Dr. Charles Burney and the Organ

No better introduction to the aesthetic ethos of the eighteenth-century English organ can be found than in Charles Burney's remarks disseminated in his various writings. This Element traces the evolution of the English organ back to the Restoration and setting Burney's remarks on the instrument in their historical context.

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Whereas Dr Burney's writings are often mentioned in studies on eighteenth-century music, not much interest seems to have been given specifically to his relation to the organ, which played an important part in his professional career as a practising musician. No better introduction to the aesthetic ethos of the eighteenth-century English organ can be found than in Burney's remarks disseminated in his various writings. Taken together, they construct a coherent discourse on taste and constitute an aesthetic. Burney's view of the organ is indicative of a broader ethos of moderation that permeates his whole work, and is at one with the dominant moral philosophy of Georgian England. This conception is ripe with patriotic undertones, while it also articulates a constant plea for politeness as a condition for harmonious social interaction. He believed that moderation, simplicity, and fancy were the constituents of good taste as well as good manners.