Category Archives: Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussy-cat

Posted on November 30, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

I am still working on the new nonsenselit.org site, but have decided to take down the “Sounds” section and re-post weekly what was in it here. This week I’m posting a full BBC Radio 4 program of 2 December 2000 … Continue reading →

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Mr and Mrs Spikky Sparrow

Posted on November 17, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

This week’s song is from a three-record box published by Bluebird Records (made by RCA Victor) in the late 1930s early 1940s. Mr and Mrs Spikky Sparrow, music by Helen E. Myers, sung by Craig McDonnell.

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The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo

Posted on November 9, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

This week’s podcast is The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò, read by David Davis, side 2 of his 1966 45-rpm record, The Nonsense Songs of Edward Lear Read by David Davis, Delysé DEL 158. Side 1 has The Daddy Long-Legs and … Continue reading →

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Uttered Nonsense

Posted on November 2, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

Eight works of Mr Edward Lear, spoken with the utmost gravity by Mr Ivan Smith, and set to music of the most nonsensical nature by John Sangster. These eight word-pieces embedded within fourteen more instrumental excursions which take their titles … Continue reading →

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The Earliest Recordings of The Owl and the Pussy-cat

Posted on October 27, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear’s most famous Nonsense song, The Owl and the Pussy-cat, was among the first pieces of music to be recorded. I have been able to find three different recordings of the same arrangement for four voices, here they are: … Continue reading →

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Jim's Big Ego's The Jumblies

Posted on October 15, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

Jim’s Big Ego have realeased their music under a Creative Commons licence which allows noncommercial distrubution, so here is their Edward Lear-based song, The Jumblies, from the album Don’t Get Smart. If you want to hear earlier song versions of … Continue reading →

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The Runcible Spoon and the Pizzafork

Posted on September 20, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

If you thought the runcible spoon (below left: a Victorian example by the renowned manufacturer Elkington & Co. Birmingham, ca 1880; right: George III Silver Runcible Spoon/Fork, John Hutson, London, 1800) was a strange object…   Take a look at … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear in Italy

Posted on September 5, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

Michael Montgomery, Lear’s Italy. In the Footsteps of Edward Lear. London: Cadogan Guides, 2005. When I ordered the book I expected a travelogue comparing present-day Italian places with what Edward Lear saw in his extensive travels (endless migrations) across the … Continue reading →

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Lear Illustrated in America

Posted on August 10, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

Someone made curious by the announcement in the inside front cover of the January 1870 issue of Our Young Folks (number 61) that “another new contributor, a distinguished English artist, will furnish some laughable verses” would have been happy to … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear and Alice

Posted on August 2, 2005 by Marco Graziosi

One of the most common statements to be found in the frquent comparisons between Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll is that there is no proof that they knew each other’s work; for example John Lehman, in Edward Lear and His … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll | 3 Comments