ABSTRACT
Musical activities had been attached to many other institutions and social locales – courts, taverns, the Church, markets, and families – and for the most part served their social and cultural needs. The rise of concerts, the opera, and musical societies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries therefore constituted a fundamental reordering of the social structure of musical life. Several groups of wealthy amateurs and hired musicians conducted private performances, but the state denied the licenses for public concerts. Musical activities in the home, though common previously, were rapidly becoming almost standard within substantial middle-class households. The importance of music-making in the home offers a fine opportunity to see if such activities had any relationship to public life. During the early nineteenth century musicians underwent that critical change which sociologists have called ‘professionalization’. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
