Welcome to Early Music World, the personal website of music historian, lecturer, broadcaster and early music critic Brian Robins. On the site you will find a range of articles, interviews and a selection of reviews.

Also included are viewpoints on topics relating to the world of early music, in addition to details and extracts from reviews concerning two published books, The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752-1828)  (1998, second edition July 2011), and Catch and Glee Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (2006). A second volume of the Marsh Journals is currently being prepared for publication in 2012. 

Brian Robins was born in Cheltenham, England, but spent his early life in Bournemouth, where he pursued an academic life notable for its singular lack of distinction. This he subsequently rectified by obtaining an Honours pass in the History of Music Diploma (University of London). After more than thirty years in the retail record business, increasing interest in research and adult education led him to become a free-lance writer and lecturer. His academic work has been acknowledged by prestigious awards from the Hinrichsen Foundation (1992 & 2012), the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. From 1994 until mid-2007 Brian Robins was a regular contributor of reviews and interviews to the US publication Fanfare.

In 1997 he was involved with the launch of Goldberg Early Music Magazine (Spain), remaining a contributor, consultant and member of the Advisory Board for every issue until the cessation of publication in November 2008. In addition Brian Robins has broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and contributed to such scholarly publications as Early Music, the RMA Research Chronicle and the Huntington Library Quarterly. He has also contributed essays to Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain (ed. S. Wollenberg & S. McVeigh) (2004),  Marsh of Chichester: Gentleman, Composer, Musician, Writer 1752-1828 (2004), the revised New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (2001), and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). In 2007 he was invited to become a member of the panel for the Stanley Sadie International Handel Recording Prize. He has also written for the BBC Music Magazine, Early Music Today and Gramophone. Brian Robins is currently a regular contributor to Early Music Review and Opera.

The spring of 2012 sees the introduction of new departure in the shape of a call for patronage and sponsorship. To learn more about this important development please go to the Patronage page.

 

I hope you enjoy your visit to the site and find it informative. Your feedback is welcome, so please do let me know what you like (or dislike) about it. You can contact me at: brianrobins@earlymusicworld.com