Leveridge, Richard: Complete Songs (with the music in Macbeth) 1697–1770

Facsimile: Miscellaneous contemporary printed scores
Introduction by Olive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson

This volume represents, to the authors’ present knowledge, the complete extant vocal works of Richard Leveridge. It includes songs where Leveridge fitted his own words to an existing tune, since the period regarded them as his and he included them in his own collections. Also included is Macbeth, Leveridge’s most important work, reproduced in its first printed edition. This volume is unusual in that its songs are the work of a man whose chief claim to fame is as a singer – the leading English bass for over 50 years – rather than as a composer. It spans an exceptionally long period of composition (1696-1753) and a wide variety of styles of music printing.