Anna Seward - late 18th Century

from Letter from Anna Seward to Tho. Swift, Esq., 5 June 1788, page 135:

I often regret that Milton and Handel were not contemporaries; that the former knew not the delight of hearing his own poetry heightened as Handel has heightened it. To produce the united effects resulting from the combination of perfect poetry with perfect music, it was necessary that Milton’s strains should be set by Handel and sung by Saville. Of all our public singers, while many are masterly, many elegant, many astonishing, he only is sublime. A superiority given by his enthusiastic perception of poetic, as well as of harmonic, beauty. I should observe, that the…   more >>

cite as

Anna Seward, Letter from Anna Seward to Tho. Swift, Esq., 5 June 1788. In Archibald Constable (ed.), Letters of Anna Seward: Written Between the Years 1784 and 1807, volume 2 (Edinburgh, 1811), p. 135. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1535642811581 accessed: 7 October, 2024

Listeners

Anna Seward
Poet, Writer
1742-1809

Listening to

hide composers
Vocal music
written by George Frideric Handel
performed by Benjamin Mence, John Saville, Samuel[?] Harrison

Experience Information

Date/Time late 18th Century
Medium live

Originally submitted by lcc5 on Thu, 30 Aug 2018 16:26:52 +0100
Approved on Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:14:14 +0100