0:00:11 > 0:00:13From Glastonbury to Glyndebourne,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15from the glitter of London's West End shows
0:00:15 > 0:00:20to our thriving regional choirs and amateur orchestras, Britain today
0:00:20 > 0:00:22is alive with music.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27But while we think of the 21st century as the era
0:00:27 > 0:00:32of impresarios and celebrities, gossip magazines and social networking,
0:00:32 > 0:00:34pop stars and groupies,
0:00:34 > 0:00:36all these were first forged
0:00:36 > 0:00:40in the energy and inventiveness of 18th century Britain.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45I've been playing, studying
0:00:45 > 0:00:48and loving 18th century music for as long as I can remember.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52In this series, I'll be discovering what it must have felt like to
0:00:52 > 0:00:57be at the very centre of that cultural explosion, exploring its
0:00:57 > 0:01:01refined salons and playing on its newfangled, cutting-edge instruments.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05In the mid-18th century,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08with a flourishing international trade empire,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11the British for the first time became consumers.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14Fashion, luxury, good taste and pleasure were
0:01:14 > 0:01:18the watchwords of the age and with them came new spa towns,
0:01:18 > 0:01:23assembly rooms and concert halls, places to spend all that money.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Music became a kind of conspicuous consumption
0:01:27 > 0:01:30A driving force in a cultural boom.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38More than anything else - books or newspapers,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42paintings or poetry, I think it was music that truly touched
0:01:42 > 0:01:45the lives of everyone in 18th century Britain.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47This is its story.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04When the Italian adventurer
0:02:04 > 0:02:09and legendary seducer Giacomo Casanova visited England in 1763,
0:02:09 > 0:02:14he went immediately to London's smartest address, Carlisle House
0:02:14 > 0:02:19in Soho, the home of his childhood sweetheart, Teresa Cornelys.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25Teresa had arrived in the capital just five years earlier
0:02:25 > 0:02:27without a penny to her name.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32Born in Venice, she had been a child prostitute, pimped out by her own mother.
0:02:32 > 0:02:38It was her vivacious soprano singing voice that was to be Teresa's ticket out of poverty,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41taking her to the greatest opera houses in Europe
0:02:41 > 0:02:43and making her a star.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45She seduced audiences
0:02:45 > 0:02:49and a string of lovers in Holland, Austria and Germany.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51Now she set out to conquer London.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59Music was Teresa's ticket to fortune and fame, not as an opera singer,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01but as a cultural innovator.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05She became known as the Empress of Pleasure,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09her masked balls were the hottest ticket in town,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13a heady cocktail of sex, sensation and style.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15And music was the glue that held it all together.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Carlisle House was soon London's most exclusive hot spot
0:03:23 > 0:03:24with the soundtrack provided
0:03:24 > 0:03:28by the hottest international performers and composers of the day.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Fearsome society ladies would vet the subscribers,
0:03:34 > 0:03:39barring anyone who might be middle class, dreary or unfashionable.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43The financial model was to charge sky-high prices that would
0:03:43 > 0:03:46put off all but the very richest.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50It worked. Teresa even had to widen the entrance to Carlisle House
0:03:50 > 0:03:51to get all the guests in.
0:03:53 > 0:03:54It was the place to go
0:03:54 > 0:03:57and people were queuing up to get in through the doors,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00they even closed Parliament early so people could get there,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04it was the fashionable centre of town.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06She hired the best musicians of the day
0:04:06 > 0:04:11and they would put on concerts on a weekly subscription basis.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Put simply, she put the whole idea
0:04:15 > 0:04:19of the weekly symphony concert on the map.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Teresa Cornelys's soirees, with their impossible glamour
0:04:25 > 0:04:29and decadence, were at one end of the social spectrum.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35At the other was the depravity and despair of life for the many,
0:04:35 > 0:04:40captured so sharply by artists like Hogarth.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Between the two were "the middling orders",
0:04:43 > 0:04:48whose prosperity, authority and power was on the rise.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53With their money came an obsession with novelty and innovation.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55Everything was possible.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Britain is becoming the most active and dynamic society
0:05:00 > 0:05:02in the world and that encourages
0:05:02 > 0:05:04people to feel that they are taking
0:05:04 > 0:05:06part in a world in which the key
0:05:06 > 0:05:08point of reference is no longer that
0:05:08 > 0:05:10of the world that their parents were part of.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12So in a way, Britain in
0:05:12 > 0:05:17the second half of the 18th century prefigures 20th century America.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Music led the charge in this new, modern world,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24with one radical British innovation in particular changing
0:05:24 > 0:05:27the way the public could experience music.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33Today, we take it for granted that we've got access to music whenever we want it.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35But if you lived in the early 18th century in a city
0:05:35 > 0:05:41like Paris or Vienna or Rome, you had to be one of a tiny, very privileged
0:05:41 > 0:05:44number of people to every hear a note of new music.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49Concert halls, the idea of a gig simply didn't exist.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55The idea of paying to hear the music you wanted, when you wanted it
0:05:55 > 0:05:59came from Britain, inspired by its growing middle class.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02These were people with time and money to spend on concerts.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09The public concert was a British invention from the previous century.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13A cash-strapped musician called John Bannister
0:06:13 > 0:06:16held the first concert where people could pay to come in,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20at his house near Fleet Street in 1672.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22The concert as we know it today would
0:06:22 > 0:06:25develop from the pioneers who followed his lead.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30There was Thomas Britton, a remarkable man,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33he was a coal merchant who had a passion for music and he started
0:06:33 > 0:06:37a series of commercial concerts in his coal shed in Clerkenwell.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40What you would do is scuttle up a ladder into the coal shed
0:06:40 > 0:06:43where you would sit and enjoy the evening's entertainment,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46you could also chip in as an amateur musician if you wanted to,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50where you'd be in the company of some top musicians like Handel.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Must have been an absolutely fantastic place for a night out.
