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Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a late seventeenth-century diarist with a deep love of music, which he often compared to his love of women, as expressed in the previous quotation. Even though this quotation specifically refers to wind music, it also directly expresses Pepys' love of music as a whole. H...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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College of Music
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613267193495552 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Lubbe, Michelle Hester |
| author2 | Sandmeier, Rebekka |
| author_browse | Lubbe, Michelle Hester Sandmeier, Rebekka |
| author_facet | Sandmeier, Rebekka Lubbe, Michelle Hester |
| author_sort | Lubbe, Michelle Hester |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a late seventeenth-century diarist with a deep love of music, which he often compared to his love of women, as expressed in the previous quotation. Even though this quotation specifically refers to wind music, it also directly expresses Pepys' love of music as a whole. His diary stretches over a period of approximately nine years, 1660 until 1669. Among the discussions on a number of topics, in his diary Pepys expresses his views on music in various forms and from a range of perspectives. In this study Pepys' views on music from the point of view of a listener or audience member will be illustrated. The nature of Pepys' views on music and his reception thereof can be said to be ahead of his time. 'Theories of reception move historical enquiry away from questions of production and composition and towards issues related to response, audience, and what Carl Dahlhaus, following Walter Benjamin, called the 'after-life' of musical works.' The 'after-life' of a musical work is described by Mark Everist as a feeling that is evoked by the experience of it. This feeling that one gets during and after listening to a musical work could be seen as reception of the work. However, the term 'reception' is more readily referred to as critical responses to music in the form of public reviews that appear in written sources such as books, journals, newspapers, letters and diaries. Albert Roussel, a musician and French composer, believes that music is a language that composers and performers use to communicate with an audience. Music brings an audience to a deeper understanding, one that cannot be expressed in words, only felt, as Felix Mendelssohn states: '[Music] fills the soul with a thousand things better than words. The thoughts that are expressed to me by music I love are not too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.' It is necessary to address music reception from the audience's perspective because Samuel Pepys was a 17th century music lover and formed part of the audience at the time. He emphatically expressed his overwhelming love of music in his diary. The audiences are there to listen and experience, which is the inspiration behind this study. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14088 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:25.185Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | College of Music |
| publisherStr | College of Music |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14088 Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 Lubbe, Michelle Hester Sandmeier, Rebekka Music Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a late seventeenth-century diarist with a deep love of music, which he often compared to his love of women, as expressed in the previous quotation. Even though this quotation specifically refers to wind music, it also directly expresses Pepys' love of music as a whole. His diary stretches over a period of approximately nine years, 1660 until 1669. Among the discussions on a number of topics, in his diary Pepys expresses his views on music in various forms and from a range of perspectives. In this study Pepys' views on music from the point of view of a listener or audience member will be illustrated. The nature of Pepys' views on music and his reception thereof can be said to be ahead of his time. 'Theories of reception move historical enquiry away from questions of production and composition and towards issues related to response, audience, and what Carl Dahlhaus, following Walter Benjamin, called the 'after-life' of musical works.' The 'after-life' of a musical work is described by Mark Everist as a feeling that is evoked by the experience of it. This feeling that one gets during and after listening to a musical work could be seen as reception of the work. However, the term 'reception' is more readily referred to as critical responses to music in the form of public reviews that appear in written sources such as books, journals, newspapers, letters and diaries. Albert Roussel, a musician and French composer, believes that music is a language that composers and performers use to communicate with an audience. Music brings an audience to a deeper understanding, one that cannot be expressed in words, only felt, as Felix Mendelssohn states: '[Music] fills the soul with a thousand things better than words. The thoughts that are expressed to me by music I love are not too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.' It is necessary to address music reception from the audience's perspective because Samuel Pepys was a 17th century music lover and formed part of the audience at the time. He emphatically expressed his overwhelming love of music in his diary. The audiences are there to listen and experience, which is the inspiration behind this study. 2015-09-25T07:35:38Z 2015-09-25T07:35:38Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MMus http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14088 eng application/pdf College of Music Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Music Lubbe, Michelle Hester Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| title_full | Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| title_fullStr | Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| title_short | Samuel Pepys' reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth-century England : an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| title_sort | samuel pepys reception and perception of vocal music in seventeenth century england an analysis of selected diary entries from 1660 until 1669 |
| topic | Music |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14088 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lubbemichellehester samuelpepysreceptionandperceptionofvocalmusicinseventeenthcenturyenglandananalysisofselecteddiaryentriesfrom1660until1669 |