The Music
Ballad opera authors drew on a repository of tunes in the public sphere that were transmitted orally and in print. Airs were typically identified by common titles (e.g. ‘Abbot of Canterbury’) but these varied significantly. For this catalogue we have given tunes that are identifiably the same a uniform title, and reproduced the title as it was printed in the earliest playbook. Relatively few ballad opera playbooks contained notated music, but we have noted those that did. Printing music was likely considered superfluous: familiar melodies could be recalled by title. Judging from the 7,000 song titles in this repertory, ballad opera audiences had a prodigious musical memory. That said, earlier and contemporary publications – particularly Thomas D’Urrfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, collections issued by the Playfords, and John Watts’ Musical Miscellany – appear to have guided ballad opera authors.
Although occasionally engraved and placed at the end of the playbook (Fig 1.), music was typically reduced to a line of melody, printed using woodblock type and inserted directly into the play’s dialogue typesetting (Fig. 2). The bookseller John Watts issued most playbooks with notated music. This catalogue locates where music was printed within a volume, and whether copper engraving or woodblock type was used.
Fig. 1: Appendix. Flora; an Opera
Fig. 2: ‘The Twitcher’. The Devil to Pay;
or, The Wives Metamorphos'd. An Opera.
Fig. 1: M. Adds. 108 e. 103 (2). Appendix, p.1. John Hippisley, Flora; an Opera. As it is now acting at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Being the Farce of The Country-Wake, alter'd after the manner of The Beggar's Opera. To which is added, the Musick engrav'd on Copper-plates. Written by a Gentleman (London: printed for T. Wood, and sold by most of the booksellers of London and Westminster, 1729). © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Fig. 2: Harding D 632. ‘The Twitcher’, p. 2. Charles Coffey, The Devil to Pay; or, The Wives Metamorphos'd. An Opera. As it is perform'd at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants. Written by the Author of The Beggars Wedding. With the Musick prefix'd to each Song (London: printed for J. Watts, 1731). © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
As a pilot project, this catalogue can only suggest the total number of vocal pieces in each work. Overtures, instrumental accompaniment to the songs, dances, concluding choruses, improvised interpolations, and sung epilogues are indicated almost exclusively by stage directions. While much of the music of ballad operas is therefore lost, one surviving overture by Dr. Pepusch (Fig 3) shows how charming ballad opera overtures could be. Roughly a quarter of all ballad operas never passed into print.
Fig. 3: Detail. 8° B. 442 (1) Linc. Overture. Essex Hawker, The Wedding: a Tragi-comi-pastoral-farcical Opera. ... With an Hudibrastick Skimmington. By Mr. Hawker ... To which is prefix'd, the Overture, by Dr. Pepusch. With an Addition of the Musick to each Song (London: printed for W. Mears; sold by S. Birt, 1729). © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Vocal numbers were diverse, despite being uniformly titled ‘air’. In ballad opera editions, even large vocal numbers were shown merely as a melodic line, or sometimes only a stage direction, which under-represents the amount and complexity of music in ballad operas. Besides solo songs, ballad operas contained dialogues – duets in which the vocalists sang lines alternately then joined together for the last lines – trios, vaudevilles in which three to four singers alternated verses, choruses, and finales that sometimes combined choruses with dances. As in The Beggar’s Opera, the density of musical numbers often increased in the final scene. Players became known for performing certain vocal numbers and certain types of songs. Through this catalogue, users can assemble the ballad opera repertory of individual players who premiered the works.
Expanding this Resource
The two most important cataloguing tasks still lie ahead: identifying the music’s sources, and tracing the dissemination of ballad opera music. This is a vast undertaking, yet vital to understanding the content and dynamics of eighteenth-century London’s unique song industry. We need also to catalogue the different types of instrumental and vocal numbers contained in ballad operas. Several important musical appendices, because they are not captured on Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, need to be digitized. The airs catalogued here should be cross-referenced to show where and how they are related, or even identical. We need also to catalogue the new musical numbers added to later ballad opera productions. Please enhance our chances for further funding by requesting more information.