Featured ContentThomas Anson and the Creation of Shugborough Shugborough – Centre of the World Shugborough’s gardens
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SHUGBOROUGH MUSICMusic was as much a part of Thomas Anson’s life as architecture, art and gardening. In the last few years more this previously unknown aspect of the world of Shugborough has come to light. In his will Thomas left £50 a year to Anton Kammell, a Bohemian violinist and composer. Kammell was well known in England in the 1760s and 1770s but his music is almost forgotten today. Kammell led the best musicians in London in concerts in Thomas’s London house, 15 St James Square. He dedicated a set of violin duets to Thomas Anson and stayed at Shugborough in the Spring of 1772, and possibly other years. Thomas’s friend William Bagot mentioned Kammell in a poem welcoming Thomas and his friends back to the country after the London season: “Kammell, unruffled by a storm, Thomas Pennant wrote a description of Thomas Anson: “He was happy in his life, and happy in his end. I saw him about thirty hours before his death, listening calmly to the melody of the harp, preparing for the momentary transit from an earthly concert to an union with the angelic harmonies.” This is true. There is a receipt for “hire of harp £1 12s 6d” in the Staffordshire Record Office. His friend Anton Kammell published a set of sonatas for piano, harpsichord or harp in 1774, with optional violin and cello. The music appears to be best suited to the harp. This could well be the music that Thomas was listening to before his death. These pieces give a good idea of the simple but tuneful style of Kammell’s music – and it may not have been heard for 230 years.
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