I Greatly Dislike This Place
After only a few days living in King’s Lynn, a young man wrote to his wife complaining that he could never be happy in the town and that he greatly disliked the place. Despite an inauspicious beginning, he did mellow over time.
Charles Burney: King’s Lynn’s Forgotten Genius and the Invention of Musical History
Among the many names associated with the cultural legacy of King’s Lynn, few are as internationally significant – and yet locally underappreciated – as Charles Burney (1726–1814). He was not only a composer, organist, and teacher, but also a pioneering music historian whose writings shaped how Europeans understood their musical past. His career bridged performance and scholarship at a time when such a dual role was rare.
Charles Burney: Early Life and Musical Apprenticeship
Charles Burney was born in Shrewsbury in 1726, the fourth of six children to James Macburney (or Burney), a portrait painter and amateur violinist. Although his father’s social ambitions meant some hardship for the family, Burney benefited from an unusually artistic and intellectually stimulating environment. After a short spell at Shrewsbury School, Burney’s real education began when he was apprenticed to Dr. Thomas Arne, one of London’s leading composers.
Arne is best remembered today for composing “Rule, Britannia!” but in Burney’s time, he was also a dominant figure in theatrical music and church composition. Under Arne, Burney learned the practical craft of music-making—composition, orchestration, and performance—in a busy and competitive city. He also made valuable contacts, including members of the theatrical and aristocratic elite.
King’s Lynn: A Provincial Chapter with Profound Impact
Photo © James Rye 2010
In 1751, at the age of 25, Burney accepted the post of organist at St. Margaret’s Church (now King’s Lynn Minster). He was invited to apply for the post by Sir John Turner MP. It initially had a salary of £20 a year, but this was soon increased to £100 following a public subscription. This position, which he held for nearly a decade, offered a measure of stability, a secure income, and the opportunity to develop as a composer and performer outside the intensity of London.
Though some might consider a move from the capital to a provincial town like King’s Lynn a step down, for Burney, it proved to be a productive interlude. Lynn was then a prosperous port town with a lively cultural life and an affluent merchant class that could support music. He not only played at the church but also taught music privately, staged performances, and began laying the intellectual groundwork for his later writings.
As well as giving private music lessons, he enjoyed the friendship of Dr George Hepburn (physician to Sir Robert Walpole). Burney also benefitted from the patronage of the 3rd Viscount Townshend, the Earl of Buckinghamshire, the Earl of Leicester at Holkham, William Windham at Felbrigg, and the 3rd Earl of Orford at Houghton.
During his time in Lynn, Burney commissioned a new organ for St. Margaret’s, completed in 1754 by the renowned London organ builder John Snetzler. The instrument, remarkable for its clarity and expressiveness, is still in use today and stands as a living monument to Burney’s time in the town.
Charles Burney the Music Historian: Travel, Observation, and Innovation
In 1760, Burney returned to London, but his ambitions were now turning toward scholarship. He envisioned a comprehensive history of music—not just as a chronology of composers, but as an analysis of styles, instruments, and musical cultures across Europe. This was a radical idea at the time. Music had often been treated as an artisan craft or noble art, but never as a subject of historical and critical inquiry on this scale.
To prepare, Burney undertook extensive travels across Europe, visiting France and Italy in 1770, then Germany and the Low Countries in 1772. His goal was to observe local traditions, interview musicians, attend performances, and examine archives. The result was a pair of vivid travel accounts:
- The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771)
- The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces (1773)
These books were hybrid works—part musical critique, part travelogue, and part social commentary. Burney’s lively writing style, curiosity, and perceptiveness earned him praise from luminaries like Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon.
His magnum opus, however, came later: A General History of Music, published in four volumes between 1776 and 1789. This monumental work combined ancient history, detailed biographies, theoretical discussion, and contemporary critique. It was the first systematic attempt to narrate the development of Western music from antiquity to modernity.
In so doing, Burney essentially founded the field of music history. While some of his judgments now seem dated—he preferred Italian opera to the German style and was initially unimpressed by Mozart—his methodology and commitment to first-hand research were ahead of their time.
Charles Burney and Fanny: A Tale of Genius and Control
Burney’s life was not without domestic drama. He married twice and had numerous children, many of whom became notable in their own right. His eldest daughter, Frances Burney (1752–1840), was a gifted novelist whose books Evelina and Cecilia were literary hits. She moved in the same intellectual circles as her father and became close friends with Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, and other London literati.
But their relationship was also fraught with tension. Charles Burney encouraged her writing but grew alarmed when her work began to stretch the boundaries of acceptable female behavior. Most notably, he suppressed the production of her satirical play The Witlings, fearing it would damage her reputation and, by extension, the family’s.
Their letters reveal a father who was deeply proud yet possessive, supportive yet conservative. Frances, for her part, eventually wrote a memoir of her father, seeking to preserve his memory while subtly asserting her own voice. This dual legacy of music and literature—father and daughter—makes the Burney household one of the most remarkable intellectual families of 18th-century England.
Charles Burney’s Final Years and Enduring Legacy
Burney died in 1814, at the age of 88, having lived through the reigns of George II, George III, and the rise and fall of Napoleon. He was buried in Chelsea College, where he had served as organist in his later years.
Today, his reputation is somewhat eclipsed by other figures, but among scholars of music, his contributions remain foundational. His books are still cited, and his travel journals are valued not only for their musicology but also as documents of Enlightenment curiosity and European cultural exchange.
King’s Lynn has begun to reclaim its connection to this remarkable figure. The organ at St. Margaret’s remains one of the most tangible links to Burney’s legacy, and his time in the town is celebrated through events and scholarship that continue to shed light on his formative years.
Charles Burney: A Life in Full Harmony
Charles Burney’s life was lived at full volume – engaged with the leading minds of his day, charting the music of the past with unprecedented dedication, and navigating the challenges of family, fame, and intellectual ambition. Through his writings, he not only chronicled the evolution of music but also highlighted the importance of local traditions and cultural contexts.
As his work continues to be reassessed, it becomes clear that Burney was not just a chronicler of music – he was its advocate, its interpreter, and in many ways, its historian-in-chief.
© James Rye 2025
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Sources
Primary Sources
- Burney, Charles. A General History of Music from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. 4 vols. London: Printed for the Author, 1776–1789.
- ———. The Present State of Music in France and Italy. London: T. Becket and Co., 1771.
- ———. The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces. London: T. Becket and Co., 1773.
- Burney, Frances (Madame d’Arblay). Memoirs of Doctor Burney. Edited by Charlotte Barrett. London: Edward Moxon, 1832.
Secondary Sources
- Mercer, Frank, and K. D. Reynolds. “Burney, Charles (1726–1814).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Last modified 2004.
- Scholes, Percy A. The Great Dr. Burney: His Life, His Travels, His Works, His Family and His Friends. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1948.
- Slade, John. “The Musical Life of King’s Lynn in the Eighteenth Century.” Norfolk Historical Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 4, 1999, pp. 345-359.
Online Sources
- King’s Lynn Minster. “History of the Church and Organ.” https://www.kingslynnminster.org
- British Library. “Burney Collection.” https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/burney-collection
- Norfolk Record Office and Norfolk Heritage Centre. “Charles Burney Materials and Local Archive.”