Curatorial Practice

While looking after the Montagu music, I have also been curating a series of annual summer exhibitions at Boughton House, Northamptonshire. The rich family history, the architecture, landscape and extraordinary art collection seemed to be crying out for celebration. The house is essentially French-inspired, particularly the interiors with their superb woodwork, tapestries, ceilings and furniture. My French roots were stirred, and our first event in 2015 was a celebration of Boughton’s extraordinary Huguenot history and artworks – ironically on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt! The following year Handel was in the spotlight, then Vistas of Vast Extension - the history of the fabulous formal gardens and landscape, Music and Memory, A Passion for Opera and recently The Grand Tour. What a privilege to be allowed to explore all the different facets of a great house and its history.

Since 2009, I have been curating, archiving, and bringing these precious volumes back to life. We have had some unforgettable performances in Boughton’s Great Hall where leading singers, dancers and instrumentalists have recreated and reimagined scores which have lain dormant on their shelves for centuries. A collection like this needs to be kept alive, so we have been adding some contemporary voices to it along the way.

The 600-volume Montagu Music Collection, housed at Boughton House – “The English Versailles” – is an amazing assemblage of printed and manuscript music from 1528 to the present day.

When the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch first asked me to come and assess it I was not expecting to find such a huge variety of music genres: popular songs from the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, medieval monastic plainsong, Handel operas and oratorios, Venetian boat songs, English operettas, Italian arias for castrato, 2,500 Scottish folk melodies, harp, harpsichord, guitar and piano music, secular chansons printed by Shakespeare’s own publisher, lute manuals, French dance choreographies – the list goes on. Culture defines an era and this musical treasure trove is certainly a crucial document of social history, reflecting the trends and passions of centuries of music-lovers.

Information on previous exhibitions can be found here