Shared Concerns: thoughts on British literature and British music in the long nineteenth century

One recent branch of musicological studies has involved the exploration of links between Victorian literature and music, highlighting the ways in which music is depicted and referenced within the novel or poem. Inevitably, the interdisciplinary nature of such a wide-ranging topic has led to a variety of approaches. Whilst some studies have focused upon individual writers and the general significance of musical references in their works, others have preferred to concentrate upon specific imagery used in representing music, showing how this might affect aspects of narrative and characterisation, or reflect wider themes in nineteenth-century culture. Phyllis Weliver, for example, has explored the literary representation of woman musicians as ‘angelic’ and ‘demonic’ (through siren imagery) in relation to novels such as Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda and Lady Audley’s Secret, at the same time tracing themes such as music and criminality in Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and music and mesmerism in Trilby and Dracula. Elsewhere, working-class characters singing with ‘natural’, untrained voices have been contrasted with the more self-conscious nature of middle-class performance in the drawing room; whilst characters such as Gissing’s Thyrza, and Margaret Jennings in Mrs Gaskell’s Mary Barton have been viewed as symbolic of the ‘divine’, Maggie Tulliver in Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss has been linked with the exploration of the pastoral. The role of music has been explored in relation to literary genres such as fin-de-siècle fiction and detective fiction; it has been suggested, for example, that for a character such as Sherlock Holmes, musical experience (specifically, a combination of concert-going and his own improvisational skills as a violinist) represents an aid to detection – balancing an introspective, intuitive and ‘poetic’ approach with his more familiar reliance upon methodical analysis. Other studies have highlighted literary references to specific composers, identifying the author as ‘reader’ in relation to musical reception. Nicky Losseff, for example, has traced the significance of two types of music in Collins’ The Woman in White used to portray the decline of Laura Fairlie: the music of Mozart – whose ‘divine’ status represents “a symbol of the order, sanity and happiness that characterizes Laura’s life before the permeating corruptness of Glyde” and “new music of the dextrous, tuneless, florid kind”; Losseff suggests the likelihood of Schumann’s music being the


Shared Concerns: thoughts on British literature and British music in the long nineteenth century
Michael Allis, Royal Academy of Music One recent branch of musicological studies has involved the exploration of links between Victorian literature and music, highlighting the ways in which music is depicted and referenced within the novel or poem. 1 Inevitably, the interdisciplinary nature of such a wide-ranging topic has led to a variety of approaches.Whilst some studies have focused upon individual writers and the general significance of musical references in their works, 2 others have preferred to concentrate upon specific imagery used in representing music, showing how this might affect aspects of narrative and characterisation, or reflect wider themes in nineteenth-century culture.Phyllis Weliver, for example, has explored the literary representation of woman musicians as 'angelic' and 'demonic' (through siren imagery) in relation to novels such as Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda and Lady Audley's Secret, 3 at the same time tracing themes such as music and criminality in Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and music and mesmerism in Trilby and Dracula.Elsewhere, working-class characters singing with 'natural', untrained voices have been contrasted with the more self-conscious nature of middle-class performance in the drawing room; whilst characters such as Gissing's Thyrza, and Margaret Jennings in Mrs Gaskell's Mary Barton have been viewed as symbolic of the 'divine', Maggie Tulliver in Eliot's The Mill on the Floss has been linked with the exploration of the pastoral. 4The role of music has been explored in relation to literary genres such as fin-de-siècle fiction and detective fiction; 5 it has been suggested, for example, that for a character such as Sherlock Holmes, musical experience (specifically, a combination of concert-going and his own improvisational skills as a violinist) represents an aid to detection -balancing an introspective, intuitive and 'poetic' approach with his more familiar reliance upon methodical analysis. 6her studies have highlighted literary references to specific composers, identifying the author as 'reader' in relation to musical reception.Nicky Losseff, for example, has traced the significance of two types of music in Collins ' The Woman in White used to portray the decline of Laura Fairlie: 7 the music of Mozart -whose 'divine' status represents "a symbol of the order, sanity and happiness that characterizes Laura's life before the permeating corruptness of Glyde" 8 -and "new music of the dextrous, tuneless, florid kind"; 9 Losseff suggests the likelihood of Schumann's music being the Scottish composer Alexander Mackenzie (1837-1935) in Dracula, 17 the 'British provincial home-made music' familiar to Little Billee in Trilby, 18 the passing reference to Ignaz Moscheles (British by association) in G.H. Lewes' 1848 novel Rose, Blanche, and Violet, 19 or the knowledge that the British composer Peter Warlock (1894-1930) inspired several literary characters, including Halliday in Lawrence's Women in Love. 20One novel does stand out as incorporating elements connected with an 'English Musical Renaissance' at the end of the nineteenth century, however -George Bernard Shaw's Love Among the Artists of 1881.As Phyllis Weliver has suggested, 21 the compositions by the fictional character Owen Jack in this novel (including a fantasia for piano and orchestra, and four scenes with chorus for music to Shelley's Prometheus Unbound) have a striking resonance in terms of early works by the British composer Hubert Parry (1848-1918): Parry's Piano Concerto and the cantata Prometheus Unbound were both completed in 1880. 22Shaw was able to use these veiled references to advocate a more progressive aesthetic in British music in this period.However, it seems that apart from Shaw, few writers were willing or able to incorporate any literary allusion to an emerging British music around the end of the nineteenth century.Consequently, a perceived lack of obvious connections between British music and literature explains why discussions of musical Romanticism tend to avoid compositions by British composers.An exploration of such connections therefore has potential to heighten the status of British music within the musicological canon, and, with the potential for themed concert events, to establish problematic British works within the performing canon.
