Playford, Purcell, and the Functions of Music Publishing in Restoration England

Abstract

During Purcell's lifetime the music-publishing business in England flourished, thanks mainly to John Playford. Since intellectual property rights did not yet exist, Playford and his successors were able to select music they were confident of selling, predominantly producing multicomposer anthologies of popular tunes. Composers may have benefited little from these publications so it is significant that some took the financial risk of printing their music without an established publisher's support. Analysis suggests that musical self-publication was undertaken for several quite specific purposes. Three self-published books stand out as the only operatic scores published in seventeenth-century England: Locke's The English Opera (1675), Grabu's Albion and Albanius (1687), and Purcell's The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of the Prophetess (1691). These substantial volumes had no obvious practical use and all sold poorly; put into political context, however, they reveal how printed music in England was developing from a purely practical performance tool into a medium through which statements could be made and musical works given monumental status. Yet Purcell's own management of the printing of The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of the Prophetess suggests that he was confused about the distinct and mutually exclusive functions of music printing in the period, which led him to misunderstand the nature of the market and how he might appropriate the medium for his own benefit.

‘Yong Beginners, Who Live in the Countrey’: John Playford and the Printed Music Market in Seventeenth-Century England

“…The printing and publishing of music by teachers for pupils seems to have gained momentum in the second half of the seventeenth century, probably due to the developments in cheap and more accessible engraving technology as well as the influx of foreign musicians seeking to make a living as freelance musicians. 31 Roger North recalled that Nicola Matteis in the 1670s had 'found out a way of getting mony which was perfectly new. For seeing his lessons, (which were all duos), take with his scollars, and that most gentlemen desired them, he was at some charge to have them graven in copper, and printed in oblong octavos.'…”

The Ups and Downs of Louis Grabu

“…In either case, Grabu can hardly have expected his publication venture to be an overwhelming commercial success, especially given what the succession of London Gazette advertisements for the volume reveals, and Rebecca Herissone is probably right to assert that Albion was indeed a poor seller. 301 Twenty-six copies are known to be extant today, 302 and some of these were undoubtedly sold for Grabu's immediate benefit, either through the subscription process or post-publication both by Nott and 'at the Door of the Royal Theater'. But a substantial number of copies must have remained in stock even after Grabu left England permanently in late 1694: Henry Playford seems to have possessed one or more copies, which he offered for sale in his General Catalogue of 1697, 303 a copy was offered for auction in May 1699 by the auctioneer and bookseller Edward Millington 304 and one Jean de Beaulieu, the proprietor of a bookshop at the lower end of St Martin's Lane, near Charing Cross, took out four advertisements in London newspapers in 1697 and 1698, apparently in an effort to unload his remaining stock of the volume.…”