Edith Fielden, interesting inscribed cover for her banjo piece 'Bonita'

[Richard William Ineson]

[Richard William Ineson]

Inscription

[Trapdoor2]

Hardly looks to be in english.

I hope you submit the score to the library!

[Joel Hooks]

To Mr John Sam (or Son)

With au ??

Merci beaucoup

That is my guess. 

[carrie horgan]

Who is in the photograph?  Would you be happy to share the score - I'm interested in finding more tunes by female composers.

[Shawn McSweeny]

To Mr. W. Johnson

With all kind 

rememberances

Yours Edith Fielden

[Richard William Ineson]

That's it Shawn, thank you. I was interested to find this inscription because Cammeyer is reputed to have used various pseudonyms on his compositions and Edith Fielden was one of these 'suspect' composers. I always doubted this as 'Bonita' was published by Turner and Cammeyer even bought back the compositions he had sold to Chappels prior to setting up business with Essex, so it seemed unlikely that he would have sold anything to Turner in later years. It now seems that Edith was a real person but apart from another of her pieces, 'Mi Amor' also published by Cammeyer, I have not seen any more information about her, at least which I can recall. I will send the complete score to Ian for publication on this site. The lady in the picture on the cover is, I surmise, Ellaline Terriss (1871 - 1971)who was a famous actress at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, her father was murdered by a deranged actor. Ellaline had a long life and made it into talking pictures, her last role was in 1939.

Shawn McSweeny said:

To Mr. W. Johnson

With all kind 

rememberances

Yours Edith Fielden

[nick langton]

There was an Edith Feilden of Scarborough (1862-1922), daughter of Sir William Henry Feilden who founded the Hospital Service Corps of Troubadours to provide music in hospitals, convalescent homes and poorhouses.

[nick langton]

Correction, daughter of Sir William Leyland Feilden

nick langton said:

There was an Edith Feilden of Scarborough (1862-1922), daughter of Sir William Henry Feilden who founded the Hospital Service Corps of Troubadours to provide music in hospitals, convalescent homes and poorhouses.

[Richard William Ineson]

Hi Nick, Thanks for that interesting snippet of info, she sounds a likely candidate as the composer of 'Bonita' (she also wrote another banjo solo 'Mi Amor' which I have not come across, in the flesh, yet) as the banjo became a 'fashion accessory'  with 'society' in the late 19th century. I've not come across the H.S.C.O.T. before, i'll see if it has any more connections with the banjo world.

[nick langton]

Hi Richard,

The HSCT was apparently founded in 1900 and had over 700 members nationally in 1901.

There are very few Edith Feildings in the British BMD database and possibly only one in the likely timeframe. There is some additional information on pages 34 and 35 of this publication:

https://www.pickering-chatto.com/PC/Catalogues_and_Lists_files/239_...

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Carrie,

Richard has kindly sent me the score for "Bonita" and I have added it to the MUSIC LIBRARY.

Ta to you too Richard.

carrie horgan said:

Who is in the photograph?  Would you be happy to share the score - I'm interested in finding more tunes by female composers.

[carrie horgan]

Great, thank you Richard and Ian!!

thereallyniceman said:

Hi Carrie,

Richard has kindly sent me the score for "Bonita" and I have added it to the MUSIC LIBRARY.

Ta to you too Richard.

carrie horgan said:

Who is in the photograph?  Would you be happy to share the score - I'm interested in finding more tunes by female composers.