Charles Dibdin. Charles Dibdin was a British composer, musician, dramatist, novelist and actor. With over 600 songs to his name, for many of which he wrote both the lyrics and the music and performed them himself, he was in his time the most prolific English singer-songwriter. He is best known as the composer of “Tom Bowling”, one of his many sea songs, which often features at the Last Night of the Proms. He also wrote about 30 dramatic pieces, including the operas The Waterman (1774) and The Quaker (1775), and several novels, memoirs and histories.
The son of a silversmith, Dibdin was privately baptised on 4 March 1745 in Southampton and is often described as the youngest child of eighteen born to a 50-year-old mother. His parents, intending him for the clergy, sent Dibdin to Winchester School, but his love of music soon diverted his thoughts from the clerical profession. He possessed ‘a remarkable good voice’ at a young age and was in demand for concerts even as a boy. Anthems were composed for him by Mr Kent and his successor Mr Fussell, organists of Winchester Cathedral, where he was a chorister between 1756 and 1759. He went to London at the age of fifteen at his brother’s invitation, and was first employed tuning harpsichords in a music warehouse in Cheapside. Through Mr. Berenger he was introduced to John Rich (of whom he became a favourite) and John Beard, and, growing addicted to theatre-going, he soon became a singing actor at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. As his voice was not yet settled, Rich thought he would become a bass, and marked out the pantomime roles of Richard Leveridge for him. Dibdin held back from this path, but made the most of his introductions: when Rich died in 1761 and Beard succeeded him as manager and part-proprietor, fresh opportunities arose.
With Beard’s encouragement Dibdin wrote his first work, both words and music of The Shepherd’s Artifice, an operetta in two acts, which was produced as Dibdin’s benefit at Covent Garden on 21 May 1762 and repeated in 1763.[4][5] As an actor, Dibdin had constant opportunities to study Garrick’s performances, and befriended his associates, notably his prompter, who could remember Cibber. He enjoyed two seasons touring at the Vauxhall in Birmingham, and another at Richmond. Beard exercised a benign and encouraging influence over Dibdin’s early career, choosing him, in his first important appearance, for the part of Ralph, in the 1765 premiere of Samuel Arnold’s opera The Maid of the Mill at Covent Garden. He gained so much success over a run of more than fifty nights, that ‘Ralph’ handkerchiefs were worn in compliment to him. He agreed to article himself, both as actor and musician, to Beard for three years at a salary rising from three to five pounds a week. However, his contract established a precedent by which actors were not paid in case of absence through sickness. Reference: Wikipedia
Music sheet for Bonny Kitty composed by Mr. Dibdin, published by Preston, London ca. 19th century
Charles Dibdin
EARLY AMERICAN MUSICAL MANUSCRIPTS. 2 Holograph Musical Manuscripts, the first 46 pp recto and verso, 4to (190 x 235 mm), the second 12 pp recto and verso, 8vo (160 x 195 mm), n.p., c.1790, featuring handwritten music and lyrics to popular tunes of the era, both volumes disbound, pages toned, some chipping at edges.
Likely prepared for home use, perhaps by a student (some of the songs contain fingering notations), the present books contain music an lyrics for several popular late 18th century tunes, including “[Ode] On the Death of Dr. Franklin” (the first stanza only), “Handel’s Water Piece,” “The Match Girl,” “The Soldier’s Adieu by Dibdin,” and “A Favorite Hymn by Dr. Arnold” in the larger volume, and “God Save Great Washington,” “The Beggar Girl,” and “The Maid of Lodi” in the smaller volume, among other titles. “God Save Great Washington,” sung to the tune of “God Save the King,” dates to the end of the Revolutionary War and served as a defacto campaign song for the General.
Sold for US$ 701 (£ 557) inc. premium at Bonhams in 2019
The Advantage of Toping. Written and sung, with unbounded applause, by Charles Dibdin, senior, Esq. DescriptionHeading to printed verses (46 ll.): ‘Written and Sung, with unbounded Applause, by Charles Dibdin, Senior, Esq.’ Seven men drink round a table lit by two candles; some sit, some stand, one lies prostrate, one is asleep. The chairman stands, raising his glass. The refrain begins:’Then all get drunk if you wish to be happy.’ 1 December 1807 Etching with letterpress
Reference: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Quaker in Love,1815 (?) Thomas Rowlandson Text below this print associates the scene with Charles Dibdin’s comic opera “The Quaker.” The lines comes from a song used by the mian character uses to propose marriage. Rowlandson shows the main character outside a house placing his hand on the offered breast of a buxom young woman. Two women watch the scene from an open window above as a short, stocky man walks away at left near a sign lettered “Man traps placed in these grounds.”
p>Reference: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dibdin, Charles. COLLECTION OF PRINTED SONGS, OVER A DOZEN SIGNED BY THE COMPOSER (“CDIBDIN”), INCLUDING AN APPARENTLY UNIQUE SOURCE FOR THE SONG ‘HOW GOOD AND HOW KIND OF HIS DEAR MAJESTY’ FROM “THE OLD WOMAN OF EIGHTY” The celebrated Comic Song Sung by M.r Munden…at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in the Character of An Old Woman of Eighty, 2 pages, folio, London: Longman and Broderip, [1782 or later] together with songs from The Cake House, A Frisk, The Masque in Amphytrion, The Padlock, The Chelsea Pensioner, The Oddities, Britons Strike Home, The New Years Gift, The Fortune Hunters, Liberty Hall, The Waterman, The Quaker, The Deserter, Poor Vulcan, Yo Yea, or The Friendly Tars, Pandora, The Saloon, The Wives Revenged, Clump and Cudden, The Islanders, The Seraglio over 80 songs in all, various sizes, engraved music, a few songs laid down, some contemporary manuscript annotations, disbound, second half of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, some browning and staining, An Old Woman of Eighty cropped and splitting along folds
Sold for 840 GBP at Sotheby’s in 2005
