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She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music
published by Manchester University Press in March 2024 - paperback out August 2025!
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In her surviving letters, Jane Austen mentions music occasionally, not always with enthusiasm. However, we know that she played the piano and sang, practising regularly. In her novels there are subtleties and ambiguities in the way she uses music and musicianship to illuminate the characters, sharpening in various ways the differences between them, and adding extra facets to her portraits of young women – and indeed young men – in the crucial time of their lives just before marriage.
Until quite recently we have only had the opinions of relations who were still young when Austen died to tell us how accomplished a musician she was, but there is now a rich source of evidence for her capacity and her taste in the surviving music books from her family circle, now digitised on Internet Archive.
In this book we meet Jane Austen the musician: the musical literate who wove music into the fabric of her novels, who made musical jokes in her letters, and who spent much of her precious leisure time carefully copying music into her own manuscript books for herself to play and sing.
Jane Austen-related concerts and events, June to December 2025 (full details will be added as they become available)
To stay up to date, join the Jane Austen's Music group on Facebook.
Friday 27 June 2025. 6.00pm: The Jane Austen Song Book: an exclusive preview, with Gillian Dooley (voice) and Laura Klein (piano) at Blackie House Library and Museum, Lady Stairs Close, Edinburgh. Laura and Gillian are working on the publication of a selection of music from Austen's sheet music. In this program, we will present songs and piano pieces from across Austen's musical life time, from songs she learned in her early childhood to the songs she sang at the end of her life. Contact Blackie House Library and Museum for enquiries and bookings.
Tuesday 1 July 2025, 11.00 am: The Jane Austen Song Book: an exclusive preview, with Gillian Dooley (voice) and Laura Klein (piano) at Harewood House, Yorkshire. This concert is presented in association with the exhibition Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter, which features samples of Jane Austen's manuscript music. Bookings and enquiries at Harewood House.
Saturday 5 July 2025. 1.30pm: Musical interlude at Jane Austen Society UK AGM at Jane Austen's birthplace, Steventon, Hampshire, with Gillian Dooley (voice) and Christine Morphett (harp). A selection of music from the Austen family music collections for harp and voice, including French songs, Scottish songs, and songs of the sea.
Tuesday 8 July 2025, in the Dining Room at Chawton House, Hampshire. An afternoon of music with Gillian Dooley and Louisa Hunter-Bradley (voice) and Laura Klein (piano):
12pm Birthday concert - music from Jane Austen's childhood, including nursery rhymes she knew and some of the songs she was singing during the years she was writing her Juvenilia. Book here.
2, 3 and 4 on the hour - short selections from the Jane Austen Song Book - Free with entry to the House.
7pm The Jane Austen playlist - a program devised by Laura Klein on the theme of music and love, based on readings from Austen's novels and music from the family collections. Book here.
Wednesday 16 July 2025, 1.30pm St Thomas's Church, Charlton, Woodland Terrace, London SE7 8EN. Songs of the Sea with Gillian Dooley (voice) and Laura Klein (piano). A concert of music from the Austen music collection regarding sailors and the sea. St Thomas's Church is the resting place of Ann Flinders, the widow of Captain Matthew Flinders, and the program will also include a song he wrote for her. Bookings at ticketsource.
Saturday 19 July 2025, 5pm to 8pm, Jane Austen House Museum, Chawton. 'Dress Up Day: Late Opening', with Gillian Dooley (voice) and Laura Klein (piano). A concert for Emma, including music mentioned in Emma, Italian songs as sung by Jane Fairfax, and Irish music from Jane Austen's music collection. Also includes pop up talks on Jane Austen and Music. Book here.
Saturday 26 July 2025, 2.30pm to 5pm, Ash House, Somerset. Talk by Gillian Dooley on Jane Austen's Music, plus concert with Gillian Dooley (voice) and Annemarie Rhys-Jones (harp). A selection of music from the Austen family music collections for harp and voice, including French songs, Scottish songs, and songs for children. More details on Facebook, or contact Wendy for bookings.
Thursday 7 August, 6.30-8pm, book event at The Rabbit Hole, Brigg, Lincolnshire.
