Romanticism and Music Culture in Britain, 1770–1840
Virtue and Virtuosity

This book surveys the role of music in British culture throughout the long Romantic period.

Gillen D'Arcy Wood (Author)

9780521117333, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 March 2010

314 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.63 kg

Review of the hardback: 'An elegantly sober manner and unflagging diligence underlie the book's many virtues. But to my mind the constant surprises and - it bears repeating - the brilliant execution make this a consummately virtuoso performance.' Marshall Brown, Review 19

Music was central to everyday life and expression in late Georgian Britain, and this interdisciplinary study looks at its impact on Romantic literature. Focusing on the public fascination with virtuoso performance, Gillen D'Arcy Wood documents a struggle between sober 'literary' virtue and luxurious, effeminate virtuosity that staged deep anxieties over class, cosmopolitanism, machine technology, and the professionalization of culture. A remarkable synthesis of cultural history and literary criticism, this book opens new perspectives on key Romantic authors - including Burney, Wordsworth, Austen and Byron - and their relationship to definitive debates in late Georgian culture.

Preface
Introduction. Virtuosophobia
1. Seward's Handelomania
2. The Burney baroque
3. Wordsworth castrato
4. Cockney Mozart
5. Austen's accomplishment
6. The Byron of the piano
Coda. The mechanical nightingale.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D], Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5], Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4]