Thomas Hardy's Use of Traditional Song

Abstract

UCH criticism of the works of Thomas Hardy has been based on the recognition of his interest in music. He was responsive to a wide variety of musical genres, but it was the traditional music and song of his own region that stirred him most deeply. This interest was maintained throughout his life. As a boy, alone or in the company of his father, he played the fiddle at rural celebrations.' At the age of seventy-seven he demonstrated fiddle tunes and dance steps for the local dramatic society, and in his eighties he played traditional dance tunes and discussed folk music with Jessica Vera Stevens.2 His ear was exceptionally acute and his sensitivity to musical influence abnormally marked.3 This latter peculiarity provided him with definitive images and situations for use in both verse and prose, and these have been extensively but by no means exhaustively discussed by previous critics. Such investigations tend to fall into three main categories: first, the amassing of lists of songs referred to in his novels; secondly, the noting of musical metaphors and the discussion of possible analogues between his literary work and music; and thirdly, the study of thematic and structural analogues between