Music in the theatre (including opera and oratorio), concerts in taverns and coffee houses, ballrooms, pleasure gardens and various other venues - the musical culture of England and especially London between the Restoration in 1660 and the middle of the 18th century was exceptionally diverse by European standards. This monograph presents the panorama of the practice of listening to music within public cultural life by means of different conceptions of musically participatory to distanced musical perception. The concept of imagination proves to be central to the multisensory, rational and associative music listening of the time.