No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
In a concert at the University of California on the occasion of the eleventh general assembly of the International Astronomical Union, the Griller Quartet presented two concertos by Sir William Herschel. The scores used were from original manuscripts in the collection of the Music Library. The manuscripts came to the University in 1959, from an English dealer who acquired them in the sale of the Herschel estate in Slough, Buckinghamshire. They are chiefly works for instrumental ensemble, but include violin sonatas and accompanied keyboard sonatas, some fifteen works in all. The concert marked one of the first performances of Herschel's music since the 18th century, and it afforded a rare opportunity to bring before an international assembly of astronomers some examples of musical composition by one of their colleagues. Everyone knows what the name, Sir William Herschel, stands for in astronomy, but few have any direct knowledge of Herschel, the composer, in spite of the fact that he spent a large part of his life as a professional musician and an amateur astronomer. There is, of course, a long tradition behind the alliance of music and astronomy. There was a time when musicians and astronomers were trained in the same disciplines, when they could claim an equal knowledge of the music of the spheres. But this was not the case with Frederick William Herschel. There was nothing mystical or metaphysical in his approach to the art of music. He was a practical musician of his time, and he lived in a time when musicians were too much occupied with the problems of survival to indulge in cosmic or sentimental views about their role in society. Herschel's father was an oboe player in the band of a regiment of Guards stationed at Hannover. All of his children were accomplished musicians : the oldest son, Jacob, was
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.