The Virtuous Virtuoso: Keyboard Works from the Musical Notebooks of Jane Austen

“The Virtuous Virtuoso” is a conversational recital program of works that Jane Austen studied as an amateur keyboard player.

Playing the piano was a prominent feminine accomplishment in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Jane Austen, like many young women of her social standing, excelled at the instrument. The pianoforte takes a prominent role in many of her novels, with the instrument as a site of provocative interactions between men and women, and musical skill (or lack thereof) a reflection of character and social standing. However, Austen mentions only one classical composer by name in her works (John Baptiste Cramer,) leaving it up to the reader to imagine what her heroines might have played.

Housed in the Jane Austen Memorial Trust in Chawton, England, are several notebooks containing music, mainly for keyboard, that belonged to Austen. Two volumes contain copies of works made in Austen’s own hand; others contain sheet music from her day. I have compiled a recital program of music drawn from this collection, including works by Haydn, Steibelt, and Pleyel, among others. Many of the composers represented have since fallen into obscurity, but they were the musical giants of their day. Their works range in style and genre, and include pieces of enchanting lyrical sensibility as well as virtuoso exploits of bravura passion.

In presenting these works in concert, I introduce them by speaking from the piano, telling the audience a bit about the lesser-known composers on the program, and recounting scenes from Austen’s novels in which the piano is featured. I also draw on Austen’s biography, mentioning the author’s own practice habits and her relationship to music making.

Photo: Playing from the Austen notebooks at the Austen Trust in Chawton, November 2006.