Conference Agenda

The purpose of Oscar Wilde’s 1882 lecture tour of America was to publicize the Gilbert & Sullivan opera Patience, as well as to advance his own persona as a self-invented modern celebrity. As part of the fervid response to his visit, many songs for voice/piano and solo piano were published. Some of this music was dedicated to Wilde or used his name and image for commercial relevance. Much of it–particularly the vocal music–had text and music that playfully parodied characterizations of Wilde and the aesthetics for which he was known. The sheet music cover art is iconic, and the music is often mentioned by scholars of Wilde and American fin-de-siècle aesthetics. However, they seldom consider the way the sheet music sounds as performed.

What exactly was “wild” in this Wildeiana music? Which of the approbative pieces captured in music his flippity-flop catch phrases such as “utterly utter,” attempted to musically match his heightened or “foppish” physical manner (as described by contemporary press articles), or had a generally mocking tone? Conversely, which pieces, lacking anything intrinsically unique in their music, were merely connected to him as a marketing gimmick? This paper sheds light on the way Wildeiana music sounds, and explores the sheet music as a possible commentary on, or interaction with, reception history of Wilde in America, questioning how the music engages with Wilde’s aesthetics.

As case studies, I analyze three Wildeiana songs housed in UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Archive: “Quite Too Utterly Utter!! an Aesthetical Roundelay” (Coote); “Oscar, Dear!” (Rosenfeld); and “Flippy Flop Young Man” (Adams, Johngmans). Musically, the songs and dance suites about Oscar Wilde feature extensive use of motivic accented non-chord tones to achieve desired characterizations and highlight lyrical elements. These musical characterizations work in conjunction with sheet music cover art that plays up his “feminized” poses. This multifaceted exploration provides greater appreciation for how Wilde’s 1882 tour and its initiation of celebrity culture affected contemporary American music with regards to both marketing and internal musical elements. Exploring selected contemporaneous music and images helps us better understand how Wilde’s American tour impacted international popular music and culture.