Book Reviews by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2021
Thesis Chapters by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visi... more Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. In an issue of his Review of the State of the British Nation dated 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort” (and adjacent, similarly centralized socioeconomic groups), entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them, including trips to London’s three chief pleasure gardens: Marybone (also spelled Marylebone), Ranelagh, and Vauxhall. Although garden refreshments were notoriously overpriced, the cost of admission was relatively modest, enabling even those from the poorer classes to attend at least occasionally. At the other end of the social spectrum, the attendance of royal family members enhanced the prestige of the gardens. Music presided over the pleasure garden experience, facilitating exchanges amongst the classes and providing unprecedented opportunities for social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated. This dissertation examines the complex function(s) of music, musicians, and performance in London’s three leading pleasure gardens—focusing primarily on their eighteenth-century heyday—and the intersections of these elements with the progression of capitalism and the commercialization of leisure. Through this examination, it reveals the pleasure gardens as apt stages for the social transgression, subversion, and emulation performed by garden visitors, and provides a more nuanced understanding of the role(s) that music, musical works, and musicians played in such performances.
COMMITTEE: Stephen C. Meyer (advisor), Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Scott Linford, Christopher Segall, & Kristy Swift
DEFENSE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/qPFrDnGvooU
1. “Wallace Berry’s and William Rothstein’s Divergent Paths from Analysis to Performance: So... more 1. “Wallace Berry’s and William Rothstein’s Divergent Paths from Analysis to Performance: Some Formal Implications in Mozart’s ‘Dalla sua pace’”
2. “Leopold Kozeluch’s Charismatic Conformance with the Symphonic Conventions of Viennese Classical Style”
3. “An Alternative Perspective on Webern’s ‘Crowning Achievement’ of Formal Synthesis in the Final Movement of Op. 28”
Conference Presentations by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society (held jointly with the Society for Music Theory), Denver, CO (11 November 2023)
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/S4wP-0GFgwA
Eighteenth-century London was an increasingly n... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/S4wP-0GFgwA
Eighteenth-century London was an increasingly noisy place, featuring a cacophony of traffic, metal smithing and other work noise, street hawkers, carousing alehouse/tavern patrons, pigs, dogs, and other animals. Around the edges of this bustling metropolis were the pleasure gardens, where visitors could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. The placement of the pleasure gardens on the outskirts of London, between the city and the country, paralleled the intermediate positioning of these venues in a variety of other respects.
In contrast to the informal performances of London’s itinerant street musicians, pleasure gardens, like many indoor theatres, employed musicians with fixed appointments, on organized programs. Pleasure gardens also had enclosed boundaries that likened them to indoor theatres. However, these boundaries were often visually disguised—using ha-has and other design elements—to create the illusion of a boundless idyllic landscape. They also contained semi-indoor structures, including roofed supper boxes and raised pavilions (called orchestras) for vocal and instrumental musicians. Supper boxes bore physical resemblance to opera boxes but were typically used by garden visitors for a single meal or evening, rather than rented out to one family for an entire season, thus broadening their accessibility to people of more diverse financial means. Similarly, open walks, groves, and other garden areas, along with affordable admission costs, fostered intermingling amongst diverse social classes, in contrast with the largely class-based audience segregation inherent in the layout and ticket pricing of opera houses.
Surveying eighteenth-century pleasure garden ephemera, this presentation will explore the intersection of sociological and ecological politics in the sonic cultivation of pleasure gardens as heterotopic spaces. In addition to their liminal positioning between urban/rural, formal/informal, indoor/outdoor, open/enclosed, and high-/low-class, the pleasure gardens also exploited the nebulous boundary between noise and music—sheltered to some degree from the urban cacophony, yet enhanced by the sounds of nature, of musicians, and of visitors themselves. It is no coincidence that, in chronological terms, the world of eighteenth-century London also occupied an intermediate position—between the unrestrained acoustic environment of the early modern period and the regulated soundscapes of modernity.*
*I ammend the claim I made in this final sentence in the conclusion of the presentation itself.
Music and the Moving Image Conference, virtual (26 May 2022)
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://bit.ly/MaMI2022Presentation
On-demand access and the increasing domi... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://bit.ly/MaMI2022Presentation
On-demand access and the increasing dominance of streaming services have facilitated the development of television series with complex, continuous storylines. Such storylines are central to the historical drama, and this genre has become an increasingly important part of the twenty-first-century cultural landscape. Like those for other television series, the title sequences for these historical dramas provide distinctive audiovisual signatures that enhance audience affiliation. Yet they must also provide a portal into the (quasi-)historical periods in which their plots unfold.
Chronological and cultural authenticity plays only a small role in these title sequences. Instead, sound designers and composers create historical pseudo-authenticity by juxtaposing soundscapes that reference distinct cultures and/or chronological periods. This results in a hybrid musical signature in which the perceived distance between these different sonic layers invokes and articulates the distance between the dramatic setting and the contemporary world of the viewer.
Sound designers and composers respond to the twin demands for affiliation and distance in diverse ways. Some of these historical dramas even go so far as to transform the title sequence with each new season of the series. This diversity reflects a thriving viewership market for this rapidly evolving genre. The advent of streaming has allowed the historical drama series to gain traction in a manner not unlike the Victorian-era surge of serial literature. As our modes of media consumption change, we may expect increasingly diverse responses to the generic demands of the historical drama as its creators appeal to ever broadening audiences.
Society for Eighteenth-Century Music Conference, Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Stockholm, Sweden (August 2021) [session held virtually on 13 August 2021, due to COVID-19 pandemic]
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visi... more Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Chief among such venues were Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone Gardens. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the gardens, visitors might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. The attendance of royal family members also enticed visitors. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were built for musical performances.
In a letter to the St. James’s Chronicle dated 1 June 1766, a pseudonymous “Frequenter of Ranelagh” confesses that they “do not go thither entirely to see and be seen, but expect some Entertainment from the Musick,” also noting that “[t]he Tea and stale Rolls go down with a better Relish when accompanied by an harmonious Concert, as well as sweetened by double-refined Sugar” (italics in the original). As this letter suggests, sugar and other imported goods were offered—alongside music—as staples of luxury in Ranelagh and other English pleasure gardens. In addition, many people who made their wealth in foreign trade were known to visit the gardens. This paper explores the numerous intersections of the garden economy with colonialism and the slave trade, with particular focus on the art and music of the gardens. Although some garden repertoire expresses colonialist sentiments, overt references to slavery are conspicuously rare. Patriotism, a sweeter topic than subjugation, provided a more pleasurable experience for garden visitors.
Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society (held jointly with the Society for Music Theory), Minneapolis, MN (November 2020) [Q&A session held virtually on 8 November 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic]
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Hue8FGLgQko
⁂ Winner of the 2021 Helen T. Ehlers Memorial Aw... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Hue8FGLgQko
⁂ Winner of the 2021 Helen T. Ehlers Memorial Award in Musicology ($750 prize given by the University of Cincinnati Musicology faculty for excellence in musicological research)
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them, including trips to London’s three chief pleasure gardens: Marylebone, Ranelagh, and Vauxhall. Although garden refreshments were notoriously overpriced, the modest admission charge enabled even those from the poorer classes to attend at least occasionally. At the other end of the social spectrum, the attendance of royal family members enhanced the prestige of the gardens. Music presided over all, facilitating exchanges amongst the classes and providing unprecedented opportunities for social emulation—whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in English pleasure garden performances during the second half of the eighteenth century. Although advertisements for instrumental pieces rarely reference keys, titles, or other identifying characteristics, London’s Vauxhall Gardens advertised performances of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” (“The Hunt”) throughout the 1780s and 1790s. Taking Vauxhall performances of this symphony as its primary case study, this presentation will explore how sonic evocations of the hunt interfaced with the dynamic musical and social atmosphere of the pleasure gardens. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy, music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic on the continent, this presentation will consider the hunt’s musical and cultural significance in an English context. Ultimately, Vauxhall performances of Haydn’s symphony brought the hunt—an activity emblematic of social status—to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
CCM Music Theory & Musicology Society Student Conference, Cincinnati, OH (3–4 April 2020) [session held virtually on 11 September 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic]
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/TGDy-lm0xGY
The historical drama series Harlots (2017–prese... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/TGDy-lm0xGY
The historical drama series Harlots (2017–present) portrays the longstanding feud between rival brothel owners Margaret Wells and Lydia Quigley in 1760s London. The drama hinges on Margaret’s struggles to protect her family and her business from Lydia’s ruthless attacks and from conflicts with local legal officials. The show presents an overtly feminist narrative; as Margaret says to a customer, “I’m clawing my way upwards in the world, Mr. Gibbon, not down.”