0:06:54 > 0:07:01Thomas Britton's concerts ran from 1678 until his death in 1714.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05These early musical events could be raucous affairs.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10People wouldn't be sitting in rows
0:07:10 > 0:07:12in the way that we would at
0:07:12 > 0:07:13a modern concert,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and you wouldn't have a programme or anything like that.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19The chairs would be scattered around and people would be chatting to
0:07:19 > 0:07:22each other, certainly there would be people who would be trying to listen
0:07:22 > 0:07:26to the music, but it was considered to be the mark of a good performer
0:07:26 > 0:07:30if you could shut the audience up, and get them to just go quiet.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39These concerts weren't just for a social elite, they could be enjoyed
0:07:39 > 0:07:45by anyone who could afford the price of a ticket - about the same as a day's wages for the average worker.
0:07:47 > 0:07:53The pursuit of enjoyment was becoming more fashionable and more commercial than it had ever been.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Pleasure certainly wasn't a new discovery in the 18th century.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05But from the aristocracy and the gentry to the legions of property speculators,
0:08:05 > 0:08:10bankers, tavern-owners, farmers, labourers, everyone in Britain, it seemed,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14was indulging in pleasure more lustily than ever before.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19This passion for all things novel
0:08:19 > 0:08:23and exciting drove the popularity of a new breed of outdoor
0:08:23 > 0:08:27entertainment venues, where music was an essential ingredient.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31The prototype was to be found in one of the capital's least
0:08:31 > 0:08:32salubrious districts.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35By the banks of the River Thames.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37This rather unprepossessing park
0:08:37 > 0:08:41was once London's most glamorous entertainment venue.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47From 1729, under the management of a brilliant entrepreneur
0:08:47 > 0:08:49called Jonathan Tyers,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52it entertained a stream of hedonistic Londoners.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57This was an oasis away from the filthy, malodorous stench of the city.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Vauxhall Gardens became one of the most profitable businesses
0:09:03 > 0:09:07of the whole of the 18th century, with pioneering theatrical effects,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11hot-air balloon rides, tightrope walkers and fireworks.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14It was a pioneer of advertising and mass catering.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18That said, the meat was notoriously cut so thinly you could hold
0:09:18 > 0:09:21it up to a candle and see through it like a cobweb.
0:09:21 > 0:09:26The wine was neither good nor cheap and still people flocked here.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Part of the evening at Vauxhall was the journey, and part of
0:09:31 > 0:09:35the journey was crossing the River Thames, of course, because most of
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Vauxhall's customers came from the city of London, from Westminster.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42This was part of what Vauxhall Gardens was about,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46it separated you from reality and you went to what
0:09:46 > 0:09:48they called at the time, a dream world,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52it was almost like crossing the River Styx to get to Paradise.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Pleasure gardens were essentially parks with musical entertainment,
0:10:01 > 0:10:06they became the ultimate meeting places of 18th-century London.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Men, women, children, servants. Anyone could go,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13there was no guest list, there was no vetting process.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15If you paid your shilling you were in.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20When you arrived at Vauxhall, you would be plunged
0:10:20 > 0:10:25into a fantastical world of formal gardens and fragrant walkways.
0:10:25 > 0:10:2812 of you would dine together in a huge wooden box,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32richly decorated with the most exquisite paintings,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35an orchestra nearby would serenade you.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38It was, by all accounts, a truly magical place.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Vauxhall's democracy was thrilling, listening to the songs and
0:10:43 > 0:10:48orchestral pieces, everyone could believe he or she was an equal.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Music made distinctions of money, class, and age irrelevant.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54During the instrumental music people would
0:10:54 > 0:10:57promenade around the gardens, around the avenues, they would meet their
0:10:57 > 0:11:01friends, they'd gossip. During the songs they would all cluster around
0:11:01 > 0:11:05the central orchestra stand and listen to the songs and watch the
0:11:05 > 0:11:09singers, who, many of whom became celebrities in their own right.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14With the public hungry for new music, the pleasure gardens
0:11:14 > 0:11:17became the bread and butter of many a British composer.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Most popular of all were songs, charming ditties
0:11:20 > 0:11:24on popular themes of innocence and experience, loss and love.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31# On Richmond Hill there is a lass More bright than May-day morn
0:11:31 > 0:11:37# Whose charms all others maids' surpass, a rose without a thorn
0:11:40 > 0:11:46# This lass so neat, with smiles so sweet, has won my right good will
0:11:46 > 0:11:50# I'd crowns resign to call her mine
0:11:50 > 0:11:54# Sweet lass of Richmond Hill
0:11:54 > 0:11:57# Sweet lass of Richmond Hill
0:11:57 > 0:12:01# Sweet lass of Richmond Hill
0:12:02 > 0:12:06# I'd crowns resign to call thee mine
0:12:06 > 0:12:09# Sweet lass of Richmond Hill. #
0:12:16 > 0:12:19A thousand people a night coming to the gardens,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22they would hear the same songs again and again and again and they
0:12:22 > 0:12:28would become hugely popular just by dint of repetition to this audience.
