ABSTRACT
The musical world that arose in London around the turn of the eighteenth century established public musical institutions and social practices some of the basic characteristics still exist today as foundations of musical culture. Nevertheless, the tight little world of aristocratic musical culture, and all the social appurtenances of its life, continued right up to the middle of the nineteenth century. Thus while early modern English musical culture laid down structures we should consider modern, it was not undergoing a process of modernization. The licences granted to the public houses were taken as sufficient for the musical activities put on within them, and while a few special kinds of concerts were asked to seek permits, the great majority had no regulation. The idea that musical pieces might comprise integral, permanent works of art was weak as yet; most operas were patchworks – pasticci – of arias from different works by various composers.
