Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
Many of us might think of The Wizard of Oz when we hear those words! In fact, though, Home, Sweet Home is almost 200 years old; it’s an adaptation from an 1823 opera, Clari, Maid of Milan, by John Howard Payne. The soothing melody is credited to Sir Henry Bishop, while Payne penned the words.
One of the more interesting stories about the tune is its pantomimed use in a silent film called The House of Cards. In this 1909 film, there’s a scene in which a fight breaks out in a frontier tavern, causing the owner to close the place down abruptly, and a card is displayed on screen that says, “Play Home Sweet Home”. At that point, a fiddle player does, indeed, “play” the tune on camera. So although the audience didn’t hear it at the time, it’s thought that this is the origin of an informal association of Home, Sweet Home with “closing time” at one’s local bar!
Even before this “starring role” for Home, Sweet Home, its nostalgic value was so strong that Union Army camps banned its play during the Civil War. It was thought that the tune had such a strong connection with the comfort and safety of home and hearth that, hearing it, soldiers would be more prone to desertion!
One thing is for sure: no matter what we associate it with, when we hear Home, Sweet Home, most of us find ourselves smiling. Play it with the warmth of your own home in mind, you’ll smile, too. Click here to get Home Sweet Home sheet music.
