"Peopled with invisible presences": Oxford and the Tudor revival, ca. 1890-1939

The `Tudor revival' of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century England saw unprecedented enthusiasm for the study and performance of English Renaissance music. The revival, which emphasized choral music, was characterized by a rich and interconnected fabric of events including manuscript discoveries, the publication of sundry new scholarly and performing editions, the founding of ensembles who specialized in early music, and an overall increase in the study and performance of Tudor music. Narratives of the Tudor revival have traditionally focused on the role of institutions and ensembles in London, thereby neglecting the important work that occurred elsewhere in the country. In order to more adequately represent the full extent of the movement, this study examines the previously unrecognized role of the institutions and ensembles of Oxford, demonstrating the many ways in which the foundation colleges, student societies, and civic ensembles and organizations helped to bring about the Tudor revival. The appendix contains previously unpublished documents from the Oriel College Archives in Oxford, primarily consisting of letters to and from Edmund Fellowes between 1897 and 1925.