Robert Bloomfield set to music, by Keri Davies

Introduction

The formal composition of settings of a poet provides an interesting measure of the reputation of a poet and the reception history of his oeuvre. It does not seem to link in a simple manner to qualities of musicality or melodiousness in the verse being set. Indeed, the example of Schubert (despite his Goethe, Schiller and Heine settings, Schubert concentrated largely on the dilettante or minor verse of his closest friends), shows how poetry of an indifferent, and even trite, calibre can be made into great songs. Perhaps great words can prove a hindrance to the composer, because they have too much life of their own and refuse to take a humble second place to the music. In the words of Boris Ford, ‘What suffices, as far as the composer is concerned, is that the words provide a theme, a drama, a sentiment, which lend themselves to being transformed into the finished song’ (xi). Nevertheless, it is often a pleasure to find composers setting good poetry as in the settings of Bloomfield listed here. Bloomfield’s work was granted musical setting almost from publication. In contrast, his near contemporary, William Blake, had to wait until 1876 for the first known composed setting of his words (‘On Another’s Sorrow’, for voice and piano by Doyne Courtenay Bell). There were a couple more Blake songs in the 1890s, and then a flood of compositions from 1900 onwards that still shows no sign of stopping. Today, Blake has probably overtaken Burns as the most set English-language poet after Shakespeare, whereas Bloomfield’s (and John Clare’s) settings remain few.

This first search for musical settings of Bloomfield’s verse turns up just over two dozen compositions. Composers, too, are influenced by literary fashion (or Rezeptionsgeschichte as academics call it) and the fashion for Bloomfield was transitory, though intense enough while it lasted. For whatever reason, great or even significant composers seem to have avoided his work. The settings are almost entirely by minor, or amateur, composers – some, I think, stemming from personal acquaintanceship with the poet. The majority of these compositions were written within Bloomfield’s lifetime. There seem to be very few twentieth-century settings of Bloomfield. The works by Enfield, Jones, and Selby are all I can trace. The great exponents of English song: Gurney, Ireland, Vaughan Williams, etc., seem to have passed him by. Even Benjamin Britten, who one thought might have responded to a Suffolk poet like Bloomfield as he did to George Crabbe, failed to set any of his poetry.

Robert Bloomfield was himself a capable amateur musician who wrote with music in mind. Thus, ‘The Woodland Hallo’ is subtitled ‘(perhaps) adapted for music’. This list includes two separate settings of these words. Stephen Banfield points out that ‘words for music’, the poet having in mind a hypothetical or real melody as he writes his text, are an important traditional concept in Britain, accounting for many Elizabethan texts, and for much of the poetry of Burns and Moore. Amongst Bloomfield’s contemporaries, one might also note Byron’s ‘Stanzas for music’ and Shelley’s ‘The Indian serenade’ (first published as ‘Songs written for an Indian air’). In a letter to his brother George (8 September 1799), Bloomfield wrote, ‘You know that I have naturally (in common with the rest of the family) an inclination for music, and that I was formerly a beginner in the practice of it’.

The first published musical setting of Bloomfield is a song to the words of ‘Rosy Hannah’ by his brother Isaac. Isaac Bloomfield had some pretensions as a composer though lacking formal training. Robert sought the help of William Shield, Master of the King’s Musicians, in correcting Isaac’s songs for publication: ‘I showed him the songs, and left them with him; he says they want some trifling amendment in the bass, which he will do. Then asking if the three which I gave him were all Isaac had composed, I produced the sketch of “The Highland Drover”. … I left them all, and shall hear from him soon’ (letter to George Bloomfield, 23 June 1802). These songs are now lost. Isaac’s only other published work is a group of Six Anthems for the use of choirs where there is no organ (London, 1805?). Did Robert sponsor its publication? The sale catalogue of his library includes multiple copies, lots 172 to 179, of ‘Six Anthems, composed by Mr. Bloomfield’s brother Isaac’. There is a score in the British Library at G.517.a.(2.).

