The 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth is on 16 December 2025. Musical celebrations, however, seem somewhat sparse and Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park apart, there seem to be few occasions where Austen’s text has found its way into music. Yet Austen and her family loved music and their music books survive. Last year I chatted to academic Gillian Dooley about her book on Jane Austen and music [see my interview, ‘She played and sang’]
In celebration of the anniversary, soprano Penelope Appleyard commissioned composer Donna McKevitt to create a new Jane Austen setting. The result is Ode to Pity for soprano and square piano, setting one of Austen’s early works using the sort of keyboard instrument that she would have been familiar with.
The song has been recorded by Appleyard and pianist Jonathan Delbridge (the duo, The Little Song Party) along with two other songs that Jane Austen knew, Song from Burns (as Their Groves of Sweet Myrtle was known in the Austen family), setting poetry by Robert Burns, and Robin Adair, an Irish tune which is the only song mentioned by name in Austen’s novels. The three songs are available as an EP from VOCES8 Records.
The songs feature in Sense and Musicality, The Little Song Party’s recital programme that features music that Jane Austen knew and played, along with composers alluded to in her novels.
You can catch up with The Little Song Party’s performance schedule at their website, and they are presenting Jane Austen’s Christmas Gaiety with narrator Zeb Soanes as part of VOCES8’s LIVE from London Festival (8 December to 6 January 2026), see website.