Friday 8 August, 6.30-8pm, book event at One More Chapter, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottingham.
Monday 11 August, 7pm, Selwyn College Chapel, Cambridge. 'Jane Austen Played and Sang', music for voice and piano from the Austen family music books, with Gillian Dooley (voice and piano). Presented by the Jane Austen Society of Cambridge - see Facebook post for more information.
Tuesday 12 August, 3.00 pm, Badby Music Society at Badby Village Hall, Northamptonshire. Talk: 'She played and she sang: Jane Austen and Music.' All welcome. Contact Angela Adams 07957 995944.
Saturday 23 August, 1pm-2.30pm, Blackwood Library, South Australia. An Afternoon with Austen, at 'Jane Austen versus ...' exhibition by Patrick Fitzgerald. Bookings at Eventbrite
Tuesday 2 September, 11am, Hetzel Lecture Theatre, State Library of South Australia, 'Tuesday Talks' - Gillian Dooley on [music] books in my life. Bookings at Humanitix
Wednesday 17 September, 2pm, Beaumont House, 631 Glynburn Road, Beaumont. I will be performing some Matthew Flinders songs as part of an afternoon of Baudin/Flinders related events, including a talk on Baudin by Joe van Dalen.
Sunday 5 - Wednesday 8 October: Jane Austen festival at Beaumont House (631 Glynburn Road). Including talks, music, exhibitions and other fun events. Details at the Victoriana Society Facebook page.
Sunday 7 December, Chapel Theatre, Strathalbyn, South Australia. Jane Austen's Birthday Celebration. Readings and music by Gillian Dooley, Katelyn Crawford, and Esmond Choi, staging and direction by Matthew Chapman and Peter Hackworth.
Jane Austen's Four Last Songs - concert
3pm, Sunday 23 April 2023, St David's Anglican Church, 492 Glynburn Road, Burnside, South Australia
Jane Austen’s niece Caroline, who was 12 when Austen died, wrote more than 50 years later of three songs she remembered her aunt singing towards the end of her short life, at a time when she ‘had nearly left off singing’. One of Caroline’s cousins added a fourth song, the memory of which ‘half a century had no power to efface’.
This program of music from the Austen family music books centres on these four songs – two Scottish songs, one French, and one from the English theatre – making audible these traces of Austen at her piano in her last years, playing and singing for the entertainment of her young relatives, and for her own pleasure. Along with these songs, we will perform other music from the Austen family collection.
Program curated by Dr Gillian Dooley from Flinders University. Image: Cassandra Austen's watercolour portrait of her sister Jane.
Repeated at the Adelaide Lyceum Club on 2 May and at Living Choice Fullarton on 23 August 2023.
Music culture in Britain in the late Georgian period (1770-1820) as reflected in Jane Austen’s writings and music collection of the Austen family
Nominated Fellowship at Edinburgh University, July 2023
Including a public lecture at Edinburgh University on 20 July and a concert at the Scottish Arts Club on 22 July.
Jane Austen Society UK - events in June and August 2023
Including
10 June - Lecture at Summer event at Godmersham House, Kent - Austen's musical links with Godmersham.
17 June - Lecture at at St Columba's Church, London - What Caroline Austen can tell us about Jane Austen the musician
5 August - Lecture and performance at Jane Austen's House Museum, Chawton - Jane Austen's Four Last Songs
Details will be available on the JAS Events Listing web page
Jane Austen's Four Last Songs - illustrated lecture
10.00am, 27 September 2023, The Johnston Collection, East Melbourne.
Jane Austen’s niece Caroline, who was 12 when Austen died, wrote more than 50 years later of three songs she remembered her aunt singing towards the end of her short life, at a time when she ‘had nearly left off singing’. One of Caroline’s cousins added a fourth song, the memory of which ‘half a century had no power to efface’. This illustrated presentation will put these songs in the context of Austen’s life and her music collection.
This talk will be repeated at the Jane Austen Society of Melbourne on 28 October 2023.
There will be a presentation about Austen and music at the Jane Austen Society of Adelaide, 1.30pm, 18 November 2023 - topic to be confirmed.
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