Musical Grammar in Four Parts

John Wall Calcott (1766-1821) was one of a small number of English musicians who compiled influential treatises from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. He worked as an organist and teacher in London and gained the Oxford D.Mus. in 1800. His Musical Grammar is divided into four sections - Notation, Melody, Harmony and Rhythm - and his erudition is remarkable. He consulted existing treatises in six languages and his copious music examples concentrate on Handel but also range widely from Gibbons to Beethoven. His catches and glees as well as his Musical Grammar caused his celebrity to endure into the nineteenth century.