can combine it with a research visit to source material in Europe. These conferences have tended to consist almost entirely of formal papers followed by very brief discussion, although there is

normally at least one concert of early music during the three-day event. Only occasionally have there been attempts to have a round-table discussion on a matter of more general concern; sometimes attempts have also been made to group several

papers under an overall heading, but such links have generally appeared somewhat artificial and tenuous. Nevertheless the quality of the papers themselves has been

extremely high; and some of the impetus for the creation of Early Music History came from the success of these conferences, even though there has never been any formal connection between the two.

Encouraged by the Medieval and Renaissance conferences, scholars working in other periods have started to follow suit. A biennial conference on 19th-century music has been taking place since 1978 (though the quality of the papers has been less consistent than in the Medieval and Renaissance conferences). In 1984 a conference on 17th-century music was held and there are plans to hold another in 1986 and continue biennially. It therefore seems only a matter of time before scholars working on the 18th and 20th centuries organise themselves sufficiently to

generate regular conferences, and already there are signs of progress in this direction. In 1984 there was a conference on music analysis, reflecting the rapid

growth of interest in this subject that has taken place in Britain in the last few years. And in 1985 there was a Handel conference in London to celebrate the composer's tercentenary.

An additional opportunity for musicological discussion of specialised topics (for those within reach of London) is provided by the Institute of Advanced Musical



B. Cooper: Musicology in Great Britain (1982-1985) 3

Studies, based at the Faculty of Music, King's College, London. This holds regular colloquia at which a guest speaker introduces some aspect of his research, providing opportunities for a more general discussion of some of the problems that arise.

Lastly, mention should be made of the Music Research Students' Conference, held in a different university every December; this provides a useful forum for younger scholars, several of whom have first made their mark at such occasions.

3. The Royal Musical Association The RMA has been a focus for British musicology ever since its foundation in

1874, but in recent years it has become in danger of being overtaken by events elsewhere-notably the specialised conferences described above, which are organ- ised on an ad hoc basis without any overseeing body. As a result the RMA is at

present undergoing something of a shake-up under its current president Brian Trowell in an attempt to prevent ossification and to 'bring it into the 20th century'. The aim of the RMA, to 'reflect the whole of British musicology', has been re- asserted emphatically. Co-operation with the specialised conferences has begun, if

only in relation to prior publicity of them; and the annual Research Students' Conference, which has always been subsidised by the RMA, is now known as the RMA Research Students Conference. RMA meetings are increasingly taking the form of one- or two-day conferences at which several papers are read, and there are now plans to abolish single-paper meetings altogether and devote every meeting to a series of papers, often related in some way by an overall theme such as 'Opera and Theatre'.

The introduction of annual conferences and regional chapter meetings resulted in an increased number of papers overall, placing impossible pressure on the space in the annual Proceedings (PRMA). Formerly all the papers delivered during a session (and at one time the ensuing discussions too) were published in PRMA but in recent years some form of selection has been essential (even allowing for the fact that the preambles necessary in the spoken paper are omitted in the printed version), so that only 8 out of the 21 papers delivered during the 1983-4 session were published in the latest issue of PRMA (vol. 110). The journal also began including articles not delivered as papers at RMA meetings, though this has happened only infrequently, usually in response to an existing article in PRMA. The plan now is to sever all direct connections between the spoken papers and the journal and rename it the Journal of the Royal Musical Association; appearing twice a year it will include papers from all sources and in some ways resemble the Journal of the American Musicological Society. Meanwhile the RMA Research Chronicle, which was begun in 1961 mainly as a repository for data such as lists and registers but which has in recent years tended towards more narrative articles, will revert to its former role. One of its most useful functions has been to provide lists of theses (with regular updatings, the latest being 1983-4), including masters' theses and work in progress -information which is otherwise hard to come by. This research tool has probably not been used by scholars on the international scene as much as it ought to be, for successful British theses - even masters' ones- are almost all of high quality.




