Four Victorian Songs Analyzed by Joanna Swafford

March 4, 2016 4:06 PM

Songs of the Victorians is a website about four songs composed in Victorian England. The history behind them reveals forgotten details of the era: Juanita was composed by Caroline Norton, a pioneering feminist; The Lost Chord was a poem by Adelaide Anne Procter first published in a feminist journal, then set to music by (yes that) Arthur Sullivan; a part of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Maud, which employs the cryptographical language of flowers, is set to music by Michael William Balfe and Sir Arthur Somervell, the former allowing performers to disguise or emphasize the disturbed emotions of the original, the latter makes the mental distress plain. The website was designed by digital humanities blogger and professor Joanna Swafford as a prototype for Augmented Notes, a system for highlighting sheet music visually while playing a sound file.
posted by Kattullus (10 comments total)

Oh, and in case it isn't clear, you can listen to the songs (and follow along the sheet music) by clicking the "archive" buttons on the songs page.
posted by Kattullus at 4:10 PM on March 4, 2016

More about Caroline Norton

And Adelaide Anne Procter
posted by thomas j wise at 4:23 PM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

It wasn't clear how to listen, thanks for that. Those are fun . . . off to listen to the other two.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:35 PM on March 4, 2016

Florence King was very fond of "fallen women" songs of that era.
posted by brujita at 8:56 PM on March 4, 2016

well, that's wacky: "Come Into The Garden Maud" is among my YT Victrola playlists, so this version is quite familiar to me. Given the formality and drama of the delivery, I had surmised it to be somehow associated with a high-culture, what, mise-en-scene? Marketing base?

https://youtu.be/zQVNo5XUFgY

I suppose in a way I'm saying this website was specifically created for me. More please!
posted by mwhybark at 12:30 AM on March 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

"These socially acceptable, sentimental songs often enabled women to address transgressive topics that otherwise would have been forbidden."

Fuck yes! I was just sharing victrola anti-war songs on FB and noted how deeply encoded they are.
posted by mwhybark at 12:32 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also, when was this developed and posted? The site suggests songs will be added to "for the foreseeable future" but the site design feels a bit pre Web 2.x.
posted by mwhybark at 12:38 AM on March 5, 2016

I like her writing. Her analysis of The Lost Chord doesn't mention that Sullivan composed his setting at the bedside of his dying brother Fred, an actor and singer who'd sung in many of his shows. The song was completed just five days before Fred died, and Sullivan dedicated it to him.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:11 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

mwhybark, the project was completed in 2013.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:08 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

She had to involve Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir Arthur Somervell just to keep us on our toes.
posted by pracowity at 9:43 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]