Composer Rael Jones writes most of the music in a distinctly contemporary style, incorporating period-style instruments and composition at rare, conspicuous moments within the series. This paper examines how Jones’s strategic use of period instruments and existing eighteenth-century lyrics and compositions exhibits the inner conflicts of character Lucy Wells, Margaret’s youngest daughter.
The only main character to play an instrument, Lucy is identified through both diegetic and non-diegetic appearances of the harpsichord—an instrument associated in the eighteenth century with status, virtue, and femininity. Throughout the series, teenage Lucy behaves erratically as she struggles to understand and accept her own identity. I argue that Lucy uses diegetic performance to assume identities and to appeal to the other characters. Furthermore, I suggest that the music surrounding Lucy’s character betrays her inner desire to be seen as a virtuous sentimental heroine—an archetypal character so lauded in the eighteenth century—despite her unfavorable circumstances. The interplay between twenty-first-century and eighteenth-century musical materials enacts the conflict between the sexually liberated characters and the patriarchal society in which they must operate.
Dissertations-in-Progress Session, Society for Eighteenth-Century Music Conference, Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Stockholm, Sweden (20 March 2020) [session held virtually on 24 June 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic]
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/4k7XX5QYWqI
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in ea... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/4k7XX5QYWqI
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Chief among such venues were Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone Gardens. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the gardens, visitors might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. The attendance of royal family members also enticed visitors. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were built for musical performances.
The commercialization of leisure responsible for the rise of the gardens continued into the nineteenth century, but entertainments and venues underwent significant changes. Not all gardens evolved: Marylebone closed around 1778, followed by Ranelagh in 1803. Additions to Vauxhall’s entertainment offerings—such as ballooning (made possible by late eighteenth-century scientific advancement) and the flourishing of martial displays and battle reenactments during the Napoleonic Wars—ensured its continued popularity into the nineteenth century. The factors behind Vauxhall’s 1859 demise are numerous and complex, but include mounting noise and crime complaints from nearby residents.
My dissertation examines music’s important position in the gardens and the ways in which it facilitated social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated. It traces the history of the gardens and their music—with eighteenth-century emphasis—beginning with the Restoration in 1660 and ending with the 1859 closure of Vauxhall (the first and longest operating pleasure garden). Deeper understanding of music’s function in the gardens provides a necessary foundation for discerning music’s unique role in the broader commercialization of leisure so characteristic of English life throughout the eighteenth century and beyond.
OUTLINE of Dissertation Contents:
I. Introduction
A. Defining pleasure gardens: what they were, and where/when they existed
B. Research goals/questions (i.e. identifying music’s roles in social emulation)
C. Primary and secondary pleasure garden literature review
D. Layout/methodology
II. The Restoration: Historical Antecedents to the Pleasure Gardens
A. Preamble: socio-political context of the Restoration
B. Private estates
C. Tea gardens
D. Spa towns paving the way for urban spas and pleasure gardens: music’s placement between the upper and lower walks in Tunbridge Wells
III. The Coronation of George Frideric Handel in Vauxhall
A. The launch of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in 1732
B. Erection of Louis-François Roubiliac’s statue of Handel at Vauxhall in 1738
C. Handel statue’s role in cultivating the atmosphere of an imagined mythological past
D. Statue/Handel’s commercial appeal at Vauxhall
E. Symbiosis of commercial and political endeavors: Handel and his image as pro-Hanoverian political tools at Vauxhall
IV. Pleasure Garden Performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s La serva padrona in English Translation, 1758–1783
A. Primary-source accounts of garden visits involving usurped social class
B. La serva padrona (1733): performance data at Ranelagh (7 performances) and Marylebone (177 performances), relationship between the plot and social upheaval
C. Pierre Bourdieu’s structural homology thesis (Distinction, 1979)
D. Cultural Omnivore thesis as counterpoint to Bourdieusian homology (1990s sociology by Richard Peterson and others)
E. Generic contrast: pleasure garden performance/reception of Thomas Augustine Arne’s Artaxerxes (1762)
V. James Hook: Prolific Composer and Performer at the Pleasure Gardens
A. Hook’s annual collections of songs for Marylebone and Vauxhall (1767–c. 1807)
B. Hook’s vocal dramas premiered at Marylebone (1769–1773) and Vauxhall (1773–1803)
C. Hook as keyboardist: appointments as organist and composer to Marylebone (1768–1773) and to Vauxhall (1774–1820)
VI. Performances of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” at Vauxhall, 1786–1795
A. Links to the Music for the Royal Fireworks (from Handel chapter): outdoor music, martial instruments, and acoustics/architecture of orchestras
B. The hunt as a cultural and musical topic: analysis of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” (composed c. 1781) and its relationship to the hunt as masculine/aristocratic pastime
C. Related elements from Haydn’s opera La fedeltà premiata
D. The garden as musical and cultural topic
VII. Conclusion: Nineteenth-Century Venue Shifts and Evolving Entertainments
A. Falling out of fashion: the closures of Marylebone (c. 1778) and Ranelagh (1803)
B. Vauxhall’s evolving entertainments at the turn of the nineteenth century
C. “Last Night For Ever of Vauxhall: Monday, July the 25th, 1859 . . .”
Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO (15 February 2020)
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/niyEM1fqLsg
⁂ Second-Prize Winner of the Helene W. Koon Mem... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/niyEM1fqLsg
⁂ Second-Prize Winner of the Helene W. Koon Memorial Award (for the best papers given at a Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference by non-tenured delegates; second prize included $200 cash award)
In his Review of the State of the British Nation of 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort…who live the best, and consume the most…and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the pleasure gardens, visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. They might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were designed and built for performers.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in the English pleasure gardens during the second half of the eighteenth century. London’s Vauxhall Gardens advertised multiple performances of his “Hunt” symphony in the 1780s and 1790s. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic in eighteenth-century Germany, this presentation considers the hunt in an English context. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy (Haydn was an Austrian court composer), music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Vauxhall performances of this symphony brought the hunt—a distinctly aristocratic and masculine pastime—to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK (19 July 2019)
In his Review of the State of the British Nation of 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe divides English pe... more In his Review of the State of the British Nation of 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe divides English people into seven categories, ranging from “the great, who live profusely” to “the miserable, that really pinch and suffer want.” The turn of the eighteenth century saw the emergence of Defoe’s third social category: “the middle sort,” who “live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs developed new leisure activities—including visits to pleasure gardens—to appeal to this market.
Defoe’s social strata may be interrogated via twentieth-century theories of taste and class. In his study of 1960s France, Pierre Bourdieu finds that people with high economic and cultural capital dominate determinations of what constitutes taste, and they distinguish themselves from those of lower status through the exclusivity of their tastes. Contrastingly, in studies of the U.S. in the 1980s and 90s, Richard Peterson and his colleagues find that, while people with higher economic and cultural capital are more likely to enjoy elite-associated activities and entertainment, they are also more likely to be cultural omnivores—with eclectic tastes—than those of lower status.
The eighteenth-century English pleasure garden was a hotbed for social emulation, where people of high and low status could mix freely. Portraying transgressions of social class, Pergolesi’s La serva padrona reflected aspects of this new environment, and was one of the most frequently performed works in the gardens. In this newly commercialized atmosphere, the tensions articulated by Defoe were enacted not only in performances of works such as La serva padrona, but also in the activities of audiences. The pleasure gardens provide a glimpse at eighteenth-century cultural omnivorism, one that challenges assumptions that taste was determined by elites and delineated by social class.
