8 - ‘Our Concert’: A Musician at Home

Summary

THE printed serenata librettos and newspaper reports of Cousser's musical activity at Dublin Castle represent only the public face of what the musicologist Brian Boydell has referred to as Cousser's ‘apparently limited activity’ in Ireland. In reality, though, his music-making surely took place on a regular basis in a variety of different settings, from providing music lessons for wealthy Dubliners in their own homes and participating in the music making of private music clubs to the occasional staging of recitals that formed part of the city's nascent public concert scene during in the early decades of the eighteenth century. Cousser's inventory of the contents of his residence in Dublin also provides fascinating clues regarding his standard of everyday living and the extent to which he may have been equipped – both materially and intellectually – to move between different levels of Dublin society.

❧ Philip Perceval's ‘Concert’

The primary evidence for Cousser's involvement in regular, organized private music making lies in a collection of letters held by the British Library and stemming from the estate of Sir John Perceval, whose strong interest in music manifested itself early. By 1701, his Oxford tutor was reporting to John's guardian, ‘I think the greatest occasion of Sir John's expences has been his love of Musick, which has engaged him to have more entertainments at his chamber than otherwise he wou'd have had …’ John shared his passion with his younger brother Philip, and their correspondence frequently mentions music-making. Not surprisingly, then, given the Perceval brothers’ enthusiasm for music, passages in their correspondence indicate that Philip was an active participant in a private, Dublin-based music club. Referred to by him as ‘our Concert’, the group met regularly throughout the winter season, from around October or November until April, when the Anglo-Irish aristocracy retreated to their country estates for the summer months.

Philip's letters attest to the direct involvement of professional musicians alongside aristocratic amateurs, the former including his colleagues at Dublin Castle, William Viner, Cousser and (from the early 1720s) the celebrated violinist Matthew Dubourg. Replying to his brother in December 1721, Philip wrote, ‘Dear Brother, The day before yesterday yours of the 7[th]. came to my hands, which being our Concert-day I cou'd not then answer. Dubourg has not fail'd us one night, & you must believe he is no small addition to the performance.’