Having disappeared back to the C19th century, and discovered the wonderful piece of sheet music for the Emily Soldene hit 'Launch the Lifeboat', I, of course, lingered longer, back in those days, and came up with more delightful musical discoveries: songs and dance music from the Victorian era. This one is a beauty ...
Title? I don't know exactly what it means, but soldier (see striped pants) no1 seems to be scraping down his horse. Soldier 2 seems to be hanging up a saddle/harness. I see a stirrup dangling. Nice hay-racks. Ah! OK. Giggle tells me that a Stable Call was a trumpet call, alerting cavalry that it's time out to care for their horses.
There was a piece, apparently by Wellington Guernsey, entitled the Stable Call Waltz (for six or sometimes seven trumpets and military band) being played by the band of the Queen's Bays in Ireland in 1844. Colonel Charlton. Then they played the Stable Call Troop. Composer? J Holt.
Date. Late 1848 to January 1849. It was advertised in the provincial press, and reviewed pleasantly.
Captain Coster. Who was he, and why was the dedicated to him? Captain James Coster. Facetiously described as 'gallant and far-famed' in the press. Not. By 1850, he was out of the Lancers and up in court for ungentlemanly pubehaviour.
Some years later, he met his nemesis. A military band frightened the horses of his phaeton and, at the corner of Halkin Street, they ridded themselves of the not-so-gallant Captain who landed head first on the road .. fracturing his skull .. It wasn't terminal, however. Not just yet. He lasted till 22 January 1863, when he died, aged 46, at 14 Cornwall Villas, Willis Rd, Kentish Town, described as formerly Captain in the 16th Queen's Regiment. Seems like he never got another job. He left 'under £2,000' to be administered by a wine merchant named Smith. Oh, he had two (successive) wives, the second of whom, well off, survived him by 28 years and left a small fortune ...
I see that during his soldiering years, he took part in Garrison theatricals. Perhaps that's why he became a dedicatee.
And, lastly, the composer. Josiah George JONES. I spent a wee while exhuming Mr Jones, because I didn't expect him to be Josiah rather than James or John, because he didn't remain Bandmaster of the 16th long after this, and what had looked like a promising career in churning out 'well written' polka arrangements for the rising firm of Joseph Williams somewhy fizzled out.
Josiah was born in Hunslet, Yorks in 1818. He seemingly married Mary Ann née Summerhayes as a teenager, and I see him in 1841 at York Buildings in Bridgwater, Somerset, with a couple of sons, already, and running a business as music and musical instrument-seller and a 'toyman'. I don't think that is a parallel to 'toy boy', maybe he was selling toys as well as music. Welll, it all went wrong. He was declared bankrupt later that year, and scooted out of town to settle in the High St, Taunton (Castle Hotel). Quite what he did there, I hav'n't been able to winkle, nor have I been able to discover when he chucked in shopkeeping and joined the military -- after Taunton he was doing something in Portsmouth -- but he was, anyway, with the 16th regiment, in Norfolk, in 1848.
And in 1848 his name started to appear on sheet-music covers. The 'Douro Waltzes', 'The Bixley Lodge Galop', 'The Good Night Polka'.'The Abbotsford Polka', 'The Military Schottische', 'The Carrawroe Polka', 'The Bridal Wreath', 'The Hardwicke Polka' ... published by Williams, and collated into a guinea Polka Album 'containing alll the popular polkas composed by ..', 'containing as much music as is usually published for 2gns') by the composer ...
But 'The Military Steeplechase Polka' was published circa 1851 by D'Almaine. As was Jones's Military Band Journal. And Mr Jones had left the army and -- advertised as 'pupil of Bochsa on the harp' -- had settled at 3 Trinity Terrace, Radford Rd, in Coventry. His wife 'pupil of H Field' taught piano. But that didn't last long. He advertised that he had been 'advised by several eminent physicians to leave the army and settle in some mild climate'. The mild climate he chose was the Isle of Wight, where he opened a music warehouse in Union Street, Ryde. He founded the Ryde Philharmonic Society, gave concerts with his wife and teenaged cornettist son, acted at Church organist in Cowes, staged Balls, gave classes on the Hullah singing method, conducted the Rifles Band, imported some well-known singers for concerts ...
The Jones family (seven or eight of them now) can be seen in Ryde in the 1861 census, but soon after they removed to Winchester ... Josiah died there 27 April 1887, Mary Ann 13 October 1891. Josiah junior followed where his father had led. After a period with Kirkman's pianos in London, he returned to the Island and held positions in Cowes and Newport, up to his death in 1907.
