Barsanti: Secular Vocal Music

A latecomer to music and not particularly gifted as an executant on any instrument (a great handicap for any musician in an age when music appreciation was performer-centered rather than composer-centered), the Italian expatriate Francesco Barsanti (ca. 1690–1775) would seem doomed to failure, especially given his reportedly unassertive, even timid, personality; but his versatility, industry, and ability to win and retain a surprisingly large support network kept him afloat until the end. His ability to survive from day to day by carrying out a multitude of humdrum tasks gave him sufficient time and freedom to engage in what he did best and seemingly valued most: composing music. The compact but by no means negligible corpus of music he produced in a wide variety of genres makes him one of the most original and interesting composers active in eighteenth-century Britain. His instrumental music has already won some recognition in modern times, but his equally impressive vocal music, all produced in Britain, is so far virtually unknown. The present volume, which contains all Barsanti’s secular vocal music known to survive, together with a complementary volume containing his complete sacred vocal music, aims to bring these attractive works before the musicological community and the public at large.