[work in progress …]
Charles Dibdin Snr (1745-1814) was perhaps the greatest popular songwriter of his age. He wrote in the period that preceded the music halls, but some of his songs lived on in the Halls and he is an important figure in the history of popular music generally.
He was a prolific composer, dramatist, songwriter and performer active in the late 18th and early 19th century. He was the son of a silversmith and as a boy was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral. As a young man he became a singing actor at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, and began to write musical/dramatic theatre pieces in the early 1760s. After numerous successes he fell out with the managers of the existing theatres, and struck out on his own – often presenting entertainments sitting at the harpsichord rather than acting out roles. In this rather more intimate setting he developed a direct, unaffected, humorous style of singing, in contrast to the perceived affectations that predominated in theatrical singing of the late 18th century. Dibdin is now best remembered for his nationalistic songs particularly the huge number of songs he wrote on nautical themes.
Performers in the singing taverns, concert rooms and early Music Halls sang many of Dibdin’s songs and were almost certainly influenced by his performance style. The best record we have of the repertoire the early tavern singing of London are the diaries Charles Rice, and he indicates that the following Charles Dibdin songs were being sung there in the 1840s:
- ANCHORSMITHS, THE (RNV1270)
- DEATH OF NELSON, THE (RN3549)
- ERIN GO BRA (RNV43307)
- The Irish Wedding (RN17123)
- ‘TIS BETTER TO LAUGH THAN TO CRY (RNV6457)
- VALENTINE’S DAY (RNV43317)
- WIDOW WADDLE (RNV1775)
- WOODMAN, THE (RN24883)
Sources
- The Oxford Companion to Popular Music
- Senelick: Tavern singing
- Kilgarriff Sing us
- The selected songs of Charles Dibdin (1845),
Last Updated on April 14, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: March 25, 2022
