BURNEY, CHARLES (1726-1814), English musical his torian, was born in Shrewsbury on April 12, 17 26. His first music master was Edmund Baker, organist of Chester cathedral, and a pupil of Dr. John Blow, and later he went to London as a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Arne, with whom he remained three years. In 1749 he was appointed organist of St. Dionis-Backchurch, Fenchurch street, with a salary of £30 a year ; and he was also engaged to take the harpsichord in the "New Concerts" then re cently established at the King's Arms, Cornhill. In that year he married Miss Esther Sleepe, who died in 1761; in 1769 he mar ried Mrs. Stephen Allen of Lynn. Threatened with consumption, he went in 1751 to Lynn in Norfolk, where he was elected organist, with an annual salary of f 1 oo, and there he resided for the next nine years. During that time he began to entertain the idea of writing a general history of music. His Ode for St. Ce cilia's Day was performed at Ranelagh gardens in 1759, and in 1 760 he returned to London.
Amidst his various professional avocations, Burney never lost sight of his favourite object, his History of Music, and therefore resolved to travel abroad for the purpose of collecting materials that could not be found in Great Britain. Accordingly he left London in June 1770, and proceeded to Paris, and thence to Geneva, Turin, Milan, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples to collect material for his projected history of music. The first results of his observations he published in The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771). In July 1772 Burney visited the Continent, to collect further materials, and after his return to London the result appeared under the title of The Pres ent State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands and United' Provinces (1773). In 1773 he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society and in 1776 appeared the first volume of his long-pro jected History of Music, the remaining three volumes following some years later. The least satisfactory volume is the fourth, the treatment of Handel and Bach being quite inadequate, and the whole work was severely criticized abroad, though it consti tuted a notable achievement for its day.
Other works by Dr. Burney are A Plan for a Music School (1774), Memoirs and Letters of Metastasio (1796) and An Essay towards a History of Comets (1769). He first published in Eng land the music performed at the Vatican in Passion Week. In 1783 Edmund Burke's influence obtained for him the appoint ment of organist to Chelsea hospital, and Fox procured him a pension of f300 a year in 1806. He died at Chelsea on April 12, 1814.
Burney's portrait was painted by Reynolds, and his bust was cut by Nollekens in 1805.
Dr. Burney's eldest son, James, was a distinguished officer in the royal navy, who died a rear-admiral in 1821 ; his second son was the Rev. Charles Burney, D.D. a well-known classical scholar, whose splendid collection of rare books and mss. was ultimately bought by the nation for the British Museum; and his second daughter was Frances (Madame d'Arblay, q.v.) . The Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay contain many minute and interesting particulars of her father's public and pri vate life, and of his friends and contemporaries. A life of Burney by Madame d'Arblay appeared in 1832.