I first encountered the music and ideas of Benjamin Cooke during my nine years as a reference librarian at the Royal College of Music in London. First-hand access to the college’s extensive early collections, many of them amassed by eighteenth-century collectors, stimulated my fascination with the music and culture of that period. The remarkable range of interests and influences evident in the music-collecting of Cooke and like-minded contemporaries emphasized an enquiring and open-minded aspect to English musical culture of the period that was little appreciated in recent discussion of it. In relation to Cooke this characteristic struck me with particular force. Increasing acquaintance with his music demonstrated the extent to which his apparent engagement with erudite theoretical ideas and the little-known music of the past was driven by essentially creative concerns embodied in his own individual and highly engaging compositional style. The fact that Cooke’s interests were by no means peculiar to him, but reflective of broader patterns of behaviour elsewhere in English musical culture of the period, suggested the existence of a compelling and little-known story that was waiting to be told.

In writing this book and undertaking the research that led to it I have incurred enormous debts of gratitude to many people on account of the advice, assistance and encouragement they have provided. Foremost amongst these is Simon McVeigh, who oversaw the PhD research which forms the basis of over half of this book. More recently, Simon has been one of several who have been kind enough to read through and comment on drafts of book chapters, others being William Weber, A. C. N. Mackenzie of Ord, H. Diack Johnstone, Andrew Pink and Angela Escott. I am profoundly grateful to all of them. I should also like to thank Peter Holman for his role in commissioning the book as well as for his advice on how to proceed with it, and Michael Talbot for providing detailed comments on the book as a whole when it was nearing completion. Special thanks are also due to Boydell staff, Michael Middeke and Megan Milan, for their practical assistance and extreme patience during this long project.