Another publication programme of the RMA must be mentioned here. At his death Thurston Dart bequeathed to the RMA a portion of all subsequent royalties which would have been due to him from the sale of his works. Since he was such an

indefatigable editor the sums of money have been quite substantial and have shown

remarkably little decline in the dozen or more years since his death. The RMA is now using these monies to subsidise a series of short monographs which would be too long to publish as periodical articles but generally shorter than full-length books and of a type that would not be expected to be viable on a commercial basis. The first volume, Playing on Words: A Guide to Luciano Berio's Sinfonia by David

Osmond-Smith, has appeared already and a second volume is due shortly.

4. Publications Publications of musicological research continue to come in a great variety of

forms including periodicals, editions, catalogues, volumes of essays and mono-

graphs; even programme notes and record-sleeve notes sometimes contain original research not previously published. Items mentioned below are necessarily only a small sample of the great amount and variety of material published in the three

years under consideration.

Among periodicals, several recent ones mentioned in the last report have become more firmly established, including Early Music History, Popular Music, Musica Asiatica and Music Analysis. The number of new periodicals is smaller but mention must be made of the British Journal of Music Education (Cambridge University Press, 1984- ), edited by John Paynter and Keith Swanwick. Another new journal, announced but not yet published, is the Journal of Music Bibliography and Documentation or JOMBAD (Nigel Simeone). As its name suggests, it is concerned with both subject bibliography and descriptive bibliography of all types, and its

emphasis on historical documentation and source material should provide a healthy counterbalance to Music Analysis.

The New Grove Dictionary has already made its presence felt in numerous ways but the work that went into it by no means came to an end with its publication. Several individual articles and groups of articles have since been published in revised form as monographs, including The Bach Family, Beethoven, Handel,

Haydn, Masters of Italian Opera, Mozart, Schubert, The Second Viennese School and Wagner, and the series is continuing. Most substantial of these spin-offs, however, is The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1985), in three volumes. This is not merely an updating of the relevant articles in the parent dictionary: there are hundreds of additional articles and more than half the total material is entirely new.

Access to source materials is a frequent problem in many areas of musicology, and so anything that facilitates this is always welcome. Two major series stand out

for the enormous contribution they will make in this area. The first is The Catalogue of Printed Music in the British Library to 1980 (London: Clive Bingley/K. G. Saur), which will contain over a million entries from one of the largest music libraries in the world. The catalogue, which is being published surprisingly fast with more than




half now available, embodies years of detailed bibliographical work that has been carried out at the British Library (formerly British Museum), especially in such matters as dating of early editions and distinguishing different issues and

impressions of the same edition. The catalogue will of course be particularly useful for scholars working on 19th- and 20th-century music, for whom the bibliographical tools which other music historians take for granted (e. g. RISM) are almost entirely lacking.

The second major aid to source study is the series of microfilm publications of

important British manuscripts by Harvester Press Microform Publications, of Brighton. Most scholars will not be able to afford the huge cost of these large microfilm series; but wealthy libraries, particularly those outside Great Britain, will surely wish to purchase this material, which will be particularly beneficial to scholars whose work necessitates consulting a large number of English manu-

scripts. The general editor is Roger Bray, who is responsible for the selection and division of material. Five series are available so far-music manuscripts from the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Christ Church, Oxford; St. Michael's College, Tenbury; the British Library; and the Royal College of Music, London.

Volumes of essays have never been a major area of British scholarly activity, but three recent examples deserve mention, all published by the very active Cambridge University Press. Music in Eighteenth-Century England: Essays in Memory of Charles Cudworth (1983), edited by Christopher Hogwood and Richard Luckett, commemorates a man who contributed much to studies in 18th-century English music; although Cudworth devoted more attention to native English composers than to Handel, the volume includes articles on this composer by three outstanding British Handel scholars -Terence Best, Anthony Hicks and Donald Burrows. The other two volumes are anniversary publications: Brahms: Biographical, Documen- tary and Analytical Studies, edited by Robert Pascall (1983); and Bach, Handel, Scarlatti: Tercentenary Essays, edited by Peter Williams (1985). Both include substantial contributions by British scholars.

Historical collaborative ventures have tended to make very slow progress. The New Oxford History of Music, begun over 30 years ago, is still incomplete, though vol. 8 has now appeared (Oxford UP, 1982) and the two remaining volumes (6 and 9) are expected shortly. The Athlone History of Music in Britain (Athlone Press, general editor Ian Spink) has fared even less well, no new volumes having appeared since the last report, owing partly to difficulties at the publishing house. Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Music has the advantage that individual volumes are not so dependent on the collaboration of several scholars, but even here only one volume has appeared in the last three years - the first of two volumes of Greek Musical Writings, edited by Andrew Barker (Cambridge UP, 1984).

