The decline of the English musician, 1788-1888

The century of English musical history covered here is notorious for its failure of creativity, yet the concurrent obsession with music as a commodity belies the notion of England as "the land without music." This book is a social history of music at that time. It focuses on the Castells, a family of English musicians in Ireland, England, Mauritius and Australia over five generations. Drawn from personal letters and documents, their story, at once picaresque and tragic, is fascinating in its own right; but in its pattern of ambition, frustration and decline, it is also representative of the English musical profession.