William Beatty-Kingston in London - the 1850's

from Music and manners; personal reminiscences and sketches of character, page 148:

 At the period I refer to there were a good many of these dingy Oriental soloists about town [London], to me quite indistinguishable from one another. They all looked exactly alike, and did exactly the same things; things, I am bound to say, almost unbearable to a child afflicted with a musical ear. Their melodies were composed of random notes, alternately howled and moaned to dismal monosyllables, all vowels and liquids, something after this manner:" La-la-lo-na-ma-na-lo-la," and so on ad infinitum, with the dub, dub, dub, dub of the rolly-polly…   more >>

cite as

William Beatty-Kingston, Music and manners; personal reminiscences and sketches of character, volume 1 (London, 1887), p. 148. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1447702443353 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: London

Listeners

William Beatty-Kingston
journalist, Librettist, memoirist, Translation
1837-1900

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1850's
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, outdoors, in public

Originally submitted by Meg Barclay on Mon, 16 Nov 2015 19:34:03 +0000
Approved on Fri, 20 Nov 2015 17:19:45 +0000