‘London Bridge’

‘London Bridge’

Proud and lowly, beggar and lord,
Over the bridge they go;
Rags and velvet, fetter and sword,
Poverty, pomp, and woe.

Laughing, weeping, hurrying ever,
Hour by hour they crowd along,
While, below, the mighty river
Sings them all a mocking song,

Hurry along, sorrow and song,
All is vanity 'neath the sun;
Velvet and rags, so the world wags,
Until the river no more shall run.

Dainty, painted, powdered and gay,
Rolleth my lady by;
Rags-and-tatters, over the way,
Carries a heart as high.

Flowers and dreams from country meadows,
Dust and din through city skies,
Old men creeping with their shadows,
Children with their sunny eyes,--

Hurry along, sorrow and song,
All is vanity 'neath the sun;
Velvet and rags, so the world wags,
Until the river no more shall run.

Storm and sunshine, peace and strife,
Over the bridge they go;
Floating on in the tide of life,
Whither no man shall know.

Who will miss them there tomorrow,
Waifs that drift to the shade or sun?
Gone away with their songs and sorrow;
Only the river still flows on.

Hurry along, sorrow and song,
All is vanity 'neath the sun;
Velvet and rags, so the world wags,
Until the river no more shall run.

1. Score [flipbook version]

2. Score [download as zip file]

Dr Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. He is particularly fascinated by early book, musical instrument and sheet music collections in NSW and the stories they tell.

Studying singing at the Music Department, University of Sydney, Matthew has more recently led the interpretation of the history of domestic music in MHNSW’s house museums.

Since 2015 he has been MHNSW’s representative in the Sound Heritage network (UK) and is co-author and co-editor of Sound Heritage: Making Music Matter in Historic Houses (Routledge, 2022). In 2019, Matthew curated the Songs of Home exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, which examined the musical landscape of NSW during the first 70 years of European settlement. He has collaborated with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, on numerous projects including as Partner Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘Hearing the Music of Early NSW, 1788-1860’ (2021-23).

Dr Katrina Faulds studied fortepiano with Geoffrey Lancaster (University of Western Australia) and Colleen Rae-Gerrard (Australian National University) before completing postgraduate studies with Stanley Hoogland at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

In 2012 she formed a duet partnership with Dr Penelope Cave, performing several times at Chawton House Library, Chawton, Hampshire, as well as Lodge Park, Gloucestershire, and the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. Katrina and Penelope appear in the Hidden Histories film series about music at Tatton Park, Cheshire, directed by Professor Jeanice Brooks, and recorded music by Larry Goves for Aura Satz’s installation ‘Sound Ornaments in the Music Room’, which was part of the Tatton Park Biennial in 2012. The duo’s most recent performance was in 2019 for the Genootschap Belle van Zuylen at the Geelvinck Muziek Museum in Zutphen, Holland.

In 2015, Katrina completed a PhD in historical musicology at the University of Southampton in which she looked at dance and dance music across the turn of the nineteenth century and its connection with elite female identity.

Katrina has worked as administrator for the Sound Heritage network, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and since 2017 on the AHRC-funded project ‘Music, Home and Heritage: Sounding the Domestic in Georgian Britain’, coordinated by Professor Jeanice Brooks and in partnership with Sydney Living Museums.

In 2017, Katrina appeared as guest fortepianist and presenter at MHNSW’s Sound Heritage Sydney symposium, held at Elizabeth Bay House.

Featured in:

• Sound Heritage Sydney
• Here and There: Music at Home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845

There are no other recordings of ‘London Bridge’, so we have shared some other tunes composed by J.L. Molloy, including a recent Brazilian performance of ‘The Kerry Dance’ (which is also found at Rouse Hill Estate).

Roy Lanham - Kerry Dance

The Kerry Dance (J. L. Molloy)

The Kerry Dance - Atar Trio & Yeela Avital

Early Chordettes - Love's Old Sweet Song (c.1951).

Daoirí Farrell – Love’s Old Sweet Song.

Master Robert Harris (boy soprano) sings Love's Old Sweet Song

ANÚNA : Love's Old Sweet Song