0:12:28 > 0:12:35And of course they produced published song sheets, which were bought not only by visitors to Vauxhall gardens
0:12:35 > 0:12:38but they were circulated almost all around the world.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42People also came to enjoy
0:12:42 > 0:12:45the seedier side of what Vauxhall offered.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48It was well known that the gardens were a
0:12:48 > 0:12:52"Convenient place for courtship of every kind" and
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Vauxhall had a famous "Dark Alley", where you could go for a romantic
0:12:56 > 0:13:01assignation. It was teeming with prostitutes, waiting for a punter.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04Round Vauxhall there was always a slight frisson of risk
0:13:04 > 0:13:06which I am sure was part of the appeal,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09but it's also somewhere where you could meet and there a certain
0:13:09 > 0:13:11level of informality,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14where you could see people and be seen and that
0:13:14 > 0:13:17was so much part of the social scene of the 18th century that you had
0:13:17 > 0:13:21to be seen in order to be recognised as being part of polite society.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28The gardens had such a winning formula that they were copied across
0:13:28 > 0:13:33the world, there were Vauxhalls in Paris, Copenhagen and Nashville, Tennessee.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39Meanwhile, in Britain, the fixation with music and leisure
0:13:39 > 0:13:45led to entire towns springing up, catering for swarms of cultural tourists.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48The most popular of them all was Bath.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Bath had long had a reputation as a centre of medicine,
0:13:54 > 0:13:59the town's famous thermal waters drunk and bathed in since Roman times.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04What happened here in Bath was that the medicinal cure started to take a
0:14:04 > 0:14:06back seat as entertainment
0:14:06 > 0:14:08and pleasure came to the fore.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12You weren't really in Bath to "take the waters" so much as to have a
0:14:12 > 0:14:16bit of fun, and music and dancing were a central part in all that.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21The band here at the Pump Room in Bath is the oldest
0:14:21 > 0:14:24professional instrumental ensemble in Europe.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29They first played in the early 1700s and have been resident here ever since.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36APPLAUSE
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Bath was radically redeveloped in the 18th century with
0:14:42 > 0:14:46fashionable neoclassical avenues, hotels and lodging houses.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52This was the original Georgian party town and this was how you got around.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53Taxi!
0:15:04 > 0:15:06What had been a bit of a sleepy backwater
0:15:06 > 0:15:09was now a fully-fledged holiday resort,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11with all mod cons.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31The jewel in the crown was here at the Assembly Rooms in Bath -
0:15:31 > 0:15:34the most magnificent rooms anywhere in Britain.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It was here that you'd come to take tea, to gamble,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39and most importantly, to dance -
0:15:39 > 0:15:40and where you'd hope to be introduced
0:15:40 > 0:15:42to the cream of Bath society.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Everyone, from a London lord to a country lass, came to Bath
0:15:51 > 0:15:56knowing that it was a pleasure-seeker's paradise for all.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00It was also a fantastic opportunity to move up the social ladder.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03It was the best marriage market there was.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08How much were the tourist towns like Bath a real leveller,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11a place where lots of different kinds of people could meet?
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Bath was deliberately non-hierarchical.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17It wasn't based on maintaining position of privilege.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Everybody who paid their fee could go to the Assembly
0:16:20 > 0:16:22and then you were all in there together.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24It wasn't like court society,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29and it was a society where this commercialised leisure
0:16:29 > 0:16:32was absolutely central, because people come to Bath,
0:16:32 > 0:16:34they need to be entertained,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37so this is where you find some of the early cultural impresarios,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39opening of the walks and the gardens,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42where people can go and promenade for their health,
0:16:42 > 0:16:43and meet other people.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Increasingly, you could become a member of polite society
0:16:47 > 0:16:48by your own efforts.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52You are in a world in which your inherited status
0:16:52 > 0:16:56is much less significant, but the tastes you follow,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00showing that you are an educated, cultured person,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03and therefore, you deserve status,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07so the idea is that you deserve status, not that you inherit it.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10You are displaying, through your musical taste
0:17:10 > 0:17:12and your musical attainment,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15that you both deserve where you wish to be socially,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18but also that you are comfortable where you are socially.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25But woe betide you if you put a foot wrong.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27The set piece of a ball here at the Assembly Rooms
0:17:27 > 0:17:30was a terrifying dance - the minuet -
0:17:30 > 0:17:34performed, couple by couple, in front of the whole room.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36Not for the faint-hearted.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42I asked dance historian Moira Gough to put me through my paces.
0:17:47 > 0:17:48Wow. OK.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52So, this is the Assembly Room where you would come to dance?
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Yes, a good big space for dancing.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58Now, minuet...I have heard tell,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01are a particularly tricky kind of dance,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04and you would be doing them, what, in front of a room
0:18:04 > 0:18:06full of hundreds of people, and they would be watching you?
0:18:06 > 0:18:08Absolutely.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11This is the Strictly Come Dancing of the 18th century.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13One, two, three, four, five, six.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16One, two, three, four, five, six.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19- One, two, three, four, five, six. - We'll have to do it again!
0:18:19 > 0:18:22One, two, three, four, five, six.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- One, two, three, four, five, six. - Moira...
0:18:25 > 0:18:28- Miss, could you come back? - That's actually not very easy!
0:18:28 > 0:18:30Let me be the man.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33You come together.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35That's it.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38And we actually dance forward.
0:18:38 > 0:18:39Another thing that happens...
0:18:39 > 0:18:42But that's incredibly risky, physical closeness.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46If I'm a young woman who's come to Bath, and my parents are nearby,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48- but I don't know you from Adam. - Miss!
0:18:48 > 0:18:50We're quite physically close.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53Yes, but that's the closest you're going to get.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57This is nothing like modern ballroom hold, where you really are close.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00So, let's imagine I'm a young heiress,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02come to Bath to find a husband...
0:19:02 > 0:19:04What I need now is a dance partner
0:19:04 > 0:19:07and preferably one with a title...
0:19:07 > 0:19:11May I introduce Lord Yarmouth.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Hello, Lord Yarmouth.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Lovely to meet you.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Now we're going to take right hands. You dance sideways.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Right...left, right, left. Right...
0:19:27 > 0:19:30'Dancing the minuet isn't as easy
0:19:30 > 0:19:33'as those Jane Austen heroines make it look.'
0:19:33 > 0:19:35He's going to offer you his hand.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Take it with your right hand.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Dance in a circle.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Now come towards me.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47'Concentrate. You're here to find a husband.'
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Miss, that wasn't really quite right.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53- Shall we have another go? - I'm so sorry, Lord Yarmouth!
0:19:53 > 0:19:55We nearly got there.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Well, I think we are improving here.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02I think you may make a minuet dancer in time.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Lord Yarmouth doesn't look quite so convinced.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09I think your money might outweigh your lack of practise.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16If mastering the minuet was step one in getting a husband,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20next on the list of feminine charms was your musical ability.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25How much was music used as a tool for improving one's standing,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28particularly as a lady in society?
