Information AboutMusic Hall |
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Music hall is a form of British theatrical Entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to # A particular form of Variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and Speciality Acts . British music hall was similar to American Vaudeville , featuring rousing songs and comic acts, while in the United Kingdom the term ''vaudeville'' referred to more lowbrow entertainment that would have been termed '' Burlesque '' in the United States. # The theatre or other venue in which such entertainment takes place; # The type of popular music normally associated with such performances. ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT ]] Music hall in London had its origins in entertainment provided in the new style saloon bars of Public House s in the 1830s . These venues replaced earlier semi-rural amusements provided at traditional fairs and suburban pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall Gardens and the Cremorne Gardens . These latter became squeezed out by urban development and lost their former popularity. The saloon was a room where for an admission fee or a higher price at the bar, singing, dancing, drama or comedy was performed. The most famous London saloon of the early days was the Grecian Saloon, established in 1825, at The Eagle (a former tea-garden), 2 Shepherdess Walk, off the City Road in north London. According to John Hollingshead this establishment was "the father and mother, the dry and wet nurse of the Music Hall". Later known as the Grecian Theatre it was here that Marie Lloyd made her debut at the age of 14 in 1884. It is still famous these days because of an English nursery rhyme, with the somewhat mysterious lyrics: :Up and down the City Road :In and out The Eagle :That's the way the money goes : Pop Goes The Weasel . Other such "song and supper" rooms included Evan's in Covent Garden , the Coal Hole in The Strand , the Cyder Cellars in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden and the Mogul Saloon in Drury Lane . The music hall as we know it developed from such establishments in the 1850s and were built up in and on the grounds of public houses. Such establishments were distinguished from theatres, by the fact that in a music hall you would be seated at a table in the auditorium and could drink alcohol whilst watching the show. In a theatre, by contrast, the audience was seated in stalls and there was a separate bar-room. A strange exception to this rule was the Britannia Theatre , Hoxton ( 1841 ) which somehow managed to evade this regulation and served drinks to its customers. Though a theatre rather than a music hall this famous establishment later hosted music hall variety acts. It was destroyed by enemy action in ( 1940 ). Famous Music Halls built in this era include:
A noted music hall entrepreneur of this time was Carlo Gatti who built a music hall, known as Gatti's , at Hungerford Market in 1857. He sold the music hall to South Eastern Railway in 1862, and the site became Charing Cross Railway Station . With the proceeds from selling his first music hall, Gatti acquired a restaurant in Westminster Bridge Road , opposite The Canterbury music hall. He converted the restaurant into a second Gatti's music hall, known as "Gatti's-in-the-Road", in 1865. It later became a cinema. The building was badly damaged in the Second World War , and was demolished in 1950. In 1867, he acquired a Public House in Villiers Street named "The Arches", under the arches of the elevated railway line leading to Charing Cross station. He opened it as another music hall, known as "Gatti's-in-The-Arches". After his death his family continued to operate the music hall, known for a period as the Hungerford or Gatti's Hungerford Palace Of Varieties . It became a cinema in 1910, and the Players' Theatre in 1946. Variety theatre A new era of 'variety theatre' was signalled by the rebuilding of the London Pavilion in 1885 . According to Charles Stuart and A.J. Park in their classic ''The Variety Stage'' ( 1895 ): :Hitherto the halls had borne unmistakeable evidence of their origins, but the last vestiges of their old connections were now thrown aside, and they emerged in all the splendour of their new-born glory. The highest efforts of the architect, the designer and the decorator were enlisted in their service, and the gaudy and tawdry music hall of the past gave way to the resplendent 'theatre of varieties' of the present day, with its classic exterior of marble and freestone, its lavishly appointed auditorium and its elegant and luxurious foyers and promenades brilliantly illuminated by myriad electric lights One of the grandest of these new halls was the Coliseum Theatre built by Oswald Stoll in 1904 at the bottom of St Martin's Lane . This was followed by the London Palladium (1910) in Little Argyll Street . Both were designed by the prolific Frank Matcham . As Music Hall grew in popularity and respectability,and as the licensing authorities exercised ever firmer regulation, the original arrangement of a large hall with tables at which drink was served, changed to that of a drink-free Auditorium . The acceptance of Music Hall as a legitimate cultural form was sealed by the first Royal Variety Performance before King George V in 1912 at the Palace Theatre. However, in keeping with this new respectability the greatest music hall star of the