Many composers have been the subject of individual monographs in the last three years, with a scope ranging from studies of single pieces to general life-and-works or composer-and-background studies. From the earlier periods one of the most outstanding new single-composer studies is Curtis Price, Henry Purcell and the London Stage (Cambridge UP, 1984). Two notable titles that were mentioned in the




last report need updating: Peter Williams has now completed his three-volume study of The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (vol. 3: A Background, Cambridge UP, 1984); and Wilfred Mellers's Bach and the Dance of God has now been complemented by his Beethoven and the Voice of God (London: Faber, 1983). Most of the single-composer volumes have been about more recent figures, however, including two from the generation after Beethoven: Louis Spohr by Clive Brown

(Cambridge UP, 1984) and The Musical Language of Berlioz by Julian Rushton (Cambridge UP, 1983), the latter an examination of Berlioz's style and the features that make it so idiosyncratic. Stylistic analysis of a very different kind can be found in Debussy in Proportion by Roy Howat (Cambridge UP, 1983), which accounts for Debussy's unorthodox forms by ,means of mathematical relationships and in

particular his use of the Golden Section. The interest in British music noted at the

beginning of the present article is reflected in a number of books on English composers, most of whom are little known overseas (and in many cases all too

rarely heard even in Britain): Peter Charlton, John Stainer and the Musical Life of Victorian Britain (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1984); Arthur Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musican (Oxford UP, 1984); Stephen Lloyd, H. Balfour Gardiner (Cambridge UP, 1984); Paul Hindmarsh, Frank Bridge: A Thematic

Catalogue 1900-1941 (London: Faber, 1983); Lewis Foreman, Bax: A Composer and his Times (London: Scolar Press, 1983); and an important study by Ian Kemp of one of Britain's foremost living composers, Tippett: The Composer and his Music

(London: Eulenburg, 1984). Numerous books on other topics have also appeared during the period in

question. Some are very wide-ranging while others are far more limited, resembling doctoral dissertations in their scope (indeed some are based on actual doctoral

dissertations). Among the very broad topics, one might mention Richard Rastall's

long-awaited monograph, The Notation of Western Music: An Introduction

(London: Dent, 1983), which covers the whole range of western notation from its

ninth-century origins to the various new notations of today. Questions of notation also arise in John Caldwell, Editing Early Music (Oxford UP, 1985), but here the author addresses the more practical problem of how to produce a good modem edition suitable for scholars and performers. Another monograph (even longer awaited than Rastall's) covering a very large span of music is Eric Walter White, A

History of English Opera (London: Faber, 1983), the result of many years of

research; its scope is even broader than might be imagined, for it encompasses other

types of musical stage work such as court masque, semi-opera and operetta. Mention must also be made here of a new and wide-ranging series of Classic Texts in Music Education, edited by Bernarr Rainbow (Kilkenny: Boethius, 1982- ); each volume consists of a facsimile reprint of some musical instruction book from the 16th to early 20th centuries, with introduction and where necessary English translation by Rainbow.

Monographs on more limited (though still very substantial) topics range from lan Woodfield, The Early History of the Viol (Cambridge UP, 1984), to Peter Manning, Electronic and Computer Music (Oxford UP, 1985). Other notable contributions




include Jerome Roche, North Italian Church Music in the Age of Monteverdi (Oxford UP, 1984); Donovan Dawe, Organists of the City of London, 1660-1850: A Record of One Thousand Organists with an Annotated Index (Author, 1983); Stephen Banfield, Sensibility and English Song (2 vols., Cambridge UP, 1985), which covers English song from the last years of the 19th century to the Second World War; and Gordon Dodd's completion of his three-volume Thematic Index of Music for Viols (Viola da Gamba Society, 1984).

