Music Hall Melodies for Viola Duet arranged by Bill Thorp

£9.99

Description

Music Hall Melodies for Viola Duet arranged by Bill Thorp

FE1063        Music Hall Melodies for Viola Duet (arranged by Bill Thorp)

                     I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

                     Daisy Bell

                     My Old Man

These light-hearted arrangements try to capture the spirit and flavour of the old Music Halls, splendid institutions which were hugely popular in Victorian and Edwardian times, a source of great entertainment for ordinary folk. Their songs were the pop songs of the day (audiences typically joining in the choruses) expressing as they often did a cheerful take on various aspects of working class life. My Old Man (1919), popularised by the legendary Marie Lloyd towards the end of her life, recounts a ‘moonlight flit’ (“we had to move away ‘cause the rent we couldn’t pay…”); the narrator of Daisy Bell (1892) “can’t afford a carriage” for his wedding so has “a bicycle built for two”; and I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (1907) was written when visits to coastal resorts such as Blackpool (name checked in verse 2) were booming: no wonder people loved them when the songs resonated so much with their lives.

Warning: may contain amusing (or bemusing) musical allusions…

Bill Thorp

August 2020

 

Playing score £9.99