Biography
Dr Tim Eggington’s primary research interests are in eighteenth-century English music and musical culture as well as manuscript and print studies in music. His book, The Advancement of Music in Enlightenment England: Benjamin Cooke and the Academy of Ancient Music (Boydell Press, 2014), explored aspects of English musical style in the eighteenth century and its relationships with the then emerging awareness of the musical past. Tim became interested in the role of English musicians in the revival of Renaissance music that took place in eighteenth-century England during his nine years working as a curator of early manuscripts and prints in the library at the Royal College of Music. Tim’s research continues to explore the culture of early music collecting and editing that flourished amongst eighteenth-century English composers together with their music and theoretical concerns. A particular area of interest is in the work undertaken by a group of London-based composers associated with Johann Christoph Pepusch in recalibrating Greek and other speculative theoretical traditions as a means to resolve questions concerning musical meaning and style. Tim is currently working on a range of projects that include an edition of Benjamin Cooke’s extended orchestral setting of William Collins’s ‘Ode on the Passions’ to be published as part of the Musica Britannica series. Publications in which Tim’s work appears include the Händel-Jahrbuch, Fontes Artis Musicae and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. In addition to acting as Director of Studies in Music at Queens’, Tim is the college’s Fellow Librarian and Keeper of the Old Library. He is a trustee of Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM).