Music and the Moving Image Conference, New York University, New York, NY (2 June 2019)
The historical drama series Harlots (2017–present) portrays the longstanding feud between rival b... more The historical drama series Harlots (2017–present) portrays the longstanding feud between rival brothel owners Margaret Wells and Lydia Quigley in 1760s London. The drama hinges on Margaret’s struggles to protect her family and her business from Lydia’s ruthless attacks and from conflicts with local legal officials. The show presents an overtly feminist narrative; as Margaret says to a customer, “I’m clawing my way upwards in the world, Mr. Gibbon, not down.”
Composer Rael Jones writes most of the music in a distinctly contemporary style, incorporating period-style instruments and composition at rare, conspicuous moments within the series. This paper examines how Jones’s strategic use of period instruments and existing eighteenth-century lyrics and compositions exhibits the inner conflicts of character Lucy Wells, Margaret’s youngest daughter.
The only main character to play an instrument, Lucy is identified through both diegetic and non-diegetic appearances of the harpsichord—an instrument associated in the eighteenth century with status, virtue, and femininity. Throughout the series, teenage Lucy behaves erratically as she struggles to understand and accept her own identity. I argue that Lucy uses diegetic performance to assume identities and to appeal to the other characters. Furthermore, I suggest that the music surrounding Lucy’s character betrays her inner desire to be seen as a virtuous sentimental heroine—an archetypal character so lauded in the eighteenth century—despite her unfavorable circumstances. The interplay between twenty-first century and eighteenth-century musical materials enacts the conflict between the sexually liberated characters and the patriarchal society in which they must operate.
Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Denver, CO (22 March 2019)
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/bEBAIWUoydY
In his Review of the State of the British Natio... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/bEBAIWUoydY
In his Review of the State of the British Nation from 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe divides the people of England into seven categories, ranging from “the great, who live profusely” to “the miserable, that really pinch and suffer want.” Defoe’s extensive taxonomy points clearly to a complex state of social flux. Importantly, the turn of the eighteenth century saw the emergence of Defoe’s third social category—“the middle sort”—which he describes as those who “live the best, and consume the most of any in the nation, . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” One way in which the emerging “middle sort” expressed their newfound wealth was through leisure activities, including visits to spa towns such as Tunbridge Wells. Many scholars (James Curl, J. H. Plumb, and others) have investigated spa towns, but few have focused specifically on music within them. This presentation will shed light on the exceptionally important role music played in spa towns, where it facilitated social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Tunbridge Wells was unusual in that it had two promenades, one for the upper classes and one for the lower classes. Musical performances took place between these upper and lower walks. Although the specific repertoire played at Tunbridge Wells can rarely be determined, examining diverse sources gives us a general idea of the styles and genres that were heard there. Through examination of primary-source materials, ranging from written accounts to engravings and other visual sources, this presentation reconstructs the history of music’s function in Tunbridge Wells across the eighteenth century—thus providing insight into music’s unique role in the broader commercialization of leisure that was such an important part of eighteenth-century English life.
American Handel Society Festival and Conference, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (10 February 2019)
PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/MePcGVeyslE
That Orpheus admired by the British in Vauxhall... more PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://youtu.be/MePcGVeyslE
That Orpheus admired by the British in Vauxhall and Ranelagh,
Who in St. Paul’s captivates, and in the theatres bewitches,
He belongs to us; the marble, which exalts him,
Also serves as a victory column for Germany.
—Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae, Die Tageszeiten (1756) [translated by author]
This excerpt from Zachariae’s poem refers to Louis-François Roubiliac’s marble statue of Handel strumming a lyre, first erected in London’s Vauxhall Gardens in 1738. In addition to referencing Handel’s importance in sacred music and opera, the quotation highlights the British appreciation of Handel and his music in the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh, where people from diverse social strata could pay admission to enjoy entertainments and to see and be seen. Building on the work of scholars such as Suzanne Aspden, Ilias Chrissochoidis, and Berta Joncus, this presentation considers the function of Handel’s music and image as commodities in the thriving culture of these pleasure gardens.
Like many European composers before him, Handel cultivated a close relationship with the royal court in England. However, the significance of Handel’s association with royalty is distinguished from that of previous composers by two cultural phenomena that materialized in England during Handel’s lifetime: the culture of celebrity and the commercialization of leisure. The fact that more than 12,000 people attended Handel’s rehearsal of the Music for the Royal Fireworks at Vauxhall in April 1749 testifies to his popularity. The commercialization of leisure saw a rise in public enjoyment of musical entertainments and, likewise, an increase in the variety of venues—including pleasure gardens—in which such public entertainments took place. Visits from members of the royal family enticed the general public to attend the gardens, and royalty likewise enjoyed viewing the activities of the general public. This presentation will demonstrate the prevalence of Handel and his music in pleasure garden performances, advertisements, season ticket tokens, and other materials, thus establishing his status as a celebrity who played essentially the same role as that of the royal family in attracting visitors to the pleasure gardens.
In addition to Handel’s role as a celebrity within the context of the commercialization of leisure, his status as a non-native Englishman is also significant. As has been widely acknowledged, Handel’s music endeared him to the English populace to such an extent that it earned him a place as an honorary Englishman. I argue that the English assimilation and veneration of this German composer and his music—evidenced through their importance and marketability in the pleasure gardens—can be further understood as symbolic of the earlier British adoption of German monarchs. Handel’s composite German-English identity, emphasized in Zachariae’s poem, underscored the link between him and the royal house—a link especially relevant the following Jacobite rising of 1745, when it became crucial for the British to reassert their faith in the Hanoverians. Ultimately, Handel may be viewed as an unnumbered artistic counterpart to the other German Georges (I–III) who occupied the throne in Great Britain during the eighteenth century.
Music and the Moving Image Conference, New York University, New York, NY (26 May 2017)
This is Spinal Tap—a 1984 rock music “mockumentary” portraying the fictional British heavy metal ... more This is Spinal Tap—a 1984 rock music “mockumentary” portraying the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap—satirizes the fast-paced lives of hard rock and heavy metal musicians and caricatures their compositional processes and motivations. This is Spinal Tap was so favorably received that its title band, initially conceived within the genre of fiction, has achieved great commercial success and fame as a bona fide, non-fictional act.
By engaging both music created by non-fictional bands and the music in this parody film, my paper aims to examine the juxtaposition between lowbrow stereotypical behavior associated with the rock and metal scenes—sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, and other forms of debauchery—and highbrow borrowing of musical materials from classical models. Furthermore, I explore the close relationship between parody and real life in the film by elucidating the specific types of highbrow borrowing and lowbrow behavioral stereotypes presented in This is Spinal Tap and by demonstrating how these high- and lowbrow elements are found in real bands and music from the same period. Filmmakers used highbrow musical borrowing in order to satirize the overdetermined seriousness central to the hard rock and heavy metal aesthetics. Yet, precisely because self-referential irony was so important to bands such as Kiss and Megadeath, the border between mockumentary and documentary was at least partially effaced. It is ironic that This is Spinal Tap itself became “classicized,” so that it could become the object of homage or even parody.
Spring Meeting of the American Musicological Society Capital Chapter, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (22 April 2017)
An 1809 article from the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, published shortly after Haydn’s death, ... more An 1809 article from the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, published shortly after Haydn’s death, quotes him as saying, “Once I have an idea, I then force myself to carry it out, according to the rules of art.” Indeed, Haydn utilizes multitudinous methods to elaborate his ideas. Within his six “Paris” symphonies, he carries out the idea of “monothematicism” in abundant variations. A 1788 anonymous review of Haydn’s music—supposedly about the “Paris” symphonies—from the Mercure de France supports this notion: “Each day one notices more, and therefore one admires more, productions of this vast genius, who, in each of his pieces, knows so well how to draw such rich and varied developments from a single subject [sujet unique] . . . .”
Even throughout modern conversations about “monothematicism”—generation of a work or a movement of a work from a sujet unique—the exemplar nearly invariably at the fore is Haydn. Numerous scholars have discussed Haydn’s “monothematic” sonata structures, leading many others to criticize the fallacious nature of the term “monothematic.” This term is misleading and, I will argue, too vague for discussion of Haydn’s nuanced sonata expositions. Through analysis of so-called “monothematic” movements from Haydn’s “Paris” symphonies, my paper offers a taxonomic system for describing the array of “monothematicism” in those movements. In addition to considering a movement’s degree of “monothematic-ness”—the relationship between its primary and secondary themes—I also factor the relationship between its primary theme and closing zone, the “emphaticness” of its “monothematicism,” into my classifications.