Missing from this list are any settings by William Shield. Writing to George Bloomfield (23 June 1802), Robert comments, ‘have seen Mr. Shield; he is a man simple and unaffected in his manners to a striking degree, and ready to assist where he can. … Mr. Shield was so pleased with my “Poll Rayner”, that he has set it long ago, and has it by him (perhaps unfinished)’. Bloomfield’s publishers later proposed that Shield set the ballads included in Bloomfield’s The Banks of Wye (1811). In a letter to John Davy (10 July 1811) he writes, ‘A poem of mine, of considerable length, is now on the point of publication. It contains four incidental songs well adapted for music. The booksellers, who are half proprietors, fixed on Mr. Shield to furnish tunes, and he either will not, or cannot, do it. It is now left to me to seek a friend who will do it; not gratuitously, for your terms will be attended to. The music is intended to be printed with the book, and therefore will have an immediate and wide circulation. I remember your former attentions, and request to know if any such proposal can be listened to on your part, for you are highly capable of doing credit to the work’. The plan foundered when Davy, the Devon-born, London-based composer of popular songs, asked for a fashionable thirty-five guineas to set them. Like the majority of Isaac Bloomfield’s songs and Shield’s ‘Poll Rayner’, these ballad-settings by Davy, if they ever existed, are now long lost. The settings by Crotch, Firth, and Raper, below, are described as ‘glees’. The Anglo-Saxon term ‘glee’ referred to almost any type of secular part-song other than the often-bawdy canonic catch. From the mid-eighteenth century, and over the next century or so, the ‘glee club’, devoted to convivial part-singing, became a national institution. It grew out of the venerable tradition of male-only tavern music, which was becoming more wide-ranging towards the end of the eighteenth century – and more respectable, some of the clubs going so far as to admit female singers. The glee-singing world was musical, sociable and epicurean, yet in some ways extraordinarily isolated from the great developments of European music. In Bloomfield’s lifetime, the glee thrived as dilettante music, as did the light music of the pleasure gardens.

The most notable composer to have set Bloomfield’s verse is James Hook. Hook was born in Norwich in 1746, and came to London in the early 1760s, quickly becoming a prolific and successful composer. For nearly fifty years, he was organist at Vauxhall, writing over 2,000 songs, and knew a good commercial proposition when he saw it – setting a newly fashionable poet. He composed no fewer than five settings of Bloomfield’s poems between 1805 and 1810. Hook was also a successful music teacher, and Bloomfield clearly knew his Guida da musica instruction manuals, inventing words to some of Hook’s tunes (see The Remains of Robert Bloomfield, vol. 1, pp. 51-56). For some reason, almost certainly financial, Hook left London in 1820 without notice. The manager at Vauxhall kept his place open for a whole season, but he never returned. James Hook died at Boulogne in 1827.

The majority of settings of Bloomfield’s poems are solo songs like Hook’s. Particularly noteworthy is that by the German musician Nina d’Aubigny von Engelbrunner. Composer, performer, singing-teacher, Wynandine Gertrud (‘Nina’) d’Aubigny von Engelbrunner was born in Kassel, 15 April 1770, the second child of Johann Caspar Engelbrunner and Sabine Jacobine d’Aubigny. In 1803, she made her first visit to England, travelling with relatives to London. The same year saw the publication of her Briefe an Natalie Dber den Gesang, a pedagogical work for singers that Beethoven is said to have admired. She made a second visit to London in 1806 when she may have met Bloomfield, if the dedication ‘insc[r]ibed to Mr Bloomfield’ can be so interpreted. An inveterate traveller, she visited her sister in Calcutta in 1810, making a return visit to India in 1818. By 1826, she was in Vienna, and close to Schubert and his circle of friends. At an evening party (10 April 1827) given by her nephew Eduard Hornsteig, Nina d’Aubigny played harp, and Ludwig Tietze sang songs by Schubert accompanied by the composer himself. She died, unmarried, 27 January 1847. Nina d’Aubigny composed songs in German, French, and Italian. By setting Bloomfield’s poetry, she places him firmly in a context of cosmopolitan European high culture.

The use of traditional tunes by poets, or the invention of their own melodies by poets, provides valuable insight into the musicality of a poet, how the lyric impulse is manifested, and the process of composition itself. Robert Bloomfield belongs with William Blake and John Clare, all poets known to have sung their own work, marking a return to the days of Thomas Campion and John Dowland, when musician and poet were the same person. By using traditional melodies as well as ones of the poet’s own composition, Bloomfield, like Clare, is not, as some allege, simply demonstrating continuity with an oral, predominantly labouring-class, tradition. He was writing at a time when European fashion for folk-song (and imitation folk-song) reached a peak as witnessed by the arrangements of traditional English, Scottish and Welsh songs by Haydn and Beethoven. Blake sang his verse to tunes of his own invention, now lost; Bloomfield to his own tunes and to traditional melodies. Bloomfield’s Selected Poems, edited by John Goodridge and John Lucas, includes the music of ‘Ligoran Cosh’, to which Bloomfield’s Song ‘The man in the moon look’d down one night’ is set. This tune is also mentioned by Walter Scott in Chapter 24 of The Bride of Lammermoor; its title is a poor transliteration of a Gaelic original. (Unfortunately, the editors chose to offer a late version of the tune, collected in Chicago in the early twentieth century, which leaves unanswered the question of what Bloomfield’s source might have been.) On 17 May 1803, Bloomfield was a guest at Dr Jenner’s 53rd birthday party, singing a song of his own composition in honour of the occasion. The music has not survived. For his sole venture into the theatre, Hazelwood-Hall: A village drama (1823), Bloomfield composed songs, ballads, and glees. Alas all lost.

