Music & Patronage in 17th Century England - MUS00172H

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Module summary

Patronage is of vital importance to musicians. In the seventeenth century a musician could not operate as an isolated individual; he/she was utterly reliant upon institutional or noble patronage. An individual’s personal advancement could only take place through the assistance of a well-placed and well-disposed patron or sponsor, and the patron-client relationship was an essential part the social mechanism of the seventeenth century. A number of case studies (from Byrd to Purcell) will be used in a wide-ranging project that examines the mechanics and structures of seventeenth-century English musical patronage.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Summer Term 2022-23

Module aims

It is a truism to state that patronage was of vital importance to English musicians in the seventeenth century. A musician could not operate as an isolated individual at that time; he was utterly reliant upon institutional or noble patronage. An individual’s personal advancement could only take place through the assistance of a well-placed and well-disposed patron or sponsor, and the patron-client relationship was an essential part the social mechanism of the seventeenth century. One only needs to look at the dedications in music publications of the period to see the debt musicians owed to royal or noble patrons. The greatest patron of all was, of course, the monarch, and the ‘Royal Music’ will be a major case study in a wide-ranging project that examines the mechanics and structures of seventeenth-century English musical patronage. The musical patronage of men of lesser standing will also come under scrutiny in an attempt to add to our understanding of music in the cultural context of the Jacobean, Caroline, Commonwealth and Restoration eras.

Case studies will include:
William Byrd’s Roman Catholic Patrons
Caroline Court Patronage
Disruption and Isolation: the Effects of the Civil War and Commonwealth on the Structures of Musical Patronage
Patronage Systems Renewed: The Restoration
Purcell: Composer to the Court, Theatres and Church

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the taught part of the project all students should be able to:

• have developed an overview of English 17th-century music set within an historical and cultural context;

• have an understanding of the patronage systems in which composers worked in the seventeenth century;

• have an understanding of recent academic research in aspects of English 17th-century music;

• have an understanding of historiographical issues relating to the period;

• have an understanding of performance practice relating to English 17th-century music.

In their independent work for this module, students will be required to:

• third-year students should demonstrate Learning Outcomes C1-6

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

Mark and report within University designated turnaround time.

Indicative reading

J. Caldwell, The Oxford History of English Music Volume 1: From the Beginnings to c.1715, Oxford: 1991

J. Harley, Music in Purcell’s London, London: 1968

A.K. Holland, Henry Purcell, the English Musical Tradition, London: 1932; 2/1948

P. Holman, ‘London: Commonwealth and Restoration’, in Man & Music The Early Baroque Era, ed. C. Price, London: 1993, 305-26

C. Marsh, Music and Society in Early Modern England, Cambridge: 2010

D.C. Price, Patrons and Musicians of the English Renaissance, Cambridge:1981

I. Spink ed., The Blackwell History of Music in Britain: The Seventeenth Century, Oxford: 1992

J.P. Wainwright, Musical Patronage in Seventeenth-Century England: Christopher, First Baron Hatton (1605-1670), Aldershot & Vermont: 1997

J.P. Wainwright, ‘The King and the King’s Music’, in The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I, ed. Thomas Corns, Cambridge: 1999, 162–75

W. Woodfill, Musicians in English Society from Elizabeth to Charles I, Princeton, NJ: 1953; repr. 1969