“There doth great Handel live”: Music in the life and works of Samuel Butler

Victorian author Samuel Butler (1835-1902) is remembered for his novel Erewhon or Over the Range (1872). However, he was also a polymath with a variety of interests including art, science, literature, and music. He is known among musicologists for his obsession with Handel’s music, which he believed was the pinnacle of artistic achievement. Butler repeatedly referenced Handel in his literary works, papers, and correspondence and was an amateur musician and composer. He went on to compose and publish three musical works in the style of Handel: Gavottes, Minuets, Fugues (1885), Narcissus: A Dramatic Cantata (1888), and Ulysses: A Dramatic Oratorio (1904). Butler regularly attended musical events in London and penned amateur music criticism that was frequently published in minor newspapers and periodicals. Butler’s life provides a fascinating case study of Victorian musical culture and practices that allows us critical insight into Handel’s reception and continued importance in late-nineteenth-century England. Contextualizing Butler’s relationship with Handel’s music and, to some extent, his use of it in his literary works, in reference to the Victorian’s enthusiasm for Handel is essential to construct a full portrait of Butler’s life and works. By integrating “Butler’s Handel” into future studies of him, new readings of his fictional writing will be possible.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.Mus.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kwilecki, Sarah Jane

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bashford , Christina

• Handel
• Samuel Butler
• Oratorio
• Victorian Music
• Erewhon
• The Way Of All Flesh
• Satire
• Handel Reception
• Victorian Literature

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Sarah Kwilecki

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127184

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127184