Beyond the written word
O
n a weekend in April, JASNA’s
New York Metropolitan Region
joined with the Connecticut
Region to host a conference in
New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale
University. The theme, “Beyond the Written
Word”, was an exploration of art and music in
Jane Austen’s world. Austen’s surviving letters
make it clear that on trips to London she
enjoyed attending the theatre and visiting
exhibitions. The family music notebooks
preserved at Jane Austen’s House Museum
include her handwritten copies of the music
that she played on the pianoforte at the
cottage. Conference speakers, focusing on the
influence of art and music in Austen’s work,
drew on this rich cultural background.
Lidia Chang, a musicologist and musician,
made use of recorded period songs as she
discussed Austen’s choice of music and
the social functions and cultural context of
music-making in the Regency. Though Austen
apparently did not play works by Mozart or
Beethoven, her music books include pieces
by Handel, Haydn and Gluck. Her collection
is a varied one, reflecting the fact that home
performance of music was a social activity
during her lifetime. As she said in a letter to
Cassandra before their move to Chawton:
“Yes, we will have a Pianoforte – & I will
practice country dances, that we may have
some amusement for our nephews & nieces.”
Austen’s novels reflect the strongly
enforced gender roles prescribed for male
and female musicians during the Georgian
era. Chang explained that women played the
piano or the harp, which allowed the graceful
display of their arms. Men sang and, if they
performed, played string or wind instruments,
especially the flute. Chang noted, however,
that pieces for flute tended to be “stupidly
easy” because it was felt that men had better
things to do than practice music.
Jocelyn Harris’s lecture made the
intriguing argument that the looks and
character of Elizabeth Bennet were prompted
by Dorothea (Dora) Jordan. Jordan was a
wildly popular comic actress and long-time
mistress of the Duke of Clarence, the future
William IV (see page 38). She was particularly
known for her beautiful eyes, her natural
look and her performance as Rosalind and in
other cross-dressing roles. A true celebrity,
her relationship with the duke was no secret,the jane austen society
of north america
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