The discourse of Victorian liberalism has long been explored by scholars of literature, with reference to politics, ethics and aesthetics. Yet little attention has been paid to music's role in the context of these debates, leaving a rich collection of historical and archival detail on the periphery of our understanding. From the impact of the National Sunday League to the reception of Wagner in London, this collection of essays aims to nuance current approaches to the aesthetic facets of liberalism, examining the interaction between music and liberal ideas in a variety of social contexts. The significance of music for modern conceptions of self-hood and community is uncovered, revealing a new dimension of Victorian liberalism.
Presents a new perspective on the aesthetic aspects of liberalism through examinations of music and ideas about music, including listening practices, performance contexts and modes of embodiment across elite and amateur spheres. This book will nuance current understanding, and will appeal to scholars of both Victorian literature and music.
Recenzijas
'This book is a most welcome contribution to the renewed interest in liberalism and music culture. It reveals that Victorian liberal values were shaped by aesthetic debates in which the acts of performing and listening to music played an important role. The essays offer an absorbing illustration of the various tensions between music as recreation and music as a means of control, examining the role of human agency and the endeavour to experience life as an individual liberal subject.' Derek B. Scott, University of Leeds
Papildus informācija
Examines the interaction between music and liberal discourses in Victorian Britain, revealing the close interdependence of political and aesthetic practices.
1. Aesthetic liberalism Sarah Collins; Part I. Cultivation and/as
Control:
2. Musical discipline and Victorian liberal reform Erin
Johnson-Williams;
3. 'Brightening the lives of the people on Sunday': the
National Sunday League and liberal attitudes towards concert promotion in
Victorian Britain Simon McVeigh;
4. Music and mass education: cultivation or
control? Rosemary Golding; Part II. Dissent, Individualism and Agency:
5. A
musical presence among liberal thinkers: Eliza Flower and her circle,
18321845 Kate Bowan;
6. 'That more liberal mode of life': Rosa Newmarch,
aestheticism, and queer listening in Victorian and Edwardian Britain Phillip
Ross Bullock; Part III. Character and Emotion:
7. Style, character and
revelation in Parry's Fourth Symphony Matthew Riley;
8. The Parrys and
Prometheus Unbound: actualizing liberalism Phyllis Weliver;
9. Liberalism and
Victorian musical sympathy Bennett Zon;
10. Music and character in the
Victorian reception of Wagner: conducting the Philharmonic ca. 1855 Katherine
Fry;
11. Afterword: liberalism in the round Peter Mandler.
Sarah Collins is a Senior Lecturer in musicology at the University of Western Australia. In 2017, she was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and a Marie Skodowska-Curie Research Fellow at Durham University. Collins is the author of Lateness and Modernism (Cambridge, forthcoming) and The Aesthetic Life of Cyril Scott (2013). Her work has appeared in journals including the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Twentieth-Century Music, Music & Letters and Musical Quarterly.
