Linda Banche here. My guest today is New York Times bestselling author Grace Burrowes with Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish and The Virtuoso, the latest books in her saga about the Regency Windham family. Here she talks about Regency music.Leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win one of two copies of The Virtuoso which Sourcebooks has generously provided. Grace will select the winner. Check the comments to see who won, and how to contact me to claim your book. If I cannot contact the winners within a week of selection, I will award the books to alternates. Note, Sourcebooks can mail to USA and Canada addresses only.
And the winners Grace selected are Hope and Kitchen Witch! Hope and Kitchen Witch, please contact me at linda@lindabanche.com by November 24, 2011, in order to claim your prizes.
Welcome back, Grace!
Grace Burrowes:
As with many aspects of culture, the Regency was a musically fascinating time. Art in general was making a transition from the highly structured, elegant restraint of the classical approach to the more emotionally expressive, spontaneous Romantic approach. Musical ensembles grew from the small chamber orchestras maintained at court or by wealthy nobles to professional orchestras and opera companies capable of playing to large audiences. For example, His Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket—a popular concert and opera venue—was expanded during the Regency from a seating capacity of 1200 to 2500.
Technological advances played a significant part in this evolution. Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791) and his sister toured London in 1764 and 1765, for example, and would have been performing on a five-octave piano with limited volume. By the end of the Regency period, the piano
keyboard encompassed least six octaves (more for concert instruments), and due to improved material for the piano wire, sound board and mechanism, had a much louder sound with a better sustaining mechanism.Music continued to be a source of entertainment and pleasure in better homes, with hostesses showing off both skilled amateurs and promising professionals at informal musicales. The Regency also, however, saw the rise of the virtuoso.
The musician most often referred to as the first piano virtuoso is English-educated Muzio Clementi (1752-1832). Clementi squared off against Mozart for the entertainment of Emperor Josef II of Austria-Hungary, in 1781 (the emperor graciously declared the contest a draw), then went on to enjoy a long career as a composer, performer, piano manufacturer, and music publisher. While we recall him today mostly for his sonatinas, though in the Regency period he was a musical celebrity of great renown, and musicologists credit him with influencing Chopin, Liszt, and other later Romantic composers.
Beethoven (1770-1827) was, of course, active during the Regency period, having written his first eight symphonies and all five of his piano concertos prior to 1814. The London Philharmonic Society, forerunner of the Royal Philharmonic Society, founded in 1813, takes some of the credit for commissioning a choral symphony from Herr Beethoven in 1822, which eventually developed into the wonderful Ninth Symphony with its choral finale. English demand for chamber pieces (string quartets and piano trios) also prompted Beethoven to include these forms in his later repertoire.
And while works for public performance were becoming longer, more complicated, for larger ensembles and to be played on more sophisticated instruments, in the case of the piano, at least, smaller, simpler versions of the instrument were making music an affordable pastime for more and more households. These cottage pianos were as little as three feet high, with a shortened keyboard and modest cabinetry.
In the Regency period, the English continued a long tradition of luring Continental talent to London for lucrative performance opportunities. Josef Haydn (1732-1809) enjoyed success as both a conductor and composer in his English travels in 1791 and 1794, and many an operatic talent traveled from Italy to perform offerings such as Mozart’s Die Zauberflote, Cosi Fan Tutte, and La Clemenza di Tito.
With music becoming at once more accessible, more sophisticated, more public, and more available in the home, and instruments becoming more plentiful and of better design, it’s hard to imagine a more exciting period in music history than the Regency.
The Virtuoso by Grace Burrowes – In Stores November 2011
A genius with a terrible loss…
Gifted pianist Valentine Windham, youngest son of the Duke of Moreland, has little interest in his father’s obsession to see his sons married, and instead pours passion into his music. But when Val loses his music, he flees to the country, alone and tormented by what has been robbed from him.
A widow with a heartbreaking secret…
Grieving Ellen Markham has hidden herself away, looking for safety in solitude. Her curious new neighbor offers a kindred lonely soul whose desperation is matched only by his desire, but Ellen’s devastating secret could be the one thing that destroys them both.
Together they’ll find there’s no rescue from the past, but sometimes losing everything can help you find what you need most.
Lady Sophie’s Christmas Wish by Grace Burrowes – In Stores NOW!
A luminous holiday tale of romance, passion, and dreams come true from rising star Grace Burrowes, whose award-winning Regency romances are capturing hearts worldwide.
All she wants is peace and anonymity…
Lady Sophie Windham has maneuvered a few days to herself at the ducal mansion in London before she must join her family for Christmas in Kent. Suddenly trapped by a London snowstorm, she finds herself with an abandoned baby and only the assistance of a kind, handsome stranger standing between her and complete disaster.
But Sophie’s holiday is about to heat up…
With his estate in ruins, Vim Charpentier sees little to feel festive about this Christmas. His growing attraction for Sophie Windham is the only thing that warms his spirits—but when Sophie’s brothers whisk her away, Vim’s most painful holiday memories are reawakened.
It seems Sophie’s been keeping secrets, and now it will take much more than a mistletoe kiss to make her deepest wishes come true…
About the Author
Grace Burrowes is the pen name for a prolific and award-winning author of historical romances. The Heir, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and was selected as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for 2010. Both The Heir and its follow-up, The Solider, are New York Times and USA Today bestsellers. She is a practicing attorney specializing in family law and lives in a restored log cabin in western Maryland without a TV, DVD or radio because she's too busy working on her next books. For more information, please visit http://www.graceburrowes.com/.
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