1830–1869 · United Kingdom · Romantic
Charlotte Alington Barnard (1830–1869) was an English writer of verse and a composer of ballads and hymns, often signing herself Claribel. She produced more than a hundred songs, issued two books of poems and worked with the publisher Boosey. The site offers her songs for voice and piano.
Charlotte Alington Pye was born on 23 December 1830 in Louth, Lincolnshire. Her father, Henry Alington Pye, worked as a solicitor, and her mother was Charlotte Yerburgh.
In 1854 she married Charles Cary Barnard. He served as parson at St Olaves, Ruckland, yet the pair made their home in Louth, at The Firs in Westgate. Back on 8 July 1847, Charlotte had set the first stone of the town's railway station.
Charlotte was introduced at court in 1856, and the couple afterwards settled in Pimlico. Among their neighbours was the conductor Michael Costa. Her London music lessons came from the pianist W. H. Holmes and the singer Charlotte Sainton-Dolby.
Her first public success as a composer came in 1859 with the ballad "Janet's Choice" for Charlotte Sainton-Dolby. Her better-known songs probably include "Come Back to Erin" (1866), "Mountain Mabel" (1865), "Five O'Clock in the Morning" (1862) and "Won't You Tell Me Why, Robin?" (1861), as well as "Bide A Wee" and "I Cannot Sing the Old Songs". The hymn tune "Brocklesby" is hers too.
Her songs were issued by the publishers Boosey. Of the ballad composers the firm looked after, she was the most commercially successful, and she reached one of the earliest royalty agreements with it. "Fireside Thoughts, Ballads, Etc." appeared in London in 1865, "Sixteen Sacred Songs and Hymns" came out from Boosey & Co. in 1866, and "The Christmas Rose", a set of twelve ballads, followed in 1868.
On a trip to Louth in 1862 Charlotte brought out a book of poems, "Twenty Spring Songs", and performed a few of her own pieces at a concert to help clear the debt on the church's new east window (St James'). In the western part of that church there is now a stained glass window dedicated to her. By 1864 she had moved to Kirmington rectory, since her husband had been made rector of the combined parish of Brocklesby and Kirmington.
In 1868 it was found out that her father, widely respected, had been systematically pocketing money that had been entrusted to him. He escaped to Belgium with his second wife. Charlotte and her husband joined him there, and early in 1869 she went back to England to rest.
Charlotte fell ill and, after a short illness, died of typhoid fever on 30 January 1869 in Dover. She was buried at St James Cemetery in Dover.
Charlotte Barnard wrote ballads and hymns: she left more than a hundred songs, along with two volumes of verse. Under the pseudonym Claribel she is named as the author of the words of several songs. For some Claribel texts the music was written by others, among them Stephen Adams, Jules Benedict and M. G. Dixon.
Her songs differ in make-up. "Always Speak Kindly" is written with SATB chorus, "The Chimes of St. Mary" is a duet for two mezzo-sopranos, and "Three O'Clock in the Morning" is a temperance song. There are hymns as well, such as the tune "Brocklesby".
The site has four editions of her songs, all for voice and piano. "Five o’clock in the morning" is rated "Intermediate+", while "Milly’s Faith", "Farewell to Erin" and "The Brook" are rated "Advanced". It makes sense to begin with "Five o’clock in the morning": it has the lowest level of the four.