Song sheet cover, 'Mazeppa Waltzes'

Song sheet cover
'Mazeppa Waltzes'
Composed by J. P. Clarke, lithography by R. J. Hamerton
Astley's Amphitheatre, London
About 1865
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This song sheet cover is from a cantata by Michael William Balfe telling the story of Mazeppa, the Polish nobleman who is tied to the back of a wild horse by his enemies. A cantata is a drama set to music, but not, as with an opera, intended to be acted. In 1861, the actress Adah Isaacs Menken caused a sensation in the role, playing a man, and appearing on the horse wearing little more than a flesh-coloured body stocking. She became so synonymous with the part that the cover to this 1865 edition of Michael Balfe's music features a picture of her in the part. The first performance of Balfe's Mazeppa was sung at Exeter Hall in June 1862. The episode with the horse was represented instrumentally, accompanied by the 'suffering accents' of Mazeppa. All the music was mysteriously stolen after that performance, never to be recovered.

Music sheet cover, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'

Music sheet cover
'Uncle Tom's Cabin'
1852
Adelphi Theatre, London
Museum no. S.350-2012
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Uncle Tom's Cabin was an anti-slavery novel written by the American author Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1851. The book tells the story of the slave Uncle Tom, and the cruelties and harshness of his life. It was the first famous abolitionist work of fiction and became a stage play in 1852. The book stirred up great public feeling in the United States. Some even credited it with helping to start the American Civil War. Indeed, when Abraham Lincoln met Mrs Stowe in 1852, he said to her 'So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war'. The book was dramatised in 1852 and played simultaneously at theatres across America. This music sheet cover is from the dramatisation of the novel. After its American success, the play opened at London's Adelphi Theatre in 1852.

Music sheet cover, 'Faust up to Date'

Music sheet cover
Meyer Lutz's piano music for the pas de quatre dance in the burlesque 'Faust up to Date'
About 1888
Gaiety Theatre, London
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Meyer Lutz, the composer, was the musical director at London's Gaiety Theatre where Faust up to Date was first performed in 1888. The Gaiety was the home of burlesque under John Hollingshead and his successor George Edwardes and it later became famous for musical comedy. Faust Up To Date was one of a series of burlesques on popular plays and operas of the day, including Carmen up to Date (a skit on the opera Carmen), and Cinder-Ellen up to Date (a skit on the pantomime Cinderella). Faust up to Date was a skit on Gounod's opera Faust which had first been performed in London in 1864. The dance was performed by Lillan Price, Florence Levy, Eva Greville and Maud Wilmot and this illustration shows the short skirts which allowed them to dance freely and would have been very popular with the men in the audience.

Music sheet cover, 'La Traviata'

<p> Music sheet cover La Traviata, printed by John Brandard, around 1860</p>

Music sheet cover
'La Traviata'
Printed by John Brandard
About 1860
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This music cover shows a scene from Verdi's popular 1852 opera La Traviata (The Courtesan). It was based on The Lady of the Camellias, Alexander Dumas’ fictionalised account of his affair with the courtesan Marguerite Gautier. In the opera, Alfredo falls in love with the courtesan Violetta but she gives him up when his father persuades her that the relationship is damaging the lives of his son and young daughter. This illustration, drawn by the master of the chromolithograph John Brandard, shows the scene where, believing she has betrayed him, Alfredo publicly throws money at her as payment for her services. The subject was considered so shocking that, when the opera was first produced in London, the setting was transferred to the 16th century, although, as this illustration shows, while the men’s and attendant women’s costumes were suitably ‘historic’, the prima donna is firmly dressed in the height of mid 19th-century fashion. Verdi's operas contain dozens of memorable tunes. Many melodies were arranged into dance form or transcribed for piano so that people could play them at home.

Music sheet cover, 'Babil and Bijou'

<p> Music sheet cover, piano solo of a quadrille for Boucicault and Planch&eacute;&#39;s musical drama Babil and Bijou, Alfred Concanen (artist), published by Hopwood and Crew, printed by Stannard and Son, Royal Opera House, London, after 1872</p>

Music sheet cover
Piano solo of a quadrille for Boucicault and Planché's musical drama 'Babil and Bijou'
Alfred Concanen (artist)
Published by Hopwood and Crew, printed by Stannard and Son
After 1872
Royal Opera House, London
Museum no. S.149-2012
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This image shows the underwater scene in Act III of the 'fantastic musical drama' Babil and Bijou, or, the Lost Regalia, when Babil and Bijou arrive in Octopalia and meet characters including King Cod, Salmon and Skate, Oyster, Captain Lobster, King Octopus and Walrus. The music sheet was for a piano solo of a quadrille, dance music arranged by the prolific musician Charles Coote and based on tunes from the production. Babil and Bijou, by Boucicault and Planche, was a fairytale spectacle that opened at Covent Garden Theatre in 1872. It relied heavily on special effects as Boucicault's biographer, Townsend Walsh, described: 'An army of men, women and children took part. There were dancers, comedians, pantomimists, Amazonian warriors and coryphees galore, together with a huge aquarium of pseudo oysters, crabs, cockles, seals, periwinkles, sea-lions, sea-horses, sharks, alligators, sword-fish, devil-fish and lobsters - scarlet boiled lobsters at that; at the bottom of the sea.' Although a success with audiences, Babil and Bijou never covered its huge costs and ended its six month run £11,000 in debt.

