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[Abstract]

After years of studying piano as a young woman in her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson curated her music book, a common practice at the time. Now part of the Dickinson Collection in the Houghton Library of Harvard University, this bound volume of 107 pieces of published sheet music includes the poet's favorite instrumental piano music and vocal music, ranging from theme and variation sets to vernacular music, which was also enjoyed by the family's servants. Offering a fresh historical perspective on a poetic voice that has become canonical in American literature, this original study brings this artifact to life, documenting Dickinson's early years of musical study through the time her music was bound in the early 1850s, which tellingly coincided with the writing of her first poems. Using Dickinson's letters and poems alongside newspapers and other archival sources, George Boziwick explores the various composers, music sellers, and publishers behind this music and Dickinson's attendance at performances, presenting new insights into the multiple layers of meaning that music held for her (George Boziwick / pre-recorded video).

Music was a form of communication for Dickinson, both separate from and contained within her poetry. This paper will address how her usage of song stemmed from her frequent engagement with music in her life, inquiring beyond Dickinson's usage of song in her poems to the music and musicians that inspired her. It will primarily build upon the works of Carolyn Cooley, Carlton Lowenberg, Judy Jo Small, Jay Leyda, and Richard Sewall, among others, whose work on Dickinson's relationship with music has formed the basis for scholarship on the subject. Further, it will provide a counterpoint to George Boziwick's research into Dickinson's interest in popular tunes and Victoria Morgan's work on hymnody, in that its focus will be primarily classical music. Much of this research depends upon making deductions and identifying information from mostly uncollated diaries, sheet music, letters, and book manuscripts such as those found in the Martha Dickinson Bianchi collection at Brown University, which have been little-discussed in Dickinson studies. (Samantha Landau / online)