Title: Chin Chin Chinaman Polka, Arranged By: Carl Kiefert, Melodies from “The Geisha” By: Syney Jones, Published By: Hopwood & Crew, Location: London, Year: 1896
Carl Kiefert (c.1855–1937) was a composer and conductor, who spent much of his career conducting at the Hippodrome and other London theatres. He was the musical director of the original London productions of such musical theatre pieces as His Excellency (1894), An Artist’s Model (1895), Florodora (1899) and The Quaker Girl (1910). He wrote songs, arranged dance music from shows and wrote or co-wrote the scores to several London musicals, including The Ballet Girl (1897) and The Gay Grisette (1898). He orchestrated several West End musicals early in the 20th century, especially those of Lionel Monckton, and later several Broadway musicals, including Honeydew (1920) and The Chiffon Girl (1924). “His acknowledged expertise and speed at instrumentation made Kiefert the most sought-after arranger of theatre scores and he regularly orchestrated for Lionel Monckton and Osmond Carr.
James Sidney Jones (17 June 1861 – 29 January 1946), usually credited as Sidney Jones, was an English conductor and composer, most famous for producing the musical scores for a series of musical comedy hits in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. Jones’s most famous musical was The Geisha, but several of his musicals were among the most popular shows of the era, enjoying long runs, international tours and revivals.
The Geisha, a story of a tea house is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philp.
The Geisha opened in 1896 at Daly’s Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes. The original production had the second longest run of any musical up to that time. The cast starred Marie Tempest and C. Hayden Coffin, with dancer Letty Lind and comic Huntley Wright. The show was an immediate success abroad, with an 1896 production in New York and numerous tours and productions in Europe and beyond. It continued to be popular until World War II and even beyond to some degree. The most famous song from the show is “The Amorous Goldfish”.
