He Stoops to Conquer: Fielding and English Song
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20138834Keywords:
Fielding, Eighteenth century, Song, Aesthetics, TheaterAbstract
Given Fielding’s noteworthy achievement as a songwriter, two puzzling issues arise. First, why are his lyrics so superior to his poetry, and second, why did he become immersed in popular song when he had limited respect for the form? The second question is the more easily answered: the often impecunious Fielding embraced ballad opera after noting the monumental success of The Beggar’s Opera. Its appeal for him, though, was not simply financial as its attack on Italian opera and use of songs to make moral points also attracted him. Once underway, however, his career as a lyricist quickly revealed his talent for word-painting, as he skillfully used music to reinforce his words’ meaning; and he integrated his airs so smoothly into the action that many are written as dialogue, giving them dramatic force. He also proved highly adept at setting new words to old melodies, using the previous lyrics to provide an interpretive framework for his own. Ironically, too, his limited respect for the genre contributed to his success as he abandoned the stilted and elevated style of his poetry and adopted popular music’s easy informality. Indeed, if English song was ‘low’, it was ultimately by stooping that Fielding conqueredDownloads
References
Aspden, Suzanne. 1997. “Ballads and Britons: Imagined Community and the Continuity of ‘English’ Opera”. Journal of the Royal Musical Association 122: 24-51.
Baldwin, Olive and Thelma Wilson. 1985. “250 Years of Roast Beef”. Musical Times 126: 203-207.
Battestin, Martin with Ruth Battestin. 1989. Henry Fielding: a Life. London: Routledge.
Betz, Siegmund. 1945. “The Operatic Criticism of the Tatler and Spectator”. Musical Quarterly 31: 318-30.
Dudden, F. Homes. 1966. Henry Fielding: His Life, Works, and Times. Hamden, CT: Archon Books.
Dugaw, Dianne. 2001. “Deep Play”: John Gay and the Invention of Modernity. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press.
Fielding, Henry. (1728) 2004. Love in Several Masques. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays: Volume One, 1728-1731. Oxford U.P.: 1-98.
—. (1731a) 2008. Epilogue to Theobald’s Orestes: a Dramatic Opera. In Battestin, M. C. (ed.) The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon,
Shamela, and Occasional Writings. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 99-106.
—. (1731b) 2007. The Grub-Street Opera. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays: Volume Two, 1731-1734. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 67-127.
—. (1732) 2007. The Modern Husband. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays, Volume Two, 1731-1734. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 181-287.
—. (1734a) 2004. The Author’s Farce. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays: Volume One, 1728-1731. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 185-358.
—. (1734b) 2011. Don Quixote in England. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays: Volume Three, 1734-1742. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 1-84.
—. (1734c) 2007. The Intriguing Chambermaid. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays, Volume Two, 1731-1734. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 561-617.
—. (1739-1740) 2003. The Champion. In Coley, W. B. (ed.) Contributions to The Champion and Related Writings. Oxford: Oxford U.P.;
-524.
—. (1741) 2008. Shamela. In Battestin, M. C. The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, Shamela, and Occasional Writings. Oxford U.P.: 133-195.
—. (1742a). 1967. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews. Battestin, M. C. (ed.). Middleton, CT: Wesleyan U.P.
—. (1742b) 2011. Miss Lucy in Town. In Lockwood, T. (ed.) Plays: Volume Three, 1734-1742. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 461-501.
—. (1743a) 1972. Miscellanies by Henry Fielding, Esq. Vol. 1. Miller, H. K. (ed.). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.
—. (1743b) 1993. Eurydice. In Amory, H. (ed.) Miscellanies by Henry Fielding, Esq. Vol. 2. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P: 129-151.
—. (1743c) 1997. The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. In Amory, H. (ed.) Miscellanies by Henry Fielding, Esq. Vol. 3. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.: 1-196.