In one sense, literary aspects have already been associated with the concept of an 'English Musical Renaissance.'Parry's Prometheus Unbound, for example, has been cited by several critics as marking the beginning of a new confidence in British music; although this is partly owing to its Wagnerian properties (its declamatory approach, the significant role of the orchestra, its through-composed nature, the use of leit motives), the dramatic and political nature of Shelley's poem has marked it out as a 'dangerous' text, and one of a higher literary standard than the majority of cantata libretti.Parry's extensive book lists compiled at the back of his diaries, together with the wide range of texts which he set, identify him as a 'literary' composer.This is reflected by the title and content of his twelve sets of English Lyrics, which lie at the centre of his solo song output; these settings show how a British composer could explore a sense of national identity through the exploration of a literary canon, ranging from Shakespeare to Parry's contemporaries such as Julian Sturgis and Mary Coleridge.However, literary associations are also part of the  23 the criticism of Elgar's choice of Longfellow in particular and of the texts of his songs in general, 24 or the suggestion that Mackenzie simply lacked a basic literary discrimination. 25In reassessing the benefits of a literary focus in relation to British nineteenth-century music, some of the most promising studies are likely to be found where a literary context can help an understanding of a composer, musical approach or specific work that critics have often found somehow 'problematic.'A number of areas have significant potential: (1) Composer-Author affinities, where biographical and aesthetic parallels might be explored; (2) Settings of text, focusing upon the ways in which texts can be interpreted, and how any musical 'readings' might represent critical interpretations of specific texts, thereby adding to their literary reception; (3) Collaborations, tracing a particular relationship between composer and poet, which reflects wider issues relating to the relative status of music and poetry; (4) Genre, where musical definitions would benefit from an awareness of their literary counterparts; (5) Narrative and meaning, where a literary perspective might provide a possible explanation for the nature and sequence of musical events within selected compositions.
(1) Composer-Author affinities Tracing an affinity between composer and author/poet can help to identify a range of aesthetic issues.Particular focus upon the works of Walter Scott which influenced Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), for example (resulting in the masque Kenilworth, the romantic opera Ivanhoe, and the Marmion Overture), might help any discussion of Sullivan in terms of an English Romanticism; similarly, Granville Bantock's interest in the exotic might be highlighted with reference to the works of Southey -in particular, the composer's characteristically ambitious (and ultimately unfinished) project to create twenty-four orchestral scenes based on the 1810 epic poem 'The Curse of Kehama.' 26 Another striking link is that between the British composer John Ireland (1979-1962) and the Welsh writer Arthur Machen (1863-1947). 27The composer's fascination with  (1936).Affinities between composer and writer can be explored even further, however.In terms of musical narrative, Ireland's pagan works tend to adopt a specific approach: The structure for all of Ireland's pagan works is a type of musical narrative with peculiarly personal extra musical references.The structure most often includes an explicit setting and an event, usually a single incident, and sometimes a plot and characters, though there is little in the way of specific characterization.He favours ternary structures, at the start of which a mood is set up, followed by a central section in which conflict or confrontation occurs, after which there is a return to the original, now altered scene. 30 is this sense of transformed nature which is a recurring image in Machen's writings; a passage from the Hill of Dreams provides a suitable illustration: And then the air changed once more; the flush increased, and a spot like blood appeared in the pond by the gate, and all the clouds were touched with fiery spots and dapples of flame; here and there it looked as if awful furnace doors were being opened… As the red gained in the sky, the earth and all upon it glowed, even the grey winter fields and the bare hillsides crimsoned, the waterpools were cisterns of molten brass, and the very road glittered.He [Lucien] was wonder-struck, almost aghast, before the scarlet magic of the afterglow. 31 addition to narrative parallels, there are also similarities concerning the sensations of language and music; Machen's description of the importance of language in The Hill of Dreams, for examplechiefly important for the beauty of its sounds, by its possession of words resonant, glorious to the ear, by its capacity, when exquisitely arranged, of suggesting wonderful and indefinable impressions… Here lay hidden the secret of the sensuous art of literature, it was the secret of suggestion, the art of causing delicious sensation by the use of words. 32s revised by Richards to characterise Ireland's musical Impressionism: chiefly important for the beauty of its sounds, by its possession of timbres and harmonies resonant, glorious to the ear, by its capacity, when exquisitely arranged, of suggesting wonderful and indefinable impressions… Here lay hidden the secret of the sensuous art of music, it was the secret of suggestion, the art of causing delicious sensation by the use of sounds. 33here is one further parallel, however, which has not been fully explored: the concept of ecstasy as a central feature of Machen's aesthetic and of Ireland's music.