A provisional list of musical settings

This list is intended to provide a basis for more analytical and wide-ranging research and criticism. It represents the results of searches through the catalogues of the British Library, and (for manuscripts) the Repertoire Internationale des Sources Musicales. Not included here are Bloomfield’s settings of his own words, since these are not musical settings in the strict sense in which the literary text is known to be anterior to the music accompanying it. I have also omitted the instances of Bloomfield devising words for existing music such as folk-tunes and musical exercises by James Hook. The arrangement is chronological by publication date (mostly derived from the British Library catalogue), or where possible, the actual date of composition. The sequence demonstrates clearly how Bloomfield’s reputation grew and then abruptly faded. Where possible original copies have been examined and form the basis of the bibliographic description.

Early 19th century

Ye darksome Woods: Glee. (‘Ye darksome woods where Echo dwells’)

MS score (2 leaves).

Notes:

Anonymous, probably by Isaac Bloomfield: A setting of ‘Hunting Song’ from Rural Tales (1802)

For three voices, keyboard optional.

The ‘Prospectus’ in Bloomfield’s Remains (1824) states that Isaac Bloomfield’s setting was to be published (London: Goulding) as part of a subscription collection: the anonymous MS. listed in Gooch, no. 1939 may be his.

References: Gooch, Musical Settings of British Romantic Literature (1982, henceforth Gooch), nos. 1939,

Source: British Library MS Add 36652, f. 18, 19 [not seen].

1801

Isaac Bloomfield

Rosy Hannah: a favourite new song. The words written by Robert Bloomfield, author of ‘The Farmers Boy’. The music composed by his brother Isaac Bloomfield (London: Printed for the authors by Rt. Birchall, No. 133, New Bond Street.)

1 score (2-3 pp.), 34 cm.

Notes:

Composer’s initials at foot of p. 2

Caption title

First line: ‘A Spring o’er hung with many a flower’

Price 1s. Watermark dated 1801.

Strophic setting (3 stanzas).

For high voice with piano accompaniment; 6/8; D major; ‘Not too fast’. Re-engraved in 1824 in oblong format as ‘Rosy Hanna. From Mr. Bloomfield’s Rural Tales’ ([London]: T. C. Bates), and included in Remains, pp. 8 and 9 of the musical scores. Reference: Gooch, no. 1945.

Sources: description based on British Library G.361.(26.); another copy: Cambridge University Library [not seen].

1801

John Langshaw (1763-1832)

Dear boy throw that icicle down: ballad with an accompaniment for the piano forte or harp. Composed by W. Langshaw, the poetry by Robt. Bloomfield. (London: printed & sold by Preston, at his wholesale warehouse, 97, Strand.)

1 score (3 pp.); fol.

Notes:

In a letter to his brother George (30 May 1802), Bloomfield mentions that ‘Yesterday brought me a very kind letter from Troston, mentioning that a Mr. Langshaw, of Lancaster, had set my “Winter Song,” and that a copy is sent to Mr. Lofft’.

Caption title.

First line: ‘Dear Boy throw that icicle down’.

Pr[ice] ls. Watermark 1801.

Strophic setting (4 stanzas).

Solo voice with accompaniment for piano or harp; F major; 6/8; ‘Larghetto’.

Sources: Description based on British Library H.2818.f.(7.) and H.2401.f.(9.). In H.2401.f.(9.), the composer’s name has been altered in ink to ‘Jno Langshaw’.

1804

John Davy (1763-1824)

Songs, glees, &c. in a comick opera call’d The Miller’s Maid [by Francis Goldolphin Waldron]. Founded on one of the admired ‘Rural Tales,’ written by Mr. Robert Bloomfield, the celebrated author of ‘The Farmer’s Boy.’ Perform’d at the Theatre-Royal, Hay-Market, on Saturday, August 25, 1804. The Overture and Musick, entirely new, composed by Mr. Davy ... (London: printed for the author, by T. Woodfall, No. 21, Villiers-street, Strand, and sold in the Theatre.)

19 pp.; 8vo

Notes:

The first song, a glee, begins: ‘Push about the brown jug, lads, and merrily sing’.

Price Ten-pence.

Music not included.

Sources: description based on British Library 641.h.13.(10.) and 643.h.6.(1.).

1805

Old Ringwood! A favorite hunting song as performed by Mr. Dignum at Vauxhall. The words taken from Bloomfield’s poems. Composed by Matthew Cooke, organist of St. George’s Church Bloomsbury and formerly one of the children of his Majesty’s Chapel Royal (London: printed for the author by R. Birchall, No. 133, New Bond Street, Oxford Street.)

1 short score (1 leaf, 4 pp.); fol.

Notes:

First line: ‘Ye shady woods where Echo dwells’.

