The English Musical Renaissance

What are the relations between "music" and "nation", and why are some composers celebrated while others remain neglected? Music as "high" culture has become a high-profile commodity and yet it still lays claims to a unique spiritual sanctity. In "The English Musical Renaissance", Rob Stradling and Meirion Hughes argue that research into the cultural history of music can significantly help our understanding of the evolution of English national identity. Controversial in both its interpretation and methodology, their book challenges the intellectual and social assumptions which surrounded English music in the early part of this century, and relates the "renaissance" to its true cultural and intellectual context.