Jane Austen Society of North America, Southwest (JASNA-SW)

JASNA-SW Events & More

Coming Up
Save the date 19 May 2012 for a seaside holiday with Jane Austen at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica.
Events Gone By
On Saturday, 3 December 2011, we learned about Regency women's health issues at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Our first-ever super-regional weekend at the Huntington Gardens & Library and the Westin Pasadena was a spectacular success. Click on the title above for a photo recap.
Our first-ever JASNA-SW booth at the Festival was a resounding success. Please click on the title above for photos.
Please click on the title above for a recap and photos of this event.
Please click on the title above for a report of this exciting event!
Please click on the title above for a text-and-photo recap of this program.
Please click on the title above for a text-and-photo recap of this program.
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JASNA members were treated to a sneak preview of the film about Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Click on the title above to see a trailer of the movie.
"Silver Forks, Golden Memories, and Library Treasures." Featured talk: Ed Copeland on Silver Fork Novels.
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Domestic Entertainments in Jane Austen's Time
History
Diana Birchall and People take us on a nostalgic journey.
In Memoriam
Sundries

2009 Winter Meeting: A Library, a Drawing Room and a Ball: Jane Austen’s World of Music



by Jaye Scholl Bohlen

[PHOTOS FOLLOW BELOW]


The room was aglow, festooned with red-ribboned wreaths, golden balls and boughs of fir. The nightingale voice of soprano and UCLA graduate student Ashley Knight filled the air, her singing enriched by the piano accompaniment of Robert Winter, famed musicologist and UCLA professor.

Welcome to the “The World of Jane Austen’s Music,” the theme for JASNA-Southwest’s December 5, 2009, Winter Celebration at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. For the more than 100 people who attended, it was a chance to be transported to the drawing room of a 19th Century English manor house, and to be surrounded by the beauty and civility of that time.

Professor Winter based his lively presentation, which was half lecture, half performance, on music in Jane Austen’s personal collection, her references to music in her novels and the film adaptations of her work. He explained how sensuous power of an augmented 6th chord was used to great effect in the Romantic Period and he pulled back the curtain on musical accuracies and inaccuracies depicted in three cinematic versions of Pride and Prejudice and in Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility. Ms. Knight sang eight selections, including Mozart’s Voi Che Sapete from “The Marriage of Figaro,” the song of desire that Elizabeth Bennet sang during her second visit to Pemberley.

After a sumptuous three-course lunch of roasted herbed pork loin, chicken wrapped in feuille de brik or spinach and cheese tortellini, time travel back to the 1800s continued. Annie Laskey, who “calls” English Country Dances in the Los Angeles area, lectured on the origins of English Country dances and demonstrated the basic dance steps that underpin hundreds of dances from the period. Participants then found partners and formed lines to dance two favorites of the era, “Knole Park” and “The Duke of Kent’s Waltz,” accompanied by the live music of violinist Mary Ann Sereth and pianist Guinevere Saenger.

Philippa Besant of the celebrated Wayfarers Tours, an English walking tour-guide company, described a new walking tour of Jane Austen’s beloved Hampshire countryside, which is debuting in the summer, 2010.

Carla Washburn and Jan Bickel, vice presidents in charge of programs for JASNA-Southwest, organized the December event. The next meeting will be held in Spring 2010. Please look for details here on our website.

Our lovely president, Nancy Gallagher, welcoming us to the 2009 JASNA Winter Meeting.

Past-president of JASNA-SW Susan Ridgeway posing with one of the three displays she created, which showcased the joys of JASNA's Annual General Meetings. After Susan's presentation, we were all ready to reconvene at the next AGM!

A closer look at one of Susan Ridgeway's displays: "The Company of Janeites"

Robert Winter's talk made us all want to watch our favorite Austen film adaptations again with our newfound knowledge of music from Jane Austen's time and how the filmmakers used music to evoke emotion.

Ashley Knight delighted us with songs of the period. A perfect accompaniment to Robert Winter's talk.

Ashley Knight and Robert Winter.

During a break in the day-long program, we all enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Philippa Besant made us all want to pack a bag and go on her walking tour of Jane Austen's Hampshire, which she described for us in her talk.

Annie Laskey gave a fascinating lecture on English country dance. (From left, Annie Laskey, Mary Ann Sereth, Guinevere Saenger.)

Annie's demo dancers provided a lovely illustration to Annie Laskey's lecture.

Annie Laskey followed up her lecture with English country dance lessons for all.

And everyone tried out their new steps in a rousing conclusion to a perfect day.