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Music was always something that was
0:20:30 > 0:20:33a desirable accomplishment in a young lady,
0:20:33 > 0:20:37partly because it is something that you could do inside,
0:20:37 > 0:20:42it didn't require intensive academic application,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45and it was a social facilitator.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48The role of women was very much that of being
0:20:48 > 0:20:50a social facilitator
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and easing company and conversation, if you like.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Men made sure this was the case,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01and took a close interest in keeping women in their place.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07chose as his subject not evolution, but good breeding.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09In his book -
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Plan for the Conduct of Female Education in Boarding School -
0:21:13 > 0:21:15he wrote that the following subjects should be taught
0:21:15 > 0:21:17in order of priority.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19After the study of the female character
0:21:19 > 0:21:21should come music and dancing,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24only then to be followed by the teaching
0:21:24 > 0:21:27of reading, writing and grammar.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31Not that this meant girls had a free hand
0:21:31 > 0:21:35in what music they played or what they played it on.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38There were only certain instruments a female would be allowed to play,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40a young woman would be allowed to play,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43but in terms of self display,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47the keyboard was ideal because she was sitting at a keyboard,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50you could tell her posture,
0:21:50 > 0:21:55it was one in which she was involved in a supportive role, often,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58if there was a solo singer or a solo violinist,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02so there were all kinds of enactments of femininity
0:22:02 > 0:22:04that made the playing of a keyboard
0:22:04 > 0:22:08an attractive way of displaying the female.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Any socially ambitious young lady
0:22:16 > 0:22:20would have her keyboard lessons with a fashionable Italian music master
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and you can imagine these must have been fraught with tension.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26It was so rare that unmarried men and women
0:22:26 > 0:22:28got to be so physically close to one another
0:22:28 > 0:22:30and it wasn't unheard of
0:22:30 > 0:22:33for the young girl to run off with the teacher.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37BRIGHT HARPSICHORD MUSIC
0:22:39 > 0:22:43So, what kind of music should a young lady be taught?
0:22:43 > 0:22:46It should be decorative, light, and not too challenging.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48You should never look like you're showing off,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51or, worse still, overshadowing a man.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58The keyboard was so strongly associated with women
0:22:58 > 0:23:03that any upstanding British gentlemen thought it effeminate,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05and they refused to play it.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12But despite the possibility of hands entwining
0:23:12 > 0:23:14with the exotic music teacher,
0:23:14 > 0:23:15and where that might lead,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19the keyboard was at least ladylike.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Other instruments weren't.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30So, what were the rules of musical engagement for girls?
0:23:30 > 0:23:34SHE PUFFS / NO MUSICAL SOUND
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Don't put anything in your mouth...
0:23:36 > 0:23:39TUNELESS LOW NOTE
0:23:39 > 0:23:41..and keep your legs closed.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43SCREECHING DISCORD
0:23:45 > 0:23:48The social penalties for women who strayed outside
0:23:48 > 0:23:53these strict rules about music and gender could be severe.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56This is Anne Ford - a talented musician,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59she played a whole host of different instruments,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02and she was really committed to a public career.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04So, she tries to stage a concert.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Her father had other ideas and he had her arrested...twice.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Anne eventually manages to escape.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14She marries a man called Philip Thicknesse, an army officer,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17and they set off and travel around Europe,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19where they end up in France in 1792.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22Philip has a seizure and dies.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Anne is arrested as an aristocrat,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28and the only thing that saves her from the guillotine
0:24:28 > 0:24:31is the fact that she has a trade - she is a musician.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Gainsborough painted her
0:24:33 > 0:24:36in this absolutely delicious portrait
0:24:36 > 0:24:39as a really tough, uncompromising figure.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42And, most importantly, she's sitting there with her legs crossed -
0:24:42 > 0:24:46a really masculine gesture of defiance.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49While the musical activities of women
0:24:49 > 0:24:53were hemmed in to maintain their feminine decorum,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56the chaps were under somewhat less pressure
0:24:56 > 0:24:59to mind their Ps and Qs - at least in private.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02In singing clubs up and down the country,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05men could let rip with unbuttoned abandon.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10How much would sex, or bawdiness, lasciviousness,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12have been a part of what was widely sung?
0:25:12 > 0:25:17In the clubs, which, of course, were almost exclusively for men,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21they sang the most disgusting rounds and catches
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and songs and glees, and that is the kind of place
0:25:24 > 0:25:26where those really obscene songs would have been sung.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30They are really lurid and really quite unpleasant, actually,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32some of the song sheets.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39A song like "Chloe at Cock's Auction",
0:25:39 > 0:25:43inspired by a real-life auctioneer called Christopher Cock,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45wasn't difficult to decode.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48With the hammer going up and down, the twin 18th century delights
0:25:48 > 0:25:52of sex and shopping merge together.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54# The hammer, the hammer was up
0:25:54 > 0:25:57- # Each bid - The hammer, the hammer was up
0:25:57 > 0:25:58# The hammer, the hammer was up... #
0:26:31 > 0:26:34We shouldn't think that catches and glees
0:26:34 > 0:26:37were, as it were, just bawdy tavern songs.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40They were in parts and they had to be learnt,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42and you had to know what you were doing.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Often, in these clubs, if you made a mistake,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51then you got fined.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55Typically, you were invited to drink an enormous beaker of wine
0:26:55 > 0:26:56if you made a mistake,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00the effect of which must surely have been to make it even worse.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02THEY CONTINUE SINGING
0:27:15 > 0:27:17Singing clubs like this
0:27:17 > 0:27:20were formed for the love of male companionship
0:27:20 > 0:27:22and making music together.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Performing for money was a no-no.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26Professional musicians were, to many,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30no better than tradesmen or street pedlars.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33A case in point was that of Thomas Arne,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36best known today for writing "Rule, Britannia!"
