Sarah Glover & the Norwich Sol-fa

Painting of Sarah Anna Glover

Sarah Anna Glover was born in Norwich in 1786 in The Close, a serene place of genteel houses which flanks the Cathedral, and where by the age of six, she was already receiving music lessons.

In 1811 her father was appointed Curate of St. Lawrence, a large and beautiful mediaeval church in St. Benedict’s Street. Here, 15 year-old Sarah and her sister Christiana, both accomplished pianists, led the unaccompanied singing.

By 1827, Sarah had worked out her system of musical notation, in which Do is always the first note of the scale, Re the second, Mi the third and so on. This was called the 'Norwich Sol-fa' which she used with great success in the school she opened for poor girls in Black Boy Yard in Colgate.

​Her popular teaching scheme, which enabled people to sight-read without understanding the complexities of notes and staves, was printed at the nearby works of Jarrold and Son, and went through four editions.

In 1841 the system came to the notice of Reverend John Curwen, who though highly respected as an educator, was struggling to find a means of teaching music in Sunday School as requested by the Sunday School Union. Having confessed to being ‘completely without musical skill', the gift from a friend and helper of a copy of Sarah Glover’s Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational with its directions for instructing a school, helped considerably to ease his struggles.

Much against the wishes of Sarah Glover, Curwen made some alterations which further popularised her method. His updated version of Tonic Sol-fa gained wide recognition by way of his travels and lectures, and, to her chagrin, largely eclipsed the work of herself as originator.

The 1959 musical and 1965 film, The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews singing the Do - Re - Mi Song by Rodgers and Hammerstein, illustrates very well the easy nature of Sarah Glover's musical method, used to teach solfege - aural skills, pitch and sight-reading of Western music.

Sarah moved away from Norwich in later life - first to Cromer, then Reading, then Hereford. She died in 1867 whilst staying with friends in Great Malvern, where she is buried. There is a plaque to her in St Laurence, St Benedict's Street, Norwich.

At the commencement of scientific instruction in music, let all theory not immediately connected with practice, be omitted and let the technical terms and signs be as simple as possible.

~Sarah Anna Glover

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Sarah also invented the harmonicon, an instrument designed to help her teach her Sol-fa system. Four of these are held by the Norfolk Museums Service.

Let There be Snap Dragons!

Snap the Dragon - Norwich castle Museum, made in 1795

Dragons have always featured in the history of England and East Anglia. April 23rd is England's National Day and commemorates St George, who according to legend, was a Roman soldier who killed a dragon and saved a princess. He was also the patron saint of the City of Norwich which has two churches dedicated to him.

The powerful Guild of St George was the major body of civic government throughout the late medieval period up until 1731. In those times a pageant was held each year to celebrate the election of a new Mayor beginning with a mass in Norwich Cathedral, a public oration, official swearing in, gunfire salute and a procession in fine regalia. There was a Corporation dinner and Snap the dragon was paraded through the streets with an attendant Fool to add fun and laughter to the otherwise serious occasion.

Whifflers or sword-bearers dressed in scarlet satin breeches, white satin jerkins and a hats decorated with cockades of feathers and ribbons, cleared the processional way through the thronging crowds with the aid of Dick Fools, who wore the traditional colours of red and yellow painted on canvas coats, their cloth caps decorated with cats' tails and small tinkling bells.

Behind the splendidly attired Mayor rode the Sheriffs dressed in violet and Aldermen in scarlet gowns. Next came a standard-bearer carrying the Standard of England as the 'City Music played them along the streets'. The standard bearer for St. George's Company followed, while the Common Councillors brought up the rear.

Rather like a 'talking newspaper' of today, short speeches about the new Mayor in English as opposed to Latin were broadcast by 'speech boys' riding horse, richly dressed and carrying small decorated shields. All the while, Snap the dragon chased about grabbing hats or caps between its jaws in return for a ransom, while children teased it by calling out 'Snap, Snap, steal a boy's cap, give him a penny and he'll give it back.'

Snap himself was made of painted canvas stretched over a wooden frame with room for a man to stand inside. Sadly, after Guild influences began to wane, the splendours of the occasion also faded and Snap the dragon made his last public appearance in 1850 . Personally I think it's a great pity he no longer features prominently in the modern Mayor's parade which still takes place each July in the centre of Norwich.

From time to time he still ventures out though and he appeared along with many other dragons in Norwich's Dragon Festival of 2009 when our City's history of the mythical beasts was celebrated.

Norwich also has the magnificent Dragon Hall originally in the heart of the bustling merchant area down on the wharf-side of the River Wensum but that I think deserves an article all to itself...

t. George killing the dragon, ceiling boss from Norwich Cathedral.

Let There Be Dragons - credit ITV Anglia News

A Street Art Dragon on Red Lion Street by artist MalcaShotten

Pablo Fanque and The Circus Royal

Growing up in Norwich in 1810, one of five children could not have been easy, more especially if one was of mixed race, so it's perhaps not surprising that young William Darby turned what might have been seen as a disadvantage, to his good fortune. Part African and part English, he joined William Batty's circus as a ten-year-old where he became something of a prodigy learning numerous acrobatic, juggling, tight-rope walking and equestrian skills.

Originally billed as 'Young Darby' he first performed in the sawdust ring in Norwich in 1821 before changing his name to Pablo Fanque, perhaps because it suited his exotic appearance and lent him a more dashing air at a time when minstrel shows were also popular entertainment. Pablo Fanque's horse-training skills were legendary and he had them dancing to music. 'The grace and facility in shifting time and paces with change of the air, is truly surprising.' Another of his famous acts was to leap from a speeding horse over a lengthwise carriage and pair of horses, diving through a military drum on the way!

In 1841 he became the first black circus owner in Britain, and over the next 30 years toured his circus extensively in Britain and Ireland, eventually settling in the north of England. Just imagine for the moment the logistics of moving his entourage around, and the impact of the circus coming to town! For the populace, in an austere world of hardships where slogging daily to stay fed and housed was tough, and with little free time, the sight of the glittering, gilded and colourful circus would have been magical. In an era when most people rarely left their towns and villages, they could enter for a hard-won penny or two into a world of gaudily-dressed tight-rope walkers, tumbling clowns and exhibitions of fisticuffs and horsemanship.

A master of advertising, Fanque used captivating posters to stir imagination ahead of arrival and sometimes drove 'Twelve of his most beautiful Hanoverian and Arabian Steeds’ through the principal streets, accompanied by his ‘celebrated Brass Band’. On one occasion a rope-dancer almost fell to her death when she slipped from a wire strung 30' in the air between two buildings in 1869. After losing her balance pole and clinging in fear, her eventually drop from exhaustion was broken by the piled jackets of men below which saved her from injury and made national news.

Pablo Fanque was a strong character who weathered highs and lows without losing his compassionate streak. Belonging to an association known as the Ancient Shepherds who specialised in helping impoverished families meet funeral expenses, he often organised benefit performances for local charities as well as retiring performers from his own and others' circuses.

In 1967, Pablo's fame was immortalised world-wide in the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the song For the Benefit of Mr. Kite with the line 'the Hendersons will all be there, late of Pablo Fanque's fair, what a scene!' written after John Lennon had bought an old poster for a circus performance in Rochdale from 1843. More recently, Norwich city centre has seen the erection of a fine new student accommodation block close to where the circus impresario was born and which has been named Pablo Fanque House in his honour.