Inquiring Readers: This is the fourth and final post in honor of Pride and Prejudice Without Zombies, Austenprose’s in-depth reading of Pride and Prejudice, which is winding up this week.. My first post discussed Dressing for the Netherfield Ball, the second talked about the dances, and the third showcased the suppers that might have been served. This post discusses the music that was popular during Jane Austen’s era and that she personally liked. Some of her preferences are vastly different than those shown in film and tv productions.
“Yes, yes, we will have a pianoforte, as good a one as can be got for 30 guineas, and I will practice country dances, that we may have some amusement for our nephews and nieces, when we have the pleasure of their company.” – Jane Austen to Cassandra, 1808
Like many ladies of her era, Jane Austen was an accomplished musician. And so were her characters. In Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet, the Bingley sisters and Georgiana Darcy could all play instruments with skill. Lady Catherine de Bourgh would have been a proficient, as would her daughter Anne, had she learned and practiced. Before the age of electricity and cable the world was largely silent musically speaking, save for the music played by family members, local musicians, or more famous musicians who were paid to play for the rich.
Musicians wandered the land, and London streets offered a pandemonium of sounds, much of it derived from musical instruments. The only music available in the home was that which amateur or professional performers could produce on the spot, so that the ability to play music well was crucial for all walks of life. From childhood on, young ladies were expected to play a musical instrument and study with music masters. Gentlemen sang as well and formed impromptu amateur groups that entertained in taverns and men’s clubs.

Farmer Giles and his wife showing off their daughter Betty to their neighbors on her return from school, Gillray, 1806
In Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet, while considered technically skilled, was pendantic compared to her sister Elizabeth, whose musical style was more lively and who could sing with more expression. An evening in the Regency era might consist of a family gathered in the drawing room, with the women preoccupied with a household task like sewing, the men reading, or a group playing games, and someone playing a musical instrument or singing a popular song. For larger gatherings, small ensembles would form, prompting others to push furniture aside, roll up the carpet, and dance a jig or a reel, as I imagine Lydia Bennet and her friends might have done at Colonel Forster’s home. Sometimes professionals mixed with amateurs. In 1811, Jane Austen wrote about a get together at her brother Henry’s house in London:
“Above 80 people are invited for next Tuesday evening, and there is to be some very good music — five professionals, three of them glee singers, besides amateurs. Fanny will listen to this. One of the hirelings is a Capital on the harp, from which I expect great pleasure.”
Like Anne Elliot in Persuasion, Jane Austen frequently played the pianoforte for the enjoyment of her family. She practiced several hours every morning before others in her family began their day. Her niece Caroline recalled her aunt as having a natural taste in music. Natural or not, Jane studied for several years with Dr. Chard, an organist at Winchester Cathedral. It was said that her speaking voice was as sweet as her singing, and that she sang for her family only. A place in Chawton Cottage was reserved for the piano forte (Marianne Dashwood had her gift from Colonel Brandon placed in the drawing room in Barton Cottage), but some of the larger homes in the Regency era might have a room dedicated solely for music. Georgiana Darcy played so well that her brother had an entire room made over for her music. These rooms would contain a variety of instruments, including the harp, flute, violin and pianoforte.
“Through most of the 19th century, the lines between ‘popular’ and classical music were much more blurred than they are today. A Regency musicale or parlor performance could include a traditional Irish air popularized by Thomas Moore, a piano sonata by Pleyel, a favorite song from a ballad opera, or a setting of a popular dance tune.” – Anthea Lawson
Jane’s musical preferences tended towards the songs and dances that were popular at the time. That some of yesteryear’s tunes have become today’s classical music (Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven) happened purely by chance, for many of the composers whose music and songs Jane Austen preferred have faded into obscurity. Jane favored Ignaz Pleyel over Haydn, and had included in her musical collection 14 of his sonatinas. She played folk songs, Scotch and Irish airs (many arranged by Haydn and Beethoven), and songs from the popular stage by such composers as Dibdin, Arne and Shiled. She also collected works from Piccinni, Sterkel, and J.C. Bach, and owned Steibelt’s ‘Grand Concerto, Haydn’s English Conzonets, glees music of John Wall Callcott, and Che Faro from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. ( Music: What Was Popular When Jane Austen Was Writing?)
In Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet played a selection of Scotch and Irish airs, which were quite popular at the time. Jane Fairfax in Emma played Robin Adair, a tune by G. Kiallmark that Jane Austen must also have played, for there were several variations of the song in her folio collection of music.
