The Decline of the English Musician, 1788-1888 : A Family of English Musicians in Ireland, England, Mauritius, and Australia

The century of English musical history covered here is notorious for its failure of creativity, yet the concurrent obsession with music as a commodity belies the notion of England as "the land without music". This book is a social history of music at that time. It focuses on the Castells, a family of English musicians in Ireland, England, Mauritius and Australia over five generations. Drawn from personal letters and documents, their story, at once picaresque and tragic, is fascinating in its own right; but in its pattern of ambition, frustration and decline, it is also representative of the English musical profession, particularly, of that historically almost invisible element - the rank-and-file musician. In its mass of detail the book offers insights into the social functions of music, it performance, economics and the cultural values claimed or denied it by both producers and consumers - both in England and her colonies. the underlying discourse, however, sets the acknowledged cultural failure of English music in dramatic relief against the backdrop of unprecedented national prestige and influence experience by Britain in this period of industrialism and expansion.