VIRGINIA WOOLF: MUSIC, SOUND, LANGUAGE This page intentionally left blank ELICIA CLEMENTS Virginia Woolf: Music, Sound, Language UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2019 Toronto Buffalo London utorontopress.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4875-0426-7 ♾ Printed on acid-free paper with vegetable-based inks. ____________________________________________________________________ Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Clements, Elicia, 1970–, author Virginia Woolf : music, sound, language / Elicia Clements. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4875-0426-7 (hardcover) 1.Woolf, Virginia, 1882–1941 – Knowledge – Music. 2.Woolf, Virginia, 1882–1941– Criticism and interpretation. 3.Woolf, Virginia, 1882–1941 – Aesthetics. 4. Music and literature – History – 20th century. 5. Music in literature. 6.Sound in literature. I. Title. PR6045.O72Z5633 2019 823’.912 C2018-906430-7 ____________________________________________________________________ This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario. Funded by the Financé par le Government gouvernement of Canada du Canada For Roz, Terry, and Shaleena This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 3 I Woolf’s Musical Ear 8 II Interdisciplinary Methods 13 III “Hoity te, hoity te, hoity te …”: Tripartite Woolf 18 Part 1 An Emerging Earcon: Woolf’s Singers 1 Finding a Voice 27 I Resonant Beginnings: The Voyage Out 31 II Sonic Networks in Jacob’s Room 36 III Urban and Rural Interrelations in Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse 44 2 The Earcon Reproduces 60 I “And what is a cry?”: The Waves 61 II Integrating the Earcon in The Years 66 III Aural Multiplicity in Between the Acts 76 Part 2 Profound Listening and Acousmatics 3 Initial Apperceptions 89 I Materialized Sonics and Listening Subjects in The Voyage Out 94 viii Contents II Involuntary, Yet Profound, Listening in Night and Day 100 III International Acousmatics: War and Its Veterans in Jacob’s Room and Mrs. Dalloway 105 4 Bodies and Voices 117 I To the Lighthouse and Family Acousmatics 118 II The Gender of Listening in The Waves 122 III “Hush! … Somebody’s listening”: The Years 128 IV Heterogeneous Reattachments in Between the Acts 139 Part 3 Music as Performance in Woolf’s Fiction 5 Performing Women 151 I Women at the Piano in the First Three Novels 154 II Performing Personal History in The Years 166 III Historical Reenactments: Between the Acts 174 6 The Performativity of Language: The Waves Musicalized 189 I Word Music: “(The rhythm is the main thing in writing)” 190 II The Case of Ludwig van Beethoven 197 III Transforming Beethoven’s Opus 130 and 133 into Words 209 Coda: A Meditation on Rhythm 227 Notes 235 Works Cited 251 Index 265 Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I am grateful for their sustained funding. Additionally, the Office of Research Services at York University, and specifically Janet Friskney, have been very helpful in securing grants for this project. I am appreciative of the welcoming and accommodating staff at sev- eral institutions that have allowed me access to their archives: The Berg Collection, New York Public Library; the Special Collections of the Sus- sex University Library for several visits to consult the Monks House Papers and the Leonard Woolf Archive; the British Library Sound Archives; and the Special Collections Archives of the Hogarth Press at the University of Reading. I am grateful to Kirby Smith, Senior Library Assistant, and Thomas Birkhead, Library Assistant, Penguin Random House Archive, UK; Sarah Baxter, Contracts Advisor and Literary Estates, The Society of Authors; and David Plant, the Random House Project Officer at the Hogarth Press Archives for permission to view several files at the Archives of the Hogarth Press. Scott Libraries at York University, especially the RACER Interlibrary Loan staff, have expedi- tiously helped me with countless hard-to-find materials over the years. I have also learned more than I can say from several significant and generous mentors, friends, and colleagues, first and foremost Lesley J. Higgins, whose guidance, inspiration, and erudition has fed this proj- ect from its inception. I am fortunate to have had the long-standing support and encouragement of Marie-Christine Leps, Leslie Sanders, Gail Vanstone, Lisa Ossowski, Tanya Sweeney, Alison Halsall, Cheryl Cowdy, Candida Rifkind, and Natalie Neill. A special thank you con- cerning this publication goes to Natalie for her expert indexing of the book, and to Kevin Karst for building my perfect writer’s desk. I have had the good fortune to work with helpful research assistants; Kristen Ames and Stephen Van Andel did much proverbial legwork and