BritForge, nomenclature question!

I'm working on a catalogue of symphonies, and part of it is noting birth and death places of composers.
It's a major pain in the ass because how quickly borders would change on a whim in Europe prior to WWI, and using modern borders for historical people is oversimplified (even if commonly accepted -- Beethoven being German even though he was born in the HRE and died in modern Austria -- then Austrian Empire [not yet Austria-Hungary]).

So that brings us to English composers. First on the list is William Boyce, who likely decided everything before 1711 was a bad dream, and snuffed it in 1779, with the decency of only migrating from London to Kensington.
Cheek aside, the nomenclature question comes into play here in ironing out the country/ruling political force of the time, and Wikipedia's giving me a headache, even though it's likely a good source for this type of research.

In common, current, parlance -- United Kingdom is England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, correct?
Great Britain is just England Wales, and Scotland?
And the British Isles is UK plus Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, etc?

Now how about in the 1700's? Wiki has an article about the Kingdom of Great Britain, which was the British Isles plus its colonial holdings, and was in effect until 31 December 1800? After which it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1922?

With that all said, with the desire for accuracy and pedantry for this catalogue, what nationality would we put Boyce in?

How does one die from gout?

I vote for "English."

One of our UK members posted a sort of Venn diagram with all the terms once... I'll see if I can find it. Not that it would really help with the 18th-century definitions.

I know there was a decent chunk of time when England and Scotland were in personal union (the same person just happening to be the monarch of both), but distinct otherwise.

Found it.

I've had a few attacks - at its worst, you might wanna kill yourself. It could also easily led to tripping down stairs due to the difficulty walking.

So what "nationality" do you attribute to poor gout stricken Boyce?

For Boyce that would be my inclination too, because although "British" wouldn't be wrong, "English" just feels more true to the time in which he lived.

Of course, then you have to ask why Beethoven isn't identified with the Holy Roman Empire. One practical reason is that the Holy Roman Empire doesn't really have a good demonym; another rationale might be that while the country called Germany didn't exist at the time, the Germanic ethnicity did, and the term refers more to that than to his political citizenship.

Part of what I'm doing is trying to accurately note which countries, historical or otherwise, have produced how many symphonies.

For example, with [Franz] Haydn, his Parisian symphonies would count toward France, and his London symphonies to... England? Great Britain? even though Haydn himself was Habsburger [Austrian].

Go with "Limey."

And here's the answer:

Yes, but I think that's an oversimplification.

He was born in London, lived all his life in the London area, and is buried in St. Paul's.

How complicated you wanna make it?

Yeah, saying he was British would offend all the Scotch composers.

I know this is immaterial to the symphony question, but would you deal with Haydn -- who as I know he had no intention of staying permanently in England, and who was brought there by a German -- the same as you would Handel, who immigrated permanently to England and had many of his more famous works commissioned directly by the king?

Handel's later symphonies would be credited to GB/England.

This is setting myself up for massive headaches with esoteric symphonies where we dont have dates when a composer moved, particularly many American ones.

This is what I have for the earliest symphonies so far.
The spreadsheet has over 2000 symphonies catalogued right now, and I'm only in the 'B's of the index of American symphonists.
I've catalogued one Chinese symphonist so far (Zhu Jian'er), am aware of a few Japanese symphonists, and am hoping to find Indian ones, and any others from outside NA/EU.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend the board's sole Scott.

Isn't Jersey considered part of the British Isles? or even UK? and is Guernsey part of the British Isles or France? It's part of Normandy and Normandy is part of France, but Guernsey is also part of the British Isles?

And what about (New) York?

What about eastern North America before 1783? Any good symphonies come out of the frontier?

Scot.

I actually have a book on American Symphonies with dates when known. I'm only in the B's in the index, but if any pre-1776 symphonies were composed, GB would get the time period credit with the US gettinf the modern place credit.

The way I understand it, they're geographically part of Normandy, but politically they are self-governing entities that are sort of like countries, but not. They are represented by the UK in international affairs, their citizens are also considered British citizens, and Elizabeth II is their queen (but separately from her role as queen of the UK -- officially Queen of the United Kingdom and Queen of Jersey are two separate titles, and she just happens to hold them both).

Yep. They hold their own elections and make their own laws, but they cede to the Crown officially in terms of what they can do diplomatically and internationally (though in reality the UK will not sign them up to anything without consultation). It's for this reason Jersey is often chosen as a tax haven (not that the mainland is much better in that regard).