The website for Dr Martin Shaw OBE FRCM (1875 –1958)

"Bubbles of green, bubbles of gold, easy to get, hard to hold."

The Bubble Song

 

First few bars of sheet music fading out into a circle. Instruction, 'allegretto'.

 

19: The Bubble Song

Recording Artists: Iain Burnside & Sophie Bevan

This light-hearted and popular song is noted as being taken from The Cockyolly Bird, a children’s play written by Mabel Dearmer for the Morality Play Company in 1913.

It was first performed at the Court Theatre, where Shaw’s nephew, the actor Sebastian Shaw RSC, first trod the boards.

Despite the information printed with the title, the song did not appear in the libretto of The Cockyolly Bird when it was eventually published by Curwen in 1930. This may have been for copyright reasons as The Bubble Song was registered with Chappell at the time.

As well as Shaw's 1919 composition, it was arranged for SSA by Clarence Lucas in 1946.

The manuscript is with the Martin Shaw Archive in the British Library.

The song is dedicated To Alice B. Cobbold, a virtuoso pianist - who happened to be Shaw's mother-in-law.

 

AUTHOR PUBLISHER DATE SHEET MUSIC
Mabel Dearmer (1872 – 1915) Chappell
Cramer		 1919
1946		 in print