Purchasing music sheets was expensive during the Regency era. People would loan sheet music to each other,which they would then copy into notebooks. While Austen did not write the lyrics she sang, she did choose which music she wanted to play. After borrowing a piece, she painstakingly copied it into a notebook with pre-ruled paper, or assembled the pieces she purchased into albums. Today, The Chawton House Trust owns eight volumes of Jane Austen’s collection of sheet music, two of which were largely written in Jane’s hand. A third volume was also copied by someone’s hand, and “five volumes contain printed music of songs, keyboard works, and chamber music from a variety of sources.” – (The Gift of Music )
About half of the music in Jane’s notebooks are for vocals, or folk songs that tell stories. A few are so comic and fun that it is logical that the author of Pride and Prejudice and The History of England would be attracted to them. Charles Dibdin a composer and performer much in the vein of Benny Hill, wrote “The Joys of the Country,” which Jane copied by hand. He also wrote more serious, sentimental, and patriotic songs, supporting the fact that Jane’s taste was eclectic. She copied out the Marseillaise as The Marseilles March, and owned 56 Scottish songs, like “O Waly Waly”. Jane compiled more than the eight music books that reside at the Chawton House Trust, but the additional books, once studied by scholars in the 1970s and 1980s, are no longer available for study. (- I burn with contempt for my foes – Jane Austen Music Collections .)
“In the evening she would sometimes sing, to her own accompaniment, some simple old songs, the words and airs of which, now never heard, still linger in my memory.” (James Edward Austen Leigh Memoir 330)
Many of the songs that were popular during the Regency era were franker than the topics that ladies of the Regency were allowed to conduct in polite conversation. Scored for a soprano voice, these popular ditties spoke of love and pursuit, sexual invitation, and people declaring their love openly – “some sexually, some chastely, some sweetly, some comically, some sentimentally, some melodramatically–a wildly “forward” thing for ladies to do in speech but apparently not in song.” (- I burn with contempt for my foes – Jane Austen Music Collections .) Unmarried ladies sang songs in accents or impersonating Scottish girls. These musicales allowed them a freedom of expression and role playing that Jane Austen could have included in her novels. Many a chaste lady sang a bawdy song with an accent or impersonated a Scottish girl, with no one thinking the worst of her. (Jane Austen Music Collection.)
The Turban’d Turk
“The London folks themselves beguile
And think they please in a capital stile
Yet let them ask as they cross the street
Of any young virgin they happen to meet
And I know she’ll say, from behind her Fan
That there’s none can love like an Irishman
Like an Irishman”(The British Minstrel and National Melodist, p 265-266, Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, 1827)
Like record producers and composers today, music publishers issued thousands of new songs for vocal performance and music for dances per year. In 1790 Andrews and Birchall published sheet songs bearing their name. Besides these, the bulk of Andrews’s publications between 1804-1810 included a sseries of ” Five Favourite Dances,” folio, Numbers i to 39 (7, 8, and 9 dated 1805), and a small oblong volume for the flute ” The Gentleman’s Vade Mecum.” William Campbell published principally minor books dances, and include a series “Campbell’s Country Dances and Reels,” in oblong quarto. This runs to twenty seven books, and was re-issued, and probably continued from the 22nd up to this number by Robert Birchall. Werner was a dancing master and master of the ceremonies at Almack’s and the Festino Rooms. He lived at 6, Lower St. James’ Street, Golden Square, in 1782 and died in1787. Campbell, Fentum, Birchall, and Andrews, and others published his yearly books. When Jane traveled to London to visit her brother Henry, she haunted the shops, no doubt in search of new music as well as new fabrics, books, and gifts for the family.
During the 1790s the London concert life changed. Amateur orchestras in city taverns or in gentlemen’s clubs competedwith the professional concerts that began to sprout up in public places. (- The Rage for Music, Simon McVeigh) Local musicians would be hired for assembly balls in small towns. Musicians with a more professional background would be enlisted to play at more stylish events, like the Netherfield Ball. The lady asked to lead a set would choose the music and the steps, and relay her request to the Master of Ceremonies. As mentioned in my post about the dances at the Netherfield Ball, the musicians would play contemporary and lively music requested by the lady. Most of the marriageable young girls (think of the exuberance of Lydia and Kitty Bennet) preferred their version of modern music to the tunes of their elders. This means that many of the tunes chosen for the ball scenes in the Jane Austen film adaptations are entirely wrong! The early nineteenth century teen would have balked at dancing to a staid Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot, no matter how much today’s viewers like the scenes in which this tune is featured.
List of sources and examples:
- Robin Adair, sung by Jane Fairfax, Scotch Song,
- Iowa digital library: Pleyel
- Classical Composer Database: Pleyel
- Pleyel on YouTube
- Pleyel Violin Concerto
- On the Economics of Musical Composition in Mozart’s Vienna
- Music Manuscripts: British Library
- Jane Austen Piano
- Sense and Sensibility: A New Musical
- Classical Sensibilities: The Jane Austen Companion
- Dance Sheets
- Index of Country Dances
- English Dance Music 1800
- English Dance Music 1802
- English Dance Music 1814
- Jane Austen’s Music, my earlier post which contains a few common mistakes
[…] Much of the music during the 18th century was written for women to perform at home. Jane Austen practiced on the pianoforte every day, preferring popular music by composers we barely know, like Shield, Pleyel, Dibdin, Sterkel, Kotzwara, and comic songs. From 1750 to 1810, Jane meticulously copied works or musical items into manuscripts that were 85 to 95 pages long. A total of 8 musical manuscripts survive from Chawton Cottage. Of those, three volumes are handwritten, and two are in Jane’s handwriting. (Read my more extensive post on the topic, Jane Austen and Music.) […]
I always wondered if the music shown in the film productions was accurate. Why was Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot not correct. I love those scenes with Elizabeth and Darcy in Pride and Prejudice 1995. And if I remember, Emma and Mr. Knightley danced to that tune as Gwynneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam.
