Music markets in Georgian Britain

Abstract

It was Stanley Sadie who proposed, in a chapter in The eighteenth century (The Blackwell History of Music, ed. H. Diack Johnstone, 1991), that the study of subscription lists in music publications of the period should be of interest and importance. Although Michael Talbot, Michael Kassler, David Hunter and others have followed Sadie’s advice in specialized areas, this new book is the first larger-scale one to survey the whole field. In addition, this work is able to take advantage of the digital world through a database of subscribers that has been compiled and which acts as a companion to the book. The preface by the two editors clearly lays out the aim of the book and explains how the Dataset of subscribers to eighteenth-century music publications in Britain and Ireland came to be. This is followed by a series of articles on specific topics which are divided into two categories: how music by subscription was produced and who the subscribers themselves were. Publishing by subscription was a good way for an author to keep down the initial costs of printing. Invitations were sent out to potential subscribers asking for a financial contribution with the promise that they would see their name listed at the front of the book. The results could reap rich rewards: Alexander Pope got £5,000 in subscription money for his translations of Homer, a sum worth over £350,000 today.