THE HOLY CITY Text: F.E. Weatherly (1848-1929) Music: Stephen Adams (1844-1913)
The sacred ballads of Stephen Adams, Frances Allitsen, and Samuel Liddle were composed for an Edwardian drawing room, and achieved immense popularity in their day. Michael Maybrick writing under the pseudonym of Stephen Adams was an internationally successful writer of ballads and concert pieces, and was equally well known in London as a concert singer and concert entrepreneur. He collaborated with an equally successful librettist, Fred Weatherly, who was also a successful London barrister. Weatherly also wrote libretti for a number of other celebrated British composers, including Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan, and Eric Coates, one of the best known of British composers of light music.
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I remember Dad singing this one, but I’m looking forward to some of my father’s memories of the places and times when he sang it. Absolutely gave me shivers when he sang this one!
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