Price 1s./6d.

Strophic setting (4 stanzas); for voice and pianoforte; ‘The Instrumental parts for a full Band may be had of the Author’; D major; 6/8.

Source: description based on British Library G.385.b.(3.).

1805

James Hook (1746-1827).

Love’s holiday, sung with universal applause by Master Hopkins at Vauxhall Gardens (the words from Bloomfield’s poems). Composed by Mr. Hook (London: printed for the author by Clementi & Co., 26, Cheapside.)

1 short score (3 pp.); fol.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘Thy Fav’rite Bird is soaring still’.

[Price] 4s./6d.

Strophic setting (4 stanzas); for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment, reduced for keyboard; B flat major; 3/4; ‘Andantino piu tosto allegretto’.

Source: description based on British Library H.2818.a.(72.).

1807

Nina d’Aubigny von Engelbrunner (1770-1847)

The woodland hallo. Composed and in[s]cribed to Mr. Bloomfield, author of the farmers Boy, wild flowers etc. etc. by Miss Nina d’Aubigny von Engelbrunner (London: printed from the stone by and for G. J. Vollweiler at the Patent Polyautographic Press No. 9, Buckingham Place, Fitzroy Square.)

1 score (3 pp.); fol.

Notes:

First line: ‘In our cottage, first peeps from the skirts of the wood’.

From Wild Flowers (London, 1806).

Price 1s.

Strophic setting (3 stanzas); for solo voice with piano accompaniment; G major; 6/8; ‘Andantino’.

References: Gooch, no. 1951.

The ‘Prospectus’ in Remains, I, states that Miss d’Aubigny’s setting was to be published (London: Goulding) as part of a subscription collection.

Source: description based on British Library H.1668.(19.).

1810

James Adcock (1779-1860)

Lucy: a ballad written by Bloomfield. Composed by J. Adcock of Cambridge (London: printed for G. Walker at his Music Warehouse 106 Great Portland Street)

1 score (4 pp.); fol.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘Thy favourite Bird is soaring still’.

Price 1s.

Through-composed.

For voice and pianoforte; F major; 4/4.

Source: description based on British Library: G.808.b.(1.).

1810

James Hook (1746-1827)

Nancy: the words from Bloomfield’s poems; the music composed by Mr Hook (‘You ask me dear Nancy’)

Holograph in ink. 1 ms. close score (p. 81-84); 26x34 cm.

Notes:

Dated ‘Decbr 17 1810’ at top of p. 82.

Marked no. ‘2386’ above date on p. 82.

For solo voice and keyboard; G minor; ‘Moderato’.

Music starts on p. 82, continues on 83-84, and ends on p. 81.

Source: Cambridge University Library, MS. Add. 6638; p. 69 [not seen].

1810

The rose trees: the words from Bloomfield’s poems; the music by Mr Hook (‘When tender rose trees first receive’)

Holograph in ink. 1 ms. close score (pp. 25-7); 34 cm.

Notes:

A setting of ‘A Word to Two Young Ladies’, from Rural Tales (1802), pp. 89-91.

Watermark dated: 1810.

For solo voice and keyboard; G minor; 2/4; ‘Grazioso’.

Source: Cambridge University Library, MS. Add. 6640; p. 25 [not seen].

1810

James Hook

Rosy Hannah: a much admired song, with an accompaniment for the harp or piano forte, composed for Mr. Braham, by Mr. Hook. (The words from Bloomfield’s poems) (London: printed by Messrs Phipps & Co., 25 Duke Street, Grosvenor Square)

1 score (7 pp.); fol.

Notes:

First line: ‘A Spring o’erhung with many a Flower’.

Price 2s.

Through-composed.

For solo voice with accompaniment for harp or piano; A major; 2/4; ‘moderato’. A modern edition is included in Hook’s Songs & Cantatas: for solo voice with piano, harpsichord or harp accompaniment and optional scorings for flute or guitar, ed. David J. Rhodes. Vocal music. vol. 2 (Girvan: Piper Publications, c. 2000).

Source: description from British Library G.379.c.(54.).

1810

James Henry Leffler (1761-1819)

Lucy: a ballad sung by Mrs. Mountain with universal applause. Composed and respectfully dedicated to Miss Harriot Hutchinson by James Henry Leffler. The words by R. Bloomfield, the celebrated author of the Farmer’s Boy (London: printed & sold for the author by Preston, 97, Strand)

1 score; fol.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘Thy Fav’rite Bird is soaring still’

Price 1s.

For solo voice and keyboard; F major; 6/8; ‘pastorale’.

Source: description based on British Library G.383.h.(62.) [copy incomplete].

Before 1811

Isaac William Bloomfield (1761-1811).

Dear Boy, throw that Icicle down: Song.

Notes:

A setting of ‘Winter Song’ from Rural Tales (1802).

