
Contents
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Introduction: Scott’s musical abilities Introduction: Scott’s musical abilities
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Songs and social contexts in Scott’s day Songs and social contexts in Scott’s day
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Anacreontic and other convivial songs Anacreontic and other convivial songs
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Ambivalence in songs of social and historical critique Ambivalence in songs of social and historical critique
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Songs and tunes of action Songs and tunes of action
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Tragedy: loss and death Tragedy: loss and death
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Musical elements in the construction of Scott’s narrators Musical elements in the construction of Scott’s narrators
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3 ‘A Taste for Music, or No’? Walter Scott’s Novels and Music
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Published:July 2024
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Abstract
The chapter begins by noting Walter Scott’s self-professed lack of musical skill, and yet his own love of what he described as ‘simple’ tunes – the folk, popular, march, and dance songs which populate his novels. The chapter focuses initially on two sets of songs, the first (‘Anacreontic’) about material pleasures, and the second historico-political. Scott’s song choices prove to be anachronistic for many of his historical novels, but they thus invite what Jackson-Houlston suggests is a form of kinship between readers and characters established through song. Songs also prove to be slippery in terms of their political positioning, given the frequency of adaptation of words to new contexts and opposite sides. The final part of the chapter draws connections between the author and his fictional narrators, especially in terms of their choice of songs reflecting Scott’s own anxieties about money, writing, and mortality.
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