Charles Avison

Charles Avison earned his living as an organist, musicographer, and composer while enjoying steady patronage for the greater part of his career and holding the post of music director in Newcastle until the close of his life. He arranged venues and supplied the administrative expertise behind numerous concerts presented in Newcastle and Durham, and he offered private instruction on the violin, harpsichord, and flute. In his landmark treatise “An Essay on Musical Expression” he examined music’s power to stir human feeling, delivered critical assessments of various composers, and dissected the proper execution of concertos. Avison’s concerti grossi for strings together with his concertos scored for “Use of Performers on Harpsihord” were fashioned in multiple versions so that performers could adapt them to whatever instruments were at hand. Although his idiom recalled the work of others, the breadth of his activities as organist, composer, and musicographer marked him as a true polymath of the Baroque age.