British Music Renaissance 1880 - 1914

Department of Music, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music

College of Arts and Law

Details

Code 21890

Level of study Third/Final year

Credit value 20

Semester If this module runs in 2012/13 it will run in 2. In other years it may run in Sem 1, Sem 2, or both, or not at all.

Module description

The 'British Music Renaissance' has been commonly dated to the first performance of Parry's Prometheus Unbound in 1880. From that date, it has been argued, Britain gradually shed its status as 'das Land ohne Musik' (the land without music), with the work of such composers as Stanford, Parry, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst and many others all encouraging the development of a musical culture which Britain had previously lacked. This course examines the work of these and other composers active in Britain between 1880 and 1914, the relative importance different musical genres (opera, operetta, art song, oratorio, secular cantata, symphony, orchestral music etc.), and British cultural and social attitudes to music and musicians, via a mixture of case studies and historical research.