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CHAPTER II |
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BISHOP AND "HOME, SWEET HOME"
T
HE name of Sir Henry Bishop is one that, in the minds of the people, will always be associated with "Home, Sweet Home." To musicians this statement may savour of absurdity, for Bishop was a composer of high ability, a brilliant conductor, and a holder of the musical chair at Oxford. But in a book of this kind, dealing with songs and ballads entirely from a ''popular" standpoint, the fact that he was the composer of "Home, Sweet Home," a ballad that has taken a lasting place among the national songs of England, must be accorded a prominent place in our estimation of Bishop.
It is curious, and a little disappointing, to find that the author of these universally familiar words was not an Englishman but an American, John Howard Payne. The song appeared in the opera Clari, the Maid of Milan, and was first sung by Miss Maria Tree, who is said to have created quite a furore by her rendering of it. In the published music the tune is described as a
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