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Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century

Suzy Klein

Marc Edwards

Paul Bullock

Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century: Episode 3

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Factual: History

Music: Classical

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

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Episode 3

BBC Four - Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century, Episode 3

Music acquired a higher moral purpose. Romanticism blossomed in the search for the sublime

As the 18th century went on, music began to acquire a higher moral purpose and communal singing became a means of finding a kind of perfection amid the harsh reality of daily life.

As the century went on, the quest for pleasure began to be replaced by a tougher, noisier, harder-working attitude as Britain embarked on what was to become the Industrial Revolution. 

Music also began to take on a different hue - more than just the sonic background to an age of roaring excess, it began to acquire a higher moral purpose. Communal singing, whether in amateur choirs or Handel oratorios, became a means of finding a kind of perfection amid the brutal reality of daily life. Romanticism began to blossom in the search for the sublime. The British folk music that travelled with emigrants to America, the songs of abolitionists that flew in the face of the British slave trade - all were an attempt to use music as a route to more perfect world. 

Suzy concludes the series by looking at the crowning achievement of 18th-century music, Haydn's Creation.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

The story of the composers and musicians that shaped Britain's 18th-century musical map.

Series in which broadcaster and writer Suzy Klein tells the story of the composers and musicians that helped shape the musical map of Britain in the 18th century.

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Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century

Episode 3

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