A musical interlude

This brief but, we trust, pleasant little post, intended to fill in while Fairfax House’s resident blogger and tweeter is laid low with a putrid seasonal fever, takes the form of a musical interlude. The Georgians loved their music, and Fairfax House is a very musical place, with wonderful musical instruments in the rooms and musical themes and images incorporated into the decoration. We will have more to say about this in the new year, but for the moment enjoy these details of (clockwise from top left) the square piano by John Haxby of York, 1792, presently in the Dining Room; decorative plasterwork featuring musical instruments and a musical score, also in the Dining Room; the spinet by John Kirsham of Manchester, 1769, in the Saloon; and, from the Saloon ceiling, plasterwork decoration incorporating musical instruments and the score of ‘Belinda and Amelia’, a song published in 1758. And to make this a real musical interlude, take a look at this short film combining beautiful pictures of Fairfax House with a baroque piece for flute and continuo inspired by the Cantabile movement of Telemann’s flute sonata in G from Essercizii musici, by Tim New.