Machen's essay, Hieroglyphics: A Note upon Ecstasy in Literature, defines a central tenet: If ecstasy be present, then I say there is fine literature; if it be absent, then in spite of all the cleverness, all the talents, all the workmanship and observation and dexterity you may show me, then, I think, we have a product (possibly a very interesting one) which is not fine literature. 34ilst Machen's definition is more complex than this, noting that ecstasy might also be representative of 'rapture, beauty, adoration, wonder, awe, mystery, sense of the unknown, desire for the unknown,' 35 yet must be 'the expression of the eternal things that are in man', and 'symbolic of an interior meaning,' 36  During the six years that I knew him I never remember his reading anything in English other than autobiographies, both political and artistic, detective stories, and any yarn, no matter what it was, that told about the sea.So long as it was colourful, and the action moved quickly, he was content.He had no patience with a writer like Conrad, who took his time in the telling of a story.Of English verse he knew surprisingly little, and never once during my stay at Grez did he ever ask us to read a line of it to him.Several times I fancied that it would be an agreeable change from our normal routine of book-reading, but he always turned my suggestion down. 43epresent Delius's "most personal answers to the question of form… [which] … owe little or nothing to traditional principles of structure, and evolve their own 'spiritual unity' in a way which scarcely lends itself to black-and-white analysis," 45  But my mate no more, no more with me! / We two together no more."), 48and provides a context in which to appreciate Delius's familiar orchestral miniatures, such as On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, In a Summer Garden, A Song of Summer, and Summer Night on the River -all representative of a short-lived moment of musical rapture. 49This approach might also avoid an unfortunate division in writings on the composer.Whilst the miniatures are usually associated with the 'essential' Delius, the sonatas and concerti tend to be discussed from a formal perspective, often with negative conclusions.We are told that "their structural articulation is a little stiff," and that they are redolent of "an uneasy period which drew Delius into accepting classical moulds for his compositions," 50 -all leading to perceptions that these are somehow lesser works: These relatively formal compositions -concertos, sonatas and quartets -do not seem to me to express the essential genius of Delius in at all the same degree as the works less fettered by formal considerations, especially in his choral-orchestral music.The music is obviously and typically Delian in texture, but yet seems to lack that divine spark of real genius that places the others in a class by themselves. 51spite these works displaying musical materials on a larger canvas, however, they contain the same preoccupation as the miniatures, although this is often expressed in Given that the poem 'Cynara' in particular has been described as "the defining masterpiece of the period… full of the iconography of decadence… full of the scent of love and wine and innocence and sin… the archetypal decadent poem," 52 Delius's settings of Dowson (in tandem with an interest in Arthur Symons) 53 might also help to explore a British musical decadence, providing temporary relief from the more obvious Strauss-and Wagner-based definitions. 54e final affinity between composer and poet concerns personal friendship, text setting, texts as catalysts towards composition, and perhaps even a symbolic return to a particular poetic source.Parallels between Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) and Tennyson have been invoked by several writers, whether J.A.Fuller-Maitland's suggestion that "His [Stanford's] strong feeling for colour suggests that he is in some sort a musical He had chosen me, an unknown and untried composer, to write the incidental music to his tragedy of Queen Mary for its production at the Lyceum Theatre, then under the management of Mrs. Bateman.Many difficulties were put in the way of the performance of the music, into the causes for which I had neither the wish nor the means to penetrate.Finally, however, the management gave as an explanation that the music could not be performed, as the number of orchestral players required for its proper presentment would necessitate the sacrifice of two rows of stalls.To my young and disappointed soul came the news of a generous action which would have been a source of pride to many a composer of assured position and fame.The poet had offered, unknown to me, to bear the expense of the sacrificed seats for many nights, in order to allow my small share of the work to be heard.The offer was refused, but the generous action remains, one amongst the thousands of such quiet and stealthy kindnesses which came as second nature to him, and were probably as speedily forgotten by himself as they were lastingly remembered by their recipients. 58e Stanford-Tennyson relationship can be approached from a number of perspectives.One possible area to explore is how Tennyson as a reciter of poetry may have influenced Stanford's musical settings.Stanford was struck by Tennyson's reciting style, which he described in the Cambridge Review: His manner of reading poetry has often been described.It was a chant rather than a declamation.A voice of deep and penetrating power, varied only by alteration of note and intensity of quality.The notes were few, and he rarely read on more than two, except at the cadence of a passage, when the voice would slightly fall.He often accompanied his reading by gentle rippling gestures with his fingers.As a rule he adhered more to the quantity of a line than the ordinary reciter, for he had the rare gift of making the accent felt without perceptibly altering the prosody. 59 one of Stanford's most popular works, the choral ballad The Revenge (1886), it was Tennyson's metrical sense which caused the composer to rethink his approach to declamation: Without being a musician, he [Tennyson] had a great appreciation of the fitness of music to its subject, and was an unfailing judge of musical declamation.As he expressed it himself, he disliked music which went up when it ought to go down, and went down when it ought to go up.I never knew him wrong in his suggestions on this point.The most vivid instance I can recall was about a line in the "Revenge" -"Was he devil or man?He was devil for aught they knew."When I played to him my setting the word "devil" was set to a higher note in the question than it was in the answer; and the penultimate "they" was unaccented.He at once corrected me, saying that the second word "devil" must be higher and stronger than the first, and the "they" must be marked.He was perfectly right, and I altered it accordingly.It was apparently a small point, but it was this insisting on perfection of detail which made him the most valuable teacher of accurate declamation that it was possible for a composer to learn from. 60anford's final version is as follows: To His [Stanford's] style is exactly the same as that of his earliest settings of Tennyson written in the 1880s; even the choice of Tennyson strikes one as being regressive and of all of Stanford's post-war works it is this one which demonstrates his Victorian outlook most clearly. 61ther than a waning of Stanford's creative powers, however, both the choice of poem and the manner of the musical setting could represent an astute and subtle response to Tennyson's poetic message.One might suggest that Stanford's return to an earlier musical style simply mirrored Tennyson's revisiting of poetic imagery from previous works, in this "celebration of a lifelong worship of the creative imagination." 62) Text setting Just as affinities between composers and writers might create a useful context for thematic concert events, so a focus on different settings of the same poetic text illustrates a range of interpretative possibilities, and highlights a variety of compositional approaches.One significant figure connected with a perceived second golden age of English song around the turn of the twentieth century is A.E. Housman.Within the plethora of musical settings of Housman's poetry, composers either chose single texts, or created small textual groupings; the critic Ernest Newman invoked Germanic song cycles to bemoan the fact that no-one had taken up the challenge of setting 'A Shopshire Lad' complete: Had we a [Hugo] Wolf among us, it would not have been a mere poem here and there from the collection that he would have set… he would have set virtually the whole of the sixty-three poems, doing for Mr Housman what Wolf did for Mörike, for Goethe, for Eichendorff, and others. 63 exploring ways of performing these songs, the recitation of the texts prior to the musical setting can be effective, as this helps to focus upon the nature of the poetry.
