Charles Dickens and Music | Page 8

_Little?Dorrit_, 'Who passes by this road so late,' is a translation from the French. This was set to music by R.S. Dalton.
In addition to these we find here and there impromptu lines which have no connexion with any song. Perhaps the best known are those which 'my lady Bowley' quotes in The Chimes,?and which she had 'set to music on the new system':
Oh let us love our occupations,?Bless the squire and his relations,?Live upon our daily rations,?And always know our proper stations.
The reference to the 'new system' is not quite obvious. Dickens may have been thinking of the 'Wilhem' method of teaching?singing which his friend Hullah introduced into England, or it may be a reference to the Tonic Sol-fa system, which had already begun to make progress when The Chimes was written in 1844.[7]
There are some well-known lines which owners of books were?fond of writing on the fly-leaf in order that there might be no mistake as to the name of the possessor. The general form was something like this:
John Wigglesworth is my name,?And England is my nation;?London is my dwelling-place,?And Christ is my salvation.
(See Choir, Jan., 1912, p. 5.) Dickens gives us at least?two variants of this. In Edwin Drood, Durdles says of the Mayor of Cloisterham:
Mister Sapsea is his name,?England is his nation,?Cloisterham's his dwelling-place,?Aukshneer's his occupation.
And Captain Cuttle thus describes himself, ascribing the?authorship of the words to Job--but then literary accuracy?was not the Captain's strong point:
Cap'en Cuttle is my name,?And England is my nation,?This here is my dwelling-place,?And blessed be creation.
It is said that there appeared in the London Singer's Magazine for 1839 'The Teetotal Excursion, an original Comic Song by Boz, sung at the London Concerts,' but it is not in my copy of this song-book, nor have I ever seen it.
Dickens was always very careful in his choice of names and?titles, and the evolution of some of the latter is very?interesting. One of the many he conceived for the magazine?which was to succeed Household Words_ was _Household Harmony, while another was Home Music. Considering his dislike of?bells in general, it is rather surprising that two other?suggestions were English Bells_ and _Weekly Bells, but the final choice was All the Year Round. Only once does he make use of a musician's name in his novels, and that is in _Great Expectations_. Philip, otherwise known as Pip, the hero, becomes friendly with Herbert Pocket. The latter objects to the name Philip, 'it sounds like a moral boy out of a spelling-book,' and as Pip had been a blacksmith and the two youngsters were 'harmonious,' Pocket asks him:
'Would you mind Handel for a familiar name? There's?a charming piece of music, by Handel, called the?"Harmonious Blacksmith."'
'I should like it very much.'
Dickens' only contribution to hymnology appeared in the _Daily News_ February 14, 1846, with the title 'Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' It was written after reading a speech at one of the night meetings of the wives of agricultural labourers in Wiltshire, held with the object of petitioning for Free Trade. This is the first verse:
O God, who by Thy Prophet's hand?Did'st smite the rocky brake,?Whence water came at Thy command?Thy people's thirst to slake,?Strike, now, upon this granite wall,?Stern, obdurate, and high;?And let some drop of pity fall?For us who starve and die!
We find the fondness for Italian names shown by vocalists and pianists humorously parodied in such self-evident forms as?Jacksonini, Signora Marra Boni, and Billsmethi. Banjo Bones is a self-evident nom d'occasion, and the high-sounding name of Rinaldo di Velasco ill befits the giant Pickleson (Dr. M.), who had a little head and less in it. As it was essential that the Miss Crumptons of Minerva House should have an Italian?master for their pupils, we find Signer Lobskini introduced, while the modern rage for Russian musicians is to some extent anticipated in Major Tpschoffki of the Imperial Bulgraderian Brigade (G.S.). His real name, if he ever had one, is said to have been Stakes.
Dickens has little to say about the music of his time, but in the reprinted paper called Old Lamps for New Ones (written in 1850), which is a strong condemnation of pre-Raphaelism in art, he attacks a similar movement in regard to music, and makes much fun of the Brotherhood. He detects their influence in?things musical, and writes thus:
In Music a retrogressive step in which there is much?hope, has been taken. The P.A.B., or pre-Agincourt?Brotherhood, has arisen, nobly devoted to consign to?oblivion Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and every other?such ridiculous reputation, and to fix its Millennium?(as its name implies) before the date of the first?regular musical composition known to have been achieved in England. As this institution has not yet commenced?active operations, it remains to be seen whether the?Royal Academy of Music will be a worthy sister of the?Royal Academy of Art, and admit this