Editing early music, despite John Caldwell's book on the subject, seems to be a less active branch of musicology today than it was ten or twenty years ago, due to a number of factors. Apart from the problems of a recession-hit publishing industry and the increasingly widespread use of cheap (and often illegal) photocopying, the vast amount of scholarly editing from the last 30 years or so has meant that relatively little first-class music remains unpublished in recent times. Thus most of the main scholarly editions now being produced come into one of a number of distinct categories: new and better editions of music that was already available; editions of more and more minor composers of the 14th to 18th centuries; and editions of types of music formerly beyond the bounds of historical scholarly editing, such as 19th-century music, plainsong and non-Western music. A very significant proportion of the best editions is now coming from small, low-cost, specialist firms rather than the major publishing companies; and facsimile editions, particularly of 18th-century music, have continued to become more numerous, having the double advantage of authenticity and savings in engraving costs.

All these trends are evident in British editorial work of the last three years. As regards complete editions, newly revised volumes of Purcell and Byrd continue to appear, albeit infrequently; other series making progress include the new Elgar edition (Novello) and the Holst Collected Facsimile Edition of Manuscripts of the Published Works (Faber). Musica Britannica, which seems to be slowing down slightly in its rate of production, has made another of its rare forays into the 19th century (and even the early 20th) with Geoffrey Bush's edition of a selection of songs by Parry (vol. 49, 1982), while Early English Church Music is still continuing at a good rate of production. The new Gilbert and Sullivan edition mentioned in the last report has still not materialised but it will have a much larger British contribution than was suggested there (David Fallows apologises for having misunderstood the situation): Percy Young was actually involved in the project from the outset, and other British scholars such as Gerald and Dinah Hendrie have also made valuable contributions.

The major new series that has begun is Music for London Entertainment

166o-18oo (Tunbridge Wells: Richard Macnutt). In fact it is six series in one - two devoted to Music for Plays and one each to English Opera and Masque; Pantomime, Ballet and Social Dance; Italian Opera; and Music of the Pleasure Gardens. The volumes consist of facsimiles of the original editions or manuscripts, with editorial introductions most of which are by British scholars; the advisory board is chaired by Stanley Sadie. Another notable series being produced as facsimiles is instrumental parts of important chamber and orchestral works by




Handel, Corelli, Geminiani and others, edited by Clifford Bartlett (Godmanchester: King's Music Gmc), who also runs a service supplying facsimiles of a large range of other non-copyright performance parts and scores on request.

In the field of non-Western music the most notable new edition is the second fascicle of Music from the Tang Court, edited by Laurence Picken (Cambridge UP, 1985; vol. I was published by Oxford UP). With plainsong we have had the first of several volumes devoted to Sarum chant edited by Nick Sandon in The Use of Salisbury, Vol. I: The Ordinary of the Mass (1985); this comes from Antico

Edition, of Lustleigh, Newton Abbot, who have recently published several other small but significant editions of medieval and renaissance music, such as Hildegard of Bingen, Sequences and Hymns, edited by Christopher Page (1985), and Lionel Power, Mass Alma Redemptoris Mater, edited by Gareth Curtis. A minor composer whose complete works have recently appeared in an excellent scholarly edition is William Browne (Spanish Netherlands Keyboard Music, vol. 2, edited by Richard Vendome and Colin Good, Oxford: John Brennan, 1983).

Conclusion

Inevitably a number of well-known British musicologists have died in the last three years, among them Hilda Andrews, Denis Harbinson, Rosamond Harding, Imogen Holst (daughter of Gustav), Basil Lam, Sir Anthony Lewis (a former

president of the RMA), the ethnomusicologist Albert Lancaster Lloyd, Rollo Myers and H. Edmund Poole. Some had long since retired but others were still very active and their loss will be a serious blow to British musicology. But there are many good up-and-coming young scholars, some of whom have been named earlier, emerging to take their place, so that the overall picture is of growth or at least stability rather than decline. The best witness to the recent strength of British musicology is

perhaps the Dent Medal, awarded annually by the RMA to younger scholars for their outstanding contribution to musicology. After a lengthy period when no British scholar won the award, it has gone to Britons three times in the last six

years -Margaret Bent (now in America) in 1979, David Fallows in 1982 and Iain Fenlon in 1984. Such a high rate of success augurs well for the future of musicology in Britain.*

* I am grateful to Jerome Roche, David Fallows and John Irving for their help in the preparation of this article.



Musicology in Great Britain (1982-1985)

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