day, Marie Lloyd , was not invited, being deemed too 'saucy' for the eyes and ears of monarchy. The rise of syndicates controlling a number of theatres, such as the Stoll circuit, led to increased tensions between employees and employers. Musicians, stage hands, and artistes went on strike in 1907 in London for almost two weeks in the Music Hall War, a strike which became extremely well known, and was enthusiastically supported by the main spokesmen of the trade union and Labour movement - Ben Tillett and Keir Hardie for example. The strike ended in arbitration, which saw most of the main demands satisfied, including a minimum wage and maximum working week for musicians. Several music hall stars such as Marie Lloyd, Arthur Roberts and Gus Elen were strong supporters of the strike, though they themselves earned enough not to be personally concerned in a material sense. The pressure for greater rewards for music hall songwriters led to the application of Copyright Law to musical compositions. This in turn boosted the Music Publication industry, and the sale of music in printed form. The term Tin Pan Alley , for the music publication industry gained currency from the practice of rival publishers of banging together pots and pans in order to disrupt their competitors' musical auditions. The music publishers at the time (Feldman, Francis and Day...) were large, extremely profitable companies. They sold the right to sing songs to particular artists, and no other person had the right to sing the songs in public. Recruiting World War I is considered by many to have been the high-water-mark of music hall popularity. Music hall artists and composers threw themselves into rallying public support and enthusiasm for the war effort. Patriotic music hall compositions like ''Keep the Home Fires Burning, Pack up Your Troubles, It's A Long Way To Tipperary '' and ''We Don't Want to Lose You (but we think you ought to Go)'', were sung by the soldiers in the trenches and by audiences at home. Singers like Marie Lloyd went even further, singing lyrics like "I didn't like you much before you joined the army, John, but I do like yer cockie now you've got your khaki on." Many songs aimed at recruitment ("All the boys in khaki get the nice girls"); others satirized particular elements of the war experience. "What did you do in the Great war, Daddy" criticized profiteers and slackers; Vesta Tilley's "I've got a bit of a blighty one" showed a soldier delighted to have a wound just serious enough to be sent home. The forced rhymes give a sense of black humour (When they wipe my face with sponges/ and they feed me on Blancmange s/ I'm glad I've got a bit of a blighty one.) Possibly the most notorious of music hall songs from the first world war was Oh! It's A Lovely War sung by male impersonater Ella Shields . Music hall continued through the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, but no longer as the single dominant form of popular entertainment in Britain. The arrival of radio, and the cheapening of the gramophone damaged it enormously. It now had to compete with Jazz , Swing and Big Band dance music, as well as with Cinema . Even so, it gave rise to such major stars as George Formby , Gracie Fields , Max Miller , and Flanagan And Allen during this period. Decline After World War II , competition from Television and other musical idioms, including Rock And Roll , led to the slow demise of the British music halls, despite some desperate attempts to retain an audience by putting on Striptease acts. In 1957 the playwright John Osbourne delivered this elegy: :"The music hall is dying, and with it, a significant part of England. some of the heart of England has gone; something that once belonged to everyone, for this was truly a folk art."John Osbourne (1957) ''The Entertainer'': 7. Faber and Faber, London. The final blow came when '' Moss Empires '', the largest British Music Hall chain, closed the majority of its theatres in 1960. Stage and film Musicals , however, continued to be influenced by the music hall idiom. '' Oliver! '', '' Dr Dolittle '', '' My Fair Lady '', and many other musicals continued to retain strong roots in music hall. The BBC series The Good Old Days , which ran for thirty years, recreated the music hall for the modern audience, and the '' Paul Daniels Magic Show'' allowed several speciality acts a television presence from 1979 to 1994. Aimed at a younger audience, but still owing a lot to the music hall heritage, was the late 70s series '' The Muppet Show ''. HISTORY OF THE SONGS The musical forms most associated with music hall evolved in part from traditional folk song and songswritten for popular drama, becoming by the 1850s a distinct musical style. Subject matter became more contemporary and humorous, and accompaniment was provided by larger house-orchestras as increasing affluence gave the lower classes more access to commercial entertainment and to a wider range of musical instruments, including the Piano . The consequent change in musical taste from traditional to more professional forms of entertainment arose in response to the rapid Industrialisation and Urbanisation of previously rural populations during the Industrial Revolution . The newly created urban communities, cut off from their cultural roots, required new and readily accessible forms of entertainment. Music halls were originally bar rooms which provided entertainment, in the form of Music and