Musica Britannica
Exploring Britain’s cultural heritage in a national collection of music
About
Founded in 1951, Musica Britannica is an ongoing series of scholarly editions, intended as a representative collection of the monuments of British musical culture. The Musica Britannica Trust, which has been a registered charity since 1976, aims to promote, support and develop research into British music. Our primary activity is the publication of scholarly editions, but we also award grants to support new recordings of this repertory and provide opportunities for emerging performers through our annual competition, the Lewis Memorial Prize.
Opening of François Cellier, Captain Billy. British Library, MS Mus. 1824/2/2/1, fol. 2r
Publications
During our first 75 years, over 110 volumes of Musica Britannica have been published. The repertory ranges from Medieval songs, carols and secular polyphony to late-Victorian operettas, and early 20th-century songs and orchestral works.
Award and Competition
We award grants annually to support the production of high-quality recordings of repertory included within the edition.
The Lewis Memorial Prize competition is also held every year for performers of material from the edition, rotating on a triannual basis between singers, keyboard players and consorts.
Close up of 1778 Kirckman harpsichord held at Royal Academy of Music. Reproduced with permission from the Royal Academy of Music.
News
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Celebration of The Mulliner Book
As part of Musica Britannica’s 75th anniversary celebrations, a public seminar, ‘Perspectives on the Mulliner Book’, took place in London at the Royal Academy of Music on Friday 30 October 2026. It brought together Prof. John Caldwell, who gave an entertaining talk on editing the new edition of the Mulliner Book, pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar, who spoke about playing and recording music of this period on a modern piano, and composer David Gorton, who discussed his elaborations of pieces from the Mulliner Book, finely illustrated by RAM graduate student Xiaowen Shang. Representing Musica Britannica, Prof. Julian Rushton said he found the elaborations fascinating as original compositions in the long tradition of variations on borrowed material. A recording by Daniel-Ben Pienaar is in preparation. Photo: Eric Davis.
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New Edition of Volume 2 published
A new edition of Matthew Locke and Christopher Gibbons’s Cupid and Death was published in October 2026, edited by Robert Thompson and Andrew R. Walkling, Replacing Edward J. Dent’s heritage edition from 1951, its important new features include a complete facsimile of the 1653 playbook and three-part, ‘trio sonata’ scoring. It forms a major contribution to the commemorations marking the 350th anniversary of Matthew Locke’s death in 2027. Performing material is in preparation.
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Lewis Memorial Prize Competition 2026
The final of the Lewis Memorial Prize Competition was held on Thursday 9 April 2026 in the David Josefowitz Recital Hall at the Royal Academy of Music. The judges awarded first prize to Adam Chillingworth (pictured) and second prize to Anhad Arora. Many congratulations to Adam and Anhad and the other finalists, Ceci Keiffer, Paul Mnatsakanov, Li Xu-Zhang and Han Zhao.
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2026 Recording Award winners announced
We’re delighted to announce that grants have been awarded to two more recording projects based on repertoire from the Musica Britannica series in 2026. Bridget Cunningham (pictured above) and London Early Opera will produce video recordings of harpsichord concertos by Thomas Chilcot and George Rush, based on music from MB 94, while Edward Wickham and The Clerks will record mass and motet movements by John Dunstaple from MB 8.
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2025 Recording Award winners announced
Grants have been awarded to support two recording projects. Caroline Taylor and George Ireland will use music from MB 56 in their recording of Spring songs, and a recording of Restoration court music taken from MB 103 will be made by Martin Perkins and the Musical & Amicable Society (pictured above).
Photo: Martin Perkins