Music and the Benefit Performance in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Matthew Gardner, Alison DeSimone

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781108492935
• eBook ISBN: 9781108757713
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Musica

In the early eighteenth century, the benefit performance became an essential component of commercial music-making in Britain. Benefits, adapted from the spoken theatre, provided a new model from which instrumentalists, singers, and composers could reap financial and professional rewards. Benefits could be given as theatre pieces, concerts, or opera performances for the benefit of individual performers; or in aid of specific organizations. The benefit changed Britain's musico-theatrical landscape during this time and these special performances became a prototype for similar types of events in other European and American cities. Indeed, the charity benefit became a musical phenomenon in its own right, leading, for example, to the lasting success of Handel's Messiah. By examining benefits from a musical perspective - including performers, audiences, and institutions - the twelve chapters in this collection present the first study of the various ways in which music became associated with the benefit system in eighteenth-century Britain.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Music Examples
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I Musical Benefits in the London Theatre: Networks and Repertories
• Part II Beyond London: Mimicry or Originality?
• Part III Benefits and Public Image
• Part IV Charity Benefits
• Part V The Role of the Audience
• Select Bibliography
• Index of Musical Works
• General Index