This engaging and immensely readable book is the first history of British music to be published for fifty years. It tells the fascinating story of the people who have shaped Britain's musical life over the centuries: the composers and performers; the promoters and impresarios; the conductors and critics. It shows how its music evolved – and is still evolving – against a background of religious, social, political, technical and technological change. It addresses readers with all levels of musical knowledge and interest, from the musically-minded and musically-informed to those seeking an accessible intro­duction to the subject.

Volume Two tells the story of music in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the founding of new institutions, colleges and orchestras; and the growth of German influence under Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It traces the rise in cultural importance of popular music: folk music from the countryside and the industrial and mining towns; popular song from the pleasure gardens and the music halls. It asks whether there really was an English Musical renaissance. It examines the cultural disruption and the consequences for music life of the two World wars. It looks at the post-1945 process of recovery; at the emergence of British opera, women composers, skiffle, trad jazz and symphonic rock. And it ends with the massive explosion of pop and rock music from the 1960s onwards, the radio and television programmes, the famous names and the classic albums.

Preface to Volume Two

Abbreviations Used

54 The Land without Music, Clementi, Cramer, and Field

55 Songs and Dances of the Napoleonic Wars

56 The Philharmonic Society, and the Royal Academy of Music

57 Oratorios and Festivals

58 Foreign Oratorios, Spohr, and Mendelssohn

59 Foreign Visitors

60 The State of British Music, Walmisley, and S. S. Wesley

61 German Influence: Bennett, Horsley, Pierson, Pearsall

62 George Macfarren

63 Early Nineteenth-Century Opera

64 Balfe, Wallace, and Benedict

65 Industrial Ballads, and Sea Shanties

66 Song-and-Supper Rooms, Ballet, and Promenade Concerts

67 Pianos, Parlour Ballads, and the Great Exhibition

68 Early Sullivan

69 Grove, Manns, and Sullivan

70 Sullivan and Gilbert

71 The Golden Age of Music Hall

72 Musical Education, and the Anglican Revival

73 Alexander Mackenzie

74 Hubert Parry

75 Charles Villiers Stanford

76 Parratt, Lloyd, Alcock, Corder, and Cowen

77 The Idea of a Renaissance

78 Edward Elgar

79 Frederick Delius

80 Ethel Smyth, and Edward German

81 Scotland, Ireland, and Wales

82 National Music

83 The Folk Revival, and the Tudor Revival

84 Exoticism, Bantock, and Foulds

85 Celtic Connections, Bax, and Boughton

86 Gustav (von) Holst

87 Somervell, Quilter, Ireland, and Dyson

88 Coleridge-Taylor, Bridge, Scott, and Grainger

89 Vaughan Williams

90 The Proms, Henry Wood, and Thomas Beecham

91 The War Dead

92 Wartime Melodies

93 War Damage

94 Howells, and Warlock

95 Musicals, Noel Coward, and the Dance Bands

96 William Walton

97 Gerald Finzi

98 Lambert and Berners, Ballet, and Opera

99 Between the Wars

100 Films, Musicals, and Light Music

101 The Second World War

102 Post-War Transformation

103 Benjamin Britten

104 Michael Tippett

105 Technology, Trad, and Skiffle

106 Post-War Men and Women

107 Folk Revived Again

108 Malcolm Arnold

109 Rock’n’Roll and After

Epilogue

Notes

Printed Sources

Internet Sources

Index