Susanna Elizabeth Burney (1755-1800), known as Susan to her family and friends, was the third daughter of the music historian Charles Burney and the younger sister of the novelist Frances (Fanny) Burney. She grew up in London where she was able to observe at close quarters the musical life of the capital and to meet the many musicians, men of letters, and artists who visited the family home, before moving to Ireland in later life. Susan Burney witnessed the Gordon Riots and the 1798 uprising in Ireland, and she was a lifelong and knowledgeable enthusiast for music, one with discriminating tastes and an ability to capture vividly musical life and the personalities involved in it. Her letter-journals provide a striking portrait of later eighteenth-century social and cultural life, both in London and the Home Counties.Philip Olleson opens the book with a substantial biographical introduction, setting Susan Burney in the context of her family and the society in which she lived. The main part of the book consists of a series of annotated selections from the letter-journals, drawn from all periods of Susan's life and representing all her activities, but principally focussing on musical life. Burney evocatively depicts the social world of opera: the relationships between the star castrati, the composers and their aristocratic patrons; the etiquette of opera performance and its reception; and attitudes towards the music. Other topics of significance are: the public benefit concert; the private concert; the quartet party; the musical weekend and the music lesson. Overall the letter-journals represent one of the most significant sources on musical life in the eighteenth century as yet unpublished.Burney's abiding passion was for Italian opera and this area in particular will appeal to those opera scholars interested in performance staging, singers, gender studies and reception history. The letter-journals are of importance and interest to a number of different readerships. Because of the detailed descriptions of music, and particularly opera, the journals contain, they are of the greatest importance and interest to music and theatre historians, but there is also much that will be of significance for Burney scholars, social historians of England and Ireland, to women's historians and historians of the family.
Industry Reviews
'Susan Burney's wonderfully vivid picture of social and musical life in London and the Home Counties during the 1780s comes in a hitherto unpublished series of letter-journals. The jewel in the crown for music historians is her amazing record of a year in the life of the Italian opera company at the King's Theatre. We are transported back into its world of gossip and adulation as leading castrati mingled with their aristocratic backers. Her extended set-piece descriptions are full of richly perceptive observations about music and the way it was performed.' Ian Woodfield, Queen's University Belfast, UK 'The edition, produced to a high standard by Ashgate, makes a substantial contribution to the scholarly literature on the Burneys. Besides the journal entries that form the main contents, among the many strengths of the volume are a variety of helpful and informative items supplementing the main text... The most substantial of these is Olleson's biographical introduction... altogether so thoughtfully conceived and enjoyable to read, that it does ample justice to Susan Burney's writings. It is surely destined to serve as an important reference source in its field'. Eighteenth-Century Music 'Recommended.' Choice '[A]n excellent production in every way and essential reading for anyone interested in music and society in the late eighteenth century England.' Early Music Review 'The long-awaited publication of this significant collection does not disappoint... The value of the source is beyond doubt. No other diarist has given so frank, detailed and spontaneous a record of a particularly interesting moment in time in the London music scene... Historians are greatly in debt to Olleson. The book does full justice to its fascinating subject matter, and it is a pleasure to read...' The Musical Times 'A volume of fine craftsmanship... As editor, Philip Olleson never fails to attend to the people, places, events, and music in Susan's journals. Annotations provide astoni
