Jane Austen's Music
Jane Austen, like many of her heroines, was a keen amateur musician. She played the piano and sang, and a collection of music books which belonged to Austen and her family survives. This music, both print and manuscript, contains hundreds of songs and piano pieces, some written out in Austen's own handwriting.
[Image: with Mike Parker at Guildhall, Bath, September 2010]
Since 2007, soprano and literary scholar Gillian Dooley has been devising and performing in concerts including this music, often combined with readings from Austen's works. Between 2017 and 2021 she created more than 500 catalogue records for the individual items in the collection on the University of Southampton Library Catalogue.
Her book She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music is due out from Manchester University Press in March 2024.
Adelaide book launch on 21 March - all welcome - bookings and details here.
Video and audio
Jane Austen's Music on SoundCloud
Juvenile Songs and Lessons: Music Culture in Jane Austen's Teenage Years (JASNA 2020 presentation) on JASNA Vimeo page.
Captivity by Stephen Storace on YouTube
Media and Blog posts
Read interview on 'My Jane Austen Book Club', March 2024.
Listen to interview on BBC Radio 3 'Music Matters, 24 February 2024.
' Jane Austen's Music - A Life-long Obsession', Planet Hugill, December 2023.
'The Musical Life of Jane Austen' on the feminist website The New Historia, 2023.
Read Dangerous attractions and revolutionary sympathies: 5 Jane Austen facts revealed by music in The Conversation, July 2022.
Listen to Gillian Dooley interviewed by Emily Sutherland on 'Kaleidoscope', 5MBS (99.9FM in Adelaide), August 2021, re completion of Austen music cataloguing project.
Listen to Gillian Dooley interviewed by Emily Sutherland on 'Kaleidoscope', 5MBS (99.9FM in Adelaide), May 2012 re Jane Austen's music and forthcoming performances at Bath and Abingdon in UK in September 2012.
Listen to Gillian Dooley interviewed by Emily Sutherland on 'Kaleidoscope', 5MBS (99.9FM in Adelaide), November 2012 re 'Thorough Bass and Human Nature: A Musical Tour through Pride and Prejudice'.
Watch Gillian Dooley interviewed on the Adelaide Fringe Festival Fishbowl in March 2013 (fast forward to 39:00 for the segment).
This page created by Gillian Dooley, Flinders University, South Australia
Find the Jane Austen's Music group on Facebook