The melody of the waltz followed her now, rang dismally in her ears although she would rather have forgotten it, rising and falling continuously like a never-ending gramophone record. It suited bitterly. She had paid little attention to the rest of the words during the dance even though she knew them well, but now they came back to her.~ Corral Nocturne by yours truly
We have a special edition of Songs of Old today! To celebrate the release of Corral Nocturne, we’re taking a look at a beautiful waltz song that I discovered in my favorite music book a few years ago, and later found to be the perfect song to incorporate into my historical Cinderella retelling.
(Don’t forget to enter the Corral Nocturne giveaway, which includes an mp3 of my favorite rendition of the song!)
“After the Ball” was written in 1892 by Charles K. Harris (1867 – 1930), a prolific and successful songwriter who was one of the founders of Tin Pan Alley, often referred to as “king of the tearjerkers.” (A detailed and interesting biography of Harris can be found here.) It became one of the first real smash hits of American popular music, selling over five million copies of sheet music. John Philip Sousa took a liking to it and played it daily with his band at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, which provided a tremendous boost to its popularity.
Legend has it that Harris conceived the idea for the song after attending a dance in Chicago, where he witnessed a pair of young lovers go home separately after a quarrel. The three verses narrate a very Victorian romantic tragedy, with an old man telling his little niece the long-ago tale of how he lost his love. After he witnessed another man kissing her at a ball, he refused to listen to the lady’s attempts at explanation, and she subsequently died of a broken heart—only for the gentleman to learn afterwards that the mystery man at the ball had been her brother. (Tell me what Victorian novel—albeit one with a happier ending—that reminds you of!) The chorus of the song, lamenting the heartbreak that often follows in the wake of a ball, was just perfect for the midnight knell of a Cinderella story, and the beautiful sweeping melody and the song’s popularity around the turn of the 19th century made it a splendid fit to have played at a dance scene in a story set there. “After the Ball” fit into Corral Nocturne as though made for it.
In 1927, “After the Ball” was interpolated into the score of the musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, one of a few genuine period songs that appeared alongside the Kern/Hammerstein originals to give historical flavor. Here is a clip of Irene Dunne singing a verse and the chorus of the song in the 1936 film version:
Update: here’s a nice complete performance of the song.
You can view the original sheet music online here. And to go along with that, here’s a real bit of history: a film short from 1929 featuring Charles K. Harris himself singing a part of the song.
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