Folks:

According to the Caxton Club (Chicago) edition of _Il Pescoballo_ (1899), the one-act opera buffa with Italian words by Francis James Child and English translation by James Russell Lowell was first performed in 1862 to raise money for the Civil War Sanitary Commission (precursor to the Red Cross).  The authors of the _jeu d'esprit,_ to quote Charles Eliot Norton's introduction, were originally given only as "Maestro Rossibello-Donimozarti."

"One Fish Ball," upon which the opera buffa was based, was written by a Harvard Latin professor, identified by Norton only as "Lane."  It was a "local ballad which had had great vogue, written not many years before."  Norton asserts Lane based the song on "an adventure of his own."

The Caxton Club edition prints a tune, crediting it as a "volkslied."

Ed

----- Original Message -----
From: "David G. Engle" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2003 1:21 pm
Subject: Re: The Fishball Song

> The Ballad Index lists:
>
> One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball)
> DESCRIPTION: A single man (who perhaps has abandoned his wife?)
> wanders into a restaurant, but finds he has only money for one
> (meat/fish) ball. Waiters and company abuse him, and he is told, "You
> get no bread with one fish ball"
> AUTHOR: unknown
> EARLIEST DATE: 1945
> KEYWORDS: food poverty
> FOUND IN: US
> REFERENCES (4 citations):
> Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 74-75, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
> Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 580-584, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune,
> plus assorted items on the same theme)
> Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 22, "One Fish Ball" (1 text, tune referenced)
> Silber-FSWB, p. 264, "One Fish Ball" (1 text)
> File: SRW074
>
> at http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/SRW074.html
>
> I myself recall Josh White singing a blues version of this in the 50's.
>
> Also the Digital Tradition has a thread:
>
> http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?ThreadID=9179#58875
>
> which might be interesting.
>
> cheers,
>
> david engle
> >The Mary Seymour wrote:
> >
> >>Recently I was at a family funeral and once most of the mourners
> >>had departed, the daughters (respectable women in late middle age)
> >>sang the following as a tribute to their father since it was a song
> >>with which he had amused them - and infuriated their mother -
> >>during their childhood and beyond.
> >>
> >>It is clearly some kind of ballad, though whether Music Hall, Camp
> >>Fire or Student Common Room, I couldn't say.
> >>I would be very interested if any of the List know it, know of it,
> >>can say where it originates and if they know any alternative words.
> >>
> >>I can't begin to represent the tune, only say that each couplet is
> >>sung twice. The first time the last syllable is drawn out on 3
> >>notes (down up down) and the second time it is sung on one final
> >>note.
> >>
> >>It clearly predates the Credit Card! And might it be American since
> >>Fish Fingers are more usual over here ? Yet half pence are British
> >>pre-decimal coinage.
> >>
> >Kristine Batey
> >Evanston, IL USA
> >[log in to unmask]
>
>
> --
>
> David G. Engle
>
> email:  [log in to unmask]
> web:    http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore
>        http://www.csufresno.edu/forlang
>
>         The Traditional Ballad Index:
>         http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/BalladIndexTOC.html
>
> ---
>