0:27:36 > 0:27:39Born into the upper crust, he horrified his parents
0:27:39 > 0:27:41when he was bitten by the music bug.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45SHE PLAYS "RULE, BRITANNIA!"
0:27:45 > 0:27:48When Arne told his family he wanted to be a musician,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51he was forbidden - too shameful, too lowly.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54He had to dress up as a liveryman to get into the opera,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56where he took copious notes in the dark
0:27:56 > 0:27:58hoping that nobody would recognise him.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02He even smuggled a spinet up to the attic of his family's home,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05covered it in a blanket and practised in the dead of night.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14SHE PLAYS "RULE, BRITANNIA!"
0:28:20 > 0:28:23But the snobbery of a few toffs was no match
0:28:23 > 0:28:26for a mass tidal wave of public adulation.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Professional musicians were increasingly respectable
0:28:30 > 0:28:32and becoming household names.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Fans across Britain were desperate to hear them.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39There is a lingering sense, even today,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41that exciting things,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44big important cultural things,
0:28:44 > 0:28:45only really happen in London.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50It's not true now and it certainly wasn't true in the 18th century,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53because as communications between major cities
0:28:53 > 0:28:54got better and faster,
0:28:54 > 0:28:59music and musicians began to travel across the entire country.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05The cities they went to play music in weren't sleepy backwaters,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09but thriving musical centres in their own right -
0:29:09 > 0:29:11like Newcastle, which, in the 18th century,
0:29:11 > 0:29:13was a bustling, international port,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16thanks to Britain's global trade empire.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21When the London season finished,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23musicians didn't just hang around in the capital,
0:29:23 > 0:29:25they went on tour.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Newcastle was one of the main stopping-off points
0:29:27 > 0:29:29between London and Edinburgh,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32and here, the latest musical fashions were heard.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35This was a town humming with modernity.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37It had a real thirst for the latest songs
0:29:37 > 0:29:40and novelties, plays and circuses,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43all of which needed music and musicians.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47In Newcastle, you are constantly getting
0:29:47 > 0:29:50advertisements for things like a new clarinet concerto,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53music entirely new,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56the latest sensational singer from London,
0:29:56 > 0:29:57this sort of thing.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02And I think it's because you have a very thriving merchant class
0:30:02 > 0:30:06and middle class, and these are people who are trading with
0:30:06 > 0:30:09not only London but the Baltic and areas like that as well.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12And these do tend to be people who are more go-ahead,
0:30:12 > 0:30:14they are more interested in what's going on now
0:30:14 > 0:30:18and the latest fashions and the latest novelties and so on.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26What set the music scene in provincial cities apart was
0:30:26 > 0:30:30the sheer variety of performers you could hear.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33There were professionals from cathedrals and military bands,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37town singers and pipers, but not enough of them to sustain the
0:30:37 > 0:30:40voracious appetite for music.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43So a host of talented amateurs joined in.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Music becomes the dynamic part, the active part,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51the participatory part.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55You yourself are not going to make a Wedgwood-style pot
0:30:55 > 0:30:58but you are going to be able, on your spinet or your piano forte
0:30:58 > 0:31:00or your harpsichord, to play music,
0:31:00 > 0:31:06you are going to be able to take part in a small woodwind group,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08that's what makes it so exciting.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13The shining star in Newcastle's music scene was Charles Avison,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17a composer and writer who believed passionately in the power
0:31:17 > 0:31:20of music to transform lives.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22He was a great champion of music in the North East.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27Charles Avison started out as a domestic servant,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31but showed such a natural talent for music that he was sent to
0:31:31 > 0:31:34London to study with an Italian master.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36He returned home to Newcastle
0:31:36 > 0:31:39where he composed music for local concerts,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42pieces designed to capitalise on the fashion for amateur
0:31:42 > 0:31:45music-making of the highest standard.
0:32:04 > 0:32:05I think Avison is wonderful.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08And I think it's basically because as a person,
0:32:08 > 0:32:12he was most concerned, almost obsessed
0:32:12 > 0:32:15that music should be something for everyone.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18His concertos, his sonatas were principally written,
0:32:18 > 0:32:22if not actually written, for amateurs to play.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26In Avison's band, as with many orchestras of the time,
0:32:26 > 0:32:29professional musicians, called "stiffeners",
0:32:29 > 0:32:32played the trickier music, and kept the whole thing together.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35The amateurs played the simpler parts.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03It's only recently that Charles Avison's rich contribution
0:33:03 > 0:33:06to British music has begun to be recognised.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14What made him special was more than just the notes he wrote on the page,
0:33:14 > 0:33:19Avison thought about music in an entirely new way.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23Avison wanted to persuade the hordes of well-heeled Geordies
0:33:23 > 0:33:26who poured through the doors of these Assembly Rooms that music
0:33:26 > 0:33:29wasn't just the soundtrack to a great night out,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32it was there to make you a better person.
0:33:33 > 0:33:39In 1752, he published his Essay on Musical Expression, the first thing
0:33:39 > 0:33:41ever written in English about how to listen to
0:33:41 > 0:33:44and really appreciate music.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47His idea is that music appeals to the emotions.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51Music should be beautiful, music shouldn't be ugly,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54it shouldn't reflect the bad side of life, it should reflect
0:33:54 > 0:33:57the wonderful emotions and the marvellous things of life.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01And that will then improve society basically.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Improvement, another 18th century buzzword,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12was seen as one of the key functions of music and art.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15It wasn't enough that it should be enjoyable, it had to make you
0:34:15 > 0:34:20more modern, more moral, noble and sophisticated.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22There were even new buildings
0:34:22 > 0:34:26designed to showcase music's transformative power.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38This is the Holywell Music Room.
