March 11, 2010 – Jane Austen in Vermont

The most recent issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World [March / April 2010, Issue 44], this issue titled “Jane Austen’s Musical World,” brought a delightful surprise – a free cd containing the six works by composers who were working in Bath in the late 18th century [see a list of the selections below], as well as several articles on the music of Austen’s time:

~ the guest essay by Franz Joseph Hayden describing his visit to Bath in 1794

~ Maggie Lane on Jane Austen, Music Lover? where Ms. Lane posits that “Jane’s attitude toward music seems to have been occasionally hostile, often ambivalent, and only rarely enthusiastic.”

~ David Owen Norris on What was on Jane’s Ipod? on newly discovered music within the Austen family, suggesting that Eliza de Feuillide was an even more considerable pianist than previously thought, as well as the discovery of a hand-written piece possibly composed by Austen herself!

~ Patrick Wood on Thomas Linley, Mozart’s boyhood rival [and subject of one of Gainsborough’s famous paintings]

~ Mike Parker, Tidings of My Harp, “argues that Jane Austen uses the harp in her novels to identify privileged and spoilt women, while knowing little of the mechanics of the instrument herself.” [think Mary Crawford, the Musgrove sisters and Georgiana Darcy]

~ our very own JASNA-Vermont ‘s Kelly McDonald in A Golden Time, tells of the diaries of Emma Austen-Leigh, wife of Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, which provide valuable insight into London’s music scene during the Regency – here focusing on the Knyvett family of musicians.

~ Gillian Dooley considers the question of taste in Sense & Sensibility in Matters of Taste and its relationship to moral worth.

~ an interview with Austen scholar Richard Jenkyns – who enlightens us with admitting a special affection for Mansfield Park, thinking the latest BBC adaptation of MP “wins the competition for the worst ever adaptation of any classic novel by a mile”, and wanting most to be like Henry Tilney [but would like to marry Lizzy Bennet]! [and I add that Jenkyns book A Fine Brush on Ivory: an Appreciation of Jane Austen (2004) is a wonderful read…]

~ articles from JASNA’s Carol Adams on the score for the 1995 P&P; JASA’s Ann Bates on their one-day symposium on Jane and Occupations; reviews of cds, letters, news from 1802, and as always, a great number of fabulous illustrations…

The enclosed cd contains works by:

Thomas Linley the Elder : Cantata: Awake my lyre and Invocation: Fly to my aid, O mighty love
Henry Harrington: Enchanting Harmonist
Thomas Linley the Younger: To heal the wound a bee had made
William Jackson after Thomas Arne: Where the bee sucks
William Herschel: Sonata in D