Home! Sweet Home!
Encyclopedia
"Home! Sweet Home!" (also known as "Home, Sweet Home") is a song that has remained well-known for over 150 years. Adapted from American
actor and dramatist John Howard Payne
's 1823 opera
Clari, Maid of Milan, the song's melody was composed by Englishman
Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne. The opening lines
have become famous.
As soon as 1827 this song was quoted by Swedish composer Franz Berwald in his Konzertstück for Bassoon and Orchestra (middle section, marked Andante). It is also used with Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs
and in Alexandre Guilmant
's Fantasy for organ
Op. 43, the Fantaisie sur deux mélodies anglaises, both of which also use "Rule, Britannia!
". In 1857 composer/pianist Sigismond Thalberg
wrote a series of variations for piano (op. 72) on the theme of Home! Sweet Home!. In 1909, it was featured in the silent film The House of Cards, an Edison Studios
film. In the particular scene, a frontier bar was hurriedly closed due to a fracas. A card reading "Play Home Sweet Home" was displayed, upon which an on-screen fiddler promptly supplied a pantomime of the song. This may imply a popular association of this song with the closing hour of drinking establishments.
The song is famous in Japan
as ("My Humble Cottage"). It has been used in such movies as The Burmese Harp and Grave of the Fireflies
. It is also used at Senri-Chūō Station
on the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor and dramatist John Howard Payne
John Howard Payne
John Howard Payne was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had most of his theatrical career and success in London. He is today most remembered as the creator of "Home! Sweet Home!", a song he wrote in 1822 that became widely popular in the United States, Great Britain, and the...
's 1823 opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Clari, Maid of Milan, the song's melody was composed by Englishman
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne. The opening lines
- Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
- Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
have become famous.
As soon as 1827 this song was quoted by Swedish composer Franz Berwald in his Konzertstück for Bassoon and Orchestra (middle section, marked Andante). It is also used with Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Fantasia on British Sea Songs or Fantasy on British Sea Songs is a piece of classical music arranged by Sir Henry Wood in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. It is a medley of British sea songs and for many years was seen as an indispensable item at the BBC's Last Night of the...
and in Alexandre Guilmant
Alexandre Guilmant
Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer.- Short biography :Guilmant was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer...
's Fantasy for organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
Op. 43, the Fantaisie sur deux mélodies anglaises, both of which also use "Rule, Britannia!
Rule, Britannia!
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740...
". In 1857 composer/pianist Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.- Descent and family background :...
wrote a series of variations for piano (op. 72) on the theme of Home! Sweet Home!. In 1909, it was featured in the silent film The House of Cards, an Edison Studios
Edison Studios
Edison Studios was an American motion picture production company owned by the Edison Company of inventor Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films as the Edison Manufacturing Company and Thomas A. Edison, Inc. until the studio's closing in 1918...
film. In the particular scene, a frontier bar was hurriedly closed due to a fracas. A card reading "Play Home Sweet Home" was displayed, upon which an on-screen fiddler promptly supplied a pantomime of the song. This may imply a popular association of this song with the closing hour of drinking establishments.
The song is famous in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as ("My Humble Cottage"). It has been used in such movies as The Burmese Harp and Grave of the Fireflies
Grave of the Fireflies
is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film written and directed by Isao Takahata. This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work...
. It is also used at Senri-Chūō Station
Senri-Chuo Station
is a train station on the Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway and Osaka Monorail located in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan...
on the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway
Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway
The is a railway operator of Osaka, Japan. The sole line named is actually an extension of the Midōsuji Line Osaka Municipal Subway. Kitakyū, as it is often abbreviated, also owns various commercial and residential properties along the line.-History:...
.
Popular culture
Key phrases from the song have been a cultural staple for several generations.- The very popular play, The DrunkardThe DrunkardThe Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved is an American temperance play first performed in 1844. A drama in five acts, it was perhaps the most popular play produced in the United States before the dramatization of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the 1850s. In New York City, P.T. Barnum presented it at his...
(1844), ends with a tableau of the entire company (except the villain) singing it, to the hero's flute accompaniment. - The song was very popular with troops on both sides of the American Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. - It was a particular favorite of President Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and his wife, who requested it in an 1862 performance at the White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
by opera singer Adelina PattiAdelina PattiAdelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...
. - NeedleworkSampler (needlework)A sampler is a piece of embroidery produced as a demonstration or test of skill in needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date...
portraits of a house with the phrase "Home Sweet Home" have long been an icon. - Oscar-winning composer-arranger Herbert StothartHerbert StothartHerbert Stothart was a song writer, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was also nominated for nine Oscars, winning Best Original Score for The Wizard of Oz.-Biography:...
uses the melody as a counterpoint to the strains of Harold ArlenHarold ArlenHarold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
’s “Over The Rainbow” in underscoring the closing scene of the 1939 film The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
. - The song is played at the Christmas Ball in Meet Me in St. LouisMeet Me in St. LouisMeet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904...
as Esther (Judy GarlandJudy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
) dances with her grandfather. - Tom LehrerTom LehrerThomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
's satire of the old southern United States finished with the line, "Be it ever so decadent, there's no place like home." - The song is featured in the film Arsenic and Old LaceArsenic and Old Lace (film)Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 film directed by Frank Capra based on Joseph Kesselring's play of the same name. The script adaptation was by twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. Capra actually filmed the movie in 1941, but it was not released until 1944, after the original stage version...
(1944), when Jonathon first speaks with his Aunts. - The song is featured in the film Amityville II: The PossessionAmityville II: The PossessionAmityville II: The Possession is a 1982 horror film directed by Damiano Damiani. The screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace is based on the novel Murder in Amityville by the parapsychologist Hans Holzer. It is a prequel to The Amityville Horror, set at 112 Ocean Avenue and featuring the fictional Montelli...
(1982). - The song is featured in the film Hot Tub Time MachineHot Tub Time MachineHot Tub Time Machine is a 2010 American science fiction adult comedy film directed by Steve Pink. Four men, all of them bored with their adult lives, travel back to their 1980s teen-hood, courtesy of a time-shifting hot tub. It stars John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Kellee Stewart, Rob...
(2010).
External links
- Sheet music and MIDI for Home, Sweet Home, from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- Text of the poetry from ompersonal.com.ar
- Derek B Scott sings “Home, Sweet Home” (1823) from victorianweb.org
- 'Home Sweet Home' from seiyaku.com