The Land Without Music : English Identity and the Idea of Unmusicality

Why the idea of English unmusicality arose and how the English sought to uphold national honor in the face of itWhy, while touting their superiority in other spheres, did the English develop an idea of themselves as musically inferior to their neighbors? Historian Amy Dunagin shows that as the English musical marketplace expanded after 1660, evolving beliefs about the effects of climate on national character led the English to identify musicality—along with excess, passion, and effeminacy—as characteristic of a “southern” temperament from which they were eager to distance themselves. Once established, the idea proved difficult to excise, and the ascendancy of foreign music, especially Italian opera, seemed to confirm it. Eighteenth-century English commentators disagreed about how best to present the state of their national music and developed competing narratives that resonated with Tory, Establishment Whig, and Patriot political ideologies, with profound implications for English cultural identity. Dunagin traces the idea of English unmusicality as it emerged in the late Stuart period and shows how it became a contested national narrative—one that reflected broader anxieties about identity, virtue, and cultural engagement with Europe.