Program for the 1780 concerts of the Concerts of Antient Music
The Concerts of Antient Music, also known as the Ancient Concerts or The King's Concerts, were an influential concert series put on annually in London from 1776 to 1848. The concerts consisted solely of music composed at least twenty years previous (although sometimes revised for the tastes or instrumentation of the time). The concerts had aristocratic or royal sponsorship and featured some of the best musicians of the day. At first, twelve concerts were given each year; in 1785 a thirteenth concert, a performance of Handel's Messiah to benefit retired musicians, was added at King George III's command.[1]
The founding committee in 1776 included the Earl of Sandwich, the Earl of Exeter, the Viscount Dudley and Ward, and John Egerton, the Bishop of Durham. From the year 1785 the royal family was usually in attendance, and patronized the concerts as well. King George III personally wrote out the programmes, and in the later years Prince Albert was one of the directors.
The programmes at first consisted mostly of Handel, with a few works by Corelli, Geminiani, Charles Avison, and others. After 1826 the concerts added works by Mozart and a greater variety of other composers; Beethoven's works appeared after 1835.[2]
The concerts were first held in the New Rooms on Tottenham Street, later known as the Queen's or West London Theatre. In 1795 they were moved to a concert hall at the Opera House, and then in 1804 to the Hanover Square Rooms.
^Royal Society of Musicians history page Archived 2014-07-09 at archive.today
^Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. George Grove, 1900, entry "Ancient Concerts"
and 22 Related for: Concerts of Antient Music information
construction of musical taste". The performance of such music was specialized by the Academy of Ancient Music and later at the ConcertsofAntientMusic series...
ConcertsofAntientMusic, which began in 1776. The prestigious Hanover Square Rooms, accommodating about 900 people, opened in 1775 with a concert given...
played in the ConcertsofAntientMusic, in the Handel Commemoration of 1791 and in the orchestra of the King's Theatre. The only piece of his to have achieved...
1813 she again sang at the ConcertsofAntientMusic where she was paid £126 (see illustration). She had sung at that concert in 1800 when she was "Miss...
The AntientConcert is a sixty-minute-long English language opera in one act by Daron Hagen with a libretto by Paul Muldoon. Hagen describes it as a "dramatic...
Richard Brocklesby's 1749 Reflections ofAntient and Modern Musick, the 1737 Memoires of the French Academy of Sciences, or Ernst Anton Nicolai's 1745...
from Perpignan. Agostino Steffani is elected honorary president of the Academy ofAntient Musick in London. Johann Adolph Hasse arrives in Naples. The Le...
performed at the ConcertsofAntientMusic. In 1838 she went to America as part of a company put together by Henry John Wallack on behalf of his brother,...
collections of the Sons of Handel and the AntientConcerts Society, who maintained a continuous choral tradition from 1790 to 1863 that was at the centre of musical...
bass singer at the ConcertsofAntientMusic. Bellamy died 3 January 1843. Bellamy published a song book in 1840, in the tradition of Richard Clark. Stephen...
anniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel in 1759. The commemoration was organized by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and the ConcertsofAntient Music...
visitor at the meetings of the Madrigal Society. For one season he replaced Joah Bates as conductor at the ConcertsofAntientMusic. On 16 January 1779 he...
festivals. From 1789 to 1814 his name appeared in the programmes of the ConcertsofAntientMusic. He was also interested in glee-singing: he conducted the Glee...
succeeded Venua as leader of the Covent Garden opera band. In 1831, he became a member of the orchestra of the ConcertsofAntientMusic at the New Rooms, Hanover...
succeeded Franz Cramer as leader of the ConcertsofAntientMusic. His wife, Rosamund Charles Mills, was the stepdaughter of the actor John Fawcett. Loder died...
considered among the best of any English provincial composer, and in their own time were occasionally heard in the ConcertsofAntientMusic until 1812. His only...
appeared three times at the AntientConcert Rooms in Dublin. He died in Killiney of a heart disease in 1865. In the course of several decades, Hudleston...
orchestra. He was also leader of the orchestras of the AntientConcerts Society and the Philharmonic Society as well as secretary of the Dublin Madrigal Society...
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