PREFACE

This book originated in the Autumn 1986 issue of Victorian Studies —a special issue devoted to music in the Victorian age. The first essay is a slightly revised version of an introductory article, “The Lost Chord,” which I wrote for that issue, while the next five are taken from it without change. Robert Bledsoe’s essay appeared in an earlier issue of Victorian Studies (Summer 1985). The final chapter is a version of a paper delivered at a conference on Nineteenth-Century Musical Theatre in English held at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, in June 1985; it is published here by agreement with Greenwood Press and F. Woodbridge Wilson.

I am greatly indebted to Patrick Brantlinger, editor of Victorian Studies, for taking the positive step of commissioning the special music issue, which was the first of its kind anywhere. I am also deeply grateful to the University of Illinois Research Board and the Indiana University Research and Development Office for jointly financing the production of the cassette recording that accompanied both the journal and this volume. Thanks are also due to William Burgan, Catherine Hoyser, Thomas Prasch, Annette Sisson, and Keith Welsh, of the VS editorial staff, and to Luanne Holladay for preparing the index.

Nicholas Temperley