Originally completed in the 1980s during the preparation of my monograph Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), the database Calendar of London Concerts 1750–1800, Advertised in the London Daily Press has long been available to scholars on application to the author. It has now been made freely available electronically through Goldsmiths Research Online at <http://research.gold.ac.uk/10342>.

The database contains records of nearly five thousand concerts advertised in London daily newspapers from 1750 to 1800: subscription concerts, benefits, oratorio performances, meetings of musical societies and concerts at the principal gardens. For most of the period two newspaper titles were searched; for the later years many more were also consulted. It should be noted that full programmes were rarely advertised until the 1770s: promoters of well-established series such as the Bach–Abel concerts saw no need to offer much more than an indication of time and place. This was to change completely during the 1780s, when detailed programmes became almost de rigueur and extended reviews appeared much more frequently.

The database is essentially an index, with consistent rules for presentation and editorial standardization of names, genres and instruments. The following is a typical entry:

Date

1791_03_18

Day

Fri 18 Mar 1791

Place

HSQ [=Hanover Square Rooms]

Title

SALOMON 91 2ND [=Salomon's Concert 1791, second concert]

Type

CS [=Concert Series]

Time

2000

Price

5gn [=five guineas for twelve concerts]

Programme

LEAD SALOMON; HPD HAYDN. 1: MOZART OV; sg TAJANA <ARIA>; CN FL GRAEFF; sg STORACE∼ <ARIA>; HAYDN QT VN VN VA VC SALOMON DAHMEN-p HINDMARSH MENEL (NEW). 2: HAYDN SYM (NEW; AS PERFORMED ON THE FIRST NIGHT); sg DAVIDE <SCENA RECIT & ARIA>; CN BN KUCHLER-1 (FIRST APPEARANCE IN ENGLAND) [=Küchler]; PAISIELLO DT 2v DAVIDE STORACE∼; PLEYEL FP. [lower case indicates editorial contribution]

Advert

DI; MC; MP; PA; TI; WO; OR 16 Mar [=all other advertisements appeared on the day of the concert; thus Diary 18 March, Morning Chronicle 18 March, Morning Post 18 March, and so forth]

Review

MC 19 Mar

Notes

[McVeigh-Professional 98; Landon-England 60.]

By way of comparison, the programme was advertised in newspapers as follows (with some typographical variants):

The diversity of spellings across the various advertisements, even in a prominent programme of a well-organized series, reinforces the need for a degree of editorial intervention – especially as most of the original sources can readily be consulted online in the 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Database (see <www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/newspdigproj/burney/index.html>).

In order to make the information as widely accessible as possible, the database has been converted into a universal csv format that can be read by Excel and similar programmes. The entire database may therefore be freely downloaded and searched; accompanying information includes separate lists of abbreviations and editorial identification of individual musicians.

The database does not include unadvertised concerts such as meetings of the Concert of Antient Music or of the Nobility Concert, though details of these may be known from other sources. Otherwise it is believed to be a near-complete record. Researchers are invited to send additional information or corrections to me (s.mcveigh@gold.ac.uk), and the database will be updated from time to time with relevant documentation.