Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a late seventeenth-century diarist with a deep love of music, which he often compared to his love of women, as expressed in the previous quotation. Even though this quotation specifically refers to wind music, it also directly expresses Pepys' love of music as a whole. His diary stretches over a period of approximately nine years, 1660 until 1669. Among the discussions on a number of topics, in his diary Pepys expresses his views on music in various forms and from a range of perspectives. In this study Pepys' views on music from the point of view of a listener or audience member will be illustrated. The nature of Pepys' views on music and his reception thereof can be said to be ahead of his time. 'Theories of reception move historical enquiry away from questions of production and composition and towards issues related to response, audience, and what Carl Dahlhaus, following Walter Benjamin, called the 'after-life' of musical works.' The 'after-life' of a musical work is described by Mark Everist as a feeling that is evoked by the experience of it. This feeling that one gets during and after listening to a musical work could be seen as reception of the work. However, the term 'reception' is more readily referred to as critical responses to music in the form of public reviews that appear in written sources such as books, journals, newspapers, letters and diaries. Albert Roussel, a musician and French composer, believes that music is a language that composers and performers use to communicate with an audience. Music brings an audience to a deeper understanding, one that cannot be expressed in words, only felt, as Felix Mendelssohn states: '[Music] fills the soul with a thousand things better than words. The thoughts that are expressed to me by music I love are not too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.' It is necessary to address music reception from the audience's perspective because Samuel Pepys was a 17th century music lover and formed part of the audience at the time. He emphatically expressed his overwhelming love of music in his diary. The audiences are there to listen and experience, which is the inspiration behind this study.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

College of Music

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lubbe, Michelle Hester

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sandmeier, Rebekka

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14088

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14088