Meredith, Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot was written in 1695, over a century before Mr. Darcy and Lizzie would have danced at Netherfield. Such music, while appreciated for its history, would have been as relevant to Kitty and Lydia Bennet as Swing Band music of the 1930’s and 1940’s is to teenagers today.
http://www.sls.hawaii.edu/contra/dances/beveridge.html
This link leads to a list of dance music that would have been written in 1814.
http://www.danceandmusicindexes.org/DFIE/Biblio/B000850.htm
Notice that two waltzes are included. The music in 1802 included jigs and reels and one waltz. This dance, while it became popular towards the 1820’s, was still frowned upon in polite society during the years Pride and Prejudice was written.
http://www.danceandmusicindexes.org/DFIE/Biblio/B000022.htm
So what would Lizzy and darcy be dancing to at netherfiled. I just can’t imagine darcy doing the quadrille!
Liana, I wrote about dancing at The Netherfield Ball in this post: https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/dancing-at-the-netherfield-ball-pride-and-prejudice/
Lizzie and Darcy might have danced the more stately minuet,which was going out of fashion, or the cotillion, or English country dance,with its long line of dancers. Another dance that was popular towards the end of the ball was the boulanger. At the time that Jane Austen finished the final proofs of Pride and Prejudice, the quadrille had not yet been introduced into HER society.
[…] Continue reading at Jane Austen’s World […]
I recently toured a Federal (Georgian) Era manor house in the Hudson Valley of NY, and there was a gorgeous pianoforte in the parlor. But it was only for show, an indicator of wealth and class, as there were not enough piano masters to teach the girls how to play. However, there was a barrel organ that played four tunes, and they would dance in the large foyer (entrance hall). Would women have played a flute? I’ve only read of references to the piano and harp. Thanks again.
I don’t know about the 19th c. but in Colonial Williamsburg they said that it wasn’t proper for a lady show to her elbows to her audience so she could only play instruments that wouldn’t show her elbow, so no flute playing.
How interesting! Thank you.
Wow, nice indepth post on Music. Nice to know Jane was a musician herself.
Music seems to be a way to entertain oneself along with others in this time of history when there was no TV or DVD. I would think people had to find a way of entertaining with music, dance and games, reading, sewing etc during the evening hours or be bored to death!
Vidya
What a plethora of musical information! It’s gratifying to know that dear Jane had such an eclectic musical taste… I’ve not even heard of Dibdin nor Shiled! But glad to see that her personal folio included music by Arne, Piccinni, JC Bach, Haydn, and Gluck.
I’ve often wondered why film adaptations haven’t used songs by these composers, especially Haydn and Gluck! They wrote such exquisite music for the voice.
And it also made me laugh out loud when in the 1995 P&P adaptation, Mary sang a Handel aria during the Netherfield ball (or was it during the Lucas Lodge party?) and the dog began to howl! It’s like singing a song from our parents’ (or grandparents’) era… Even the dog had better sensibilities! =)
Farewell to this series of posts and again, thank you, thank you, for no zombies.
Since my characters wear only housedresses made out of flour sacks, that dress from “The Piano Lesson” just blew me away!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Laurel Ann , Vic . Vic said: Jane Austen and Music: Jane Austen's World fourth post for Austenprose's Pride and Prejudice Without Zombies! http://bit.ly/bt9pyh […]
Nice post!
Thanks as always for your wonderfully written posts. It’s a shame that today’s entertainment does not leave the young person with a skill as in playing the piano for entertainment would.
In actual fact, Handel was still very popular in the early 1800s and far from being old-fashioned grand-parent’s music, it was much performed in concerts and in the home. Ancient music was particularly enjoyed by the aristocracy and many overtures, arias and choruses were arranged for domestic use. The piano duet version of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus is found in Jane Austen’s collection, at Chawton, and is surprisingly successful in performance!
Would young ladies have been permitted to perform the violin? I appreciate that comment above about not showing elbows in Colonial times, that’s fascinating! But many Regency Era dresses show the elbows anyway, so I wonder if that might have changed. Though of course, the custom may have held over. If you don’t know but might have an idea where I could look to find out more about musicians (male or female) in the Regency Era, I would appreciate it! Thank you.
It is unfortunate we do not have any reaction from Austen on the works of either Mozart or Beethoven. Mozart died in 1791 and Beethoven ten years after Jane in 1727. Has anyone spotted any relevant commentary ?
my daughter would like me to find violin sheetmusic for the newest Emma movie soundtrack. Any idea on where I could find some?
I really enjoyed this. I learned a lot and very much appreciate your extensive knowledge and ability to communicate it.
Hi,
I am looking for the name of the piece Mary Bennet plays in the 1940 movie, toward the end being accompanied by a gentleman playing the flute. Thank you very much.
Felix