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| Hic iacet Josiah Jones |
Another inviting music sheet also led me into previously uncharted (by me) territory
Both Tinney and Saville were well-known in the area of 'fashionable dancing': the former as a skilled composer and arranger of dance music the latter as 'one of the most successful cotillion leaders ... in fashionable London.
Frederick George TINNEY (b Marylebone 21 February 1815; d Pimlico 13 November 1860) was the son of another musician, William Tinney and his wife Chressy Ann. He ventured as a composer at a young age, but found his niche as an arranger of popular operatic fantasias and, above all, as the pianist and musical director of Charlies Ollivier's Quadrille Band. In 1848 he joined with the equally successful Charles Coote, and Coote and Tinney's Band became one of the most fashionably patronised of dance orchestras. The partners ran their business in tandem with a music publishing firm, but the whole went down, in 1857, in bankruptcy. Tinney was, by thi time, in poor health, and he would die, at the age of 45, 13 November 1860, leaving a widow and seven children.
Augustus William Saville Lumley or Lumley Saville (b 5 December 1828; d 13 April 1887) was a sort-of-aristocrat. One of the four illegitmate sons of the unmarried Earl of Scarborough and his concubine Agnes something. Number one son went on to become a Lord, a Privy Councillor, a diplomat in high places etc. Number two son went, of course, into the church. Augustus led cotillions.
He attended Corpus Christi, bought himself commissions in the Life Guards et al during a decade, but doesn't seem to have actually fought anyone. He became an adjunct to the Prince of Wales, was named a Colonel, was nominated Marshall of Ceremonies to the Queen ... but was sued by his tailor for 'neglecting' to pay for his ceremonial uniforms. On that occasion he was listed as 'artist'. And he was. In 1880 he exhibited a full-length portrait of his friend, the Prince, at the Royal Academy. It wasn't much liked. And he led cotillions.
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| "Cotillion" |
I don't think this was one of them. In spite of its 'credits' it doesn't seem to have been performed much. A W Nicholson's Avalanche Polka, twenty years later, did rather bettter. Anyway, I see this piece being played, naturally, by the still-thus-named Coote and Tinney's Band in 1859. I think the quality of the cover engraving shows sign of declining days. But it got played at HM's State Ball (Coote, its publisher supplied the music) before Leon Leoni, then W C Levey brought out their Avalanche Galops ...
Alpine motifs seem to have been popular. But I'm not getting into researching the poundingly prolific Mr Charles Handel Rand Marriott ... another year.
I like this one better. Kiko? Qui ça? No idea ... Even Yves Ballu can't catch her! But she reminds me of my mountaineering great-grandmother!
Date? Well, after 1865. When Hutchins and Romer sold up in 1884 they were still in the same premises. I'd say probably 1860s. Alpensteigerins were à la mode at that time.
So the tale beind this one stays hidden. I'll try again another time ..
One more.
This one I can date to 1845. The troupe, after successful showings in Paris, opened a season at Her Majesty's Theatre 8 April 1845. After, it was reported, 'difficulties' which seem to have involved the Austrian and French governments, and the German gossip press, on the 'across the state line for immoral purposes' lines.
They were a huge hit ...
Who were they? A group of thirty-six children, girls and boys ('all Jewish' affirmed one memoirist), said to be aged from 10 to 14, trained by Frau Josephine Weiss of Vienna. And what made them special? Apparently they were lively and natural, and Fr Weiss's joyous choreography allowed and encouraged them so to be.
So, who was Fr Weiss? Josephine MAUDRY. Born in Alserstadt, Vienna in 1804, the daughter of Johann Maudry and his wife Constantia née Franeck. Married at eighteen ....
And had already found her metier in her teens, for I see her in 1823 (11 March) in Klagenfurt taking a Benefit at Carl Meyer's Theatre, at which she staged a ballet,
Die schlaue Liebchen, with a cast of children.
At some stage, she became ballet mistress and choreographer at her 'home' theatre: the Theater an der Josefstadt -- I see her there first in 1841 -- where has she been? After several hours digging I came upon this .. 1840 ...
'Formerly solo dancer at the Kärtnertor ...'. Husband a performer. Coming from Hamburg .. been teaching children .. a six-year-old pupil dancing the Cachuca ... she is an established dance-teacher, especially of children. So the troupe which was to make her name didn't spring from nowhere. Yes, there are 'her pupils' performing .. and she choreographing ... at the Josefstadt in October 1841. Music by Lanner and Suppe. Conductor: Suppe. Her name was seen as a dance arranger in all sorts of festivities, as far afield as the Deutsche National Theater in Hungary in -- ahha 'the 36 pupils of Mme W .. 'Todtentanz'. Will make a tour of Germany. Königstadt Theatre, Berlin September. Frankfurt October.
