“Not Handel's sweet music more pleases the ear, than…”: The Music of Sound in Fielding's and Joseph Reed's Tom Jones

Abstract

The self-conscious narrator of Fielding’s Tom Jones successively compares himself to a restaurateur, a law-maker, a historian, a literary connoisseur (if not a critic…), an inventor, a soothsayer, a scholar, a traveller, etc. At no stage in the book does he explicitly compare himself to a musician or to an orchestrator. And yet, the novel abounds in the depiction of various noises and sounds, whether they be the result of the notorious rows and tantrums of some of the most colourful characters, or the expression of divine and earthly harmony. One of the purposes of this paper is precisely to explore the functions of the many references to sound, noise and music that pervade Fielding’s novel, from Squire Western’s addiction to the hunting sounds and popular songs of country life to Mrs Western’s fascination for opera and oratorio, via sweet’s Sophia’s demure and soothing harpsichord-playing. Another area of investigation is the way Joseph Reed’s dramatic and musical adaptation transposes some of the musical issues raised in Fielding’s novel. In introducing into his operatic work a reflexive discourse on the very genre his staged adaptation belongs to, Reed surprisingly recycles Fielding’s own treatment of noises and sounds.