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The English Musical Renaissance was a hypothetical development in the late 19th and early 20th century, when British composers, often those lecturing or trained at the Royal College of Music, were said to have freed themselves from foreign musical influences, to have begun writing in a distinctively national idiom, and to have equalled the achievement of composers in mainland Europe. The idea gained considerable currency at the time, with support from prominent music critics, but from the latter part of the 20th century has been less widely propounded. Among the composers championed by proponents of the theory were Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford and Alexander Mackenzie. Writers who propounded the theory included Francis Hueffer and J A Fuller Maitland. ==Conception== The term originated in an article by the critic Joseph Bennett in 1882. In his review in ''The Daily Telegraph'' of Hubert Parry's First Symphony he wrote that the work gave "capital proof that English music has arrived at a renaissance period."〔Eatock, p. 88〕 Bennett developed the theme in 1884, singling out for praise a now forgotten symphony by Frederic Cowen (the ''Scandinavian Symphony'') and equally forgotten operas by Arthur Goring Thomas (''Esmeralda''), Charles Villiers Stanford (''Savonarola'') and Alexander Mackenzie (''Columba'').〔 The idea of an English musical renaissance was taken up by the music critic of ''The Times'', Francis Hueffer, and his successor J A Fuller Maitland.〔 The latter became the most assiduous proponent of the theory. His 1902 book ''English Music in the XIXth Century'' is subdivided into two parts: "Book I: Before the Renaissance (1801–1850)", and "Book II: The Renaissance (1851–1900)".〔Burton, Nigel. "Sullivan Reassessed: See How the Fates", ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 141, No. 1873 (Winter, 2000), pp. 15–22〕 Fuller Maitland's thesis was that although "it would be absurd to claim a place beside Beethoven or Schubert" for earlier British composers such as Macfarren and Sterndale Bennett, it was not absurd to do so for his favourite British composers of the late 19th century.〔 The Royal College of Music, the centre of the renaissance theory, was founded explicitly "to enable us to rival the Germans".〔Grove, George, ''quoted'' in Schaarwächter〕 Fuller Maitland regarded Stanford and Parry as the pre-eminent composers of the renaissance. Both were upper-middle-class Oxbridge graduates, like Fuller Maitland, and both were professors at music colleges. The writer Meirion Hughes describes Fuller Maitland's world as one of insiders and outsiders.〔McHale, Maria. (Review: ''The English Musical Renaissance and the Press 1850–1914: Watchmen of Music'' by Meirion Hughes, ) ''Music and Letters'' (2003) Vol 84 (3): pp. 507–09 〕 Fuller Maitland rejected British composers who did not conform to his template, notably Sullivan, Elgar and Delius. Hughes wrote: "Sullivan's frequent forays into what was viewed as the questionable realm of operetta removed him from the equation at once. Elgar was never a contender, with his unacademic, lower-middle-class background coupled with progressive tendencies, while "Fritz" Delius was simply not English enough."〔 The same writer suggests that Fuller Maitland's aversion to Sir Frederic Cowen was due to anti-Semitism.〔 A major concern of the movement was the collection and preservation of English folk songs. Stanford, Parry and Mackenzie were all founding members and vice-presidents of the Folk-Song Society from 1898. This was another barrier between the renaissance movement and outsiders. Sullivan and Elgar regarded folk music as neither important nor interesting,〔Hughes, p. 143; and Stradling and Hughes, p. 140〕 and Elgar was further distanced from the renaissance set by his antipathy to English music of the Tudor and early Stuart periods, which Fuller Maitland and others were enthusiastically propagating.〔Kennedy, p. 8; and Stradling and Hughes, p. 41〕 Those identified as leading composers of the musical renaissance theory achieved positions of power and influence in the musical world. Mackenzie became principal of the Royal Academy of Music; and at the Royal College of Music, Parry succeeded George Grove as director, and Stanford was professor of composition, with pupils including Arthur Bliss, Frank Bridge, Herbert Howells, Gustav Holst, John Ireland and Ralph Vaughan Williams.〔Carnegie, Moir, rev. Rosemary Firman. ( "Mackenzie, Sir Alexander Campbell (1847–1935)" ); Dibble, Jeremy. ("Parry, Sir (Charles) Hubert Hastings, baronet (1848–1918)" ); and Firman, Rosemary. ("Stanford, Sir Charles Villiers (1852–1924)" ), all in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 21 September 2011 〕 The composer Sir John Stainer wrote, "Parry and Stanford are rapidly getting absolute control of all the music, sacred or secular, in England; and also over our provincial Festivals and Concert societies, and other performing bodies."〔Stainer, Sir John, quoted in Stradling and Hughes p. 52〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「English Musical Renaissance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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