The Intellectual Origins of Musical Canon in Eighteenth-Century England

A canon of old musical works first appeared in public performance in eighteenth-century England. Its intellectual origins can be traced to a new mode of empirical musical thinking that focused upon musical practice rather than philosophical or scientific theory. Canonic judgments and repertories developed as a source of authority within this intellectual framework. While developments either in canonic thinking or in repertories of old works appeared in many European countries during the eighteenth century, only in England did both aspects develop significantly in the period. Although a general reconstitution of canons was taking place within the arts at the time, the changes that came about in musical culture took their own particular direction.