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Catch and Glee Culture in Eighteenth-Century England. By Brian Robins.

2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: 89; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ml/gcm104

1477-4631

Christina Bashford,

Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies

If ever a pair of genres was destined to be marginalized by music history, it was probably the English catch and glee. Saddled not only with connotations of frivolity (the glee; the clue is in the misleading name) and licentiousness (the catch), but also with what we might term the curse of being English, these two types of vocal ‘chamber’ music have been repeatedly downplayed, if not condemned, by commentators, many of whom, ironically, are British. As a result, the cultural significance of the catch and glee—genres gendered almost exclusively male—has been largely unexplored. Enter Brian Robins—editor of The John Marsh Journals (1998), an exhaustive source for late eighteenth-century provincial and domestic music-making—with his new monograph Catch and Glee Culture in Eighteenth-Century England. The book opens with a survey of the early development of the glee and of London music clubs up to the mid-eighteenth century, and quickly moves (in ch. 3) into a detailed history of the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club, established in London in 1761 (henceforth ‘the Catch Club’, though in practice a catch and glee club). This history is made possible thanks to the survival of an extensive institutional archive at the British Library, and to the collection and publication of thirty-two volumes of catches, canons, and glees by the club's secretary and copyist, E. T. Warren. There follows a chapter outlining the development of several other catch and glee clubs, both in London and the regions, built on a range of manuscript sources, including the Marsh diaries. Here Robins paints a vivid picture of how such institutions ‘worked’ socially and musically, and develops a thesis that the London Catch Club influenced—directly or indirectly—the formation and modus operandi of many others. In a nutshell, the impression is of a culture of music-making in coffee houses and taverns (occasionally private houses), with conviviality reigning supreme. Some of the many details etched and shaded include the rules and regulations to control (male) membership and conduct; the admission of professional musicians to ensure performance standards; the varying social profiles of clubs; the rituals of meetings, including eating and drinking; and, at the Catch Club, the role of prize competitions in encouraging a wave of catch, canon, and glee composition. Indeed, Robins's narrative presents some striking vignettes. The tune of the Star-Spangled Banner turns out to be that of the Anacreontic Society's signature song. Haydn, shortly after receiving his doctorate from Oxford University, turns up for a Graduates’ Meeting at a London house, ‘the presence of the new member being highly gratifying to all’ (p. 83). And Rameau turns in a gratis copy of his ‘Methode pour faire les canons’ to the Catch Club. Chapters on the infiltration of the glee into broader musical life (concerts, the home, and so forth), and on glee poetry and aesthetics (somewhat oddly positioned) round out the coverage before a short conclusion. Appendices usefully list Catch Club members, 1761–1800, and prize medalists, 1763–93.