The English Dilettantism: the Violin in British Culture in the 17th Century

Abstract

Violin music is a common theme on many historical musicology surveys. However, a more detailed approach about the first steps of its repetoire lacks attention. Since its appearance in late Renaissance, violin music had been related to dance music. Be it in taverns, homes or streets, the position wich this instrument acquired took him to a leading role in european courts. In England, the focus of this work, the violin served, firstly, as an instrument of the English Masques and of the royal consorts. This gave the violin and its family greater autonomy in its repertoire, acting on essencially instrumental genres as the fantasy-suite, the sonata and the trio-sonata. In this research, therefore, we will observe how the instrument in question influenced the dance panorama in 17th century England, using works of representative composers of that period: John Playford (1623-1687) and Peter Prelleur (1705-1741). Secondly, we will study, with more details, the previouly cited instrumental genres for the sake of clarification of the relation between the violin and the ascending italian style, as well as the performance by the amateur musician, wich were fundamental to the development of the popularity and the reputation of that instrument., besides its perpetuation in British culture.