SOURCE: Girdham, Jane. “Black Musicians in England: Ignatius Sancho and His Contemporaries.” In Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters, edited by Reyahn King and others, pp. 115-26. London: National Portrait Gallery, 1997.

In the following essay, Girdham offers an account of a number of little-known eighteenth-century Black musicians, many of whom were friends of Sancho's, and goes on to discuss Sancho's music and explain the social significance of his compositions.

Music-making was one of the most popular leisure activities in 18th-century Britain. Gentlemen made sure their daughters learnt to sing and play the harpsichord, and no sophisticated evening's entertainment was complete without music. Amateurs performed at home, in private music clubs, and sometimes next to professional musicians in public venues. Public concerts were held in halls, in pleasure gardens and in theatres, the latter also being a common place for opera performances. Many of the people who formed...