Article on the damaging effects of burlesque to music publishing

Event Information

Venue(s):

Event Type:
Opera, Variety / Vaudeville

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
12 February 2019

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

01 Mar 1869

Performers and/or Works Performed

Citations

1)
Article: New York Herald, 01 March 1869, 5.

“When will this burlesque mania end? On the stage it may do with the aid of blonde hair and well cottoned limbs, but on the shelves of our music publishers it is intolerable. Yet it finds many ready purchasers, even among those who pretend to know something about music, and from parlor and drawing room the strains of ‘Up in a Balloon’ or ‘Taffey was a Welshman’ assail the ear. What is the meaning then of that mythical affair called public taste? It is something that is as light as a bubble, equally evanescent and capable of being driven in any direction by the breath of a mere whim. Of course we refer only to the taste of a certain class of people in this city who assume a knowledge or rather smattering of art and are, unhappily for the sake of art, looked upon by managers and publishers are their only patrons. We thought that the Offenbach mania, which is now dying out, exerted an evil influence on music publishing, such as made every true lover of art grieve; but this inundation of trash from the burlesque boards is infinitely worse. There was wit, sparkle and grace about the French music even if it were shallow and devoid of substance; but in the burlesque the music and words possess in every case not the slightest claims to the attention of an intelligent person. There is only one consolation in the matter, and that is that such trash cannot last long, and that those mercenary publishers who have entirely abandoned the field of decent music to lend all the resources of their establishments to diffuse the inane compositions of Farnie, Connolly, ed id omne genus, will find themselves one day with a large stock of unsalable stuff on hand. The sooner it comes to pass the better.”