0:34:38 > 0:34:39It's England's,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42in fact, it's the world's oldest purpose-built concert venue.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45It opened in Oxford in 1748,
0:34:45 > 0:34:50inspired by the need, the desire for a new public space for music.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59The Holywell was designed with acoustics in mind.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02It's got this beautiful U-shape at the back for the sound to flow round,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06there's no pillars to get in the way to deaden the sound.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10And it's amazing that given this is the first ever proper concert hall,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13they got it right first time.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17It's the perfect blend of 18th century technology, architecture,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19acoustics and engineering,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21all coming together in the service of music.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27It's a democratising space this.
0:35:27 > 0:35:28If you made music at home
0:35:28 > 0:35:31it would tend to be with people of similar means and backgrounds.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34If you were the kind of person who went to the opera,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36it would be with people of a similar class.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40Here at Holywell, everybody literally rubbed shoulders.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42It's an incredibly intimate venue.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45So much so that when a famous performer is onstage
0:35:45 > 0:35:48you feel you can almost touch them in here.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52And this venue drew some of the leading performers of the day.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55This was a place they could go on tour and make money,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59a new public concert hall, and it drew people like Handel and Haydn,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02some of the most famous musicians in the whole country.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08The idea caught on.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Specially built concert halls opened across the land,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15part of what was called at the time a "rage for music."
0:36:15 > 0:36:19Such was the money and kudos on offer, that musicians
0:36:19 > 0:36:24and composers from across Europe flocked to Britain.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Musicians like Johann Christian Bach.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32He arrived in London in 1762, where, with his business partners,
0:36:32 > 0:36:37he acquired his own splendid concert hall, the Hanover Square Rooms.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Not only was music now being listened to
0:36:42 > 0:36:45in new ways and in new venues,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48musical style was changing radically too.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50And JC Bach was leading the way.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56What Londoners loved about JC Bach was his freshness, his immediacy.
0:36:56 > 0:37:01His father, the great Johann Sebastian Bach, had written brilliant, complex,
0:37:01 > 0:37:05very dense music full of different lines all interweaving.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Johann Christian championed a different style altogether.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12Known as Galante, it was full of singing melody.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14It was all about pleasure and charm.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37You didn't need to be a great thinker to enjoy JC Bach's music,
0:37:37 > 0:37:38you just had to love a great tune.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50JC Bach, he was actually written about at the time,
0:37:50 > 0:37:55he was the person who brought the big orchestral sound,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59the different colours of the orchestra, catchy tunes,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02punchy, big, orchestral loud passages,
0:38:02 > 0:38:08so that the audience would sit up at these moments of drama if you like.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Bach wrote a host of music for London subscription concerts,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42from symphonies and concertos to dances and popular songs.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46But what the audience really went crazy for was his slow music.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50Elite Londoners prided themselves on their connoisseurship,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53on their depth of feeling and good taste.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Enjoying JC Bach was a kind of social shortcut.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00A way of saying that you were in with the highly cultured "in crowd".
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Nowhere was more "in" than Teresa Cornelys' masked balls,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and JC Bach was one of her house composers.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17It's the same fairy dust of cultural kudos that exists today.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21The wealthy buy art, they go the theatre, they go to concerts
0:39:21 > 0:39:24to show their superiority through their cultivation.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29In the fashion-obsessed, interior designed 18th century
0:39:29 > 0:39:32world of Chippendale furniture, and Wedgwood porcelain,
0:39:32 > 0:39:37music was an essential ingredient in polite, cultivated society.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41The other side of the obsession with novelty
0:39:41 > 0:39:45was the 18th century fascination for the weird, the outlandish
0:39:45 > 0:39:47and the freakishly different.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49In music this meant child prodigies.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53There was Thomas Linley, from Bath,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57who delighted crowds by playing concertos aged just seven.
0:39:57 > 0:39:58William Crotch, from Norwich,
0:39:58 > 0:40:02who from three was giving public organ recitals.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06But none of the British infant prodigies could match the talent
0:40:06 > 0:40:11of a young Austrian who arrived in London one day in April of 1764.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
0:40:18 > 0:40:20was just eight when he arrived in the capital.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24He was accompanied by his brilliant sister, Nannerl,
0:40:24 > 0:40:25and their father, Leopold,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29a court musician from Salzburg who realised he could earn more money
0:40:29 > 0:40:32from his children's musical talents than his own.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35They lived frugally in a bid to make some serious money.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Mozart's lodgings were at the home of a corset-maker,
0:40:40 > 0:40:44called Thomas Williamson, here on Frith Street in Soho,
0:40:44 > 0:40:46one of London's dingiest areas at the time,
0:40:46 > 0:40:48it was crammed full of workshops,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52living quarters with bodies piled in on top of one another.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56But the Mozarts did experience the opulent side of London life too,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59shunted between some of the capital's smartest addresses.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05The boy became a sensation in London, as audiences were captivated
0:41:05 > 0:41:09by his seemingly effortless, God-given talents.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12What Mozart could do was absolutely astonishing.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17There were lots and lots of child prodigies,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20but even the best child prodigies could not do what Mozart did.
0:41:20 > 0:41:21How much do we know
0:41:21 > 0:41:24about the kind of tests that he underwent in public,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26the kind of tricks he was expected to perform
0:41:26 > 0:41:28when he was onstage here in London?
0:41:28 > 0:41:32What you find is a series of concerts in which Mozart is asked to improvise
0:41:32 > 0:41:36on a theme that someone gives him from the audience.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Sometimes he's given a violin part and he has to improvise a piano part,
0:41:40 > 0:41:46he has to play the keyboard with the keyboard covered by a handkerchief
0:41:46 > 0:41:48so he can't actually see the keys.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52So there are lots of tricks of that sort,
0:41:52 > 0:41:58but there are also tests of genuine and serious musical skills.
