Keyboard arrangements in Restoration and Georgian England

Abstract

In the last few years, musical arrangements from the late 18th century have increasingly become a topic of interest for both performers and scholars. Studies of the musical work concept and of the nature of performance have encouraged interest in how a musical work might be adapted and appropriated, instead of being fixed in its notation. Evidence of this interest can be found in the increasing number of scholarly editions of keyboard arrangements, including arrangements made by minor composers. Even the complete editions of certain composers are now including keyboard arrangements, as with the C. P. E. Bach edition (see the volumes Arrangements of orchestral works I and II, series I, vols.10.1 and 10.2 (Los Altos, CA, 2007–08; reviewed in Early Music, xlii/2 (2014), pp.305–6). Scholarly interest in arrangements, although still restricted, seems to be expanding from the 19th and late 18th centuries into earlier periods. The book under review here, Songs without words, reflects the interest in keyboard arrangements of vocal music in England from 1560 to 1760, a topic only briefly explored in previous scholarship. The book deals with a wide variety of genres, from ballads and vocal polyphony to lute songs, including anthologies containing works by various composers. Whilst the Introduction and ‘Afterthoughts’ provide a framework within which arrangements can be conceptualized, the rest of the chapters provide examples ordered chronologically from John Playford’s keyboard anthologies derived from songs and dance tunes, to John Walsh’s collections of arrangements (with particular attention to William Babell’s arrangements of stage music).