Tote Spione, tote Musiker und schlechte Poesie: Ambivalenzen der preisgekrönten Glees des Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club

The Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club awarded annual prizes for the best catches, canons, and glees in the years 1763-1793. Due to the unusual relationship between contenders and jury members, pragmatic compositional strategies and attempts to accommodate the ironic humour of the club’s elite as well as divergent textual (mis)readings generated a repertoire of deeply ambivalent works. An analysis of this ambivalence in three prize-winning glees offers insight not only into the composers’ intentions, but into the self-image of the elected membership and the effects of their influence.