1784 ‘An Account Of The Music Performances In Westminster – Abbey And The Pantheon’ May 26th, 27th, 29th & June 3rd & 5th, in commemoration of Handel, by Charles Burney, Mus. D. F.R.S. Printed for Benefit of the Musical Fund, First Edition xvi, 56pp; 139pp. Engraved frontispiece and 7 plates engraved by Delattre, Bartolozzi, Haward, Spilsbury and Collyer after Burney, Cipriani and Smirk, some wear, to covers, pages have slight marks and stains otherwise average to good condition Note: The Handel festival or "Commemoration" took place in Westminster Abbey in 1784, to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel in 1759. The commemoration was organized by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and the Concerts of Ancient Music and took the form of a series of concerts of Handel’s music, given in the Abbey by vast numbers of singers and instrumentalists. An account of the commemoration was published by Charles Burney in the following year (1785). These Charity Concerts raised ?6,000 for Infirm Musicians and ?1,000 for Westminster Hospital. The commemoration established a fashion for large-scale performances of Handel’s choral works throughout the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth. E.D. Mackerness (in A Social History of English Music) described it as "the most important single event in the history of English music".