1864 Street Music in the Metropolis

Description

First Edition, Publishers' Original Binding, Very Scarce

A very scarce first edition.

MP Michael Thomas Bass documents the music played by street performers on the streets of London, discussing the impact of street music on daily life, particularly its disturbance to households, businesses, and professional men.

Bass includes letters from a number of notable individuals regarding this subject, for example pages 41-42 features a letter written by Dickens, and signed by Tennyson, Collins, and others, protesting against the noisy street music in London.

With the bookplate of English organist, composer and arranger of music William Hutchins Callcott to the front pastedown. Page 28 of this work features a letter from Callcott in which he complains he and other composers must 'relinquish altogether my professional avocations, and lay them aside until the noise is over'.