Musical Creativity in Restoration England

Rebecca Herissone's study is the first comprehensive investigation of approaches to the creation of music in late seventeenth-century England.

Rebecca Herissone (Author)

9781107014343, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 October 2013

456 pages, 38 b/w illus. 60 tables 152 music examples
25.3 x 18.2 x 2.5 cm, 1.08 kg

'… Herissone's study is a highly significant contribution to a better understanding of compositional processes and musical invention in Restoration England …' Peter Hauge, The Seventeenth Century

Musical Creativity in Restoration England is the first comprehensive investigation of approaches to creating music in late seventeenth-century England. Understanding creativity during this period is particularly challenging because many of our basic assumptions about composition - such as concepts of originality, inspiration and genius - were not yet fully developed. In adopting a new methodology that takes into account the historical contexts in which sources were produced, Rebecca Herissone challenges current assumptions about compositional processes and offers new interpretations of the relationships between notation, performance, improvisation and musical memory. She uncovers a creative culture that was predominantly communal, and reveals several distinct approaches to composition, determined not by individuals, but by the practical function of the music. Herissone's new and original interpretations pose a fundamental challenge to our preconceptions about what it meant to be a composer in the seventeenth century and raise broader questions about the interpretation of early modern notation.

Part I. Creative Contexts and Principles: 1. Imitation, originality and authorship
2. Sources and their functions
Part II. Creative Strategies: 3. 'Ye Fowle Originall in Score': initial invention and the functions of notation
4. 'I have here sent ye full Anthems': serial recomposition and the culture of transmission
5. 'For Seaverall Friends': private music and the study of musical texts
6. 'His mind be filled with the materiall': arrangement, improvisation and the role of memory.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]