The company, Chappell & Co., began life in England in 1811, selling sheet music and musical instruments including pianos from its premises in London’s Bond Street. By the 1970s it had expanded its operations worldwide to include the North America and Australasia.
Chappell and Co. began concentrating solely on its publishing business in 1980, selling off its retail operation. The publishing operation had been very successful because of the works that the company had put into print such as the musicals of Gilbert and Sullivan and Rodgers and Hammerstein, and today, even though it has been sold, it continues to print sheet music and scores and produce recordings.
Knitting (a Charming Patriotic Song) was written and composed by Muriel Bruce and Baron Aliotti. (This family history page shows the young Baron, Antonio, at his piano along with a photograph of one of his published songs. Incidentally, the Aliotti has a significant textile history; they were co-founders of Oriental Carpet Manufacturers in Smyrna.)
Muriel Bruce was a Canadian poet, novelist, pianist and composer with an interest in Theosophy and cosmological theory. This led her in later life to write, along with her husband, Louis, about the relationship between natural forces and market forecasting. You can see a photograph off Muriel and Louis on this page about “Space-Time Forecasting and Economic Trends 1958-1996”.
This copy of the song was published in Melbourne by Chappell and Co at 235 Flinders Lane. It was dedicated to The Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire and travelled across what were then British governed territories including Australia and New Zealand. The words are patriotic and stirring for what was then a world at war, and the words of the verses about battle contrast with those of the chorus in which making “Mufflers, socks and balaclava caps” with “Khaki wool and grey” for (male) soldiers overseas conjures up sentimental images of women sitting at home knitting. It is hard to imagine the piece being performed these days but as a piece of history it has proved to be a fascinating insight into the early 20th Century. The sheet music is in many collections across the globe and this copy, once owned by E Cooke of Darfield, is now in the Greymouth Mawhera studio collection.
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