# Then you'll remember me

The tenor aria known as "Then you'll remember me" from its refrain (less commonly as "When other lips" or "When other lips and other hearts" from its first words) is one of the most noted and lastingly popular collaborations of the Irish composer Michael Balfe and the librettist Alfred Bunn. Different editions describe it variously as an air, a cavatina, a cavatine, a romance, and a ballad. Marked andante cantabile, it is sung by the character Thaddeus in Act 3 of the opera The Bohemian Girl (1843). It features an obbligato for the cornet, then a newly invented instrument. It has been recorded many times, both in its original form and in instrumental versions.

## Genesis

William Harrison, the tenor who created the role of Thaddeus, later remembered that Balfe had taken the aria through six or seven versions before coming up with one that satisfied him. This is confirmed by manuscript evidence, which shows that many things were altered in the process of composition, including the rhythm and the key. The first performance of The Bohemian Girl took place on 27 November 1843 at the Drury Lane Theatre. Harrison's performance of the aria produced a great uproar in the audience, favourable from the majority but unfavourable from others; in the end it was encored twice.

## Reception

The publishing rights for the songs in The Bohemian Girl were bought by Chappell & Co. for £500. The score of "Then you'll remember me" was being advertised within weeks of the first performance, and was an immediate bestseller, 80,000 copies being sold within a year. It became a favourite of street musicians, including barrel-organists or cornetists. In 1885 George Bernard Shaw observed that as a duet for cornet and harp it could "draw tears from a crowd at the door of a gin-palace". In 1898 George du Maurier believed that it "seems destined to become immortal in this country", and indeed a century later, according to The Rough Guide to Opera, it remained "justifiably famous". It has been praised by the musicologist Nigel Burton, who considered that "Balfe's subtle use of accented passing notes perfectly expresses the genuine pathos of Bunn's lyrics."

## Legacy

The aria is performed by characters in Mrs Henry Wood's immensely popular novel East Lynne (1861), in George Bernard Shaw's play The Philanderer (1893), and in L. P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between. The lines "When other lips and other hearts" and "Then you'll remember me" appear many times, variously transmuted, in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The 1936 Laurel and Hardy film The Bohemian Girl features "Then you'll remember me" sung by Felix Knight. For its 1974 reissue, Charlie Chaplin had the final scene of his 1919 film Sunnyside accompanied by an orchestral arrangement of "Then you'll remember me" made for him by Eric Rogers.

## Recordings

"Then you'll remember me" was recorded before 1895 on the Berliner Gramophone label. Since then, singers who have recorded it include Mario Chamlee, Richard Crooks, Charles D'Almaine, Ben Davies, Beniamino Gigli, Charles Hackett, Jerry Hadley, George Hamlin, Ruby Helder, Edward Lloyd, John McCormack, Marie Narelle, James Melton, Heddle Nash, Patrick Power, Thomas Round, Rosalie Sorrels, Louise Terrell, the Opera Babes, and the Irish folk group De Dannan. Instrumental versions have been recorded by, among others, Jesse Crawford, Charles Leggett, Fats Waller, Edna White, and the McKee Trio.

## Citations

* ↑ Collins, William J. (1993). "The Bohemian Girl". In Larue, C. Steven (ed.). International Dictionary of Opera. Volume 1: A–K. Detroit: St James Press. p. 156. ISBN 1558621121. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
* 1 2 [Balfe, Michael] (1845). The Music of the Bohemian Girl, Consisting of Six Songs and Three Pieces. Philadelphia: E. Ferrett. Unpaginated. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
* ↑ Tyldesley 2016, p. 28.
* ↑ Simpson, Harold (1910). A Century of Ballads, 1810–1910: Their Composers and Singers, with Some Introductory Chapters on "Old Ballads and Ballad-Makers". London: Mills & Boon. pp. 106–107. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
* ↑ Temperley, Nicholas (1980). "Balfe, Michael William". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 2 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 67.
* ↑ Biddlecombe 1994, p. 112.
* ↑ Tyldesley 2016, p. 111.
* ↑ Walsh, Basil (2008). Michael W. Balfe: A Unique Victorian Composer. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780716529477. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
* ↑ Barrett 1882, p. 158.
* ↑ Barrett 1882, pp. 158–159.
* ↑ "[Advertisement]". The Pictorial Times. No. 41. London. 23 December 1843. p. 286. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
* ↑ Biddlecombe 1994, pp. 111–112.
* ↑ "Music. Her Majesty's Theatre". The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art. 5 (120). 13 February 1858. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
* ↑ Downes, Olin (1918). The Lure of Music: Depicting the Human Side of Great Composers, with Stories of Their Inspired Creations. New York: Harper. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-89765-432-6. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
* ↑ Thomson, John Mansfield (1995). "The Recorder Revival I: The Friendship of Bernard Shaw and Arnold Dolmetsch". In Thomson, John Mansfield; Rowland-Jones, Anthony (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780521358163. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
* ↑ Du Maurier, George (1947). Novels of George du Maurier. London: Pilot Press. p. 569. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
* ↑ Boyden, Matthew (1999). Staines, Joe; Buckley, Jonathan (eds.). Opera: The Rough Guide (2nd ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 206. ISBN 1858284562. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
* ↑ Burton, Nigel (1992). "Bohemian Girl, The". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Volume One: A–D. London: Macmillan. p. 522. ISBN 0333734327. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
* ↑ Wadsö Lecaros, Cecilia (2001). The Victorian Governess Novel. Lund Studies in English, 100. Lund: Lund University Press. pp. 214–215. ISBN 9789179665777. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
* ↑ Tyson, Brian, ed. (1991). Bernard Shaw's Book Reviews, Originally Published in the Pall Mall Gazette from 1885 to 1888. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0271007214. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ Alcázar, Jorge (January 2016). "Intertextualidad narrativa: cómo Pacheco se apropia de The Go-Between". Acta Poética (in Spanish). 37 (1): 99–118. doi:10.19130/iifl.ap.2016.1.667. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ d'Erme, Elisabetta (2018). "'Mememormee!': James Joyce and Michael William Balfe". In Ciompi, Fausto; Ferrari, Roberta; Giovannelli, Laura (eds.). Interconnecting Music and the Literary Word. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9781527510937. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ "The Bohemian Girl (1936)". The Swedish Film Database. The Swedish Film Institute. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
* ↑ Lochner, Jim (2018). The Music of Charlie Chaplin. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. pp. 347–348. ISBN 9780786496112. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ "Ferruccio Giannini". DAHR: Discography of American Historical Recordings. University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* 1 2 "Search: "When other lips"". Internet Archive. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* 1 2 "Search: "Then you'll remember me"". Internet Archive. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* 1 2 "Exploring "Then you'll remember me" Balfe". Discogs. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ "Exploring "When other lips" Balfe". Discogs. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ Hurst, P. G. (1963). The Golden Age Recorded. Lingfield: Oakwood Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-85361-155-4. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
* ↑ "Then you'll remember me. [Bohemian girl. Then you'll remember me]". UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive. University of California, Santa Barbara Library. 16 November 2005. Retrieved 26 February 2025.