—. (1743d) 1993. A Journey from This World to the Next. In Amory, H. (ed.) Miscellanies by Henry Fielding, Esq. Vol. 2. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.: 1-128
—. (1743e) 1972. “To a Friend on the Choice of a Wife”. In Miller, H. K. (ed.) Miscellanies by Henry Fielding, Esq. Vol. 1. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.: 42-50.
—. (1745-1746) 1987. The True Patriot. In Coley, W. B. (ed.) The True Patriot and Related Writings. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.: 103-309.
—. (1747) 2008. “Preface and Letters XL-XLIV of Sarah Fielding’s Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple”. In Battestin, M. C. (ed.) The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, Shamela, and Occasional Writings. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 462-513.
—. (1749) 1975. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Bowers, F. (ed.) Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.
—. (1751) 1983. Amelia. Battestin, M. C. (ed.) Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.
—. (1752) 1988. The Covent-Garden Journal. In Goldgar, B. A. (ed.) The Covent-Garden Journal and a Plan of the Universal-Register Office. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan U.P.
—. (1972) 2008. “‘Cantos’: An Unfinished Burlesque of The Dunciad”. In Battestin, M. C. (ed.) The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, Shamela, and Occasional Writings. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 28-70.
Fielding, Henry and Sarah Fielding. 1993. The Correspondence of Henry and Sarah Fielding. In Battestin, M. C. and C. T. Probyn (eds.) Oxford: Oxford U.P.
Fiske, Roger. 1973. English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century. London: Oxford U.P.
Gagey, Edmund. 1965. Ballad Opera. Bronx, NY: Benjamin Blom.
Harris, James. (1744) 1765. Three Treatises: the First Concerning Art; the Second Concerning Music, Painting, and Poetry; the Third Concerning Happiness. London: John Nourse and Paul Valliant.
Hassall, Anthony. 1967. “The Authorial Dimension in the Plays of Henry Fielding”. Komos 1: 4-18.
Jensen, H. James. 1969. “English Restoration Attitudes toward Music”. Musical Quarterly 55: 206-214.
Lillo, George. (1730) 1993. Silvia. In Steffensen, J. L. (ed.) The Dramatic Works of George Lillo. Oxford: Oxford U.P.: 1-112.
Loftis, John. 1950. “Richard Steele’s Censorium”. Huntington Library Quarterly 14: 43-66.
Mace, Dean. 1970. “Marin Mersenne on Language and Music”. Journal of Music Theory 14: 2-34.
Morrissey, L. J. 1971. “Henry Fielding and the Ballad Opera”. Eighteenth-Century Studies 4: 386-402.
Ness, Robert. 1986-1987. “The Dunciad and Italian Opera in England”. Eighteenth-Century Studies 20: 173-194.
Phillips, James. 1953. “Poetry and Music in the Seventeenth Century”. Music and Literature in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Los Angeles: University of California Press: 1-21.
Probyn, Clive. 1991. The Sociable Humanist: the Life and Works of James Harris 1709-1780. Oxford: Oxford U.P.
Roberts, Edgar. 1961. “Eighteenth-Century Ballad Opera: the Contribution of Henry Fielding”. Drama Survey 1: 77-85.
—. 1972. “The Songs and Tunes in Henry Fielding’s Ballad Operas”. In Richards, K. and P. Thomson (eds.) Essays on the Eighteenth-Century English Stage. London: Methuen: 29-49.
Rogers, Pat. 1979. Henry Fielding: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Rogers, Vanessa. 2008. “Fielding’s Ballad Operas and Eighteenth-Century Musical Theatre”. In Downie, J. A. (ed.) Henry Fielding in Our Time. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 327-359.
Trainor, Charles. 2009. “Fielding and Italian Opera”. Journal of English Studies 7: 83-94.
Walker, D. P. 1941, 1942. “Musical Humanism in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries”. Music Review 1: 1-13, 111-121, 220-27; 2: 288-308.
Winn, James. 1981. Unsuspected Eloquence: A History of the Relations between Poetry and Music. New Haven, CT: Yale U.P.
Yates, Frances. 1989. The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century. London: Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
