ABSTRACT
Keyboard performance is one of a few rare success stories in British instrumental practice during the period. As far as institutional training is concerned, keyboard instruments fared much better than other areas although conditions were still far from ideal. The huge expansion in the provision and consumption of instrumental performance in nineteenth-century Britain naturally affected wind and brass instruments. Tuition and teaching material were consumed by amateurs, but there was a greater professional, public performance bias which, with a lower concentration of foreign competition, placed native wind and brass players in an unusually strong position. The respected position of the plucked string instrument among high society remained intact and the 'English guitar' enjoyed enormous popularity during the second half of the eighteenth century in England, prompting a sizeable market for written tutors and instruction. Mechanical and technical advancements made the harp less accessible to the amateur.
