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Our latest playlist celebrates the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Alongside music from beloved screen adaptations of her novels, it comprises works the author herself is thought to have known and played in adaptations for keyboard – with many drawn from the Austen family’s extensive music collection.

Music held an important place in Jane Austen’s life. Like many women of her social standing, she was expected to entertain at the pianoforte. Surviving manuscripts show that Austen copied out songs and keyboard pieces by hand, curating her own personal albums of favourite pieces. Her collection reveals an eclectic and lively musical taste: popular songs, opera excerpts, dance tunes, and works by composers including Vivaldi, Haydn, JC Bach, and Pleyel, all side by side.

Letters from family members mention her regular morning practice sessions and her pleasure in performing for household gatherings. This domestic music-making influenced the memorable musical scenes found throughout Austen’s novels (and their screen adaptations), where singing and playing often reveal character, class, and courtship.

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^{Darcy can’t take his eyes off Elizabeth when she accompanies herself at the piano (singing Cherubino’s Cavatina from The Marriage of Figaro). A memorable scene from the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice...}

The playlist features recordings by Penelope Appleyard & Jonathan Delbourne (The Little Song Party), who have recorded several of the very songs Jane Austen is thought to have played herself. Also featured are recordings by the English Baroque Soloists, The English Concert and The Mozartists, among others, of works featured in TV and film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels, with works by Handel, Mozart, Vivaldi and more.

Listen on Spotify.

TRACK LIST*

1. Handel Overture to Solomon, HWV 67 | English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Love & Friendship, 2016 film, starring Kate Beckinsale
2. Trad. ‘Robin Adair’ | Penelope Appleyard, Jonathan Delbourne
The Austen Family Music Collection
3. Mozart Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K183: I. Allegro con brio | The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
Persuasion, 2007 film (ITV), starring Sally Hawkins & Rupert Penry-Jones
4. Trad. ‘The Highland Laddie’ | Margarette Ashton, Concert Royal
5. Anon. ‘Tis in vain, Alcanzor’ | Laura Heimes, Anthony Boutté, Karen Flint & Martin Davids
The Austen Family Music Collection
6. Handel ‘Ombra mai fù’ from Serse | Anne Sofie von Otter, William Christie & Les Arts Florissants
Pride & Prejudice, 1995 series (BBC), starring Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth
7. Anon. arr. Peaty's Mill (based on Paxton’s Cello Sonata in D) | Concert Royal
The Austen Family Music Collection
8. Mozart ‘Voi che sapete’ from The Marriage of Figaro | Angelika Kirchschlager, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs
Pride & Prejudice (1995)
9. Gluck ‘Che farò’ from Orphée et Eurydice | Andreas Scholl, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sir Roger Norrington
10. Pleyel Sonata No. 5 in E minor: Andantino | Concert Royal
The Austen Family Music Collection
11. Handel Pifa (‘Pastoral Symphony’) from Messiah | Dunedin Consort, John Butt
Pride & Prejudice (1995)
12. Storace ‘Of plighted fate’ | Julianne Baird, Laura Heimes, Karen Flint
The Austen Family Music Collection
13. Mendelssohn ‘Wedding March’ from A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Cassado
Pride & Prejudice, 1940 film, starring Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier
14. Hook The Wedding Day | Margarette Ashton, Concert Royal
The Austen Family Music Collection
15. Vivaldi ‘Eia Mater, fons amoris’ from Stabat Mater | Michael Chance, The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
Love & Friendship (2016)
16. Haydn The Shepherd’s Son | Margarette Ashton, Concert Royal
17. Anonymous Song from Burns (‘Their groves of sweet myrtle’) | Penelope Appleyard, Jonathan Delbourne
18. Anonymous The Nightingale | Concert Royal
The Austen Family Music Collection
19. Haydn Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor Farewell: II. Adagio | Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman Emma, 2020 film, starring Anya Taylor-Joy
20. Trad. The Yellow Hair’d Laddie | Margarette Ashton, Concert Royal
The Austen Family Music Collection
21. Vivaldi The Four Seasons, ‘Summer’: III. Presto | Simon Standage, The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
Emma (2020)
22. Donna McKevitt Ode to Pity | Penelope Appleyard & Jonathan Delbourne
New work set to a poem by Jane Austen
23. Tommaso Giordani Queen Mary's Lamentation | Tara Erraught, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Peter Whelan
24. Dowland ‘Weep you no more, sad mountains’ | Anne Sofie von Otter, Jacob Lindberg
Sense & Sensibility, 1995 film, starring Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet & Hugh Grant
25. Dibdin The Joys of the Country | Anthony Boutté, Karen Flint, Martin Davids
The Austen Family Music Collection
26. JS Bach French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812: III. Sarabande | Mahan Esfahani
Persuasion (1995)
27. Anon. The Mansion of Peace | Margarette Ashton, John Treherne, Peter Harrison
The Austen Family Music Collection
28. Purcell Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, Z860: Funeral March I | Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Baroque Brass of London, Timothy Brown
Love & Friendship (2016)
29. Mozart ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’ from The Magic Flute | Beverly Hoch, London Classical Players, Sir Roger Norrington
Northanger Abbey, 2007 film (ITV), starring Felicity Jones & Henry Tilney
30. Billington ‘William’ (after Haydn’s Keyboard Sonata No. 48 in C: I. Allegro con brio) | Margarette Ashton, John Treherne
31. William Shields ‘From night till morn’ | Anthony Boutté, Edward Mauger, Karen Flint, Colin St Clair, Martin Davids
32. Arne Overture to Artaxerxes | Mozartists, Ian Page
The Austen Family Music Collection
33. Handel ‘The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ from Solomon | English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Mansfield Park, 2007 film (ITV), starring Billie Piper, Michelle Ryan & Blake Ritson

* The additional information about the screen adaptations does not necessarily imply that the selected period-performance tracks appear in their respective official soundtracks.