Similarly, programming different settings of the same Housman text for the sake of comparison can be revealing, as the example of 'Is my team ploughing' illustrates.
'Is my team ploughing, 'Is my girl happy That I was used to drive That I thought hard to leave, And hear the harness jingle And has she tired of weeping When I was man alive?' As she lies down at eve?' Housman's text outlines a series of questions from beyond the grave, as the dead soldier quizzes his friend about the world he has left behind -successively, his horses, his sporting interests, the girl he left behind, and the friend himself.The friend suggests that the penultimate question ("Is my girl happy"?) should be the last -with the exhortation "Be still my lad and sleep" -but the soldier persists, and we are left with the subtle implication that it is the friend who is "cheering" the dead soldier's sweetheart.The simplicity of the text, its dark humour, and the subtle twist at the end, are striking, and it is no surprise that several composers completed musical settings of the poem.The setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), as part of On Wenlock Edge (1909) for tenor, string quartet and piano is a dramatic affair.Vaughan Williams deliberately left out stanzas three and four, later commenting: the composer has a perfect right artistically to set any portion of a poem he chooses provided he does not actually alter the sense… I also feel that a poet should be grateful to anyone who fails to perpetuate such lines as: The goal stands up, the keeper Stands up to keep the goal. 64usman was critical of this approach: I am told that composers in some cases have mutilated my poems -that Vaughan Williams cut two verses out of "Is my team ploughing."I wonder how he would like me to cut two bars out of his music . . . 65 Vaughan Williams' setting, the ghost's questions are characterised by simple vocal lines inspired by the contours of folk song, and are prefaced by organum-like material in the strings; the transition to the answer introduces repeated chords and chromatic movement, providing a dramatic contrast between the two voices in the text.The significance of the final question is illustrated by a higher vocal line, and a modulation from D minor to F minor; 66 in the answer, the repetition of 'Yes, lad', and particularly the dramatic climax on 'dead man's sweetheart' (ex.5) leaves the listener in no doubt as to the implications of the text.One might argue, however, that the powerful nature of the setting is at the expense of the poem's subtlety: Dr Vaughan Williams' setting flies in the face of all that is most delicate, most artistic, most human in the poem.What is the use of the poet softening the final blow as he does if Dr Vaughan Williams is to deal it afresh at the dead man with a sledge-hammer?What is the use of the friend saying 'Never ask me whose' in a pianissimo when he has just hurled the 'I cheer a dead man's sweetheart' at the ghost's head with a noise and agitation that would let the most stupid ghost that ever returned to earth into the secret. 67or Gurney (1890-1937) was a poet as well as a composer, and his awareness of the implications of Housman's text is reflected in his approach, one of the eight songs of The Western Playland (1921), again for voice (this time a baritone), string quartet and piano.
The jaunty opening of the modified strophic setting is deceptive, as the successively  beautiful in its simplicity --each question and each answer is set identically, and there is a clear distinction between their two roles: unstable chords at a quiet dynamic, slow tempo and relatively high range for the question, and stable chords at a louder dynamic, quicker tempo and lower range for the answer, rounded off by a brief postlude (ex.7).
