ABSTRACT

This chapter examines some of the ways in which English musical life was affected by the changes consequent upon the Industrial Revolution itself. ‘The Industrial Revolution’, said W. C. Smith, ‘largely created conditions which compelled the ordinary people to find their own recreations cheaply amongst themselves—and they therefore endeavoured to make their own music. There were several types of ballad singers: some merely relied on a small stock of tunes which they tried out at different ‘pitches’ before moving on; others had an extensive repertoire to which they added items of their own composition. In his Sketches by Boz Charles Dickens looked forward to a time when ‘penny magazines shall have superseded penny yards of song, and capital punishment be unknown’. Many of the ballads, for instance, introduced naval themes, and either detail actions in which British vessels have taken part or recall aspects of the sailor’s life on shore and afloat.