Music, urban renaissance and space in eighteenth-century England

Abstract

The present article seeks to relate music, towns and space in eighteenth-century England. Underpinning this agenda is the belief that the development of art forms cannot be understood simply in terms of their own internal dynamics, but have to be seen as part of a wider amalgam of phenomena and forces. For the purpose of my article, this amalgam is represented by the notion of an urban renaissance – an efflorescence of sophisticated, fashionable culture in English provincial towns and cities,...