Vinculum societatis, or, The tie of good company: Keyboard Instruments in Restoration Cultural Practice

FAIN: FT-60095-12

Candace Bailey
North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC 27707-3129)

In 1687 John Carr published a small collection of songs entitled "Vinculum societatis, or, The tie of good company: being a choice collection of the newest songs now in use: with thorow bass to each song for the harpsichord, theorbo, or bass-viol." The tie to which Carr refers is the gathering of people to perform or listen to music, a common pastime among different social classes. During this period, it also occurred between different social classes. The three instruments mentioned in the title were all popular during the last half of the 17th century, but by the final decades keyboard instruments were the most likely to have been used for what 17th-century writers referred to as "practical music"--music in practice rather than theory. By focusing on practical music as the end product, rather than whether performers are professional or amateur, or "the" performance, we gain insight into music in Restoration England.

Associated Products

"The Problem of Domesticity in 17th-Century Keyboard Manuscripts" (Book Section)
Title: "The Problem of Domesticity in 17th-Century Keyboard Manuscripts"
Author: Candace Bailey
Editor: Amanda Eubanks Winkler
Editor: Candace Bailey
Editor: Linda Phyliss Austern
Abstract: The essays in this collection reconsider boundaries and categories of music and musicianship that have been convenient for scholarly discussion of the periods from Elizabeth’s predecessor’s reign through the end of the eighteenth century, but, on closer examination, prove to be fluid. Many of the categories applied to seventeenth-century English music-making are at best anachronistic. Chief among these are hard divisions between the public and the private, and between so-called amateur (or even “recreational”) and professional musicianship. Other convenient binaries such as female and male, Catholic and Protestant, oral and written, high art and popular, and creator and consumer failed to account accurately for a great deal of musical activity. Even the clear picture of institutional separation for music-making into court, church, theatre, and chamber so beloved by introductory textbooks become murky as we considered the contents of manuscripts, title pages and dedications of print collections, the circulation of cheap print products such as broadsides and magazines, and performance practices for anything classified as dramatic or theatrical. Above all, music emerged as a complex social process that united and divided individuals and groups across space, place, and even time. The contents of this book reflect these nuances.
Year: 2014
Publisher: Submitted to Indiana University Press
Book Title: Beyond Public and Private: Music in Early Modern Britain

"The Problem of Domesticity in 17th-Century Keyboard Manuscripts" (Book Section)
Title: "The Problem of Domesticity in 17th-Century Keyboard Manuscripts"
Author: Candace Bailey
Editor: Amanda Eubanks Winkler
Editor: Candace Bailey
Editor: Linda Phyliss Austern
Abstract: The essays in this collection reconsider boundaries and categories of music and musicianship that have been convenient for scholarly discussion of the periods from Elizabeth’s predecessor’s reign through the end of the eighteenth century, but, on closer examination, prove to be fluid. Many of the categories applied to seventeenth-century English music-making are at best anachronistic. Chief among these are hard divisions between the public and the private, and between so-called amateur (or even “recreational”) and professional musicianship. Other convenient binaries such as female and male, Catholic and Protestant, oral and written, high art and popular, and creator and consumer failed to account accurately for a great deal of musical activity. Even the clear picture of institutional separation for music-making into court, church, theatre, and chamber so beloved by introductory textbooks become murky as we considered the contents of manuscripts, title pages and dedications of print collections, the circulation of cheap print products such as broadsides and magazines, and performance practices for anything classified as dramatic or theatrical. Above all, music emerged as a complex social process that united and divided individuals and groups across space, place, and even time. The contents of this book reflect these nuances.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=808308
Primary URL Description: English music studies often apply rigid classifications to musical materials, their uses, their consumers, and performers. The contributors to this volume argue that some performers and manuscripts from the early modern era defy conventional categorization as “amateur” or “professional,” “native” or “foreign.” These leading scholars explore the circulation of music and performers in early modern England, reconsidering previously held ideas about the boundaries between locations of musical performance and practice.
Publisher: Submitted to Indiana University Press
Book Title: Beyond Boundaries: Music Circulation in Early Modern Britain

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