The musical life of the Crystal Palace / Michael Musgrave.
| Author/creator |
Musgrave, Michael, 1942- |
| Format | Book and Print |
| Publication Info | Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995. |
| Description | xiv, 272 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Subject(s) |
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| Contents | Part 1. The beginnings. Introduction. The Crystal Palace at Hyde Park -- The Crystal Palace at Sydenham -- Part 2. The choral life. The Handel festivals, 1857-1926 -- Other large-scale choral performances -- Part 3. August Manns and the Saturday concerts, 1855-1900. The concerts, orchestra and conductor -- Programmes, performers, repertory, programme notes -- The Crystal Palace and its audience -- Part 4. Other orchestral, vocal and instrumental concerts. After Manns: the Crystal Palace amateur orchestra and choir -- Popular concerts -- Solo instrumental music -- Part 5. The broader educational dimension. Exhibitions: the school of art, science and literature; the theatre -- The great popular festival -- Appendices. The Handel festivals selection day programmes and repertory, 1857-1923 -- Personnel of the Saturday orchestra -- Works by non-British composers given first British performances in the Saturday concerts of the Crystal Palace -- Works by British composers given first performances in the Saturday concerts of the Crystal Palace -- Staged works with music performed in the theatre -- The brass band championships. |
| Abstract | Though it was never designed to accommodate musical performance, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham (which was opened in 1854 and was an enlarged rebuilding of the famous glass and iron structure first erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851) quickly established itself as the most important single location for public music-making in the United Kingdom. For almost fifty years the orchestral concerts conducted by August Manns provided weekly performances which set new standards and introduced a range of new repertory (not least British) unparalleled anywhere in its time. The giant choral festivals offered performers and listeners a musical experience of an entirely new kind, as well as opening up the choral literature (especially of Handel) to vast new audiences. Numerous other activities served a range of musical, social and educational functions well into the twentieth century, which the unique physical context of the Palace itself often helped to shape. |
| Local note | Little-295675--305131001843T |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 93049053 |
| ISBN | 0521375622 |
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