Invited Presentations (General Audience) by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
“Talkin’ Music,” Chase Public, Cincinnati, OH (5 December 2017)
Chase Public Response Project XVI, Chase Public, Cincinnati, OH (17 November 2016)
Invited Lectures by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
(University of Cincinnati, instructor: Dr. Stephen Meyer)
Gave a guest lecture and facilitated discussion of the commercial and political reception of Hand... more Gave a guest lecture and facilitated discussion of the commercial and political reception of Handel’s music and image in London beginning in the 1730s—around the turning point when he moved away from operatic composition in favor of writing oratorios—using the 1738 statue of him erected in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens as a launch point
(University of Cincinnati, instructor: Dr. Kristy Swift)
Created a video for sophomore music majors pertaining to my research on performances of Giovanni ... more Created a video for sophomore music majors pertaining to my research on performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s 1733 Italian intermezzo La serva padrona in late eighteenth-century London (during the sudden shift to remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
Uploads
Book Reviews by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
Thesis Chapters by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
COMMITTEE: Stephen C. Meyer (advisor), Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Scott Linford, Christopher Segall, & Kristy Swift
DEFENSE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/qPFrDnGvooU
2. “Leopold Kozeluch’s Charismatic Conformance with the Symphonic Conventions of Viennese Classical Style”
3. “An Alternative Perspective on Webern’s ‘Crowning Achievement’ of Formal Synthesis in the Final Movement of Op. 28”
Conference Presentations by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
Eighteenth-century London was an increasingly noisy place, featuring a cacophony of traffic, metal smithing and other work noise, street hawkers, carousing alehouse/tavern patrons, pigs, dogs, and other animals. Around the edges of this bustling metropolis were the pleasure gardens, where visitors could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. The placement of the pleasure gardens on the outskirts of London, between the city and the country, paralleled the intermediate positioning of these venues in a variety of other respects.
In contrast to the informal performances of London’s itinerant street musicians, pleasure gardens, like many indoor theatres, employed musicians with fixed appointments, on organized programs. Pleasure gardens also had enclosed boundaries that likened them to indoor theatres. However, these boundaries were often visually disguised—using ha-has and other design elements—to create the illusion of a boundless idyllic landscape. They also contained semi-indoor structures, including roofed supper boxes and raised pavilions (called orchestras) for vocal and instrumental musicians. Supper boxes bore physical resemblance to opera boxes but were typically used by garden visitors for a single meal or evening, rather than rented out to one family for an entire season, thus broadening their accessibility to people of more diverse financial means. Similarly, open walks, groves, and other garden areas, along with affordable admission costs, fostered intermingling amongst diverse social classes, in contrast with the largely class-based audience segregation inherent in the layout and ticket pricing of opera houses.
Surveying eighteenth-century pleasure garden ephemera, this presentation will explore the intersection of sociological and ecological politics in the sonic cultivation of pleasure gardens as heterotopic spaces. In addition to their liminal positioning between urban/rural, formal/informal, indoor/outdoor, open/enclosed, and high-/low-class, the pleasure gardens also exploited the nebulous boundary between noise and music—sheltered to some degree from the urban cacophony, yet enhanced by the sounds of nature, of musicians, and of visitors themselves. It is no coincidence that, in chronological terms, the world of eighteenth-century London also occupied an intermediate position—between the unrestrained acoustic environment of the early modern period and the regulated soundscapes of modernity.*
*I ammend the claim I made in this final sentence in the conclusion of the presentation itself.
On-demand access and the increasing dominance of streaming services have facilitated the development of television series with complex, continuous storylines. Such storylines are central to the historical drama, and this genre has become an increasingly important part of the twenty-first-century cultural landscape. Like those for other television series, the title sequences for these historical dramas provide distinctive audiovisual signatures that enhance audience affiliation. Yet they must also provide a portal into the (quasi-)historical periods in which their plots unfold.
Chronological and cultural authenticity plays only a small role in these title sequences. Instead, sound designers and composers create historical pseudo-authenticity by juxtaposing soundscapes that reference distinct cultures and/or chronological periods. This results in a hybrid musical signature in which the perceived distance between these different sonic layers invokes and articulates the distance between the dramatic setting and the contemporary world of the viewer.
Sound designers and composers respond to the twin demands for affiliation and distance in diverse ways. Some of these historical dramas even go so far as to transform the title sequence with each new season of the series. This diversity reflects a thriving viewership market for this rapidly evolving genre. The advent of streaming has allowed the historical drama series to gain traction in a manner not unlike the Victorian-era surge of serial literature. As our modes of media consumption change, we may expect increasingly diverse responses to the generic demands of the historical drama as its creators appeal to ever broadening audiences.
In a letter to the St. James’s Chronicle dated 1 June 1766, a pseudonymous “Frequenter of Ranelagh” confesses that they “do not go thither entirely to see and be seen, but expect some Entertainment from the Musick,” also noting that “[t]he Tea and stale Rolls go down with a better Relish when accompanied by an harmonious Concert, as well as sweetened by double-refined Sugar” (italics in the original). As this letter suggests, sugar and other imported goods were offered—alongside music—as staples of luxury in Ranelagh and other English pleasure gardens. In addition, many people who made their wealth in foreign trade were known to visit the gardens. This paper explores the numerous intersections of the garden economy with colonialism and the slave trade, with particular focus on the art and music of the gardens. Although some garden repertoire expresses colonialist sentiments, overt references to slavery are conspicuously rare. Patriotism, a sweeter topic than subjugation, provided a more pleasurable experience for garden visitors.
⁂ Winner of the 2021 Helen T. Ehlers Memorial Award in Musicology ($750 prize given by the University of Cincinnati Musicology faculty for excellence in musicological research)
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them, including trips to London’s three chief pleasure gardens: Marylebone, Ranelagh, and Vauxhall. Although garden refreshments were notoriously overpriced, the modest admission charge enabled even those from the poorer classes to attend at least occasionally. At the other end of the social spectrum, the attendance of royal family members enhanced the prestige of the gardens. Music presided over all, facilitating exchanges amongst the classes and providing unprecedented opportunities for social emulation—whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in English pleasure garden performances during the second half of the eighteenth century. Although advertisements for instrumental pieces rarely reference keys, titles, or other identifying characteristics, London’s Vauxhall Gardens advertised performances of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” (“The Hunt”) throughout the 1780s and 1790s. Taking Vauxhall performances of this symphony as its primary case study, this presentation will explore how sonic evocations of the hunt interfaced with the dynamic musical and social atmosphere of the pleasure gardens. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy, music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic on the continent, this presentation will consider the hunt’s musical and cultural significance in an English context. Ultimately, Vauxhall performances of Haydn’s symphony brought the hunt—an activity emblematic of social status—to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
The historical drama series Harlots (2017–present) portrays the longstanding feud between rival brothel owners Margaret Wells and Lydia Quigley in 1760s London. The drama hinges on Margaret’s struggles to protect her family and her business from Lydia’s ruthless attacks and from conflicts with local legal officials. The show presents an overtly feminist narrative; as Margaret says to a customer, “I’m clawing my way upwards in the world, Mr. Gibbon, not down.”
Composer Rael Jones writes most of the music in a distinctly contemporary style, incorporating period-style instruments and composition at rare, conspicuous moments within the series. This paper examines how Jones’s strategic use of period instruments and existing eighteenth-century lyrics and compositions exhibits the inner conflicts of character Lucy Wells, Margaret’s youngest daughter.
The only main character to play an instrument, Lucy is identified through both diegetic and non-diegetic appearances of the harpsichord—an instrument associated in the eighteenth century with status, virtue, and femininity. Throughout the series, teenage Lucy behaves erratically as she struggles to understand and accept her own identity. I argue that Lucy uses diegetic performance to assume identities and to appeal to the other characters. Furthermore, I suggest that the music surrounding Lucy’s character betrays her inner desire to be seen as a virtuous sentimental heroine—an archetypal character so lauded in the eighteenth century—despite her unfavorable circumstances. The interplay between twenty-first-century and eighteenth-century musical materials enacts the conflict between the sexually liberated characters and the patriarchal society in which they must operate.