For voice and piano.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1950.

Source: The ‘Prospectus’ in Remains states that Isaac Bloomfield’s setting was to be published (London: Goulding) as part of a subscription collection; now lost.

Before 1811

Isaac Bloomfield

The Highland Drover

Notes:

A setting of ‘Song for a Highland Drover returning to England’ from Rural Tales (1802). For voice and piano.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1948.

Source: the ‘Prospectus’ in Remains states that Isaac Bloomfield’s setting was to be published (London: Goulding) as part of a subscription collection; now lost.

Before 1811

Isaac Bloomfield

My favourite Bird is soaring still

Notes:

A setting of ‘Lucy’ from Rural Tales (1802)

For voice and piano.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1941.

Source: the ‘Prospectus’ in Remains>/cite> states that Isaac Bloomfield’s setting was to be published (London: Goulding) as part of a subscription collection; now lost.

Before 1811

Isaac Bloomfield

You ask me, dear Nancy, what makes me presume

Notes:

A setting of ‘Nancy’ from Rural Tales (1802)

For chorus and piano.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1942.

Source: the ‘Prospectus’ in Remains states that Isaac Bloomfield’s setting was to be published (London: Goulding) as part of a subscription collection; now lost

1815

William Crotch (1775-1847)

Yield thee to Pleasure old care!: glee. (London: Printed & sold by Rt. Birchall, ...)

1 score (5, [1] pp.); fol.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘Yield thee to Pleasure old care’

Watermark date: 1815.

For soprano, alto, tenor and bass (SATB) voices, unaccompanied.

Source: Bodleian Library [not seen]

1818

Henry Smith (fl. 1817-22)

Six canzonets for the voice with an accompaniment for the piano forte, dedicated (by permission) to His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, the words selected from Shakespeare, Pope, Bloomfield, &c. &c. Composed by Henry Smith, organist of the English Chapel, Dundee, Scotland (Published for the author: Dundee, Scotland, & may be had of the following music-sellers, Messrs. Muir, Wood, & Co., Leith Street, Edinburgh, Mr. Morris, Aberdeen, & Mr. Preston, 97, Strand, London)

1 score ([i], 36 pp.); 35 cm.

Notes:

Bloomfield setting begins: ‘In our Cottage that peeps from the skirts of the wood’.

Through-composed (3 stanzas).

For solo voice with piano accompaniment.

C major; 6/8; ‘allegretto pastorale’.

Contents: subscribers’ names (p. 1); music: the words from Shakespeare (p. 3); Rusticity: the poetry from Bloomfield (p. 8); The complaint: the words from the Portuguese, Luis de Camoens by the Right Honble. Lord Vist. Strangford (p. 15); Sympathy: the poetry of Dr. Warton (p. 22); The tear: Brinsley Sheridan Esqre (p. 27; Solitude: the words from Pope (p. 34).

Sources: description based on British Library H.1683,(64); another copy: Glasgow University Library [not seen].

1821

John Marks Jolly (1790-1864)

The Miller’s Maid: a melo-drama in two acts. Founded on Bloomfield’s poem of that name, and the songs principally selected from his works. By John Savill Faucit, author of ‘Justice,’ a musical drama in three acts, &c. &c. &c. Performing at the Theatre Royal, English Opera House, with distinguished success. The overture and new music composed by Mr. Jolly. The scenery by Mr. Thiselton (London: printed for the author; and sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1821).

[6], 47 pp.; 24 cm.

Notes:

The first song, entitled ‘Phebe’ begins: ‘How bright with pearl the eastern sky’; it is modified from Bloomfield’s ‘Mary’s Evening Sigh’ which begins: ‘How bright with pearl the western sky’.

Price 2s. 6d.

Jolly’s music not included, and is apparently lost.

7 men, 2 women.

Faucit’s text was reprinted (Baltimore: printed and published by J. Robinson, Circulating Library and Dramatic Repository ..., 1822) and (New York: S. French, 1856?).

There is also a version for toy theatre: The Miller’s maid, or, The rustic lovers: a drama in two acts, adapted to Hodgson’s theatrical characters and scenes in the same (London: printed by and for Hodgson & Co, Juvenile Press, No. 10, Newgate-Street [1825?]); the few songs are not, it seems, by Bloomfield (music not included); British Library 11778.aaa.16.

Source: description based on British Library T.1068.(9.).

1824

Matthew Cooke (1761-1829)

Elegy for Three voices. From Bloomfield’s Remains. On the death of his infant son Robert. Matthew Cooke. August 7th 1824.

Holograph MS in ink. Short score (2 leaves)

Notes:

First line: ‘Farewell Farewell my sweet my budding flow’r’.

A setting of ‘On the Death of His Infant Son Robert’ from Remains I, p. 84.

For three voices; optional piano; E flat major; 2/4; ‘Slow and Pathetic’.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1944.

