‘That delightful country’: Using Charles Burney's travel account to explore pre-Risorgimento Italian musical culture

Abstract

In 1770 the English music critic Charles Burney traveled to Italy to gather information for his General History of Music (1776–1789). He viewed Italian music as the leading force in the music of his day and published an account of his travels in 1771, in which Burney perceived the unique musicality of Italian culture. This study focuses not on Burney's achievements but also on what he observed about the state of Italian musical culture in the mid-Settecento. The 1770s marked the beginning of the end of Italian domination of music in the Old Regime. The French Revolution and Napoleonic wars shattered that domination, politicized Italian culture, initiated the Risorgimento, raised the specter of Wagner and the rise of German music, and constructed certain myths. Burney laid a foundation for understanding these shifts. The study concludes by considering the factors that explain the immense productivity and popularity of Italian music and the profound changes to Italian musical culture from Burney's time to that of Verdi's Messa per Rossini.

Keywords

Charles Burney Italian cultural history Italian music history Italian music schools opera Risorgimento

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