1st Edition
A Provincial Organ Builder in Victorian England William Sweetland of Bath
By Gordon D.W. Curtis
Copyright 2011
328 Pages
by
Routledge
328 Pages
by
Routledge
328 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
William Sweetland was a Bath organ builder who flourished from c.1847 to 1902 during which time he built about 300 organs, mostly for churches and chapels in Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, but also for locations scattered south of a line from the Wirral to the Wash. Gordon Curtis places this work of a provincial organ builder in the wider context of English musical life in the latter... Read more
Contents: Preface Part I Sweetland's Life and Work: Introduction; Biography; Bath organ builders and Sweetland's other acquaintances; Business history; Inventions; The organs; Some notable instruments; Repertoire; Sweetland's place in English organ building. Part II Gazetteer: Geographical list of Sweetland's organs; Appendix: conjectural worklist of William Sweetland; Select bibliography; Index.
Biography
Gordon Curtis is a chorister and organist with a lifelong interest in church music. He studied for the MA in Organ Historiography at Reading University and is currently involved in editing music for the Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi of Oxford.
'The gazetteer and technical information would make this useful or even essential for builders, advisers, organists or anyone else interested in Sweetland. But the chapters that place him in the context of Victorian society and its musical world open the book to a wider audience.' IBO Newsletter (the Institute of British Organ Building) 'Curtis has produced a fine book with a good account of the life and work of William Sweetland...' BIOS Journal '[A] fine book... Curtis is to be congratulated on his achievements in this book which delivers far more that its title may suggest.' Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies 'This is one of those books that every organ builder and library should have... I would recommend its purchase.' Organ Club Journal '... a useful reference book... The Musical Times
