Henry Raynor

Henry Raynor is a Musicologist and as well as being a British author.

Music Biography

He has written several books, mainly relating to Classical Music. His opus magnum, The Social History of Music, ranges from ancient to 20th century music, placing composers and their work in cultural and economic contexts.

An example of Raynor's thought is his thesis that the orchestral bombast that developed in Nineteenth Century Romantic music was spurred by the need to capture and maintain a fickle, musically-untrained paying audience. The demise of aristocratic patronage after the Napoleanic Wars left composers and performers in search of news ways to sustain a career in music.

Bibliography

• Joseph Haydn
• Radio and Television
• Social History of Music from the Middle Ages to Beethoven
• Mahler
• The Orchestra
• Mozart
• Pelican History of Music (Volume 2 - Contributor)
• Yehudi Menuhin" (Contributor - Volume 2 by Robert Magidoff)
• Grove's Dictionary (Contributor to Volume 6)
• Dictionaire de la Musique (Edited by M Honneger with Contributions)
• Music in England