My essay on Edmund Gosse’s malign influence on Swinburne studies, both biographical and critical, is available in the latest issue of the International Walter Pater Society’s journal. ‘“A Genius for Inaccuracy”: Edmund Gosse and the Case of Swinburne’s Missing Musical… Read More ›
poetry
‘A Match’: Swinburne in Paris, Richard Monckton Milnes, “William Blake”, and Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”
The first two stanzas of A Match by Jeremiah Rhodes, published in 1868. Swinburne’s poem ‘A Match’ from his 1866 collection Poems and Ballads would become one of his most popular lyrics and the poem most often set to music…. Read More ›
A Swinburne song catalogue, a work in progress, and two Holy Grails
Here is a catalogue of songs which were set to the lyrics of Swinburne and published between 1866-1920. It also lists a few important unpublished songs and some musical oddities and odds and ends that I’m not sure how to… Read More ›
Original score for Marzials’s ‘Ask Nothing More’ (1883)
Here is an original score for Theophilus Marzials’s popular song ‘Ask Nothing More’ (1883). The words are from Swinburne’s poem ‘The Oblation’ (Songs Before Sunrise, 1871). I played my own recording of this piece at the British Association of Decadence… Read More ›
‘The world, what is it to you, dear’: Mary Wakefield’s Maytime in Midwinter (1885)
On the afternoon of 13 March 1878 at a charity concert at the Palazzo Odescalchi in Rome, Mary Wakefield started to sing. In the audience was Anne Crawford, the Baroness von Rabe, who was amazed by her performance. It had… Read More ›
The Journal of Victorian Culture: Swinburne, Wagner, T. S. Eliot, and the musical legacy of ‘Poems and Ballads’
I’m very happy to report that my article, ‘Swinburne, Wagner, Eliot, and the Musical Legacy of Poems and Ballads‘, has been published by the Journal of Victorian Culture. The article links to the post below concerning Francis Hueffer, whom the article… Read More ›