Includes bibliographical references (pages 290-300) and index.

"The hundred years spanning the lifetimes of Purcell and Handel are full of interest to the student of English musical history and this book presents a fresh approach to the church music of this previously neglected or misunderstood period. The century following the Restoration is a fascinating one whose problems are not unfamiliar to us today. Church musicians were fighting antagonism without or apathy within and, in addition, were striving to keep pace with many significant musical trends. The author outlines from contemporary writings the aims, environment and limitations of the composers and performers. He traces the course of church music from the time that it held, with the active encouragement of the royal court, a central place in the nation's musical life to the middle of the eighteenth century when it became separated from the mainstream of secular music and when its energies were dissipated in cathedrals and parish churches possessing choirs of varying competence. Christopher Dearnley has used his profound knowledge of the music written for the church in the hundred years following the Commonwealth to present its better examples with insight and musical sympathy in pursuit of his aim to restore the esteem that is their due. His appreciation of the problems facing music in the church today enables him to approach with understanding those that confronted the composers and choir members during the difficult years at the turn of the seventeenth century."--Dust jacket.

Gift; School of Music; 2016.

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