ABSTRACT

The history of Italian musical migration to London is rich and complex. From the beginning of the eighteenth century Italian musicians played a major role in Georgian society. During the Victorian era, despite a relative lack of scholarly research, new generations of Italian musicians moved to London, acquiring a recognized social status. Nevertheless, musicians and divas involved in London operatic market constituted just a small minority of the whole Italian community. Many Italians that came to the British Isles from the mid-nineteenth century were economic migrants, who in numerous cases made a living as street musicians. This introductory article, based on an archival research carried out mainly at the Royal College of Music and at the British Library, provides a brief social and cultural overview of Italian musical migration to London in the long nineteenth century. It also isolates cross-disciplinary questions that place in context the individual articles within this special issue. The latter is edited by Nicolò Palazzetti, Andrew Holden and Massimo Zicari.

摘要

意大利音乐迁移到伦敦的历史是丰富而复杂的。从18世纪初开始，意大利音乐家在格鲁吉亚社会中发挥了重要作用。在维多利亚时代，尽管相对缺乏学术研究，但新一代的意大利音乐家移居伦敦，获得了公认的社会地位。尽管如此，参与伦敦歌剧市场的音乐家和歌舞演员只占整个意大利社区的一小部分。从19世纪中叶来到不列颠群岛的许多意大利人是经济移民，他们在许多情况下以街头音乐家为生。这篇介绍性文章基于主要在皇家音乐学院和大英图书馆进行的档案研究，简要介绍了19世纪漫长的意大利音乐向伦敦的迁徙的社会和文化概况。它还隔离了跨学科的问题，这些问题将本专刊中的各个文章放在上下文中。后者由NicolòPalazzetti，Andrew Holden和Massimo Zicari编辑。