0:41:58 > 0:42:04People recognised Mozart's uniqueness and his specialness at the time,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07and almost immediately he became the model
0:42:07 > 0:42:11for what a child prodigy could or ought to be.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Mozart was examined by a leading scientist
0:42:18 > 0:42:20and member of the Royal Society,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and became the subject of a learned paper on the nature of genius.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Then, just as his son was becoming the talk of the town,
0:42:27 > 0:42:31Leopold fell ill, catching a severe throat infection.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34The family moved to Chelsea, then in the countryside,
0:42:34 > 0:42:36for a good dose of fresh air.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38The children were under strict instructions,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41there was to be no noise, no music.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Mozart wasn't allowed to play his violin or practice the piano.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48And so the eight-year-old began writing symphonies.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14Even in his first symphony Mozart's musical fingerprints are there.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19The dynamic feeling of forward motion, the joy, risk and adventure.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22I think you can hear that this is the composer who goes on to write
0:43:22 > 0:43:24operas like The Marriage Of Figaro,
0:43:24 > 0:43:26masterpieces like the Jupiter Symphony.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31And yet, some people have questioned
0:43:31 > 0:43:33whether he actually wrote this at all!
0:43:35 > 0:43:40There is a lot of speculation that the early symphonies are co-written,
0:43:40 > 0:43:44slightly edited, slightly "improved" by his father.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47I don't think that Leopold had much to do with it.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52If you look at that piece, it's very simple.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56He was eight at this time. Five years later her wrote Mitridate,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58- this extraordinary piece. - Fabulous opera!
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Yeah. There's no reason why he couldn't have written this piece.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30Mozart, at the age of eight,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33was shining a light on what the future would sound like.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40But not all the musical experiments of the time were so successful.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43Take the highly-intriguing music
0:44:43 > 0:44:46of one of 18th century Britain's most tantalising figures.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54He was a workaholic German who came to England and settled in Bath
0:44:54 > 0:44:59in 1766, where he played the organ at a fashionable chapel.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03But that was only one of his talents.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06William Herschel is one of the great names in astronomy.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09He discovered Uranus and two of its moons,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12and infra-red radiation among other things.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14But astronomy was just a hobby.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16What brought him to Bath was music making,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19composing, teaching and performing.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22Here there was money to be made.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25In one week, one notorious week,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29Herschel manages to fit in 46 pupils,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33so you have to imagine a man with fantastic energy.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36He's up and down the town visiting his pupils,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38teaching all of these instruments.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42They're also coming to him, and that's alongside the concert work
0:45:42 > 0:45:47and being an organist, but teaching is a very large part of it.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50Amazing in a way that he found time to do the astronomy.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Well, that's the strange thing, when did he find it?
0:45:53 > 0:45:57Clearly they did it at night, but if you've taken the day for your music
0:45:57 > 0:45:59and the night for your astronomy, when do you sleep?
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Herschel brought his workaholism and rigour to his music.
0:46:04 > 0:46:10It was scientific rationality and experiment cast in sound.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14We tend to think of some of the lesser music of the 18th century
0:46:14 > 0:46:16as being very conventional,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19Herschel wasn't like that. He was experimenting all the time
0:46:19 > 0:46:23from the very beginning and it's a fascinating route that he took.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54I think you can feel the gears changing in a Herschel symphony.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57You look at it and, as you say, you get a block of stuff
0:46:57 > 0:46:59and then another block of stuff.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01"This is my rigorous scientific mind!"
0:47:01 > 0:47:05It's a really interesting clash of reason and ingenuity.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08It's very scientific. You can imagine him writing with his score
0:47:08 > 0:47:10and listing his equipment over the top,
0:47:10 > 0:47:12of which chords he's going to use!
0:47:12 > 0:47:16But basically, it doesn't quite work, but that's what makes it work.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53The desire for pushing the boundaries of what was possible
0:47:53 > 0:47:55wasn't just confined to the concert hall.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03In this era of ingenuity and enterprise,
0:48:03 > 0:48:05music was at the front line of economic innovation.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09Publishers realised that there was a growing market for people playing music
0:48:09 > 0:48:13in their homes, and using the latest printing technology,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16they created vast quantities of domestic sheet music.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25Shopkeepers filled their shelves with musical bric-a-brac.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Tuneful clocks, automata and music boxes.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34PIERCING SOUND
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Instrument-makers jumped on the bandwagon too,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45creating a series of novelties to delight and amuse their patrons.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And this is one of them, it's my favourite instrument
0:48:48 > 0:48:52of the whole of the 18th century, and it's called a glass harmonica.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55It was designed by Benjamin Franklin,
0:48:55 > 0:48:57one of the Founding Fathers of America,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01while he was living in London in 1761.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03A gifted inventor,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06Franklin decided he could improve on a party trick he'd seen performed.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09What he did was he took the principle of dipping your finger
0:49:09 > 0:49:12into a bowl of water and running it around the rim of a wine glass,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16and he turned it into this, this is what it sounds like.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23PIERCING SOUNDS OF VARIOUS PITCH
0:49:23 > 0:49:31SHE PLAYS "TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR"
0:49:34 > 0:49:38It's such a whacky, odd, ethereal kind of sound,
0:49:38 > 0:49:40I absolutely adore it.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42It was so fashionable, this instrument, for a while,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Marie Antoinette had one,
0:49:44 > 0:49:49Mozart, Gluck and a whole load of other composers wrote for it.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51But its heyday was very short-lived.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54It was an immensely fragile instrument.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57But, more than that, it was said to drive the delicate young ladies
0:49:57 > 0:49:59who would play it to go insane!
0:50:03 > 0:50:07GLASS HARMONICA PLAYS
0:50:12 > 0:50:16The glass harmonica enjoyed only a brief heyday.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Other new-fangled designs became a firm fixture
0:50:19 > 0:50:22in British drawing rooms and concert halls.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30This is Finchcocks in Kent,
0:50:30 > 0:50:35a Georgian mansion with a fantastic collection of early instruments.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41If you played the keyboard at home in the early 18th century,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43you would've play one of these - a harpsichord -
0:50:43 > 0:50:46where the strings are plucked by quills,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49there's no sustain, there's no way of playing it louder or softer,
0:50:49 > 0:50:51and the kind of music you would have played
0:50:51 > 0:50:56would've been contrapuntal music, so musical lines all unfolding together,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00all equally important. It would've sounded something like this.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04SHE PLAYS AN EVEN MELODY
0:51:10 > 0:51:12'It was beautifully clear and precise,
0:51:12 > 0:51:14'but what the harpsichord didn't give you
0:51:14 > 0:51:18'were subtle nuances of sound, the light and shade.'
