An Arcadian Pastoral: A Musical Entertainment by Elizabeth Craven and William Beckford
In 1782 Elizabeth Craven and the brilliant but wayward young writer William Beckford collaborated on a musical entertainment called An Arcadian Pastoral. It was performed in London by a choir of children, with professional musicians taking the solos and providing orchestral accompaniment. No 1 Ouverture Title-page The score was preserved among Beckford's papers, and catalogued by the Bodleian Library under his name, without reference to Elizabeth Craven. In a letter of 1782, Beckford wrote that she had written the words and he had composed the music. When we look closely at the score, it actually says that Elizabeth Craven wrote the music too, for the second of its five Acts. This is not the only example of her writing music, though little of it survives. The items of the Pastoral are numbered, but number 8 is missing. However, it may not be lost entirely. In a letter she enclosed a words of a song about Cupid and Hymen for which she wrote both the words and music, ...