Charles Dickens and Music

The author surveys musical references scattered throughout the novelist's writings, arguing that music is repeatedly used to characterize figures and drive incident. Chapters examine instrumental combinations and particular instruments, church music, popular songs, and notable singers; the volume includes lists of cited songs and indexes of instruments and characters. The study combines close readings with attempts to identify quotations, draws on contemporary song scholarship, and treats the novelist's work as a source for ordinary English musical life, while offering suggestions for rendering the pieces in performance.