Music sheet cover, 'Farewell to the Exhibition'

<p> Music sheet cover Farewell to the Exhibition, published by Jewell and Letchford, Crystal Palace, London, 1851</p>

Music sheet cover
'Farewell to the Exhibition'
Published by Jewell and Letchford
1851
Crystal Palace, London
Museum no. S.201-2012
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This music sheet depicts Ferdinand Sommer playing his 'Sommerphone' before Prince Albert and Queen Victoria at the closure of the Great Exhibition on 14 October 1851. The Sommerphone, named after its inventor in 1843, was the name given to the euphonium, a brass instrument used in American marching bands. 'Euphonium' is a name derived from the Greek meaning 'sweet voiced' and the instrument performs very well on low registers. The Great Exhibition was held at the purpose built Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. It contained 13,000 exhibits celebrating the industrial revolution and the British Empire including looms, kitchen appliances and even an envelope machine. There were concerts and circus performances held in the central transept, and the tightrope walker Blondin even walked across the central transept on a tightrope pushing his daughter in a wheelbarrow.

Music sheet cover, 'The Polo Dancers'

Music sheet cover
'The Polo Dancers'
Published by Chappell and Company
About 1880
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This music cover was for a topical song about the sport of polo which was introduced into the UK in the 1860s. In the 19th century it became a popular sport in the British colonies from where it arrived in England, although polo is thought to have originated in ancient Persia in 600 B.C. The first polo fields opened at the Hurlingham Club in London in 1874, where the first written rules of polo were established. Polo is traditionally seen as a sport for royalty and the wealthy because of the numbers of horses that each rider needs for one game. The first international polo championship was in 1886 between America and the UK.

Music sheet cover, 'The National Football Song'

Music sheet cover
'The National Football Song'
Designed by H. G. Banks, words by L. Myers, music by C. A. Wills
About 1880
Museum no. S.3131-2010
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

'The National Football Song' is a celebration of football, both Association football and Rugby football, and this music sheet cover depicts the David Beckhams and Johnny Wilkinsons of the day. Each named player is in a roundel (circular portrait), characteristic of music sheet designs by H.G. Banks. The two types of ball are also illustrated, above and below the flags. Both soccer and rugby developed from the same game but there was such confusion between those who played it as a contact sport and those who didn't that in 1863 there was a meeting of representatives in London to clarify the fundamental rules. It was after this meeting that those who played rugby-style football went their own way, and the Football Association was founded for those who favoured a game that forbade tripping, shin-kicking, and carrying the ball. In 1871 the Rugby Football Union was founded. One man illustrated here, A.J. Gould, who played for London before returning to his native Wales, is credited as having invented the idea of having four three-quarters in attack and defence.

Music sheet cover, 'The Dolly Varden Polka'

Music sheet cover
'The Dolly Varden Polka'
Printed by Stannard and Son
Mid to late 19th century
Drury Lane Theatre, London
Museum no. S.170-2012
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This music sheet cover illustrates 'The Dolly Varden Polka', performed in a production at Drury Lane theatre by dancers wearing 'Dolly Varden' dresses. In the 1870s the style of ladies' dress called the polonaise became popular again a hundred years after the original 18th century fashion. The polonaise was an overdress or open jacket cut away from the waist down revealing an underskirt beneath. One form of the polonaise was known as the Dolly Varden, after Charles Dickens's fictional 18th-century heroine, Dolly Varden in Barnaby Rudge, who was known for her rather flashy clothes.

Music sheet cover, 'Co-operation'

Music sheet cover
'Co-operation'
Printed by Stannard and Son
Published by Ransford and Son
Late 19th century
Museum no. S.156-2012
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This music sheet cover celebrates the growth of the Co-operative movement and the spread of its shops. Co-ops were first formed in Britain in the 1840s, and were owned by and run for the benefit of their members. Shoppers could become members and any profits that were not ploughed back into the business were redistributed to members (according to how much they had spent in the shops) by a dividend, known universally as the 'divi'. Co-operative stores gave many working class families access to products that they couldn't previously buy, like fresh vegetables. This song not only celebrates the movement, but satirically contrasts its ideals with the class structure of the time. This rather comical scene shows a well-to-do family, or 'the swells' as they are called in the song, on a shopping trip with a disgruntled-looking footman. The song is dedicated to the members of the Civil Service, probably as a joke. Families like this would not have concerned themselves with mundane tasks like grocery shopping. It would have all been done by their domestic staff, but not the footman!