Source: British Library Add. MS. 30,521, fols. 8-9, ‘Purchased of W. Bloomfield, Esq. 30 Mar: 1878’.

1824

Matthew Cooke

From Bloomfield’s Remains. A Catch for three voices. Matthew Cooke. August 4th 1824. Holograph MS in ink. Short score (2 leaves)

Notes:

First line: ‘Wine, Beauty, smiles, and social mirth’.

From Remains, I, p. 40.

For three voices; optional piano; C major; 2/4; ‘Lively’.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1949.

Source: British Library Add. MS. 30,521, fols. 1-2, ‘Purchased of W. Bloomfield, Esq. 30 Mar: 1878’.

1824

Matthew Cooke

From Bloomfield’s Remains. A Song. Matthew Cooke. August 13th 1824.

Holograph in ink. MS short score (1 leaf).

Notes:

First line: ‘The Man in the Moon look’d down one night’.

From Remains, I, p. 59.

Strophic setting; 3 stanzas; For voice and keyboard (figured bass); G major; 6/8; ‘Cheerful’.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1947.

Source: British Library: Add. MS. 30,521, Fol. 7, ‘Purchased of W. Bloomfield, Esq. 30 Mar: 1878.’

1824

Matthew Cooke

Hob’s Epitaph. From Bloomfield’s Remains. M Cooke. Sept 19th 1824

Ink holograph MS: short score (1 leaf).

Notes:

First line: ‘A Grey Owl was I when on earth’.

From Remains, I, p. 33.

Strophic setting; 3 stanzas; for voice and keyboard (figured bass); E flat major; 6/8; ‘Andante è doloroso’.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1938.

Source: British Library Add. MS 30,521, fol. 12, ‘Purchased of W. Bloomfield, Esq. 30 Mar: 1878.’

1824

Matthew Cooke

‘News from Worthing’! From a Beast of Burden to her brother Jack. Written by the late Robert Bloomfield Author of The Farmer’s Boy. Rural Tales &c, The above Song taken from his last work, entitled ‘The Remains’. The Music composed by Matthew Cooke Organist of St. George’s Church, Bloomsbury. Entered at Stationer’s Hall Price 1sh./6d. London: Printed for the Benefit of the Widow and Family of the Late Mr. Bloomfield; and sold by Goulding and Co. at No. 7. Westmorland Street, Dublin.

Holograph MS in ink. Short score (2 leaves).

Notes:

Caption title: ‘News from Worthing! In a letter from a Beast of Burden to her brother Jack’.

First line: ‘Brother Jack, I am going to inform you’.

A setting of ‘News from Worthing’, Remains, I, p. 70.

Strophic setting; 7 stanzas; for voice and keyboard (figured bass); E flat major; 6/8; ‘Cheerful’.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1943.

Source: British Library Add. MS. 30,521, fols. 17-18. ‘Purchased of W. Bloomfield, Esq. 30 Mar: 1878.

1824

Matthew Cooke

Simple Pleasures. From Bloomfield’s Remains. A Song for three voices. Matthew Cooke. August 6th 1824

Holograph MS in ink. Short score (2 leaves).

Notes:

First line: ‘Thus thinks the traveller, journeying still’.

A setting of ‘Simple Pleasures’ from Remains, I, p. 58.

For three voices; E flat major; 2/4; ‘Andante’.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1946.

Source: British Library Add. MS. 30,521, fols. 5-6, ‘Purchased of W. Bloomfield, Esq. 30 Mar: 1878.’

1824

Robert William Evans (fl. 1817-27).

The dawning of the day. Composed by R. W. Evans, June 30th 1824. ([London]: T. C. Bates.)

1 score (4-5 p.); obl. 8vo.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘The grey eye of morning was dear to my youth’.

Score included in Remains, I, pp. 4 and 5 of folding plates.

Through-composed. Sets first two stanzas

For high voice with accompaniment arranged for keyboard, with cues for bugle, horns.

Source: description based on British Library 1467.c.45.

1824

Robert William Evans

The flowers of the mead. Composed by R. W. Evans, June 25th 1824. ([London] : T. C. Bates.)

1 score (2-3 pp.): obl. 8vo.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘How much to be wish’d that the Flow’rs of the Mead’

Score included in Remains, I, pp. 2 and 3 of folding plates.

Through-composed.

For high voice with accompaniment arranged for keyboard, with cues for horns and bassoon.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1935.

Source: Description based on British Library 1467.c.45.

1824

Robert William Evans

The maid of Landoga. From Mr. Bloomfiel’s Banks of Wye. Composed June 29th 1824, by R. W. Evans. ([London]: T. C. Bates.)

1 score (6-7 pp.); obl. 8vo.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘Return, my Llewellyn! the glory’

Score included in Remains, I pp. 6 and 7 of folding plates.

