The power of music and beauty is a song by the blind English composer, organist and violinist John Stanley (1712-1786) from the Muses Delight (1754), which is a collection of popular songs containing some simplified versions of the original pieces containing only the melodies and bass lines of the music with no figuring or instrumental lines.

John Stanley’s music was played regularly at Vauxhall as Thomas Busby reflected upon in The Age of Genius! A Satire on the times, London: Harrison & Co, 1786:

Who set the yearly jingle of Vauxhall?
To hotch-potch poetry, give airs hotch-potch,
Coin English jargon and baptize it Scotch?
New set this month, it’s fond composer’s pride;
By the cloy’d public, next month set aside.
All Stanleys, Arnolds, battishills, and Cooks,
What should we do for H[ayd]n’s and for H[oo]ks?

From 1726 John Stanley was made organist at St Andrew’s Church Holborn, ‘in preference to a great number of candidates’ (Burney), and in 1734 was made organist to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple where his playing of organ voluntaries attracted an admiring audience including Handel himself.

from notes by Bridget Cunningham © 2017