The Victorian Singalongs

Yesterday, August 16th, the Cheshire and I decided that this year would be a singalong tea party.  That means that Outgrabe 2022 was the debut performance, Outgrabe 2023 was a lecture recital for the Mallards with the introduction of A Boat; and Outgrabe 2024 will be a singalong that introduces The Mouse's Tale.

Because of that, I'm going to begin copying five additional singalong scores.  The chapter on discovering those scores are in the Stuff and Nonsense post under the section, "Origin Poetry Scores," which is settled between "Nursery Rhymes Score Gallery" and "Picture Gallery."  It's a lot of scrolling, I know.

To elaborate, these were tunes written by the Victorian era, not necessarily during the Victorian era.  In other words, they were potentially popular in the Victorian era!  And the poetry was popular - popular enough that Carroll parodied them, knowing that the originals would be recognized.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was the Queen of the UK and Ireland from 1837 to 1901.  Lewis Carroll was born in 1832 and died in 1898, so his life spans the Victorian era beautifully.

To reiterate, none of the Victorian Singalongs are composed by me.  The plan is to copy the scores but insert Carroll's lyrics.  The only arranging necessary, for the most part, is for me to make sure the right number of stanzas are present.  I don't claim to do no editing, but I do try to stay out of it.

Here's a relevant quote from Martin Gardeners's Annotated Alice:

In a letter (1886) to Henry Savile Clarke, who adapted the Alice books to the stage operetta, Carroll urged that his songs that parodied old nursery rhymes be sung to the traditional tunes, not set to new music. He singled out this song in particular.  "It would take a very good composer to write anything better than the old sweet air of 'Will you walk into my parlor, said the Spider to the Fly.'"

The song based on The Spider and the Fly, which is The Lobster Quadrille, replaced an earlier parody also recited by the Mock Turtle in the original manuscript.  The tune associated with that poem was a minstrel song called Sally Come Up, which was set to music by Frederick Buckley in 1862 or E. W. Mackney in 1863.  Both scores are in E♭ and sound similar.

Meanwhile, the song Alice Grey, parodied in The White Rabbit's Evidence, has two popular musical settings; one by C. W. Reeve and one by P. Millard.  Because I couldn't choose between them, I've combined them into one score for the singalong.