Butterworth's setting therefore mirrors the subtlety of Housman's text. 68cus upon different musical settings of the same text can take on a greater significance where there is a disagreement over the text's meaning, as the setting could then represent an additional 'reading' which could highlight the nature of any literary debate.One example that I have explored elsewhere is the setting of the Choric Song from Tennyson's 'The Lotos Eaters' by Parry (as the cantata The Lotos Eaters of 1893) and Elgar (as the 1907 part-song, There is sweet music). 69Several suggestions have been made in relation to the possible message of Tennyson's poem; writers have interpreted the text as a condemnation of the life of ease, suggested that such an explicit meaning is undercut by the sensual content of the verse -effectively leading to the promotion of the drugged state of Lotosland, or have identified a sense of conflict between didacticism and aestheticism. 70

Play clip
There is therefore a dichotomy between preconceptions concerning Parry's role as a composer, and the resulting setting. 71ilst Parry sets the text complete (prefaced by a recitation of the introductory text, "Courage… we will no longer roam"), 72  (

3) Collaborations
Any collaboration between composer and poet represents an opportunity to focus upon the relationship between music and literature, particularly as there is often an interesting balance of power between the two arts.Despite surface similarities between Robert Bridges and Hubert Parry, their collaboration over the cantatas Invocation to Music (1895) and A Song of Darkness and Light (1898) reveals some basic differences in their approach to the text-music relationship. 73Whilst Parry was keen to explore a declamatory style, Bridges felt that such an approach replaced the sense of mysterious with the definite, which represented a fundamental loss: Please do not think that I can possibly resent any objections of yours.I do not pretend to understand what modern music is aiming at… One mistake which I made, i.e. to make words sometimes as mysterious as the best music is, I did not see would be a mistake.It is evident that you want something always definite.This is I confess to me a resignation of the highest charm which I feel in music.As soon as its expression seems defined it loses to me most of its meaning.My ideal is

Play clip
beautiful melody harmony & orchestral effects with beautiful words, the meaning of which is half revealed by the music, but which, though they are full of suggestion, satisfy the intelligence with pictured ideas rather than definite expression. 74though Bridges' correspondence with Parry was consistently polite, and at pains to suggest a flexibility in their working relationship, the poet's letters to friends revealed his frustration at the removal of lines and reorganisation of the poetic text: I have written an ode to Music which Parry has set to music, at least he has set part of the sketch and an altered version of the finished parts.I don't know what the music is like.-I naturally don't take much interest in it, because I had hoped to do a good thing, and have done merely a broken backed affair, through no fault of mine… Parry has spoilt it as a poem. 75idges' decision to publish his own version of the Invocation to Music poem (which restored a number of passages removed during the collaboration on the cantata) only one year after the cantata was performed and published, prefaced by an essay on 'The Musical Setting of Poetry', must have represented something of a catharsis. 76It is significant that I have written the Ode for the opening of the Eton Memorial Hall.I hope you will like it.Parry, who set it to music, does not, but I have composed twice for him before, and each time sacrificed my poem to musical conveniences, and yet his music has not I am told, and think myself, justified the sacrifice.So this time I took the advice of my friends (musical friends) and made my thing hang together, leaving him to do what he will. 77ven the difficulties in this working relationship, it is interesting to note that the poet had similar experiences in his collaboration with Stanford over the cantata Eden (1891).Here, Bridges felt that he had not been given enough time to complete the poem, and again, some of his suggestions prior to the publication of the cantata were apparently not incorporated.
You refer to "Eden": I would have made it better if I had more time.The music is not for me to criticize.It is not simple enough for my taste. 78ridges' musical tastes were primarily restricted to the music of the Renaissance and the early Baroque, despite some appreciation of works by Beethoven. 79However, there was one modern composer whose settings of Bridges' poetry were approved of, primarily because of their rhythmic flexibility.After a performance by Gustav Holst of his Seven Part-Songs for female voice and strings, Op.44, Bridges wrote to the composer: You asked me once or twice about the music, whether I liked it: if I did not say much it was because I felt it impertinent in me to pretend to judge of your work, and I thought that the pleasure, which I could tell you the professionals were feeling was a better compliment than mine would be, because they are accustomed to modern writing, whereas I am old fashioned… I liked all the 'Songs', especially When first we met and Sorrow and Joy.The only piece that I did not take to was 'Assemble all ye maidens' and that could be accounted for by the great dislike I have for the poem… Your way of treating words is so novel, and so unlike anything I could have imagined, that I think I got on astonishingly well in appreciating your invention so far as I did.For I really liked them very much: and want to hear them again. 80 is not surprising that Bridges picked out those two particular part-songs.When first we met is something of a modern-day madrigal, with strict imitative entries (the third voice (4) Genre An awareness of literary definitions of genre in discussions of music might also represent a useful interpretative tool.A consideration of the elegaic, for example, would benefit from this approach -particularly as this sensibility is often identified as a central preoccupation of British music in the late nineteenth century, but is not discussed in any great detail.In the first edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, John Hullah defined three types of elegy -the "vocal solo, duet, trio, quartet, etc., with or without accompaniment," the "instrumental solo for the violin, pianoforte, or other instrument," and "the concerted piece for stringed, or other instruments." 81Significantly, illustrations of these variants were offered along national lines: Germanic models for the former (Beethoven's Elegischer Gesang Op.118, Handel's Saul), French models for the second (Dussek's Elégie harmonique for piano and Ernst's Elégie for violin and piano), and a British model for the latter: "Of the third class a better instance can hardly be cited than Mr Arthur Sullivan's overture 'In Memoriam,' which is in truth an elegy on the composer's father." 82Given these British associations suggested by Hullah, the orchestral elegy, as a large-scale, public expression of grief, would represent a suitable topic for further study.
Recent literary reassessments of the poetic elegy have adopted a number of approaches, focusing upon the relationship between the mourner and the dead, and the nature of loss, in addition to exploring the various elegiac conventions. 83All these elements might be adopted in any focus upon the musical elegy, and might also provide a 'way in' to some 'problematic' compositions.One example is Parry's Elegy for Brahms. 84though written in 1897 (the year of Brahms' death), this work was not performed until There is no second-rate suavity about his work nor compromise with fashionable taste, but an obvious determination to say only such things as are true and earnest… The example of a noble man tends to make others noble, and the picture of a noble mind, such as is presented in his work, helps to raise others towards his level; and the influence which his music already exerts upon younger musicians is of the very highest value to art. 85 in the poetic elegy, where the text itself suggests the relationship between the mourner and the dead, so it is the musical text where the Parry-Brahms relationship may be traced further.Bernard Bernoliel suspects that Parry may have "created his own programme in which the psychological argument prompted the technical solutions." 86One might certainly explore the contrasts of musical material in rhetorical terms, perhaps comparing poetic models from the literary canon (with which Parry would have been familiar), thus defining an elegiac resonance within the composer's rather sectional approach.As part of this hidden programme, Bernoliel suggests that the musical material contains deliberate reminiscences of Brahms' music, citing references to the C major theme of Brahms' First Symphony (now in a minor version) in the Development section. 87More striking, however, is the continuation of Brahms' theme which is alluded to at the end of the piece; The fact that Parry included a musical quotation from this movement in his discussion of the Symphony in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (one of only a handful of quotations in the article as a whole) might suggest its heightened status. 89Not only does this example suggest the benefits of a literary perspective in terms of musical genre, it would provide a welcome addition to studies of Brahmsian influence in the second half of the nineteenth century. 90) Narrative and meaning Literary connections can also aid the understanding of musical narrative, even though many of these connections were often obscured by the composers themselves.This might help an appreciation of certain compositions by Vaughan Williams, for example, despite the following statement by the composer in 1920: If my music doesn't make itself understood as music, without any tributary explanation, then it's a failure as music, and there's nothing more to be said.It matters, of course, enormously to the composer what he was thinking about when he was writing a particular work, but to no-one else in the world does it matter one jot. 91ilst the suggestion that his works should be appreciated in an abstract sense is, on one level, a brave one, it has led to a number of difficulties in the reception of Vaughan Williams' compositions, as writers have attempted to create extra-musical connections.
