Avison

CHARLES AVISON (1709 - 1770)

Avison, a pupil of Geminiani was, as the New Grove puts it 'the most important English concerto composer of the 18th century'. He composed some 60 concerti for string orchestra as well as three volumes of sonatas for violin and harpsichord. Not only that, his subscription concerts, begun in Newcastle in 1736, were held in the Groat Market Assembly Rooms or the Turk's Head until 1813 in an almost unbroken sequence. They were the first of their kind outside London. A famous soloist from 1763 was the Swalwell-born violinist William Shield, who became Master of the King's Musick in 1817.

Avison wrote the important and influential Essay on Musical Expression (1752) the first English treatise on music criticism. He is mentioned in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy and is the subject of one of the best of Robert Browning's Parleyings with Certain People, referring to him as 'Thou, whilom of Newcastle organist!' and saying how much he enjoyed his 'Grand March':

Hear Avison! He tenders evidence
That music in his day as much absorbed
Heart and soul then as Wagner's music now...

Avison is buried in St Andrew's churchyard.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
CHARLES AVISON (1709 - 1770) Avison, a pupil of Geminiani was, as the New Grove puts it 'the most important English concerto composer of the 18th century'. He composed some 60 concerti for string orchestra as well as three volumes of sonatas for violin and harpsichord. Not only that, his subscription concerts, begun in Newcastle in 1736, were held in the Groat Market Assembly Rooms or the Turk's Head until 1813 in an almost unbroken sequence. They were the first of their kind outside London. A famous soloist from 1763 was the Swalwell-born violinist William Shield, who became Master of the King's Musick in 1817. Avison wrote the important and influential Essay on Musical Expression (1752) the first English treatise on music criticism. He is mentioned in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy and is the subject of one of the best of Robert Browning's Parleyings with Certain People, referring to him as 'Thou, whilom of Newcastle organist!' and saying how much he enjoyed his 'Grand March': Hear Avison! He tenders evidence That music in his day as much absorbed Heart and soul then as Wagner's music now... Avison is buried in St Andrew's churchyard.
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