What is Clio & Euterpe?
In 1760, John Welcker of London published the 3 volumes of “Clio & Euterpe or British Harmony”, a collection of 600 pages of songs from the 18th Century adorned with beautifully detailed engravings, and sold them in his “Music and Instrument Warehouse” across from the Opera House. In its time such notables as Thomas Jefferson owned a set, and it is certain they were prized volumes in many a musical home in the latter part of the 18th century. Essentially lost for nearly 200 years, rare copies are found in the hands of book collectors, in the Library of Congress, in the University of Edinburgh Library, in the Yale University Library and in the Harvard University Library. The opportunity to digitally archive this 3-volume set has recently been made available. This project now freely offers them to all those interested in music and art of the 18th century via the internet.
Each week a new piece will be available for download in .pdf format. The previous week’s song will be put into the archives where it can be accessed at any time. These files are free to the public. Because they are higher resolution files, download may take a little longer than you experience with most .pdfs. We encourage you to visit frequently and download a few files at a time rather than many at one sitting. This will help you and other visitors get your downloads as quickly as possible.
Clio & Euterpe is a blog so anyone interested may contact us and discuss the music and its performance, as might have been done in the taverns and coffeehouses of the 17th and 18th centuries.
With the support of fellow musicians this music can be revived into a new age, awakening both Clio (Muse of History) and Euterpe (Muse of Music) to a new life in the 21st Century.
The 3-volume set of “Clio & Euterpe or British Harmony” in high resolution .tif files, is available on 8 DVDs for purchase. These are detailed RGB mode scans of the original pages. 100% of proceeds from DVD sales and donations go to the maintenance and improvement of this website. To order the set, contact Clio & Euterpe Online on the Order DVDs page.