The growing repute of the clarinet: interrogating traditional tunes and popular airs in late eighteenth-century tutors

Pearson, I. E. (2020) The growing repute of the clarinet: interrogating traditional tunes and popular airs in late eighteenth-century tutors. In: Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs Conference: Exploring Musical Resemblance, 10-11 October 2020, Cecil Sharp House, London. (Unpublished)

Abstract

A handful of clarinet tutors printed in London between c. 1772 and 1800 are the earliest English-language didactic sources. They were published for the emerging market of amateur players as well as military musicians wishing to diversify by adding this new instrument to their portfolio of practical musical skills. The majority of these works are anonymous, with much of the didactic and organological detail replicated. Motivated by the financial interests of the publishing houses who issued them, bodies who also often acted as instrument dealers, the tutors preserve a wealth of tunes. These are in fact their most valuable asset, with material ranging from British art and folk repertoire, as well as arias from stage works performed both here and abroad. This lecture/recital attempts to do justice to this breadth of musical material, as well as focussing on a handful of tunes through whose provenance we can learn more about late 18th-century musical life.

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