https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8337-7361
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Thomas McGeary, Miscellany on the London stage, Early Music, Volume 51, Issue 3, August 2023, Pages 468–471, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caad041
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Extract
Surveys of early 18th-century English music too often lament the failure to develop an English opera to succeed Dido and Aeneas, as well as the inept attempts at Italian-style opera, and the bêtes noires of the pasticcio and bilingual opera, before then passing onto the arrival of Handel and the triumph of Italian opera. Indeed, Charles Burney would describe the period as ‘a barbarous period for almost every kind of music, except that of the church’. The attention paid to this repertory by Alison DeSimone in her new book, The power of pastiche, is therefore welcome.
DeSimone takes as her text a commonplace principle from Roger North (1653–1734) that in music ‘the chief industry lyes in procuring variety’, without which ‘uniformity of air and manner, tho’ at first very good, will grow fastidious’ (p.1). North is but recognizing the universal tension in an art work between unity and variety. The power of pastiche takes North’s statement as a springboard to explore miscellany as a paradigm and mode of musical production in the period. Although DeSimone notes right away that variety and miscellany are not strictly synonyms, she treats them (along with pastiche) as such. Whereas the title highlights ‘pastiche’, most of the book treats of miscellany. As context and rationale, DeSimone reminds us that publishers issued collections of shorter literary works titled ‘Miscellany’, a practice that readers also followed when compiling commonplace books of favourite literary extracts or poems. DeSimone pursues the concept of musical miscellany in variety concerts, pasticcio operas, songbook publications and the careers of musicians. A final chapter surveys variety in criticism and aesthetics. Extending the concept of variety, DeSimone traces musical miscellany in creation, performance and consumption of music; uncovers new musical repertories; corrects musicology’s emphasis on the role of the composer; and looks at how music was disseminated and interpreted.
