Heather Glen: ‘What happens to words in songs?’
Abstract: The first part of this paper discusses a genre that scholars seem scarcely to have noticed: that of the hundreds of popular ‘songsters’ that circulated in eighteenth-century England, their contents an eclectic mix of broadside ballads, songs sung in drinking clubs, and songs from theatres and pleasure gardens. Disapproved by moralists but apparently bought in large numbers, these collections showcase the pop songs of a rapidly expanding commercial culture. But like present-day pop songs, these were by no means always simply offered up for passive consumption. For the songster, I shall be suggesting, was a genre which enabled a more sophisticated self-reflexiveness. The second, more speculative part of this paper will focus on two songs from one such collection to consider the light they throw on my subject: what happens to words in song?
Song Collections – a selection published between 1760 and 1785
Because they were bought to be used, rather than preserved in libraries, surviving copies of eighteenth-century songsters are rare. Most of those listed below are not to be found in the UL (the Bodleian has a larger collection), but they can all be found on ECCO.
In UL
The Union Song-Book: or, Berwick Vocal Miscellany MR290.d.75.19
The Vocal Magazine, or British Songster’s Miscellany MR290.c.75.4
The Goldfinch, or, New Modern Songster MR290.d.75.18
The Convivial Songster (1782) MR 290.d.75.14
Muses Banquet (5th edn. 1779) RBR Hib.7.779.39
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On ECCO
Apollo
The Aviary; or Magazine of British Melody
The Bird
The Blackbird
The British Muse
British Songster
The Buck’s Bottle Companion
Buck’s Delight
The Bullfinch
Calliope
The Chanter
The Charmer
Charms of Chearfulness
Charms of Melody
Chearful Companion: or Songster’s Pocket-Book Price 3s. Bound
Complete English Songster
Court of Comus
Cupid and Bacchus; or, Love and the Bottle. Containing near six hundred songs, sung at the theatres, Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Marybone, Sadler’s Wells, &c. &c. (London, 1770)
The Delicate Songster (London, 1767) Price Three Shillings and Sixpence
Delightful Vocal Companion
The Dramatic Muse; or Jubilee Songster Price bound 2s.6d.
Festival of Momus
Frisky Songster 2s.6d.
Goldfinch
The Humming-Bird
The Jovial Companion
The Lark
Ladies Polite Songster (London, 1775?) Price Bound One Shilling and Six Pence
London Songster Price 2s.6d.
*The Masque
The Minstrell
Muse’s Banquet
Muses Choice
Muses’ Delight
Musical Miscellany
The Nightingale
Polite Songster
The Reveller price only one shilling, sew’d.
The Robin; or the Ladies Polite Songster 2s.6d.
The Sky-Lark
The New London and Country Songster (1780?) Price only 1s. – or Is.6d. neatly Bound.
Vocal Music: or the Songster’s Companion (London, 1775) Price Three Shillings
The Warbler