Through-composed.

For voice with accompaniment arranged for keyboard, with cues for bugle.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1933.

Source: description based on British Library 1467.c.45.

1824

R. A. Firth (fl. 1819-35)

Love in a shower. R. A. Firth. ([London]: T. C. Bates.)

1 score (10-11 pp.); obl. 8vo.

Notes:

Caption title.

First line: ‘Love in a show’r, safe shelter took’.

From Hazelwood-Hall (1823), Act II, scene iii.

Score included in Remains, I, pp. 10 and 11 of folding plates.

Through-composed.

Glee for 3 voices: soprano, alto, tenor, optional piano; G major; 3/4; ‘Vivace’.

Firth’s holograph MS is British Library Add. 30,521, fols. 19-20.

Reference: Gooch, no. 1937; also Gooch, no. 1936 (wrongly attributed to Matthew Cooke).

Source: description based on British Library 1467.c.45.

1834

William Ashton Nield (fl. 1816-36)

The juvenile musical library; consisting of national stories, newly set to music, by W. A. Nield ... Embellished with sixty illustrations from original drawings by Cruikshank (London: Allan Bell & Co.; Simpkin & Marshall, 1834)

1 score (iv, 72 pp.); 19x25 cm.

Notes:

Includes a setting of Bloomfield’s ‘The Fakenham ghost’, for voice and pianoforte. Contents: ‘For the voice, 1. John Gilpin by Cowper. 2. Elegy on Madame Blaize, by Goldsmith. 3. The Fakenham ghost, by Bloomfield. 4. The house that Jack built, &c. For the piano forte. 5. Rondino, by Steibelt. 6. Rondino, by Mozart.’

Source: British Library B.241.c. [not seen].

1841

Henry Raper (fl. 1840-48)

Ye darksome woods where echo dwells. A Glee for four voices. The poetry by Bloomfield. Composed & dedicated to H. S. Wilde, Esqr. By H. Raper. (London: published by Cramer, Addison & Beale, 201 Regent Street, and 67, Conduit Street.)

1 score (17 pp.); 35 cm.

Notes:

First line: ‘Ye darksome woods’

Price 4/-

For 4 voices (SATB) with optional piano accompaniment.

Sources: description based on British Library H.1682. (21.); another copy: Cambridge University Library [not seen]

1868

James Hamilton Siree Clarke (1840-1912)

The woodland hallo. Words by Bloomfield; music by Hamilton Clarke (London: Augener & Co., 86, Newgate Street)

1 score ([1], 6 pp.); 36cm.

Notes:

First line: ‘In our Cottage that peeps from the skirts of the Wood’.

Price 2/6-.

Plate number: 2032.

For voice and piano.

Sources: description based on British Library H.2511. (4.); another copy: Cambridge University Library [not seen].

1874

Thomas Ridley Prentice (1842-95).

A Matin song. The poetry by Robert Bloomfield. The music by T. Ridley Prentice. (London: Lamborn Cock, 63, New Bond Street.)

1 score (7 pp.); 4to.

Notes:

First line: ‘Good morrow to the hills again’.

Price 6d. nett.

No. 47 of Modern Four Part Songs for Mixed Voices.

Through-composed.

For voices (SATB) with piano accompaniment ad lib.

Source: description based on British Library F.585.b. (46.)

1905

Walter Owen Jones (fl. 1877-1919)

The Fakenham Ghost: cantata for treble voices: the poetry by Robert Bloomfield; the music composed by W. Owen Jones. Dedicated by kind permission to General the Duke of Grafton, K.G., C.B., Euston Hall, Suffolk (London: Hutchings & Romer, 39, Great Marlborough Street)

1 score ([2], 21 pp.); 4to.

notes:

First line: ‘The lawns were dry in Euston Park’.

Price One shilling net.

For chorus (SA), soprano and contralto soloists, and piano accompaniment.

Source: description based on British Library E.889.e. (4.).

1909

Bertram Luard-Selby (1853-1918)

The Fakenham Ghost: cantata. The words by Robert Bloomfield, set to music for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra by Bertram Luard-Selby (London: Novello and Company, Limited; New York: The H. W. Gray Co., sole agents for the U.S.A., 1909)

1 vocal score ([3], 30 pp.); 26 cm.

Notes

First line: ‘The lawns were dry in Euston Park’

With text of poem on page [3].

Price one shilling and sixpence.

Novello’s original octavo edition.

Plate number 12866

For chorus: SATB; accompanying arrangement for piano.

‘It was with this little cantata that Mr. Luard-Selby won the prize in the recent competition of the Association of Musical Festivals. Bright music allied to humorous words will never cease to appeal to choralists and their audiences, therefore this latest addition to the category should become a favourite piece, especially as it has more purely artistic virtues than humorous descriptive choral works are wont to possess!’ (The Musical Times, 50, no 793 (1 March 1909), 172)

Sources: description based on British Library E.1594.v.(4.); another copy: Bodleian Library [not seen].

