R.J.S.Stevens was an organist, composer and singer, active in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century London. His Recollections give a fascinating glimpse of the life of an ordinary musician as he went about his daily business serving as a church organist, singing glees - occasionally with the Prince of Wales - and teaching. They show how the events of his time bore, or failed to bear, on the lives of ordinary people, and present an entertaining insider''s view of the famous musical institutions of London, including the Anacreontic Society, whose club song is now The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the USA.

R.J.S.Stevens was an organist, composer and singer, active in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century London. His Recollections give a fascinating glimpse of the life of an ordinary musician as he went about his daily business serving as a church organist, singing glees - occasionally with the Prince of Wales - and teaching. They show how the events of his time bore, or failed to bear, on the lives of ordinary people, and present an entertaining insider''s view of the famous musical institutions of London, including the Anacreontic Society, whose club song is now The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the USA.