Charles Avison in Context

<p>Despite recent interest in music-making in the so-called ’provinces’ the idea still lingers that music-making outside London was small in scale second-rate and behind the times. However in Newcastle upon Tyne the presence of a nationally known musician Charles Avison (1709-1770) prompts a reassessment of how far this idea is still tenable. Avison’s life and work illuminates many wider trends. His relationships with his patrons the commercial imperatives which shaped his activities the historical and social milieu in which he lived and worked were influenced by and reflected many contemporary movements: Latitudinarianism Methodism the improvement of church music the aesthetics of the day including new ideas circulating in Europe discussions of issues such as gentility and the new commercialism of leisure. He can be considered as the notional centre of a web of connections both musical and non-musical extending through every part of Britain and into both Europe and America. This book looks at these connections exploring the ways in which the musical culture in the north-east region interacted with and influenced musical culture elsewhere and the non-musical influences with which it was involved including contemporary religious philosophical and commercial developments establishing that regional centres such as Newcastle could be as well-informed influential and vibrant as London.</p>