The "historically informed" Mr. Burney

Synopsis

"The feeble beginnings of whatever afterwards becomes great or eminent are interesting to mankind. To artists, therefore, and to real lovers of art, nothing relative to the object of their employment or pleasure is indifferent."

So begins "A General History of Music" by the 18th century British musicologist Charles Burney, who was born in Shrewsbury on today's date in 1726.

Burney grew up in Chester, and his interest in music was fostered by a sympathetic church organist and sightings of the many famous musicians who traveled through that town on their way to Ireland. Burney recalled seeing Handel smoking his pipe at a local coffee house while waiting for favorable winds for sailing to Dublin and the premiere of "Messiah." Eventually Burney himself would play in the orchestra for the London premieres of two Handel oratorios: "Hercules" and "Belshazzar."

But over time, Burney's career as a performing musician shifted more and more into the literary sphere. The first volume of his "General History of Music" was published in 1776, and the last in 1789. His history tells the story of music from ancient Egypt and Greece through to his own time, but it's the wealth of first-hand information that Burney collected on the "new music" of the 18th century that remains essential reading for music historians today.

Burney was also a competent composer, but described his own efforts as "negligible," and posterity has tended to agree with him. He died in London in 1814.

Music Played in Today's Program

George Frederic Handel (1685 – 1757) Belshazzar Vienna Concentus Musicus; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, cond. Teldec 97988

Charles Burney (1726 - 1814) Tell us, O Women Psalmody and The Parley of Instruments; Peter Holman, cond. Hyperion 67150

On This Day

Births

• 1726 - British composer, music journalist and historian Charles Burney, in Shrewsbury; This date is according to the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in England that year; Under the Gregorian "New Style" calendar, this date would be April 18;

• 1763 - Italian composer and double-bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti, in Venice;

• 1899 - French composer and pianist Robert Casadesus, in Paris;

• 1920 - Indian composer and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, in Benares;

Deaths

• 1783 - German composer Ignaz Holzbauer, age 71, in Mannheim;

Premieres

• 1713 - Handel: "Utrecht Te Deum," at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (Gregorian date: April 18);

• 1724 - Bach: "St. John Passion" performed on Good Friday at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig;

• 1745 - Handel: oratorio “Belshazzar” (Julian date: March 27);

• 1805 - first public performance of Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with composer conducting; This symphony had been performed at least twice at private concerts arranged in late 1804 and early 1805;

• 1923 - Hahn: operetta "Ciboulette," in Paris at the Théâtre des Variétés;

• 1928 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 10, in Moscow;

• 1965 - Henze: opera "Der junge Lord" (The Young Lord), in West Berlin at the Deutsche Oper;

• 1994 - John Harbison: Cello Concerto, in Boston, with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting;

• 2005 - Augusta Read Thomas: “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” for mezzo-soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble, at the Columbia University’s Miller Theater in New York City.

Others

• 1863 - American premiere of Mozart's Symphony No. 40, by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Theodore Thomas conducting;

• 1918 - The German conductor of the Boston Symphony, Karl Muck, is arrested and interned as an enemy alien after American enters World War I.