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Chief among such venues were Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone Gardens. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the gardens, visitors might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. The attendance of royal family members also enticed visitors. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were built for musical performances.
The commercialization of leisure responsible for the rise of the gardens continued into the nineteenth century, but entertainments and venues underwent significant changes. Not all gardens evolved: Marylebone closed around 1778, followed by Ranelagh in 1803. Additions to Vauxhall’s entertainment offerings—such as ballooning (made possible by late eighteenth-century scientific advancement) and the flourishing of martial displays and battle reenactments during the Napoleonic Wars—ensured its continued popularity into the nineteenth century. The factors behind Vauxhall’s 1859 demise are numerous and complex, but include mounting noise and crime complaints from nearby residents.
My dissertation examines music’s important position in the gardens and the ways in which it facilitated social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated. It traces the history of the gardens and their music—with eighteenth-century emphasis—beginning with the Restoration in 1660 and ending with the 1859 closure of Vauxhall (the first and longest operating pleasure garden). Deeper understanding of music’s function in the gardens provides a necessary foundation for discerning music’s unique role in the broader commercialization of leisure so characteristic of English life throughout the eighteenth century and beyond.
OUTLINE of Dissertation Contents:
I. Introduction
A. Defining pleasure gardens: what they were, and where/when they existed
B. Research goals/questions (i.e. identifying music’s roles in social emulation)
C. Primary and secondary pleasure garden literature review
D. Layout/methodology
II. The Restoration: Historical Antecedents to the Pleasure Gardens
A. Preamble: socio-political context of the Restoration
B. Private estates
C. Tea gardens
D. Spa towns paving the way for urban spas and pleasure gardens: music’s placement between the upper and lower walks in Tunbridge Wells
III. The Coronation of George Frideric Handel in Vauxhall
A. The launch of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in 1732
B. Erection of Louis-François Roubiliac’s statue of Handel at Vauxhall in 1738
C. Handel statue’s role in cultivating the atmosphere of an imagined mythological past
D. Statue/Handel’s commercial appeal at Vauxhall
E. Symbiosis of commercial and political endeavors: Handel and his image as pro-Hanoverian political tools at Vauxhall
IV. Pleasure Garden Performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s La serva padrona in English Translation, 1758–1783
A. Primary-source accounts of garden visits involving usurped social class
B. La serva padrona (1733): performance data at Ranelagh (7 performances) and Marylebone (177 performances), relationship between the plot and social upheaval
C. Pierre Bourdieu’s structural homology thesis (Distinction, 1979)
D. Cultural Omnivore thesis as counterpoint to Bourdieusian homology (1990s sociology by Richard Peterson and others)
E. Generic contrast: pleasure garden performance/reception of Thomas Augustine Arne’s Artaxerxes (1762)
V. James Hook: Prolific Composer and Performer at the Pleasure Gardens
A. Hook’s annual collections of songs for Marylebone and Vauxhall (1767–c. 1807)
B. Hook’s vocal dramas premiered at Marylebone (1769–1773) and Vauxhall (1773–1803)
C. Hook as keyboardist: appointments as organist and composer to Marylebone (1768–1773) and to Vauxhall (1774–1820)
VI. Performances of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” at Vauxhall, 1786–1795
A. Links to the Music for the Royal Fireworks (from Handel chapter): outdoor music, martial instruments, and acoustics/architecture of orchestras
B. The hunt as a cultural and musical topic: analysis of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” (composed c. 1781) and its relationship to the hunt as masculine/aristocratic pastime
C. Related elements from Haydn’s opera La fedeltà premiata
D. The garden as musical and cultural topic
VII. Conclusion: Nineteenth-Century Venue Shifts and Evolving Entertainments
A. Falling out of fashion: the closures of Marylebone (c. 1778) and Ranelagh (1803)
B. Vauxhall’s evolving entertainments at the turn of the nineteenth century
C. “Last Night For Ever of Vauxhall: Monday, July the 25th, 1859 . . .”
⁂ Second-Prize Winner of the Helene W. Koon Memorial Award (for the best papers given at a Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference by non-tenured delegates; second prize included $200 cash award)
In his Review of the State of the British Nation of 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort…who live the best, and consume the most…and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the pleasure gardens, visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. They might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were designed and built for performers.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in the English pleasure gardens during the second half of the eighteenth century. London’s Vauxhall Gardens advertised multiple performances of his “Hunt” symphony in the 1780s and 1790s. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic in eighteenth-century Germany, this presentation considers the hunt in an English context. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy (Haydn was an Austrian court composer), music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Vauxhall performances of this symphony brought the hunt—a distinctly aristocratic and masculine pastime—to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
Defoe’s social strata may be interrogated via twentieth-century theories of taste and class. In his study of 1960s France, Pierre Bourdieu finds that people with high economic and cultural capital dominate determinations of what constitutes taste, and they distinguish themselves from those of lower status through the exclusivity of their tastes. Contrastingly, in studies of the U.S. in the 1980s and 90s, Richard Peterson and his colleagues find that, while people with higher economic and cultural capital are more likely to enjoy elite-associated activities and entertainment, they are also more likely to be cultural omnivores—with eclectic tastes—than those of lower status.
The eighteenth-century English pleasure garden was a hotbed for social emulation, where people of high and low status could mix freely. Portraying transgressions of social class, Pergolesi’s La serva padrona reflected aspects of this new environment, and was one of the most frequently performed works in the gardens. In this newly commercialized atmosphere, the tensions articulated by Defoe were enacted not only in performances of works such as La serva padrona, but also in the activities of audiences. The pleasure gardens provide a glimpse at eighteenth-century cultural omnivorism, one that challenges assumptions that taste was determined by elites and delineated by social class.
Composer Rael Jones writes most of the music in a distinctly contemporary style, incorporating period-style instruments and composition at rare, conspicuous moments within the series. This paper examines how Jones’s strategic use of period instruments and existing eighteenth-century lyrics and compositions exhibits the inner conflicts of character Lucy Wells, Margaret’s youngest daughter.
The only main character to play an instrument, Lucy is identified through both diegetic and non-diegetic appearances of the harpsichord—an instrument associated in the eighteenth century with status, virtue, and femininity. Throughout the series, teenage Lucy behaves erratically as she struggles to understand and accept her own identity. I argue that Lucy uses diegetic performance to assume identities and to appeal to the other characters. Furthermore, I suggest that the music surrounding Lucy’s character betrays her inner desire to be seen as a virtuous sentimental heroine—an archetypal character so lauded in the eighteenth century—despite her unfavorable circumstances. The interplay between twenty-first century and eighteenth-century musical materials enacts the conflict between the sexually liberated characters and the patriarchal society in which they must operate.
In his Review of the State of the British Nation from 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe divides the people of England into seven categories, ranging from “the great, who live profusely” to “the miserable, that really pinch and suffer want.” Defoe’s extensive taxonomy points clearly to a complex state of social flux. Importantly, the turn of the eighteenth century saw the emergence of Defoe’s third social category—“the middle sort”—which he describes as those who “live the best, and consume the most of any in the nation, . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” One way in which the emerging “middle sort” expressed their newfound wealth was through leisure activities, including visits to spa towns such as Tunbridge Wells. Many scholars (James Curl, J. H. Plumb, and others) have investigated spa towns, but few have focused specifically on music within them. This presentation will shed light on the exceptionally important role music played in spa towns, where it facilitated social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Tunbridge Wells was unusual in that it had two promenades, one for the upper classes and one for the lower classes. Musical performances took place between these upper and lower walks. Although the specific repertoire played at Tunbridge Wells can rarely be determined, examining diverse sources gives us a general idea of the styles and genres that were heard there. Through examination of primary-source materials, ranging from written accounts to engravings and other visual sources, this presentation reconstructs the history of music’s function in Tunbridge Wells across the eighteenth century—thus providing insight into music’s unique role in the broader commercialization of leisure that was such an important part of eighteenth-century English life.