The Pastoral Symphony, for example, has been variously described as "V.W. rolling over and over in a ploughed field on a wet day," or "like a cow looking over a gate"; 92 it was not until 1938 that the composer revealed, in private correspondence, that the inspiration for the symphony was the wartime landscape of France. 93The majority of commentators on A London Symphony (1914, rev.1920), for example, have discussed the status of extramusical elements in the work (the chimes of Big Ben, the cries of the street sellers, the jingle of the hansom cabs, with additional perceptions of the roar of the London traffic, express trains thundering through the station, and the portrait of a harmonica player outside the terminus), either highlighting their importance, or suggesting that the work should be viewed more as a 'Symphony by a Londoner.' 94It was only in 1957, however, that Vaughan Williams suggested a literary link -"for actual coda see end of Wells' Tono-Bungay." 95This is significant: it explains the nature of the epilogue at the end of the work (preceded by the three-quarter chime, suggesting time has moved on from the quarter-hour chime in the introduction), with its water imagery, 96 and the sense of a fading vision, reflecting one particular passage from Wells: Out to the open we go, to windy freedom and trackless ways.Light after light goes down.England and the Kingdom, Britain and the Empire, the old prides and the old devotions, glide abeam, astern, sink down upon the horizon, pass -pass.The river passes -London passes, England passes… 97 Anthony Arblaster and Alain Frogley have explored further parallels between novel and symphony. 98In musical terms, Wells' 'Condition of England' novel 99 with its air of pessimism and sense of decay could provide an explanation for many of the darker moments in the symphony -the bitonality of the opening Allegro, the anguished cry at the beginning of the finale, and the extended trio in the original version of the third movement. 100These links also help to refocus the selective associations of Vaughan Williams with the countryside, and, as Frogley has suggested, the tendency to ignore the composer's socialist leanings. 101e second Vaughan Williams work where literary links are beneficial is the Ninth Symphony (1958).Although early critics attempted to view this composition as an abstract work, the nature of the musical material led to some bafflement, particularly in the middle movements.Colin Mason cited "frivolous interruptions," and Oliver Neighbour suggested that the "trios of the middle two movements are raised above their heavy-handed surroundings by a strange melancholy." 102However, as Frogley has shown, 103 once the sketch material for the symphony is taken into account, it soon becomes clear that there are strong links between the symphony and Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, particularly in the second movement.Frogley notes that the opening flugelhorn solo of the movement is titled 'Stonhenge' in the sketches, representative of the wind blowing through the stones; similarly, the theme at figure 7 is titled 'Tess' in the sketches, explaining its "strange melancholy." 104The most striking feature of the movement, however, concerns the eight bell strokes towards the end of the movement; after the eighth stroke (separated from its predecessors to give added significance) at figure 19, the Tess theme returns in a muted, truncated version. 105The fact that in Hardy's novel Tess is executed at 8 o'clock in the morning cannot be a coincidence.These literary connections are important.On one level, they help to explain the nature of Vaughan Williams' material, and the sequence of events within the musical narrative, thus providing useful points of contact for audiences, conductors and performers alike.They also affect the status of the work -after all, a Ninth Symphony traditionally has a certain significance; the association of this symphony with a canonic piece of English literature is therefore ultimately beneficial.
