This book contains Charles Burney's letters from the age of 74 to 80, a period during which he retired from teaching but, far from slowing down despite frequent bouts of illness, continued to write, publishing his last book, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio, and writing 1,752 general music articles and musical biographies for Rees's Cyclopaedia in a mere four years. Discussions of musical matters in these range from deliberations of foreign instruments to theoretical concerns such as the doctrine of the Trinity applied to music, to the history of dramatic music in Italy, and to more mundane technical matters such as the origins of ledger lines and the staff. Although ...