PATRONAGE, CONNOISSEURSHIP AND ANTIQUARIANISM IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND: THE FITZWILLIAM MUSIC COLLECTION (1763-1815) Mary Gifford Heiden, B.M., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2011 APPROVED: Benjamin Brand, Major Professor Lenora McCroskey, Minor Professor Hendrik Schulze, Committee Member Eileen Hayes, Chair of the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology Lynn Eustis, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Heiden, Mary Gifford. Patronage, Connoisseurship and Antiquarianism in Georgian England: The Fitzwilliam Music Collection (1763-1815). Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology), December 2011, 214 pp., 21 tables, 25 musical examples, bibliography, 142 titles. In eighteenth-century Britain, many aristocrats studied music, participated as amateurs in musical clubs, and patronized London’s burgeoning concert life. Richard Fitzwilliam, Seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion and Thorncastle (1745-1816), was one such patron and amateur. Fitzwilliam shaped his activities – participation, patronage, and collecting – in a unique way that illustrates his specialized tastes and interests. While as an amateur musician he sang in the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Catch Club (the premiere social club dedicated to musical performance), he rose to the highest level of patronage by spearheading the Handel Commemoration Festival of 1784 and serving for many years as a Director of the Concert of Antient Music, the most prestigious concert series in Georgian Britain. His lasting legacy, however, was his bequest to Cambridge University of his extensive collection of art, books and music, as well as sufficient funds to establish the Fitzwilliam Museum. At the time of his death, Fitzwilliam’s collection of music was the best in the land, save that in the Royal Library. Thus, his collection is ideally suited for examination as proof of his activities, taste and connoisseurship. Moreover, the music in Fitzwilliam’s collection shows his participation in the contemporary musicological debate, evidenced by his advocacy for ancient music, his agreement with the views of Charles Avison and his support for the music of Domenico Scarlatti. On one side of this debate were proponents of learned, ancient music, such as Fitzwilliam and Avison, whose Essay on Musical Expression of 1752 was a milestone in musical criticism. On the other side of the discussion were advocates for the more modern, “classical” style and genres, led by historian Charles Burney. Copyright 2011 by Mary Gifford Heiden ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the members of my committee for their assistance with this study: Dr. Benjamin Brand, my major professor, for his patient and insightful guidance; Dr. Lenora McCroskey, for her knowledge of Baroque music and her enthusiasm for the harpsichord and its repertoire; and Dr. Hendrik Schulze, for his generous help in shaping the end result of this project. Thanks also go to Nicholas Robinson and other staff members at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, for their valuable assistance with my research. I am especially grateful to Chris Heiden, my husband and best friend. Your love and unconditional support always keep me going. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my parents, George and Mary Ellen Gifford. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................x LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ................................................................................................ xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 1.2 Chapters within this Study .............................................................................................4 2. A CONNOISSEUR AND HIS DEVELOPING TASTE .............................................................9 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................9 2.2 Viscount Fitzwilliam: A Brief Biography....................................................................10 2.3 Fitzwilliam’s Music and Its Context ............................................................................13 2.4 The Tradition and Practice of Collecting and Connoisseurship ..................................15 2.4.1 The Virtuoso .................................................................................................19 2.4.2 The Connoisseur ...........................................................................................21 2.4.3 Themes in Collecting and Connoisseurship ..................................................23 2.4.4 Collecting: Pictures, Books and Manuscripts ...............................................24 2.5 Fitzwilliam’s Books and His Developing Taste ..........................................................27 2.5.1 Thomas Gray .................................................................................................28 2.5.2 Alexander Pope .............................................................................................29 iv 2.5.3 The Spectator and Critical Writing ...............................................................31 2.5.4 The Sublime and the Beautiful .....................................................................32 2.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................35 3. PARTICIPATION AND PATRONAGE: CLUBS, CONCERTS AND CANON ....................37 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................37 3.2 Concert Life and Antiquarianism.................................................................................38 3.3 Foreign Musicians and the Primacy of Vocal Music ...................................................40 3.4 The Musical Club and Its Membership ........................................................................43 3.4.1 The Catch Club .............................................................................................44 3.4.2 Club Repertoire .............................................................................................46 3.4.3 Catch Club Publications in the Fitzwilliam Collection.................................48 3.5 Publishing, Ancient Music, and the Developing Canon ..............................................49 3.5.1 The Establishment of Canonical Concert Music in England ........................50 3.5.2 Composers Central to the Emerging Canon ..................................................53 3.6 Handel and Festivals ....................................................................................................57 3.6.1 The Sons of the Clergy Festival ....................................................................58 3.6.2 The Great Handel Festival ............................................................................60 3.7 The Concert of Antient Music .....................................................................................62 3.7.1 The Antient Concerts: Patronage and Participation ......................................64 3.8 The Repertoire of the Antient Concerts .......................................................................66 3.8.1 Concertos ......................................................................................................68 3.8.2 Handel ...........................................................................................................70 3.8.3 Purcell ...........................................................................................................72 v 3.8.4 Fitzwilliam as a Proponent of French Music: May 2, 1792 ..........................73 3.9 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................74 4. ECHOES OF AVISON’S ESSAY IN THE VOCAL GENRES .................................................76 4.1 Introduction: Fitzwilliam and Vocal Music .................................................................76 4.2 Charles Avison and his Essay on Musical Expression ................................................79 4.2.1 Avison’s Essay, Part II, Sect. I .....................................................................81 4.2.2 Avison’s Essay, Part II, Sect. II ....................................................................83 4.2.3 Avison’s Essay, Part II, Sect. III ...................................................................86 4.3 Marcello and His Psalms .............................................................................................88 4.3.1 Marcello’s Salmo Decimoquinto (Psalm XV) ..............................................92 4.4 Geminiani and His Concerti Grossi .............................................................................96