Hidden literary connections can also be found in the music of Elgar.The Second Symphony has already been mentioned in relation to Shelley, but elements from Tennyson's poem Maud might also help to explain particular passages.Elgar himself invoked the images of wheels and hooves passing overhead in the second episode of the Rondo ("Dead, long dead / Long dead!/ And my heart is a handful of dust, / And the wheels go over my head"), 106 creating an "incessant maddening hammering," an evocation of his visits to Powick lunatic asylum in Worcestershire in the 1870s and 1880s as conductor of the attendants' band.Brian Trowell notes how Elgar's additional associations of figure 27 in the first movement with the imagery of a love scene in a haunted garden ("a love scene in a garden at night where the ghost of some memories comes through it;it makes me shiver," and "a sort of malign influence wandering thro' a summer night in the garden") also have links with Maud, and explores the themes of suicide and madness in the symphony's other literary references -Shakespeare's Sonnet 66 ("Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry") and Shelley's "Julian and Maddelo: a conversation." 107One final Elgar example concerns the Piano Quintet Op.84; this has been viewed by critics as problematic, both in terms of the nature of the musical material, and the series of narrative events.It was the critic Ernest Newman who suggested that there was a 'quasiprogramme' behind the work -one that he felt should not be disclosed, as "less intelligent performers would be certain to read too much programme into the music and over-dramatise it." 108A possible candidate for this quasi-programme is Edward Bulwer Lytton's occult novel A Strange Story. 109There are several parallels between the novel and the Quintet -the use of chant, the sense of 'other' contrasted with the conventional salon atmosphere, the recall of past events, and the final sense of apotheosis.The most striking musical scene in the novel, however, concerns a social function at Mrs Poyntz' house, focusing upon the powers of the villain Margrave: Miss Brabazon having come to the close of a complicated and dreary sonata, I heard Margrave abruptly ask her if she could play the Tarantella, that famous Neapolitan air which is founded on the legendary belief that the bite of the tarantula excites an irresistible desire to dance.On that highbred spinster's confession that she was ignorant of the air, and had not even heard of the legend, Margrave said, 'let me play it to you, with variations of my own'… Margrave's fingers rushed over the keys, and there was a general start, the prelude was so unlike any known combination of harmonic sounds … And the torture of the instrument now commenced in good earnest: it shrieked, it groaned, wilder and noisier.Beethoven's Storm, roused by the fell touch of a German pianist, were mild in comparison; and the mighty voice, dominating the anguish of the cracking keys, had the full diapason of a chorus.Certainly I am no judge of music, but to my ear the discord was terrific -to the ears of better-informed amateurs it seemed ravishing.All were spell-bound… To this breathless delight, however, soon succeeded a general desire for movement.To my amazement, I beheld these formal matrons and sober fathers of families forming themselves into a dance, turbulent as a children's ball at Christmas.And when, suddenly desisting from his music, Margrave started up, caught the skeleton hand of Miss Brabazon, and whirled her into the centre of the dance, I could have fancied myself at a witches' sabbat. 110 the Development section of the first movement of Elgar's Quintet, we have a similar series of events: the formal 'squareness' of a fugato (reflecting Miss Brabazon's An interdisciplinary approach to British music and literature is therefore potentially beneficial to the study of both arts.As a direct challenge to perceptions of British music around the turn of the twentieth century as somehow lacking a literary perspective, this mode of enquiry could provide a 'way in' to reassessing the status of composers and re-evaluating musical works which have often been dismissed as problematic.An awareness of biographical parallels between composers and writers could help literary and musical audiences to appreciate particular works, and a focus upon aesthetic issues could provide fascinating comparative studies of the treatment and adaptation of related issues in two different art forms.Similarly, musical settings of text gain an added significance by being viewed as critical interpretations of those texts, particularly where they contribute to literary debates over meaning and structure.Focus upon collaborative projects would help to highlight both local and general relationships between music and poetry, and definitions of literary genres could be reworked in studies of their musical counterparts; literary sources and narrative techniques could also be invoked as a potential explanation for the internal ordering and nature of musical images and events in selected compositions -whether as hidden programmes, influential texts, or structural models.By exploring the innate flexibility that interdisciplinary studies possess, adapting a range of methods and approaches from each individual discipline, these shared concerns represent a real opportunity to reassess cultural connections within the Victorian and Edwardian era. scheme (ex.2):

Example 3 :
different ways.Whereas the Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra (1915) relies upon the final combination of the opening theme with a resigned, drooping, counterpoint, or the frequently unfulfilled quality of the writing in octaves for the soloists, in the slow movement ('Late Swallows') of the 1916 string quartet, the transience of beauty is expressed as a pentatonic melodic reference to the Florida plantation within a dream-like episode: DELIUS STRING QUARTET ASV CD DCA 526, Track 6, 3:39 -4:41 courtesy of Sanctuary Classics; website: www.sanctuaryclassics.com appreciate the remaining Tennyson-inspired compositions, however, we can return to Vaughan Williams' suggestion, above, that Stanford represented 'the musical counterpart of the art of Tennyson, Watts, and Matthew Arnold'.It is this pluralism which is the key to Stanford's musical relationship with Tennyson.Whilst one could argue that other British composers tended to explore one aspect of the poet's art (in Sterndale Bennett's case, ceremonial, in Parry's case, the temptations of art), Stanford was able to explore a variety of elements -the dramatic (Queen Mary, Becket), the elegiac (Symphony no.2, the Wellington Ode, Ave atque vale), the heroic (The Revenge), the imperialist (Carmen saeculare), and the mythological (The Voyage of Maeldune).A focus on each of these works, combining musical and literary contexts, would highlight their significance, and perhaps lead to their more frequent performance.Most significant, however, is Stanford's choice of Merlin and the Gleam towards the end of his career.One writer has recently criticised an apparent return by Stanford to an earlier musical style in this work:

© 1946 ,