0:51:19 > 0:51:23So, the canny instrument-makers of London began to design and sell
0:51:23 > 0:51:26a revolutionary new instrument.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Based on an Italian prototype,
0:51:28 > 0:51:33it took its name from "piano e forte", soft and loud.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39This piano was made in 1769 and it was a huge hit in British homes.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43It was called a square piano, never mind that it's rectangular.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47It cost about a quarter of what a harpsichord would have cost
0:51:47 > 0:51:49and, most importantly, it was really compact
0:51:49 > 0:51:52so it would fit into middle-class drawing rooms.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56It was Johannes Zumpe, a German maker who'd come to London
0:51:56 > 0:51:58and spotted an opportunity.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00His pianos were an overnight success
0:52:00 > 0:52:04and he's gone done in history as the father of the commercial piano.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08The only problem was that they were cheap but they weren't terribly good.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11TINNY OFF-KEY MELODY
0:52:15 > 0:52:18'And the loud and soft bit wasn't up to much either.'
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Just listen to this.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22If you try and play this piano softly or expressively,
0:52:22 > 0:52:24this is what happens.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31I would say about 50% of the notes I just hit actually made a sound.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35You have to sort of hammer this to get it to do very much.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40So while it works, it's not the most deeply musical instrument.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42It's pretty primitive.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46It was an enterprising Scot called John Broadwood
0:52:46 > 0:52:50who came up with an altogether better solution.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05This piano was made in 1795 by John Broadwood,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09and it is a radical redesign of what the square piano can do.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13It's got brass under-dampers, it's got tuning pins here
0:53:13 > 0:53:16and a whole host of other innovations that take this instrument
0:53:16 > 0:53:21to a new level of sonority, power and expressiveness.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24You could just do so much more with this instrument.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26It's so much more subtle and controllable.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55This family business has supplied keyboards to every British monarch
0:53:55 > 0:53:57since George II
0:53:57 > 0:54:00and they're the world's oldest surviving piano company,
0:54:00 > 0:54:02based today in the grounds of Finchcocks.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05As an 18th-century lady,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09if I bought myself a Broadwood, what was it that I was getting?
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Well, you'd be getting... I suppose the expression, what we'd say these days,
0:54:12 > 0:54:14good value for money.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18You'd be getting quite a simple instrument, a basic instrument,
0:54:18 > 0:54:19with no frills,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23but very well made, very well engineered and very dependable.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27Because one of the problems with the very earliest squares is that they never stayed in tune.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29You had to have the tuner round every week,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32which was of course very expensive and tedious.
0:54:32 > 0:54:38So by developing a square piano that was much more robust and dependable,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41then Broadwood ultimately made his fortune from that.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43In the 1770s,
0:54:43 > 0:54:49Broadwood starts to see the future and he starts making pianos in harpsichord cases.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53What was it that he saw that he sensed was in the air?
0:54:53 > 0:54:56There were German craftsmen who worked with him in Soho.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58And there were the English harpsichord makers,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02mainly in the City of London.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05And what Broadwood did, by bringing them together,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08he turned the harpsichord into the grand piano
0:55:08 > 0:55:11simply by changing the interior.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14In other words, the earliest piano was a harpsichord case
0:55:14 > 0:55:17with a piano inside it.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20By the end of the century, John Broadwood is making pianos that
0:55:20 > 0:55:25look like this, so pretty similar to the kind of pianos we might recognise today.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28And I think what's interesting about this is that at exactly the same
0:55:28 > 0:55:33time as the piano is gaining ground, there is the rise of melody
0:55:33 > 0:55:36in music - tunes, the kind of music you can sing along to.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39Because both of them are about the same thing.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42The piano is this newly expressive instrument.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46Melody is about the expression of the person playing it.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Both of them are about the emerging individuality
0:55:50 > 0:55:52of what music can express.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01'With instruments like the piano being eagerly snapped up,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05'with the rise of public concerts, fashionable venues,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07'advertisers and star performers,
0:56:07 > 0:56:11'Britain had become the epicentre of the musical world.'
0:56:12 > 0:56:15But not everyone got a share of the glory.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26Back in the mirrored ballroom of Carlisle House,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30fashion had made a victim of Teresa Cornelys.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34For the last 16 years, she had been London's empress of pleasure,
0:56:34 > 0:56:39its leading society hostess, her parties, masquerades and balls
0:56:39 > 0:56:43dominating the social life of London's aristocracy.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47She'd entertained dukes, kings, princes, politicians,
0:56:47 > 0:56:48artists and writers.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52Now, it seemed, it had all been an illusion.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55Cornelys wasn't even Teresa's real surname,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57borrowed from a lover in Rotterdam.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01Borrowed, too, was all that splendid furniture,
0:57:01 > 0:57:02everything bought on credit.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04And now the debts were piling up.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11In 1771, Teresa was declared bankrupt
0:57:11 > 0:57:15and she spent her final years in and out of debtors' prisons,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19and her glittering home, Carlisle House, was pulled down
0:57:19 > 0:57:21and replaced by this church.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34This was the flip side of the rage for music,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38the obsession with pleasure, the dedication to luxury.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42Because 18th-century Britain was a cruel and uncompromising place.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45If you made it, you were the toast of society.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48But if you failed, you faced complete ruin.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51GOSPEL CHOIR SINGS
0:57:51 > 0:57:55As a new era of industry, radicalism and revolution dawned,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59the British passion for music would reach new heights.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02It became the voice of morality and virtue
0:58:02 > 0:58:07and it acquired a newly divine spirit all of its own.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14THEY SING