The Teaching of Singing in Eighteenth Century England

Abstract

To regard the teaching of singing in eighteenth century England as a self-sufficient subject of research would be to lack all sense of proportion or historical perspective. It is only an aspect of the vast subject of bel canto, whose origins probably go back to the very dawn of ecclesiastical music. W. J. Henderson in his Early History of Singing goes so far as to say that the entire system of florid singing can be found in embryo in the records of Church singing from the time of Gregory onwards. This system survived with modifications into the nineteenth century, and is not dead yet, although its dirge is frequently sung. But it came to its zenith in the eighteenth century, and then declined, with the decline of the Italian opera. Its home was Italy, yet it may profitably be studied in England, since the very fact that it was a foreign importation makes it stand out in bolder relief. And England was the artists' Eldorado in those days; the great performers and teachers came here on long or short visits, as they have gone in recent years to the United States, to make money. Many of them settled in this country. Much of what I shall have to say applies not only to the eighteenth century, but to the seventeenth, nineteenth and even the twentieth, and to other countries besides England. Eighteenth century England is a microcosm.