ABSTRACT
The early musical exposure that Philip, Robert, and Mary Sidney enjoyed was largely due to their father, Sir Henry Sidney, whose account books detail regular expenditures for the acquisition and upkeep of musical instruments, the hiring of musicians, and music books. Poetry, as John Stevens notes, was for Sidney “an art of ordered sound”. His metrical experiments, notably in the Old Arcadia and in his Psalm translations, demonstrate his determination to create an appropriate “speech-melody” for English poetry. In his 2006 article “The Musical Sidneys” Alexander offers the most comprehensive picture to date of the Sidney family’s musical connections and contributions. Considering music in terms of material and embodied performance holds important implications for analysis of the music associated with the Sidneys’ writings, whether manifested in specific settings, allusions to musical genres, or representations of performance. The Sidneys have long been celebrated by critics as important musical patrons.