speciality acts, for their patrons. By the middle years of the nineteenth century the first purpose-built music halls were being built in London . The halls created a demand for new and catchy popular songs that could no longer be met from the traditional Folk Song repertoire. Professional songwriters were enlisted to fill the gap. The emergence of a distinct music hall style can be credited to a fusion of musical influences. Music hall songs needed to gain and hold the attention of an often jaded and unruly urban audience. In America from the 1840s Stephen Foster had reinvigorated folk song with the admixture of Negro Spiritual to produce a new and vibrant form of popular song. Songs like ''Golden Slippers'' and ''The Old Folks at Home'' spread round the globe, taking with them the idiom and appurtenances of the Minstrel song. Other influences on the rapidly-developing music hall idiom were Irish and European music, particularly the Jig , Polka , and Waltz . Typically a music hall song consists of a series of Verses sung by the performer alone, and a repeated Chorus which carries the principal Melody , and in which the audience is encouraged to join. In Britain, the first music hall songs often promoted the alcoholic wares of the owners of the halls in which they were performed. Songs like ''Glorious Beer'', and the first major music hall success, Champagne Charlie , in 1854, had a major influence in establishing the new art form. ''Champagne Charlie'' is often credited with inspiring an exasperated William Booth to form the Salvation Army , eliciting his famous quotation: "Why should the devil have all the good tunes?" By the 1870s the songs had cut themselves free from their folk music roots, and particular songs also started to become associated with particular singers, often with exclusive contracts with the songwriter, just as many Pop songs are today. Towards the end of the style the music became influenced by Ragtime and Jazz , before being overtaken by them. Music hall songs were often unashamedly aimed at their working class audiences, reflecting the experiences and humour in their daily lives. Songs like '' My Old Man (Said Follow The Van) '', ''Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road'', and ''Waiting at the Church'', expressed in melodic form situations that the urban poor were very familiar with. Music Hall songs could be romantic, patriotic, humorous or sentimental, as the need arose. The most popular Music Hall songs became the basis for the Pub Song s of the typical Cockney " Knees Up ". Famous Music hall songs
Music hall songwriters
MUSIC HALL COMEDY The typical music hall comedian was a man or woman), usually dressed 'in character',to suit the subject of the song, or sometimes in attired in absurd and eccentric style. Until well into the twentieth century the acts were essentially vocal, with songs telling a story, accompanied by a minimum of patter. They included a variety of genres, including:
'Stand up', spoken wisecracking acts and double acts with one performer being prompted and interrupted by a 'straight' partner, belong to later developments, derived partly from pantomime and partly from the importation of American comedy styles. The phrases 'I don't wish to know that!' and 'kindly leave the stage!' and some of today's habits, such as finishing on a song, belong to this later period. Inter-war radio programmes such as 'Band Wagon' adapted the music hall and variety traditions to the new medium, while, more recently, 'The Goon Show' took radio comedy into the surreal. Early television Variety Shows picked up some of the pieces, but this was at a time when music hall was already on its last legs. Nearer to today, the spirit of music hall genre has enjoyed a new kind of life in television's The Muppet Show . The vocal content of the music hall bills, was, from the beginning, accompanied by many other kinds of act, some of them quite weird and wonderful. These were known collectively as ''speciality acts'', which, over time, have included: - ''The Daring Young man on the Flying Trapeze'']]
MUSIC HALL PERFORMERS . Not ''strictly'' a Music hall, but a theatre where many of these artists performed their Music hall acts.]]
- sheet music cover.]]
MUSIC HALL IN LITERATURE, DRAMA, AND SCREEN The music hall has been evoked in many films, plays, TV series and books.
SURVIVING MUSIC HALLS London was the centre of Music Hall with hundreds of venues, often in the entertainment rooms of public houses. With the decline in popularity of Music Hall, many were abandoned, or converted to other uses, such as cinemas and their interiors lost. Some few purpose built survivors are :-
Many of these buildings can be seen as part of the annual London Open House event. Outside London, surviving music halls include the following examples:
One of the few fully functional music hall entertainments, is at the Brick Lane Music Hall in a former church in North Woolwich . For information . The Players' Theatre Club is another group performing a Victorian style Music Hall show at a variety of venues. SEE ALSO The term ''Music hall'' is also used to describe some large musical venues, such as the Paris Olympia , Radio City Music Hall , and Music Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio (see Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra ). REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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