Italian Music and Musicians in Edinburgh c. 1720-1800: A Historical and Critical Study

The contribution of the Italian musicians who came to Scotland during the period c. 1720-1800 was both vigorous and influential. It encompassed practically every area of musical activity: from performance to teaching, from the composition and arrangement of music to its publication, from the "professional patronage" of other musicians to the establishment of publishing companies and businesses dealing in the music and musical instrument trade. This thesis reconstructs the Scottish careers of almost all of those Italian musicians who went to live and work in Edinburgh. Some of them are already well-known figures, even if most historians have only given them limited attention. Other Italian musicians had only been treated in passing, some had been overlooked completely. This study examines primary documents in detail, such as the Minute books and Plan Books that were kept by the Edinburgh Musical Society in the eighteenth century, and also newspapers that were printed in Edinburgh during this period, in order to throw light on their musical activities in the Scottish capital. Linked with the careers of the Italian musicians in Edinburgh between c. 1720-1800 is an investigation of the reception and perception of these musicians in Scotland. This has been based largely on eighteenth-century accounts, but also includes nineteenth- and twentieth-century commentaries on Scottish musical history and culture. This section has included a consideration of economic, religious and philosophical issues concerning opera and the production of stage plays in Edinburgh during this period. Finally, there is a survey of the music that the Italian musicians performed, composed and published. This has involved examining a large amount of published music as well as manuscript sources. My investigation into this field has revealed a repertoire of music that was unique to Scotland, with Italian and English classical music performed alongside arrangements of Scots folk-songs