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118 The National Music of America.
We might give several more claims to the work, but we have cited enough to show how speedily pseudo-historical tales cluster around national music. There seems, however, scarcely to be a doubt that Henry Carey, the composer of " Sally in our Alley," the unfortunate genius who committed suicide after a blameless life of eighty years, who died with a single halfpenny in his pocket, was the author and composer of the great anthem. It was at a tavern in Cornhill, in 1740, at a meeting convened to celebrate the capture of Porto Bello, that the song was first heard, the singer being Henry Carey, who, after being heartily applauded, announced that it was (both words and music) his own composition.* There are
the last century. An article recently appeared in the Saturday Review of Mobile, Ala., on this subject, contributed by Prof. Paul J. Robert. Grove's " Dictionary of Music and Musicians " also alludes to the Lully theory; but it is only another instance of family resemblance among popular melodies.
'See Gentleman's Magazine, 17965 Chappell's "Na- |
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