Gillian Dooley (soprano) and Judith Gore (piano) present ‘Scotch’ and ‘Irish’ Airs from Jane Austen’s collection
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Jane Austen’s surviving music collection includes many songs that are either genuinely Scottish or reflect the fashion for Scottish music in England in her time. In this program a selection of these melodies is presented, either as songs or piano variations, and some links with her novels are suggested. Program curated by Dr Gillian Dooley of Flinders University, South Australia, Nominated Fellow at IASH in July 2023, and author of the forthcoming book She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music (Manchester University Press).
Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778), The Scotch Air in the overture to Thomas and Sally – ‘To ease his heart and own his flame’
This melody was so popular in the overture to Arne’s 1760 opera that he added words based on a lyric by Thomas D’Urfey and published the song separately. Austen owned a print copy of this publication.
Anon., ‘I ha’e laid a herring in sa’t’
A traditional tune first recorded in 1776. Austen’s manuscript version appears to be copied from a publication from 1790.
Anon, arr. Tommaso Giordani (1733?-1806), Queen Mary’s Lamentation – ‘I sigh and lament me in vain’
Giordani’s arrangement of this traditional Scottish ballad for string quartet and voice was published in 1782, and Austen’s manuscript, copied in the early 1790s, is based on this arrangement.
Domenico Corri (1746-1825), ‘My ain kind dearie’, with variations
This set of variations, published in around 1795, is copied into Austen’s manuscript book titled ‘Juvenile Songs and Lessons for Young Beginners who don’t know enough to practise’.
Amelia Opie (1769-1853), lyricist, Irish Air – ‘Lost, lost is my quiet’
In Austen’s manuscript book it is merely headed ‘Irish Air’ with no further information. The melody is not Irish, but was published by Neil Gow in 1788 as ‘The Caledonian hunt’s delight’, and later set to words by Robert Burns, who relates an amusing story of its origins.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852), lyricist, Eveleen’s Bower – ‘O weep for the hour’
This song is in Volume Two of Moore’s Irish Melodies, arranged by Sir John Stevenson, published in Dublin and London in 1807. The melody is an Irish air, ‘The Pretty Girl of Derby O’. Austen copied it into her later book of manuscripts, along with several other of Moore’s Irish Melodies.
Lady Caroline Keppel (1737-1769), lyricist, Robin Adair
The melody is ‘Eileen Aroon’, ‘one of the oldest traceable tunes in all fiddle literature’, according to the Traditional Tune Archive. The words were written in the middle of the eighteenth century by Lady Caroline Keppel, the daughter of the Earl of Albemarle, who had been forbidden from marrying the penniless Robin Adair. Her parents eventually relented and they married. This song is not among Austen’s manuscripts, but is the only piece of music mentioned by name in any of Austen’s novels.
George Kiallmark (1791-1835), Robin Adair: a favorite Irish melody, with variations for the piano forte
This set of variations on the Irish tune was published in about 1805, and a copy is in a bound album of printed music among the Austen family music books, although it is not known exactly which family member it belonged to.
Robert Burns (1759-1795), lyricist, Song from Burns – ‘Their groves of sweet myrtle’
This song is in one of Austen’s manuscript books. No composer is given, and this tune has not been identified among the various printed settings of these words. However, a manuscript copy of a slightly different version of the same melody is held in the manuscript collection of Mary Elizabeth Egerton (1782-1846) of Tatton Park.
Anon, arr. Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831), The Yellow Hair’d Laddie – ‘In April when primroses’
This song dates from the late seventeeth or early eighteenth century. Austen’s printed copy of ‘The Yellow Hair’d Laddie’ in Ramsey’s Thirty Scots songs for a voice and harpsichord includes only the bass line of an accompaniment plus a second voice part for a male singer. We will perform Pleyel’s later arrangement of the song today.
Anon., The Soger Laddie
There is a variety of versions of the melody and lyrics for this song, including an arrangement of a different melody with the same words in Haydn’s 1792 set of Scottish songs, and a set of somewhat similar lyrics by Burns. However, I have found this melody under the same title (spelled ‘soger’ rather than ‘soldier’) in only one other manuscript source, held in the British Library. The copy in the Austen music collection is in the hand of Ann Cawley, Austen’s early teacher, probably from the 1750s, in an album that somehow came into Austen’s possession after Cawley’s death in 1787.