Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1797-1798 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
2 letters
Scope and content
Two letters addressed to 'Mrs Chambers', 3 Nov 1797, 19 Jan 1798, concerned with works on composition.
System of arrangement
2 letters
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1726 in Shrewsbury; educated at Chester free school; studied music under his half-brother, James Burney, 1742-1744, and the composer, Thomas Arne in London, 1744-1748; contributed music to The Masque of Alfred by James Thomson, 1745; published six sonatas for two violins and a bass, 1747; patronised by the MP and diplomat, Fulke Greville after meeting in 1747; appointed organist of St Dionis Backchurch, 1749; elected member of the Royal Society of Musicians, 1749; provided the music to Robin Hood by Moses Mendes, Drury Lane, 1750 and the pantomime of Queen Mab, 1750; following a serious illness took the post of organist at Lyme Regis, 1751-1760; returned to London, 1760; taught music and adapted Jean Rousseau's opera Le Devin de Village, produced as The Cunning Man , Drury Lane, 1766; took the degree of Mus. Doc., Oxford, 1769; also interested in astronomy, publishing An essay towards a history of the principal comets (London, 1769); toured France, Switzerland and Italy in 1770, and Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in 1772 in order to research A General History of Music, 4 vols (London, 1776-1789); elected a fellow of the Royal Society, 1773; began to collect material for his 'Memoirs' (unpublished, but partly incorporated by his daughter in his biography, published 1832), 1782-[1814]; appointed organist at Chelsea Hospital, 1783; member of the Literary Club, 1784; contributed criticisms to the Monthly Review , [1789]-1793; wrote Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Abate Metastasio, 3 vols (G G and J Robinson, London, 1796); collected material for a 'Dictionary of Music' (uncompleted), 1797-1802; wrote musical biographies for Rees' Encyclopaedia , 1801-[1807]; died 1814 in Chelsea.
Repository
Custodial history
Letters presented to King's College London by Professor Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Related materials
Publication note
The letters were published in the Journal of the Warburg and Courthauld Institutes, Vol 3 (1939-1940) in an article 'Two unknown letters of Charles Burney' by R Muller-Hartmann; daughter's biography 1832
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.