The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Menophanes wrote:As we have discussed Balfe's Bohemian Girl and Wallace's Maritana, perhaps I may mention the third component of what was facetiously called 'The English Ring': The Lily of Killarney by the German-born Julius Benedict. Although this was considerably more recent than the other two (it was first produced in 1862), it seems to have suffered the earliest and most complete lapse into obscurity of the three; all that is usually heard, even on old records, is the tenor-and-bass duet 'The moon hath raised her lamp above' (or, as British basses would often render it, 'Thoh moon hoth roizd hor lomp obov').

Oliver Mundy.

"The Moon hath raised her lamp above" was, with "Excelsior!" one of the most popular duets for tenor and bass.
I like them both, and no Victorian or Edwardian musical evening would have been complete without at least one of them

epigramophone wrote:"The Moon hath raised her lamp above" was, with "Excelsior!" one of the most popular duets for tenor and bass.
I like them both, and no Victorian or Edwardian musical evening would have been complete without at least one of them

So do I! I am sure you know the versions of both by John Harrison and Robert Radford.

Another tenor-bass duet from an earlier generation was 'All's Well' by John Braham (né Abraham), who despite his Jewish background became one of the most popular soloists in Regency London and was also active as a composer. This piece was originally part of a ballad-opera of 1803, clumsily titled The English Fleet in 1342. Another 'opera' of Braham's, The Americans (1811), included the still popular 'Death of Nelson'. After his death Braham often received the ambiguous compliment of being confused with Johannes Brahms; the label of my G. & T. copy of 'All's Well' (Harrison with his brother Joseph) nicely straddles the fence by calling the composer 'Brahams'.

Oliver Mundy.