British Literature and Classical Music: Cultural Contexts 1870-1945

273 Pages·2015·1.28 MB·English

by  David Deutsch

British Literature and Classical Music
Historicizing Modernism
Series Editors
Matthew Feldman, Professor of Contemporary History, Teesside University, UK; and Erik
Tonning, Professor of English Literature and Culture, University of Bergen, Norway.
Assistant Editor: David Tucker, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Chester, UK
Editorial Board
Professor Chris Ackerley, Department of English, University of Otago, New Zealand;
Professor Ron Bush, St. John’s College, University of Oxford, UK; Dr Finn Fordham,
Department of English, Royal Holloway, UK; Professor Steven Matthews, Department
of English, University of Reading, UK; Dr Mark Nixon, Department of English,
University of Reading, UK; Professor Shane Weller, Reader in Comparative Literature,
University of Kent, UK; and Professor Janet Wilson, University of Northampton, UK.
Historicizing Modernism challenges traditional literary interpretations by
taking an empirical approach to modernist writing: a direct response to
new documentary sources made available over the last decade.
Informed by archival research, and working beyond the usual European/American
avant-garde 1900–45 parameters, this series reassesses established readings of modernist
writers by developing fresh views of intellectual contexts and working methods.
Series Titles
Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India, Laetitia Zecchini
Broadcasting in the Modernist Era, edited by Matthew Feldman, Henry Mead and Erik Tonning
Ezra Pound’s Adams Cantos, David Ten Eyck
Ezra Pound’s Eriugena, Mark Byron
Great War Modernisms and The New Age Magazine, Paul Jackson
Katherine Mansfield and Literary Modernism, edited by
Janet Wilson, Gerri Kimber and Susan Reid
Late Modernism and The English Intelligencer, Alex Latter
The Life and Work of Thomas MacGreevy, Susan Schreibman
Modern Manuscripts, Dirk Van Hulle
Reading Mina Loy’s Autobiographies, Sandeep Parmar
Reframing Yeats, Charles Ivan Armstrong
Samuel Beckett and Arnold Geulincx, David Tucker
Samuel Beckett and Science, Chris Ackerley
Samuel Beckett and The Bible, Iain Bailey
Samuel Beckett’s ‘More Pricks Than Kicks’, John Pilling
Samuel Beckett’s German Diaries 1936–1937, Mark Nixon
T. E. Hulme and the Ideological Politics of Early Modernism, Henry Mead
Virginia Woolf’s Late Cultural Criticism, Alice Wood
British Literature and
Classical Music
Cultural Contexts 1870–1945
David Deutsch
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Bloomsbury Academic
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
© David Deutsch, 2015
David Deutsch has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or
the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-3581-5
ePDF: 978-1-4742-3583-9
ePub: 978-1-4742-3582-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Series: Historicizing Modernism
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
Contents
Series Editors’ Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Approaches to classical music in British literature,
1870–1945: Theory and practice 1
1 The liberalization of music in aesthetic literature: Pater and Oxford 17
2 Modernism’s distinctive musical rhetoric: Eliot, Huxley, and Woolf 55
3 The musical refinement of society’s margins: Bennett, Burke,
Lawrence, and their contemporaries 95
4 Distinguishing a musical homoeroticism: Pater, Forster, and their
aesthetic descendants 139
5 Classical music, cosmopolitanism, and war: From authors to
audiences 185
Conclusion: A literary coda: Classical music in British literature 229
Works Cited 231
Index 253

Series Editors’ Preface
This book series is devoted to the analysis of late-nineteenth to twentieth-century
literary Modernism within its historical context. Historicizing Modernism thus
stresses empirical accuracy and the value of primary sources (such as letters,
diaries, notes, drafts, marginalia or other archival deposits) in developing
monographs, scholarly editions and edited collections on Modernist authors
and their texts. This may take a number of forms, such as manuscript study
and annotated volumes; archival editions and genetic criticism; as well as
mappings of interrelated historical milieus or ideas. To date, no book series
has laid claim to this interdisciplinary, source-based territory for modern
literature. Correspondingly, two burgeoning sub-disciplines of Modernism,
Beckett studies and Pound studies, feature heavily as exemplars of the oppor-
tunities presented by manuscript research more widely. While an additional
range of “canonical” authors will be covered here, this series also highlights the
centrality of supposedly “minor” or occluded figures, not least in helping to
establish broader intellectual genealogies of Modernist writing. Furthermore,
while the series will be weighted towards the English-speaking world, studies
of non-Anglophone Modernists whose writings are ripe for archivally-based
exploration shall also be included.
A key aim of such historicizing is to reach beyond the familiar rhetoric of
intellectual and artistic “autonomy” employed by many Modernists and their
critical commentators. Such rhetorical moves can and should themselves be
historically situated and reintegrated into the complex continuum of individual
literary practices. This emphasis upon the contested self-definitions of Modernist
writers, thinkers and critics may, in turn, prompt various reconsiderations of
the boundaries delimiting the concept “Modernism” itself. Similarly, the very
notion of “historicizing” Modernism remains debatable, and this series by no
means discourages more theoretically informed approaches. On the contrary,
the editors believe that the historical specificity encouraged by Historicizing
Modernism may inspire a range of fundamental critiques along the way.
Matthew Feldman
Erik Tonning

Acknowledgments
This book is warmly dedicated to my mother and to my husband Kirk, the two of
whom bore the brunt of it for many years and who are undoubtedly as glad as I am
that it is finished. My sister and brother, Marthe and Steven, offered me the right
mixture of support and indifference. The entire Walter family frequently asked
me about the book and then listened to what I had to say, which meant a great
deal. Woven throughout the book are thoughts of my grandparents, who in many
ways brought me to this topic. Bella was always there making everything easier.
I’d like to say here how fortunate I feel to have been invited into a department
immensely warm in its collegiality and in its friendship. I’d like to thank in
particular James McNaughton, Albert Pionke, and Emily Wittman for criti-
quing much of this manuscript, which they did with insight, with attention to
detail, and with grace. I’d also like to thank Philip Beidler, Jen Drouin, Trudier
Harris, and Cassie Smith for reading chapters and proposals along the way
and for offering useful advice. Heather White answered questions with a smile.
Tricia McElroy, Fred Whiting, Deborah Weiss, and Andy Crank have offered
frequent food and laughter of equal excellence as they suffered my stopping by
their homes and offices and even invited me back.
Outside of my home department, Sebastian Knowles continued to read my
work and offer feedback and support long past the dissertation stage. Adam
Parkes and Robin Darwall-Smith have read chapters and offered advice, which
made this a stronger book. Chris Ackerley offered useful advice at a pivotal
stage. I have been fortunate to find mentoring and long-lasting friendship from
Kalpen Trivedi. If any of my sentences have clarity, this has something to do
with Andrew Cole who took the time to insist on precision when we were in
Athens, Georgia. James Dixon offered consistent inspiration. Brock Tyra and
the University of Alabama Libraries’ staff have been wonderfully resourceful in
helping me with obtaining source material for this study. David Avital, Matthew
Feldman, Erik Tonning, and the staff at Bloomsbury Academic have been
instrumental in bringing this study into the world as a book, for which I am
exceptionally grateful.
In the course of four years, Tuscaloosa and Northport have become home.
This is in no small part to my and Kirk’s friends and neighbors, in particular