Jonathan has contributed an essay to the new volume, The Symphony in Britain and Ireland since 1900, published by Cambridge University Press.

‘Continuation and Tradition? The Cultural Function of the Post-1945 British Symphony’

Does a uniquely ‘British’ symphony exist?

What do these ‘British’ symphonies do?

And what is their relevance for a post-Brexit listener?

This chapter reconsiders the socio-cultural function of the British symphony from the English Musical Renaissance (EMR) to the post-Brexit era, challenging narratives of stylistic emancipation and ‘national’ renewal. It argues that rather than representing an autonomous British tradition, the symphony in Britain has continually operated as a site of dialogue with European identity, functioning through processes of imitation, synthesis, homage and critique. From Parry’s and Stanford’s pedagogical embrace of Austro-German models to post-1945 responses, the chapter reveals a persistent engagement with European lineage as a mode of cultural self-definition. Tracing this intertextual ‘sounding together’ across stylistic shifts –from the EMR to the ‘Cheltenham Symphony’ and the pluralism of the twenty-first century – the chapter proposes the ‘British’ symphony as a sub-genre of European critique that continually reimagines its relationship to continental tradition.