That Orpheus admired by the British in Vauxhall and Ranelagh,
Who in St. Paul’s captivates, and in the theatres bewitches,
He belongs to us; the marble, which exalts him,
Also serves as a victory column for Germany.
—Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae, Die Tageszeiten (1756) [translated by author]
This excerpt from Zachariae’s poem refers to Louis-François Roubiliac’s marble statue of Handel strumming a lyre, first erected in London’s Vauxhall Gardens in 1738. In addition to referencing Handel’s importance in sacred music and opera, the quotation highlights the British appreciation of Handel and his music in the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh, where people from diverse social strata could pay admission to enjoy entertainments and to see and be seen. Building on the work of scholars such as Suzanne Aspden, Ilias Chrissochoidis, and Berta Joncus, this presentation considers the function of Handel’s music and image as commodities in the thriving culture of these pleasure gardens.
Like many European composers before him, Handel cultivated a close relationship with the royal court in England. However, the significance of Handel’s association with royalty is distinguished from that of previous composers by two cultural phenomena that materialized in England during Handel’s lifetime: the culture of celebrity and the commercialization of leisure. The fact that more than 12,000 people attended Handel’s rehearsal of the Music for the Royal Fireworks at Vauxhall in April 1749 testifies to his popularity. The commercialization of leisure saw a rise in public enjoyment of musical entertainments and, likewise, an increase in the variety of venues—including pleasure gardens—in which such public entertainments took place. Visits from members of the royal family enticed the general public to attend the gardens, and royalty likewise enjoyed viewing the activities of the general public. This presentation will demonstrate the prevalence of Handel and his music in pleasure garden performances, advertisements, season ticket tokens, and other materials, thus establishing his status as a celebrity who played essentially the same role as that of the royal family in attracting visitors to the pleasure gardens.
In addition to Handel’s role as a celebrity within the context of the commercialization of leisure, his status as a non-native Englishman is also significant. As has been widely acknowledged, Handel’s music endeared him to the English populace to such an extent that it earned him a place as an honorary Englishman. I argue that the English assimilation and veneration of this German composer and his music—evidenced through their importance and marketability in the pleasure gardens—can be further understood as symbolic of the earlier British adoption of German monarchs. Handel’s composite German-English identity, emphasized in Zachariae’s poem, underscored the link between him and the royal house—a link especially relevant the following Jacobite rising of 1745, when it became crucial for the British to reassert their faith in the Hanoverians. Ultimately, Handel may be viewed as an unnumbered artistic counterpart to the other German Georges (I–III) who occupied the throne in Great Britain during the eighteenth century.
By engaging both music created by non-fictional bands and the music in this parody film, my paper aims to examine the juxtaposition between lowbrow stereotypical behavior associated with the rock and metal scenes—sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, and other forms of debauchery—and highbrow borrowing of musical materials from classical models. Furthermore, I explore the close relationship between parody and real life in the film by elucidating the specific types of highbrow borrowing and lowbrow behavioral stereotypes presented in This is Spinal Tap and by demonstrating how these high- and lowbrow elements are found in real bands and music from the same period. Filmmakers used highbrow musical borrowing in order to satirize the overdetermined seriousness central to the hard rock and heavy metal aesthetics. Yet, precisely because self-referential irony was so important to bands such as Kiss and Megadeath, the border between mockumentary and documentary was at least partially effaced. It is ironic that This is Spinal Tap itself became “classicized,” so that it could become the object of homage or even parody.
Even throughout modern conversations about “monothematicism”—generation of a work or a movement of a work from a sujet unique—the exemplar nearly invariably at the fore is Haydn. Numerous scholars have discussed Haydn’s “monothematic” sonata structures, leading many others to criticize the fallacious nature of the term “monothematic.” This term is misleading and, I will argue, too vague for discussion of Haydn’s nuanced sonata expositions. Through analysis of so-called “monothematic” movements from Haydn’s “Paris” symphonies, my paper offers a taxonomic system for describing the array of “monothematicism” in those movements. In addition to considering a movement’s degree of “monothematic-ness”—the relationship between its primary and secondary themes—I also factor the relationship between its primary theme and closing zone, the “emphaticness” of its “monothematicism,” into my classifications.
Invited Presentations (General Audience) by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
Invited Lectures by Ashley A . Greathouse (she/her)
COMMITTEE: Stephen C. Meyer (advisor), Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Scott Linford, Christopher Segall, & Kristy Swift
DEFENSE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/qPFrDnGvooU
2. “Leopold Kozeluch’s Charismatic Conformance with the Symphonic Conventions of Viennese Classical Style”
3. “An Alternative Perspective on Webern’s ‘Crowning Achievement’ of Formal Synthesis in the Final Movement of Op. 28”
Eighteenth-century London was an increasingly noisy place, featuring a cacophony of traffic, metal smithing and other work noise, street hawkers, carousing alehouse/tavern patrons, pigs, dogs, and other animals. Around the edges of this bustling metropolis were the pleasure gardens, where visitors could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. The placement of the pleasure gardens on the outskirts of London, between the city and the country, paralleled the intermediate positioning of these venues in a variety of other respects.
In contrast to the informal performances of London’s itinerant street musicians, pleasure gardens, like many indoor theatres, employed musicians with fixed appointments, on organized programs. Pleasure gardens also had enclosed boundaries that likened them to indoor theatres. However, these boundaries were often visually disguised—using ha-has and other design elements—to create the illusion of a boundless idyllic landscape. They also contained semi-indoor structures, including roofed supper boxes and raised pavilions (called orchestras) for vocal and instrumental musicians. Supper boxes bore physical resemblance to opera boxes but were typically used by garden visitors for a single meal or evening, rather than rented out to one family for an entire season, thus broadening their accessibility to people of more diverse financial means. Similarly, open walks, groves, and other garden areas, along with affordable admission costs, fostered intermingling amongst diverse social classes, in contrast with the largely class-based audience segregation inherent in the layout and ticket pricing of opera houses.
Surveying eighteenth-century pleasure garden ephemera, this presentation will explore the intersection of sociological and ecological politics in the sonic cultivation of pleasure gardens as heterotopic spaces. In addition to their liminal positioning between urban/rural, formal/informal, indoor/outdoor, open/enclosed, and high-/low-class, the pleasure gardens also exploited the nebulous boundary between noise and music—sheltered to some degree from the urban cacophony, yet enhanced by the sounds of nature, of musicians, and of visitors themselves. It is no coincidence that, in chronological terms, the world of eighteenth-century London also occupied an intermediate position—between the unrestrained acoustic environment of the early modern period and the regulated soundscapes of modernity.*
*I ammend the claim I made in this final sentence in the conclusion of the presentation itself.
On-demand access and the increasing dominance of streaming services have facilitated the development of television series with complex, continuous storylines. Such storylines are central to the historical drama, and this genre has become an increasingly important part of the twenty-first-century cultural landscape. Like those for other television series, the title sequences for these historical dramas provide distinctive audiovisual signatures that enhance audience affiliation. Yet they must also provide a portal into the (quasi-)historical periods in which their plots unfold.
Chronological and cultural authenticity plays only a small role in these title sequences. Instead, sound designers and composers create historical pseudo-authenticity by juxtaposing soundscapes that reference distinct cultures and/or chronological periods. This results in a hybrid musical signature in which the perceived distance between these different sonic layers invokes and articulates the distance between the dramatic setting and the contemporary world of the viewer.
Sound designers and composers respond to the twin demands for affiliation and distance in diverse ways. Some of these historical dramas even go so far as to transform the title sequence with each new season of the series. This diversity reflects a thriving viewership market for this rapidly evolving genre. The advent of streaming has allowed the historical drama series to gain traction in a manner not unlike the Victorian-era surge of serial literature. As our modes of media consumption change, we may expect increasingly diverse responses to the generic demands of the historical drama as its creators appeal to ever broadening audiences.