Boosey & Co., Ltd; reproduced by permission of Boosey & Hawkes longer gaps between question and answer in the first four stanzas (Gurney sets the poem complete) suggest the increasing difficulty of the answers.The significance of the question, "Is my girl happy?" is highlighted by its being at half speed, and the song breaks down entirely at 'And has she tired of weeping', leading to a recitative-like section (ex.6).Reproduced from The Western Playland by permission of Stainer & Bell Ltd., London, England.The warning "Your girl is well-contented… sleep" is pointed by being unaccompanied, before the music cranks itself back up to create a modified version of the opening material in the final two stanzas.The slight elongation of the final question, the greater harmonic complexity, and the long gap between question and answer suggest the problematic nature of the response, and in contrast to Vaughan Williams, a single augmented chord on the piano suggests the significance of 'Never ask me whose'; it is left to a short coda to ruminate upon proceedings.Is my team ploughing?by George Butterworth (1885-1916) is The readings by Parry and Elgar adopt slightly different compositional approaches, reformulating Tennyson's musical imagery.Given Parry's associations with the concept of morality in art, his distressing experiences over the descent of his brother Clinton into dipsomania, and the fact that a cantata setting (for soprano, chorus and orchestra) was a suitable vehicle to impart an implicit moral message, one might expect Parry to interpret the text along didactic lines.However, the sensuous nature of the orchestral accompaniment, the rich textures associated with Lotosland, and the exploration of third-related keys, all contribute to a seductive palette highlighting the attractive qualities of life on the island.Most striking, however, is the role of the soprano soloist, who adopts a siren-like persona (effectively making the siren elements in the poem more overt), coaxing the mariners to abandon their former lives through declamation, soporific repetition and the beauty of pure sound.Example 8: PARRY LOTOS EATERS CHANDOS CHAN 8990, Track 15, 0:00 to 0:47 Courtesy of Chandos Records; website: www.chandos-records.comThe repetition of Tennyson's final line, "We will not wander more" (one of the few passages where soloist and chorus combine) reinforces the sense of a decision to remain.Michael Allis, 'Shared Concerns: thoughts on British literature and British music in the long nineteenth century' 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1 (2005) www.19.bbk.ac.uk mirroring the sense of debate in Tennyson's poem, Elgar's part-song focuses upon the first stanza of the poem ("There is sweet music… poppy hangs in sleep"), focusing upon the intoxicating effects of the sweet music.The partial recapitulations of text, rhythmic dislocation, vocal division, and the juxtaposition of keys all serve to highlight the drugged state of the mariners.Particularly effective is the end of the part-song, with its hypnotic repetitions, alternating between chords of G major (associated with the male voices) and A flat major (associated with the female voices).Example 9: ELGAR "There is sweet music" CHANDOS CHAN 9269, Track 9, 4:05 -end (5:03) Courtesy of Chandos records; website: www.chandos-records.comBy discussing these musical readings within the context of a literary debate, Tennyson's use of musical imagery can be given sharper focus, and the range of interpretative possibilities of the text can also be explored.
in their next collaboration, A Song of Darkness and Light, the vocal score contained several lines in parentheses; these were not actually set by Parry, but were retained simply for poetic considerations.The balance of the Bridges-Parry relationship was revised even further in the Eton Memorial Ode (1908), where, although Parry was unhappy with parts of the text, Bridges refused to make any alterations: enters in augmentation), and dislocated rhythms.Similarly, it is the 7/4 metre of Sorrow and Joy which gives it the flexibility of text-setting that Bridges perhaps felt was missing in Parry's more definite structures (see example 10).Despite Bridges' avowed antipathy towards modern music in general, therefore, in terms of the musical setting of text, its scope for experimentation was ultimately more to his taste.SORROW AND JOY from SEVEN PART-SONGS OP.44 Music by Gustav Holst and Words by Robert Bridges © Copyright 1926 Novello & Company Limited All Rights Reserved.International Copyright Secured.Reproduced by Permission.
1918, at Parry's funeral, giving the work a status of a double elegy, as it were.As a composition, it represents the sense of Parry's personal loss in relation to a public figure who was an important influence upon British music in the late nineteenth century.In the spirit of literary studies, a contextual frame for this work might explore the Parry-Brahms relationship further, whether in terms of biography (as a young composer, Parry aspired to study with Brahms), or with detailed reference to Parry's published writings.One example from the latter illustrates Parry's admiration for Brahms' compositional approach: as a sudden textural interpolation within a general sense of apotheosis, its presence is significant -compare examples 11(a) and 11(b).Bernoliel also suggests that "the lilting second subject in E minor is surely reminiscent of the second subject in Brahms' A minor string quartet."88Alternatively, this passage could be seen as a reminiscence of the Allegretto grazioso third movement of the Second Symphony; examples 12 (a) and (b) highlight references to the contour of bass figure 'y':

" 111 Example 13
complicated and dreary sonata"), richly-textured rhetorical interventions on the piano, marked poco allargando, largamente and molto largamente (the "full diapason of a chorus"), clangorous writing nine bars before figure14("terrific discord"), and, most significantly, a series of interrupted tarantella fragments in the strings which coalesce into an overt tarantella theme at figure 14.

Table I : Stanford's Tennyson-inspired compositions
5755Ralph Vaughan Williams' assertion that Stanford's music "is in the best sense of the word Victorian, that is to say it is the musical counterpart of the art of Tennyson, Watts, and Matthew Arnold,"56or Ernest Walker's highlighting of particular subject matter and its treatment: he[Stanford]seems most attracted by two things -Irish national music and a sort of broadly Tennysonian romanticism… His Tennysonian spirit shows itself in his great partiality for words dealing with nature, especially with the sea, or expressing the romantic side of patriotism; in these and similar veins he is again completely at home, and possesses a singular power of subtle pictorialism that is entirely devoid of the faintest exaggeration and yet is very direct and vivid.57What is striking about Stanford's compositional output is the frequent presence of Tennyson as a literary source, whether as a text which was set, or as an extra-musical influence. TaIoutlines the compositions which were inspired by Tennyson's works: Michael Allis, 'Shared Concerns: thoughts on British literature and British music in the long nineteenth century' 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1 (2005) www.19.bbk.ac.ukPlay clip parallel to Tennyson