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How did Thomas Britton's concerts in Clerkenwell help develop London's concert culture?
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musical performance
The universality and innate nature of music, and the pentatonic scale, as demonstrated by singer Bobby McFerrin.
In 1678, Thomas Britton, a charcoal seller, established weekly concerts in a loft in Clerkenwell, London. These gatherings were significant to the development of Londonâs concert culture because they operated on a subscription basisâat a rate of 10 shillings a yearâand served as forerunners to several other influential concert series in the city, particularly those in the neighborhood of Covent Garden.1
By hosting these "humble but historic" performances, which featured notable musicians such as Handel and Pepusch, Britton helped transition music performance away from purely private or religious settings toward the public, subscription-based model that characterizes the modern concert as a social institution.1