Behind The Book

In 1793, only two books so far had been written in english dealing with the history of music. These were Sir John Hawkin’s General History of the Science and Practice of Music (1776) and Dr. Charles Burney’s History of Music (1776–89).

Also around this time, England was at the tail end of the first phase of industrial revolution with a doubled population and many new academies opening in the provinces to serve the new generations. 

Richard Eastcott was an educated and ordained minister who was based in Exeter in the countryside of Devon. He was a frequenter of church organs, choirs, and the musical circles of the area. An academic disciple of Burney, he sought to deliver the English history of music to young people in a book that would engage their interest in and out of the classroom. 

The preface to the book states that its compressed nature is intended to “slightly” educate young women being educated in public academies on the history of music, an art that many of them partook in. The preface continues, “as voluminous disquisitions on particular sciences cannot possibly be included within the circle of female education, he [the author] thinks this essay may be introduced to their acquaintance as a school-book, and occupy some little part of the time allotted for general study”.