David Braham (1834 – April 11, 1905) was a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-born musical theatre composer most famous for his work with Edward Harrigan and

Tony Hart Norman Antony Hart (15 October 1925 – 18 January 2009),Debrett's People of Today 2008, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2007. known professionally as Tony Hart, was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role ...

. He has been called "the American Offenbach".

Early life (1834–1873)

David Braham was born in

in 1834. As a young man, he aspired to become a professional musician and began studying the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

. However, because he was unable to get his bulky instrument on board a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

, he later switched to the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

. He proved to be an adept violinist, performing in concerts at a young age. He was the uncle of

John Joseph Braham Sr. John Joseph Braham (1847 – October 28, 1919) was an English-born American musical theater conductor and composer who introduced the works of Gilbert and Sullivan to the United States and composed some of the earliest original orchestral scores fo ...

The Braham family immigrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

when David was 15. Upon arriving in New York, Braham began working as a violinist in the orchestra accompanying the Pony Moore Minstrels. He played in the

pit orchestra A pit orchestra is a type of orchestra that accompanies performers in musicals, operas, ballets, and other shows involving music. The terms was also used for orchestras accompanying silent movies when more than a piano was used. In performances ...

s of various New York

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

s, headed an 18-piece orchestra at the New Canterbury concert saloon at 585 Broadway, and led a

military band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the tit ...

. The first Broadway musical to feature music by David Braham was ''Pluto'', produced by William Horace Lingard at the Theatre Comique in 1869. Braham's success as a composer continued through the early 1870s, during which time he wrote numbers for such performers as James McKee, then-child star

Annie Yeamans Annie Griffiths Yeamans (November 19, 1835 – March 3, 1912) was a 19th-century character actress, appearing in many Harrigan and Hart productions.(4 March 1912)Annie Yeamans Dies; Acted for 66 Years ''The New York Times'' Biography Yeamans was ...

, and

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

performer General Tom Thumb.

Harrigan and Hart (1873–1885)

In 1873, David Braham collaborated with Edward Harrigan and

on the song ''The Mulligan Guard'', with music by Braham and lyrics by Harrigan. The song was presented on July 15, 1873 as part of a vaudeville sketch which featured Harrigan and Hart wearing unusual

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

-era military costumes. This collaboration marked the first of many between Braham, Harrigan, and Hart. From that point onwards, Braham became firmly associated with the two. Although he did go on to write melodies for other lyricists, his success in Broadway theater came almost entirely as a result of his Harrigan and Hart scores. In November 1876, Harrigan married Braham's daughter Annie. The success of ''The Mulligan Guard'' led to a series of

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

s which would become known as the "Mulligan plays". The Mulligan plays focused on the everyday life of New York City, appealing to a variety of racial groups, including

Irish American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

s, and

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s. The first of these Mulligan plays was ''The Mulligan Guard's Ball'', followed by ''The Mulligan Guard's Picnic'', ''The Mulligan Guard's Chowder'', ''The Mulligan Guard's Christmas'', and various others. Although most of the Mulligan plays followed the same naming pattern, the final two shows in the series were titled ''Cordelia's Aspirations'' and ''Dan's Tribulations''. The Mulligan plays featured several popular songs, all of which were written by Braham, including ''The Pitcher of Beer'' and ''Hats Off to Me''.

Late life (1884–1905)

The last Mulligan play to be produced was ''Dan's Tribulations'' on April 7, 1884. Shortly after it opened, the

New Theatre Comique The Church of the Messiah at 728–30 Broadway, near Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a ...

, at which many of the Harrigan and Hart shows had been produced, burned down. In 1885, Harrigan and Hart separated, and neither they nor Braham were ever able to singularly attain the same level of success that they had achieved as a team. David Braham died in 1905. On May 21, 1906, Harrigan produced a revival of '' Old Lavender'', a musical he and Braham had written together. In 1985, a musical, ''Harrigan 'n Hart'', was produced at the

Longacre Theatre The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Opened in 1913, it was desi ...

, featuring songs by Harrigan and Braham.

Notes

External links

*
Harrigan and Braham
at

Music of the United States of America (MUSA) MUSA (Music of the United States of America) is a forty-volume series of critical editions of American music, representing the full range of genres and idioms that have contributed to American musical culture. It was established by the American Mu ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braham, David 1834 births 1905 deaths English musical theatre composers English male composers English emigrants to the United States English violinists American male violinists Musicians from London Musicians from New York City American violinists American musical theatre composers 19th-century English musicians 19th-century British male musicians

Early life (1834–1873)

Harrigan and Hart (1873–1885)

Late life (1884–1905)

Notes

Further reading

External links