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Persuasions #6, 1984                                                                                                                                            Page 34

 

 

PERSUASION AND MOZART’S LAST PIANO CONCERTO

 

Robert K. Wallace

Department of Literature and Languages, Northern Kentucky University, 

Highland Heights, Kentucky 41076 

Anne Elliot of Persuasion and the solo voice of Mozart’s Concerto No. 27 compare with each other in their intrinsic qualities of poise, receptivity, and passionate tranquillity. They compare in their manner of relating to the larger group – in Anne’s case the society, and in the solo’s case the orchestra. And they compare in their personal and social destinies. Both achieve a full and rich self-expression within the context provided by the group; both achieve a resonant union with those to whom they had earlier; seemed submissive; and both come to embody a sweet, strong individualism powerful enough to overturn social and musical conventions by which they had seemingly been overpowered early in the work.

This is an abstract from Professor Wallace’s talk at St. Louis. Jane Austen and Mozart by Robert K. Wallace may be obtained by writing to the University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia 30602.