Music in the Early Modern Novel
What place music occupies in 17th-century novels, and how exactly music functions in these texts? In which ways did Dutch authors deviate from their European colleagues’ methods in incorporating songs and using musical scenes, references and characters? These are some of the fascinating issues that will be studied in this project.
Music has played an important role in the novel for centuries. Studies on the phenomenon have, however, mostly been directed at the 20th century. There a world of opportunity opens up: research into the role and function of music in early modern prose does not exist in the Netherlands and is scarce in international perspective. Also the combination of today’s ‘musico-literary studies’ with current research into the early modern novel is unprecedented. Attention to aspects of form –such as the presence of songs, melody references and various instructions for oral recital– rather than merely the content of the story might broaden the interest in and increase the appreciation of this type of texts.
1) Natascha Veldhorst, Van Gogh & Music. Symphony in Blue and Yellow. New Haven/London: Yale University Press 2018.
2) Natascha Veldhorst, ‘Caccini in the Netherlands’. In: Dinko Fabris & Margaret Murata (ed.), Passaggio in Italia. Music on the Grand Tour in the seventeenth Century. Leiden: Brepols 2014, 111-129.
3) Natascha Veldhorst, Zingend door het leven. Het Nederlandse liedboek in de Gouden Eeuw. Gouden Eeuw Reeks, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2009.