ABSTRACT
The development of the organ sonata in England came about because of a convergence of contemporary aesthetics and pragmatics. This chapter studies the various components of that convergence to demonstrate a line of progression that leads from Classical influence in the broader field of keyboard music to a final emergence of what can be considered an "English style" of sonata composition. Fundamental to this study is the perception and self-perception of the English organist–composer as a latter-day classicist and musical conservative. It was cosmopolitanism that nonetheless resisted progressive influences. The spirit of internationalism found in nineteenth-century London extended across Europe and was already well established long before the nineteenth century. Although the French Enlightenment of the mid-eighteenth century did not have a direct impact on the compositional culture of mid-nineteenth-century England, it is suggested that when English composers sought to consider which styles of composition most equated with classical ideals, they similarly turned to an earlier era for inspiration.