1965

Patrick Enfield (1929-88?)

The maid of Dunstable; for female voices in two parts with piano accompaniment. Robert Bloomfield, set to music by Patrick Enfield. For Geoffrey Waters and the Dunstable Girls’ Choir (London: Elkin & Co. Ltd., W.1)

1 score (7 pp.); 26 cm.

Notes:

Caption title

First line: ‘Where o’er the hills, and white as snow’

The Elkin new choral series. Part-songs for female voices, 2nd series; 2702

For chorus (soprano, alto) and piano

Sources: description based on British Library E.263.q. (31); another copy: Trinity College Dublin [not seen].

Sources and Further Reading

Aubigny von Engelbrunner, Nina d’, Briefe an Natalie über den Gesang (Leipzig, 1803) A second edition appeared in 1824.
— Deutsche, Italienische & Französische Gesänge (Augsburg, s.d.)
Banfield, Stephen, Sensibility and English Song: Critical Studies of the early 20th Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)
Bloomfield, Robert, Rural Tales, Ballads and Songs (London: Vernor & Hood, 1802)
— Hazelwood-Hall: A Village Drama. In three acts (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy,1823)
– The Remains of Robert Bloomfield ... in two volumes (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1824). ‘... it is proposed to publish by Subscription a Collection of his best Songs, set to Music, some by himself, some by his brother Isaac, and some by celebrated living composers. ... As soon as 100 copies are subscribed for, the Selection will be printed by Messrs. Goulding and Co. Soho Square, London, who will receive Subscriptions.’ (I, pp. 191-2.)
– Selected Poems. Revised and enlarged edition, ed. John Goodridge and John Lucas, with an introduction by John Lucas (Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2007). Contains the tune for ‘Ligoran Cosh’.
– Selections from the Correspondence of Robert Bloomfield, the Suffolk Poet, ed. W. H. Hart (London: Spottiswoode, 1870, 1968). Elsberger, Manfred, Nina d’Aubigny von Engelbrunner (Munich, 2000) A biography, based on his PhD thesis, Universität Passau.
Fairchild, B. H., Such Holy Song: Music as Idea, Form and Image in the Poetry of William Blake (Kent OH: Kent State University Press, 1980)
Fitch, Donald, Blake Set to Music: A Bibliography of Musical Settings of the Poems and Prose of William Blake. Volume 5. Catalogs and Bibliographies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). Lists 1,412 settings of Blake.
Ford, Boris (ed.), Benjamin Britten’s Poets: The Poetry He Set to Music, rev. ed. (Manchester: Carcanet, 1996)
Gooch, Bryan N. S. with David S. Thatcher, Odean Long, Musical Settings of British Romantic Literature: A Catalogue (New York: Garland Pub., 1982), Garland reference library of the humanities, vol. 326, two vols. Lists 1,624 settings of Blake (using a different count to Fitch), and 3,430 for Burns.
Greene, Gary A., ‘The musical Huss family in America’, American Music, 12, no. 1 (Spring 1994), 31-57.
Harrison, Brian (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
Matthews, Betty, ‘James Hook and his family’, The Musical Times, 131, no. 1773 (November 1990), 622, 624-5.
Munby, A. N. L., Poets and men of letters. Sale catalogues of libraries of eminent persons, 1-2 (London: Mansell, 19710, The Bloomfield sale, vol. I, pp. 67-84: ‘This rare locally printed catalogue of the sale of the contents of his house is unusually informative and apart from its literary interest is a social document of some value, because men of Bloomfield’s class rarely had their possessions itemised in such detail. The first day’s sale, containing the poet’s books, shows the degree to which his friends and admirers had helped to build up his small library. ... In the second day’s sale are to be found the simple furnishings of the small three-bedroomed house, with its dripping pan, cheese-toaster, bootjack and other bygones’.
‘Obituary: Thomas Ridley Prentice’, The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, 36, no. 630 (1 August 1895), 549.
Rennert, Jonathan, ‘William Crotch, 1775-1847’, The Musical Times, 116, no. 1589 (July 1975), 622-623.
Repertoire Internationale des Sources Musicales. RISM A/II (The UK and Ireland RISM Database: Music Manuscripts, 1600-1800, in British and Irish Libraries)
Sadie, Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan; Washington DC: Grove’s Dictionaries of Music, 2001), 29 vols.
Wickett, William and Nicholas Duval, The Farmer’s Boy. The story of a Suffolk poet, Robert Bloomfield, his life and poems, 1766-1823 (Lavenham: Terence Dalton, 1971).

My thanks to John Goodridge for help in identifying the composer Davy, and to an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on an early draft.