postcard.co.uk

hi ! i'm new to this site ! i recently bought 4 "song cards" , the song is called skylark, its about a young boy asking the skylark to take a message to his mummy in heaven, what i'd like to know is...is there an actual tune to this song? i think its from about 1918, i'm very interested to learn about the song itself, hope someone can shed some light for me, thanks, julie

Hello Julie,
Your set of cards were published by Bamforth and are part of a VERY large series of song sets that they issued in the years leading up to and through the First World War. Bamforth originally issued some of their song series as Magic Lantern slides which were used to accompany sing along performances, the postcards came later.

The Skylark song dates from around 1901, the postcards are about a decade later. If you look at the base of the cards you will see the name of the original music publisher "Francis Day & Hunter" and an internet search for that together with the song name should get you to the Composer and Lyricist "F W Rogers". There are several web sites offering copies of the original sheet music, just search for the song name/composer/publisher.

Finally a treat of sorts. The song was made famous by the performer Mr Arthur Leonard. There is a downloadable recording of his performance available freely from the Internet Archive at the following link (you can play the song from the page or download a copy for local use).
Arthur Leonard Sings Skylark

For a little more information about Bamforth song postcards try the link below.
Bamforth and Song Sets