The Musical World of Charles Avison

I’m delighted that my review of Simon Fleming’s The Musical World of Charles Avison has been published in the latest issue of the Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies, the journal of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

I so much enjoyed this book, which really captures the world of this under-appreciated Newcastle-based composer. Fleming builds persuasively upon his previous monograph with Martin Perkins, Music by Subscription: Composers and their Networks in the British Music-Publishing Trade, 1676–1820, and subscription lists are employed fascinatingly throughout to bring Avison’s social circle to light.

Here is a short extract from my review:

“The Musical World of Charles Avison is a hugely impressive monograph, in which Fleming undoubtedly achieves his stated objectives, restoring Avison to his rightful place in British music history with a thorough, yet eminently readable, analysis of his works in their widest possible context. This book will be of interest not only to musicologists and practitioners of historically informed performance, but also to any scholar of eighteenth-century British culture, and it is a welcome addition to my bookshelf.”

You can access the full review (institutional access is required) here:

The Musical World of Charles Avison: Melodic Charm and the Powers of Harmony