Ballad sheet, True Courage

Printed ballad sheet, True Courage
Written and sung by Mr Dibdin
Printed by J. Davenport
Mid to late 18th century
Museum no. S.1244-1986
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Ballad sheets like this were cheaply printed by letterpress, sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were sold at fairs or on the street so that people could buy the words of songs that probably had well-known tunes. Early ballad sheets are quite rare as they were made of poor quality paper. Unless kept carefully, they would not have survived the passage of time. Charles Dibdin the elder who wrote this song was an actor, singer and composer who is best known for his patriotic nautical songs. His song 'Tom Bowling' is still performed today at The Last Night of the Proms. He was one of the most popular songwriters of the 18th century and composed over a thousand songs. Dibdin began his career tuning harpsichords for a music seller in London's Cheapside and went on to be a singer and composer at Covent Garden where his first opera was accepted when he was nine. He also worked with The Royal Circus.

Printed song sheet, 'A Choice Song'

Printed song sheet
'A Choice Song' from the opera Thompis
Early 18th century
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This early 18th century ballad sheet has woodcut images of trumpeters and soldiers at the top and a kissing couple below. These images represent the military and amorous aspects of the song's lyrics, in which love is seen as an inspiration during war as well as a reward at its end. Printers realised that pictures added appeal to their ballad sheets, and so began adding more than one image if possible. Sometimes they used the woodcuts they had in stock to illustrate more than one ballad sheet. The opera title Thompis is a printer's spelling error. This song actually came from was the medley opera Thomyris, Queen of Scythia, staged at Drury Lane in 1707. It was sung in English with words by Peter Motteux and music from airs by Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Bononcini, arranged by the German musician John Pepusch who played the harpsichord at Drury Lane theatre.

Printed song sheet, 'The Charms of Déshabille'

<p> Printed song sheet, The Charms of D&eacute;shabille, around 1733</p>

Printed song sheet
'The Charms of Déshabille'
About 1733
Museum no. S.12-2012
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This is an example of an 18th-century music sheet, with a sophisticated image produced by engraving. There was a demand for the music as well as the lyrics on music sheets and this sheet has the piano part printed with a verse of the lyrics as well as the flute part. The image is larger than the woodcuts on early ballad sheets but image, words and music are still on a single page. This song is set to the words of a lyric poem written in 1733 by Mr. Lockman about the popularity of Islington Spa, or New Tunbridge Wells, a pleasure garden in Islington. One of London's smaller pleasure gardens, it was created after the discovery of a spring there in the 1680s. People believed that drinking the spring water would improve their health, and even members of the royal family were said to have tried it. Pleasure gardens were a popular form of recreation in the 18th century and one of the few public places where it was considered socially acceptable for men and women to meet.

Printed song sheet, 'The Real Jim Crow'

Printed song sheet
'The Real Jim Crow'
Written by Alfred Bunn, illlustrations by John Brandard
Drury Lane Theatre, London
About 1830
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This is an illustrated music sheet from the 1830s, with the title and images on the front and music and lyrics inside. This was a progression from the single ballad sheets with one side showing both music, lyrics and images. Publishers realised that the power of an image would sell and this song sheet shows 14 images, produced through lithography. This is an early example of illustrations by John Brandard one of the masters of Victorian illustrated music sheets. The music sheet is for the song 'Oh England Is de Grand Place, or the Real Jim Crow', written by Alfred Bunn and sung by the comedian and singer Paul Bedford in the pantomime Harlequin Gammer Gurton at Drury Lane. The song and dance in the pantomime was a parody of 'Jump Jim Crow', a song which became a huge 19th century hit in the United States. It was first performed in 1828 by the white comedian and minstrel Thomas Dartmouth Rice, blacked up as an African American.

Music sheet cover, 'The Brigand's Ritornella'

Music sheet cover
'The Brigand's Ritornella' from Auber's opera Masaniello
Written by F. W. N. Bayley, lithography by Maxim Gauci, printed by W. Wybrow
About 1835
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This music sheet was for 'The Brigand's Ritornella', a song with words by F.W.N. Bayley, a journalist who became the first editor of The Illustrated London News. His words were adapted to fit a tune from the opera Masaniello by the French composer Auber, which was first staged in Paris in 1828. The image shows the singer Madam Vestris on a balcony, being serenaded by her lover below. Music sheet publishers realised that images of star performers made their music more attractive and saleable. Madam Vestris was a hugely popular star of burlesque at the Olympic Theatre which she managed in the 1830s. It was at the Olympic that she became known for her 'breeches' roles when she dressed as a man in knee-length trousers and showed her legs - a daring thing for a woman in the early 19th century. The illustration is a lithograph by Maxim Gauci an important figure in the history of early music sheet illustration. Nicknamed 'the father of music hall artists', he produced many early engraved and hand-coloured sheets.