Bob Kasenchak wrote:

>I'm having a problem.  I need to reconcile 2 conflicting reference sources
>and I wonder if one of you might know something...  Johann Christian Bach
>(the "London Bach") wrote a popular series of songs for concerts in the
>Vauxhall pleasure garden in London between 1766 and 1780.  Now I have
>a recording I need to catalog, which has them as 15 in number, in 4
>collections plus 1 floating song.  Grove's dictionary, our standard
>reference to which we try to conform, lists the Vauxhall songs as being
>only 14 in number, with 3 collections of 4 songs plus 2 published
>individually.  Anyone have any ideas about these Vauxhall songs?

As a dyed in the wool J.C.  Bach fan, I am happy to help with your question
as best I can.  Some qualifiers are needed first:

1) The current worklists for JCB's vocal music are a mess.  As he was an
even more enthusiastic recycler of arias than his father, there are many
duplicates of tunes in his worklist.  The New Grove attempts to supress the
dupes, but only succeed in confusing the issue.

2) There is a JCB Edition, published in the mid-1980s and running to 8
or 9 volumes.  But this only, so far, covers his instrumental and church
music.  As many discoveries have been made in both these areas of late,
parts of the edition are already out of date.

3) The main worklist for JCB is found in Charles Sanford Terry's biography
of the composer, published in 1929 (referred to hereafter as "T").  For the
New Grove (hereafter as "NG") the unidentified list editor bases his/her
list on a 1980 redaction of the 1929 list by H.C.  Robbins Landon.  The
result is one of the most chaotic worklists in the NG; usually I have to
compare what's in T to NG to get an idea of what I'm looking at.

Both T and NG only lists three collections of Vauxhall Songs.  In 1985,
Christopher Hogwood published an edition of these numbers which includes
two songs from a fourth set, which is mentioned in neither T nor NG.
Contents as follows:

   (First) collection of favourite songs sung at Vaux Hall, sung by Mrs.
   Weichsell:

   (I:1) By my sighs you may discover,
   (I:2) Cruel Strephon will you leave me,
   (I:3) Come Colin pride of rural swains,
   (I:4) Ah why shou'd love with tyrant sway

   A second collection of favourite songs sung at Vaux Hall sung by Mrs.
   Pinto & Mrs.  Weichsell:

   (II:1) In this shady blest retreat,
   (II:2) Smiling Venus goddess dear,
   (II:3) Tender virgins shun deceivers,
   (II:4) Lovely yet ungrateful swain

   A third collection of favorite songs sung at Vaux-Hall sung by Miss Cooper:

   (III:1) Midst silent shades and purling streams,
   (III:2) Ah seek to know what place detains,
   (III:3) Would you a female heart inspire,
   (III:4) Cease a while ye winds to blow

   A fourth collection of favorite songs, as sung at Vauxhall Gardens:

   (IV:1) Oh how blest is the condition,
   (IV:2) Hither turn thy wand'ring eyes.

   A favourite song sung by Mrs. Weichsell, at Vaux Hall Gardens:

   (15) See the kind indulgent gales

This is most likely the edition followed in the recording you are reviewing
for Schwann.  The numbers I have added for convenience, and they do not
appear in the entry which I found for this edition.  As to dating, it
appears that Hogwood will only commit to a general blanket date of 1766 to
1799 for the original publication dates in London.  As to the individual
sets and song, this is what I can deduce from the worklists:  (I)?1765 T
vs.  1766 NG, (II)1767, (III)?1775, (IV) no date and (15) 1779 Hogwood vs.
1780 T & NG.

Alternate versions of Vauxhall Songs:  II:2 was republished, without
changes, as "The Intercession", and as such is omitted from NG.  II:3 was
republished twice with new texts, and in itself was a recylced melody from
the Opera "Carrattaco." The new versions were "Blest with Thee, my Soul's
Dear Treasure" (T:?1780, NG:?1769) and "The London Lass" (T:  1768, NG
omits this title entirely.)

NG lists "Farewell ye Soft Scenes" (?1790) as a "Vauxhall Song", but it is
not so designated in T, where it is identified as an "English Song" with no
Vauxhall affiliation.  Given it's late publication date and that the tune
is recycled from the Opera "L'Olimpiade" I suspect this "celebrated air"
maybe a posthumous co-mingling of text and music contrived by another hand.

And finally there's the matter of "Neptune", which opens with the text
"When an angry woman's breast.." and, according to T, belongs to?1775.
While it is identified *and inciphered* as an English solo song in T, NG
inexplicably lists it under the heading of "Chamber Duets"!

I would like to know the catalog number and label of the recording you
are considering.  Otherwise, the list above should correspond to the disc
contents, and the other info is included in the unlikely event you should
run into this problem again.

Uncle Dave Lewis
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