Then: 'Das Kinderballet der Madame Weiss wird in Paris erwartet'. Here we go.
The Paris season was the turning point. The little dancers became the craze of the city. Much to the miffedness of the Opéra's regular dancer. Anything so huge naturally attracted attention, and the Frau Grundys of Germany, Austria, France and England leaped to pile accusations on Josephine who was depicted as running a child prostitution ring ... they would all be proven liars in time, but 'mother' must have had a time organising a travelling troupe of more than 50 people and coping, at the same time, with the busybodies of the continent.
Summary. The English season was as big a success as the French one, and it too provoked its share of squabbles. When Josephine fell to taking Benjamin Lumley to court -- and he, her -- the impresario accused the manageress of false advertising. Her dancers weren't Viennese, most of them were English. Well, the Frlns Weber, Werner, Kock, Pirock, Sperl, Darebny and Florianschütz who returned to their mothers around this time certainly weren't English. Though their replacements certainly were. And Mr Lumley's 'Italian Opera' heberged a good number of fake 'Italians', singers and dancers.
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| Céline Moncelet, HMT 1845 |
Josephine took her troupe to the provinces, to Ireland, back to Paris, back to London (Drury Lane this time, with the personnel increased to 48), then to America ...
Back to Paris-- to the Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin, around France -- Dijon, Lyon, Bordeaux -- nearly everywhere with success. With most poeple. The baldheads in the front rows in some provincial towns preferred their dancing girls to have a little more age and a lot less clothing.
Berlin, once again took the Grundy prize. Someone got the police to stop the show, charging Josephine with cruelty, underfeeding, prostitution and kidnapping of 30 English girls. Once again, there was no complaint from the girls or their families and the thing faded away.
1852, however, marked the end. On 23 December Josephine died at the age of 46. It was rumoured that she had left a keepsake to each of her girls. Unlikely, there had been a heck of a lot of them.
A memorial service was held at the Parish Church of Maria Treu. The Mozart Requiem was sung, with such stars as Staudigl and Erl in the solo parts. I suppose the foul-minded Frau Grundy didn't attend.
The other interesting thing on the English sheet music is the attribution of the music. I suspect -- just suspect, mind you -- that it may be a bit .. er .. woolly. Or, shall we say, 'of convenience'. Maretzek? Yes, it's that Maretzek. Maximilian. From Brünn. Born there 28 June 1821. He wrote an autobiog which I used to have, but I opshopped it after catching it in .. um .. inaccuracies.
Why do I suspect this credit? Firstly, because Josephine's group has been dancing their routines for several years now. Surely they didn't change the music for London. Secondly, Mon Jullien is involved and anything involving that gentleman is always 'problematic'. Maybe I'm unduly wary .. but ... it don't seem quite right ..
Maretzek began his career in his home town, and his operatic Hamlet was produced at Mlle de Tref[f]z's Benefit in 1840. He went on to Prague, to Bamberg, tried his hand at French romances, an overture Agnes Sorel, then published six mazurkas and some polkas in Paris. Did Josephine pick up his tunes there and then? Or just him? Was he the troupe's conductor? Or not even him? Just his name? Or ..... Ahha!!!! Advertisements in the Paris press during the troupe's January-February 1845 date. 'Bernard Latte, passage de'Opéra 2. 'L'Allemande', 'Le Pas des Fleurs', 'La Tyrolienne' 'La Mazurka', 'Les Moissoneuses' dansés par les trente-six danseuses Viennoises'. Arrangés pour piano par Maretzek'. 4 francs 50 apiece. Et voilà!
After the vast success of the little dancers and Josephine's dances in London, the opportunistic Jullien announced that he had purchased the rights to ALL of their music
Well, of course, you couldn't, of course, buy up the copyrights of thirty odd German composers, new and old, so .. what easier than to credit them enitrely to a young musician who would be only too glad of the réclame? Oh, Jullien rewarded Maretzek a couple of years later by giving him a job as chorus master for his ill-fated opera season at Drury Lane, and produced his ballet, Génie du Globe, there. Some reward! Maretzek went on to America and memorableness. But I'll bet he didn't compose Josephine's music. Piano arrangements, I'll allow. I suppose they have 'EXCLUSIVE COPYRIGHT's too. Whose?
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