In a letter to the St. James’s Chronicle dated 1 June 1766, a pseudonymous “Frequenter of Ranelagh” confesses that they “do not go thither entirely to see and be seen, but expect some Entertainment from the Musick,” also noting that “[t]he Tea and stale Rolls go down with a better Relish when accompanied by an harmonious Concert, as well as sweetened by double-refined Sugar” (italics in the original). As this letter suggests, sugar and other imported goods were offered—alongside music—as staples of luxury in Ranelagh and other English pleasure gardens. In addition, many people who made their wealth in foreign trade were known to visit the gardens. This paper explores the numerous intersections of the garden economy with colonialism and the slave trade, with particular focus on the art and music of the gardens. Although some garden repertoire expresses colonialist sentiments, overt references to slavery are conspicuously rare. Patriotism, a sweeter topic than subjugation, provided a more pleasurable experience for garden visitors.
⁂ Winner of the 2021 Helen T. Ehlers Memorial Award in Musicology ($750 prize given by the University of Cincinnati Musicology faculty for excellence in musicological research)
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them, including trips to London’s three chief pleasure gardens: Marylebone, Ranelagh, and Vauxhall. Although garden refreshments were notoriously overpriced, the modest admission charge enabled even those from the poorer classes to attend at least occasionally. At the other end of the social spectrum, the attendance of royal family members enhanced the prestige of the gardens. Music presided over all, facilitating exchanges amongst the classes and providing unprecedented opportunities for social emulation—whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in English pleasure garden performances during the second half of the eighteenth century. Although advertisements for instrumental pieces rarely reference keys, titles, or other identifying characteristics, London’s Vauxhall Gardens advertised performances of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” (“The Hunt”) throughout the 1780s and 1790s. Taking Vauxhall performances of this symphony as its primary case study, this presentation will explore how sonic evocations of the hunt interfaced with the dynamic musical and social atmosphere of the pleasure gardens. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy, music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic on the continent, this presentation will consider the hunt’s musical and cultural significance in an English context. Ultimately, Vauxhall performances of Haydn’s symphony brought the hunt—an activity emblematic of social status—to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
The historical drama series Harlots (2017–present) portrays the longstanding feud between rival brothel owners Margaret Wells and Lydia Quigley in 1760s London. The drama hinges on Margaret’s struggles to protect her family and her business from Lydia’s ruthless attacks and from conflicts with local legal officials. The show presents an overtly feminist narrative; as Margaret says to a customer, “I’m clawing my way upwards in the world, Mr. Gibbon, not down.”
Composer Rael Jones writes most of the music in a distinctly contemporary style, incorporating period-style instruments and composition at rare, conspicuous moments within the series. This paper examines how Jones’s strategic use of period instruments and existing eighteenth-century lyrics and compositions exhibits the inner conflicts of character Lucy Wells, Margaret’s youngest daughter.
The only main character to play an instrument, Lucy is identified through both diegetic and non-diegetic appearances of the harpsichord—an instrument associated in the eighteenth century with status, virtue, and femininity. Throughout the series, teenage Lucy behaves erratically as she struggles to understand and accept her own identity. I argue that Lucy uses diegetic performance to assume identities and to appeal to the other characters. Furthermore, I suggest that the music surrounding Lucy’s character betrays her inner desire to be seen as a virtuous sentimental heroine—an archetypal character so lauded in the eighteenth century—despite her unfavorable circumstances. The interplay between twenty-first-century and eighteenth-century musical materials enacts the conflict between the sexually liberated characters and the patriarchal society in which they must operate.
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Chief among such venues were Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone Gardens. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the gardens, visitors might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. The attendance of royal family members also enticed visitors. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were built for musical performances.
The commercialization of leisure responsible for the rise of the gardens continued into the nineteenth century, but entertainments and venues underwent significant changes. Not all gardens evolved: Marylebone closed around 1778, followed by Ranelagh in 1803. Additions to Vauxhall’s entertainment offerings—such as ballooning (made possible by late eighteenth-century scientific advancement) and the flourishing of martial displays and battle reenactments during the Napoleonic Wars—ensured its continued popularity into the nineteenth century. The factors behind Vauxhall’s 1859 demise are numerous and complex, but include mounting noise and crime complaints from nearby residents.
My dissertation examines music’s important position in the gardens and the ways in which it facilitated social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated. It traces the history of the gardens and their music—with eighteenth-century emphasis—beginning with the Restoration in 1660 and ending with the 1859 closure of Vauxhall (the first and longest operating pleasure garden). Deeper understanding of music’s function in the gardens provides a necessary foundation for discerning music’s unique role in the broader commercialization of leisure so characteristic of English life throughout the eighteenth century and beyond.
OUTLINE of Dissertation Contents:
I. Introduction
A. Defining pleasure gardens: what they were, and where/when they existed
B. Research goals/questions (i.e. identifying music’s roles in social emulation)
C. Primary and secondary pleasure garden literature review
D. Layout/methodology
II. The Restoration: Historical Antecedents to the Pleasure Gardens
A. Preamble: socio-political context of the Restoration
B. Private estates
C. Tea gardens
D. Spa towns paving the way for urban spas and pleasure gardens: music’s placement between the upper and lower walks in Tunbridge Wells
III. The Coronation of George Frideric Handel in Vauxhall
A. The launch of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in 1732
B. Erection of Louis-François Roubiliac’s statue of Handel at Vauxhall in 1738
C. Handel statue’s role in cultivating the atmosphere of an imagined mythological past
D. Statue/Handel’s commercial appeal at Vauxhall
E. Symbiosis of commercial and political endeavors: Handel and his image as pro-Hanoverian political tools at Vauxhall
IV. Pleasure Garden Performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s La serva padrona in English Translation, 1758–1783
A. Primary-source accounts of garden visits involving usurped social class
B. La serva padrona (1733): performance data at Ranelagh (7 performances) and Marylebone (177 performances), relationship between the plot and social upheaval
C. Pierre Bourdieu’s structural homology thesis (Distinction, 1979)
D. Cultural Omnivore thesis as counterpoint to Bourdieusian homology (1990s sociology by Richard Peterson and others)
E. Generic contrast: pleasure garden performance/reception of Thomas Augustine Arne’s Artaxerxes (1762)
V. James Hook: Prolific Composer and Performer at the Pleasure Gardens
A. Hook’s annual collections of songs for Marylebone and Vauxhall (1767–c. 1807)
B. Hook’s vocal dramas premiered at Marylebone (1769–1773) and Vauxhall (1773–1803)
C. Hook as keyboardist: appointments as organist and composer to Marylebone (1768–1773) and to Vauxhall (1774–1820)
VI. Performances of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” at Vauxhall, 1786–1795
A. Links to the Music for the Royal Fireworks (from Handel chapter): outdoor music, martial instruments, and acoustics/architecture of orchestras
B. The hunt as a cultural and musical topic: analysis of Haydn’s Symphony “La Chasse” (composed c. 1781) and its relationship to the hunt as masculine/aristocratic pastime
C. Related elements from Haydn’s opera La fedeltà premiata
D. The garden as musical and cultural topic
VII. Conclusion: Nineteenth-Century Venue Shifts and Evolving Entertainments
A. Falling out of fashion: the closures of Marylebone (c. 1778) and Ranelagh (1803)
B. Vauxhall’s evolving entertainments at the turn of the nineteenth century
C. “Last Night For Ever of Vauxhall: Monday, July the 25th, 1859 . . .”
⁂ Second-Prize Winner of the Helene W. Koon Memorial Award (for the best papers given at a Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference by non-tenured delegates; second prize included $200 cash award)
In his Review of the State of the British Nation of 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as “the middle sort…who live the best, and consume the most…and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the “middle sort,” entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them. On trips to the pleasure gardens, visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. They might consume overpriced refreshments in addition to paying the modest cost of admission, affordable for even the poorer classes. Music presided over the experience, and special pavilions—called orchestras—were designed and built for performers.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in the English pleasure gardens during the second half of the eighteenth century. London’s Vauxhall Gardens advertised multiple performances of his “Hunt” symphony in the 1780s and 1790s. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic in eighteenth-century Germany, this presentation considers the hunt in an English context. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy (Haydn was an Austrian court composer), music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Vauxhall performances of this symphony brought the hunt—a distinctly aristocratic and masculine pastime—to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
Defoe’s social strata may be interrogated via twentieth-century theories of taste and class. In his study of 1960s France, Pierre Bourdieu finds that people with high economic and cultural capital dominate determinations of what constitutes taste, and they distinguish themselves from those of lower status through the exclusivity of their tastes. Contrastingly, in studies of the U.S. in the 1980s and 90s, Richard Peterson and his colleagues find that, while people with higher economic and cultural capital are more likely to enjoy elite-associated activities and entertainment, they are also more likely to be cultural omnivores—with eclectic tastes—than those of lower status.
The eighteenth-century English pleasure garden was a hotbed for social emulation, where people of high and low status could mix freely. Portraying transgressions of social class, Pergolesi’s La serva padrona reflected aspects of this new environment, and was one of the most frequently performed works in the gardens. In this newly commercialized atmosphere, the tensions articulated by Defoe were enacted not only in performances of works such as La serva padrona, but also in the activities of audiences. The pleasure gardens provide a glimpse at eighteenth-century cultural omnivorism, one that challenges assumptions that taste was determined by elites and delineated by social class.
Composer Rael Jones writes most of the music in a distinctly contemporary style, incorporating period-style instruments and composition at rare, conspicuous moments within the series. This paper examines how Jones’s strategic use of period instruments and existing eighteenth-century lyrics and compositions exhibits the inner conflicts of character Lucy Wells, Margaret’s youngest daughter.
The only main character to play an instrument, Lucy is identified through both diegetic and non-diegetic appearances of the harpsichord—an instrument associated in the eighteenth century with status, virtue, and femininity. Throughout the series, teenage Lucy behaves erratically as she struggles to understand and accept her own identity. I argue that Lucy uses diegetic performance to assume identities and to appeal to the other characters. Furthermore, I suggest that the music surrounding Lucy’s character betrays her inner desire to be seen as a virtuous sentimental heroine—an archetypal character so lauded in the eighteenth century—despite her unfavorable circumstances. The interplay between twenty-first century and eighteenth-century musical materials enacts the conflict between the sexually liberated characters and the patriarchal society in which they must operate.
In his Review of the State of the British Nation from 25 June 1709, Daniel Defoe divides the people of England into seven categories, ranging from “the great, who live profusely” to “the miserable, that really pinch and suffer want.” Defoe’s extensive taxonomy points clearly to a complex state of social flux. Importantly, the turn of the eighteenth century saw the emergence of Defoe’s third social category—“the middle sort”—which he describes as those who “live the best, and consume the most of any in the nation, . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found.” One way in which the emerging “middle sort” expressed their newfound wealth was through leisure activities, including visits to spa towns such as Tunbridge Wells. Many scholars (James Curl, J. H. Plumb, and others) have investigated spa towns, but few have focused specifically on music within them. This presentation will shed light on the exceptionally important role music played in spa towns, where it facilitated social emulation: the process whereby the “middle sort” could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Tunbridge Wells was unusual in that it had two promenades, one for the upper classes and one for the lower classes. Musical performances took place between these upper and lower walks. Although the specific repertoire played at Tunbridge Wells can rarely be determined, examining diverse sources gives us a general idea of the styles and genres that were heard there. Through examination of primary-source materials, ranging from written accounts to engravings and other visual sources, this presentation reconstructs the history of music’s function in Tunbridge Wells across the eighteenth century—thus providing insight into music’s unique role in the broader commercialization of leisure that was such an important part of eighteenth-century English life.
That Orpheus admired by the British in Vauxhall and Ranelagh,
Who in St. Paul’s captivates, and in the theatres bewitches,
He belongs to us; the marble, which exalts him,
Also serves as a victory column for Germany.
—Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae, Die Tageszeiten (1756) [translated by author]
This excerpt from Zachariae’s poem refers to Louis-François Roubiliac’s marble statue of Handel strumming a lyre, first erected in London’s Vauxhall Gardens in 1738. In addition to referencing Handel’s importance in sacred music and opera, the quotation highlights the British appreciation of Handel and his music in the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh, where people from diverse social strata could pay admission to enjoy entertainments and to see and be seen. Building on the work of scholars such as Suzanne Aspden, Ilias Chrissochoidis, and Berta Joncus, this presentation considers the function of Handel’s music and image as commodities in the thriving culture of these pleasure gardens.
Like many European composers before him, Handel cultivated a close relationship with the royal court in England. However, the significance of Handel’s association with royalty is distinguished from that of previous composers by two cultural phenomena that materialized in England during Handel’s lifetime: the culture of celebrity and the commercialization of leisure. The fact that more than 12,000 people attended Handel’s rehearsal of the Music for the Royal Fireworks at Vauxhall in April 1749 testifies to his popularity. The commercialization of leisure saw a rise in public enjoyment of musical entertainments and, likewise, an increase in the variety of venues—including pleasure gardens—in which such public entertainments took place. Visits from members of the royal family enticed the general public to attend the gardens, and royalty likewise enjoyed viewing the activities of the general public. This presentation will demonstrate the prevalence of Handel and his music in pleasure garden performances, advertisements, season ticket tokens, and other materials, thus establishing his status as a celebrity who played essentially the same role as that of the royal family in attracting visitors to the pleasure gardens.
In addition to Handel’s role as a celebrity within the context of the commercialization of leisure, his status as a non-native Englishman is also significant. As has been widely acknowledged, Handel’s music endeared him to the English populace to such an extent that it earned him a place as an honorary Englishman. I argue that the English assimilation and veneration of this German composer and his music—evidenced through their importance and marketability in the pleasure gardens—can be further understood as symbolic of the earlier British adoption of German monarchs. Handel’s composite German-English identity, emphasized in Zachariae’s poem, underscored the link between him and the royal house—a link especially relevant the following Jacobite rising of 1745, when it became crucial for the British to reassert their faith in the Hanoverians. Ultimately, Handel may be viewed as an unnumbered artistic counterpart to the other German Georges (I–III) who occupied the throne in Great Britain during the eighteenth century.
By engaging both music created by non-fictional bands and the music in this parody film, my paper aims to examine the juxtaposition between lowbrow stereotypical behavior associated with the rock and metal scenes—sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, and other forms of debauchery—and highbrow borrowing of musical materials from classical models. Furthermore, I explore the close relationship between parody and real life in the film by elucidating the specific types of highbrow borrowing and lowbrow behavioral stereotypes presented in This is Spinal Tap and by demonstrating how these high- and lowbrow elements are found in real bands and music from the same period. Filmmakers used highbrow musical borrowing in order to satirize the overdetermined seriousness central to the hard rock and heavy metal aesthetics. Yet, precisely because self-referential irony was so important to bands such as Kiss and Megadeath, the border between mockumentary and documentary was at least partially effaced. It is ironic that This is Spinal Tap itself became “classicized,” so that it could become the object of homage or even parody.
Even throughout modern conversations about “monothematicism”—generation of a work or a movement of a work from a sujet unique—the exemplar nearly invariably at the fore is Haydn. Numerous scholars have discussed Haydn’s “monothematic” sonata structures, leading many others to criticize the fallacious nature of the term “monothematic.” This term is misleading and, I will argue, too vague for discussion of Haydn’s nuanced sonata expositions. Through analysis of so-called “monothematic” movements from Haydn’s “Paris” symphonies, my paper offers a taxonomic system for describing the array of “monothematicism” in those movements. In addition to considering a movement’s degree of “monothematic-ness”—the relationship between its primary and secondary themes—I also factor the relationship between its primary theme and closing zone, the “emphaticness” of its “monothematicism,” into my classifications.
CAST
Jacqueline Pencilpusher: Ashley Greathouse
Denise/chorus: Molly Sanford
Brent/chorus: Andrew Wittenberg
Sam/chorus: Kabelo Chirwa
Ben “Bennyboy” Williams: Patrick Mitchell
cameo by Nic Bizub as himself
ENSEMBLE
Violin: Caitlan Truelove
Violas: Alyssa Yoshitake, Nicholas Wilbur
Piano: Marissa Kerbel
⁂ This show received the David C. Herriman Artists’ Pick of the Fringe Award.