Richard Green (1841-1912)
I found several newspaper reports from the Lowestoft area mentioning a Mr Green playing the dulcimer. In March 1883 Mr Green was playing at a Temperance event, then in 1888, he gave a dulcimer solo ‘The Patriarch’s March’ during the annual prize-giving at a technical school set up for the benefit of ‘fisher lads’ and was described as among the ‘best amateur musicians’ in Lowestoft’. Five years later, in 1893, a Mr. R. Green appeared at a Smoking Concert in the Foresters’ Hall in Haddiscoe; this report stated that Mr Green, who was from Lowestoft, played two dulcimer solos – Carolina Waltz and variations and Napoleon Crossing the Alps. In 1904 he appeared at a fundraising concert for Lowestoft Hospital, organised by the Foresters and held in the Spread Eagle Hotel, on which occasion he played in a duo with a Mr. Mack, and a Mr. A. Cooper gave a stepdance.
Although Green is a common surname, I am confident in identifying this dulcimer player as being Richard Green, who was actually born in the Coslany district of Norwich in 1841: an area rife with dulcimer making and playing at the time he was growing up there. He followed in his father’s trade as a plasterer, moving to Ipswich in the 1860s, then Lowestoft in the 1870s and remaining there until his death in 1912.
Quite amazingly, I also found a much earlier instance of Richard Green playing the dulcimer.
A newspaper report about the celebrations of the building of the new Ipswich Town Hall reveals that the dulcimer-playing plasterer, Mr. Green, was among the employees treated to a grand dinner of roast beef, boiled mutton and plum pudding on Wednesday 29th January 1868. We know “our” Richard Green was in Ipswich at this time, as his eldest son was born there just three weeks before this, and his birth was registered there, giving an address in central Ipswich.
The opening of the New Town Hall was a much feted affair, with a tune being composed for it by an Ipswich musician William Godball. Godball was a fiddle player who, amongst other things, had a band which played for dancing across Suffolk. I researched his life many years ago, and wrote an article which was published in the Suffolk Review. (William Godball: A Musical Life, Suffolk Review, new series no. 33, Autumn 1999. Some time I will get round to updating that work and publishing it online – but just now it’s dulcimers all the way!)
After the workmen’s dinner there were various entertainments, including:
‘Mr. Green, one of the employees, played several pieces on a dulcimer, much to the wonderment of the juniors in the company, so novel an instrument creating quite a furore.’
All material on this website is copyright. Anyone wishing to quote or use this original research should credit it to Katie Howson and cite this website as the source. Please see our Terms and Conditions page for more information, and do contact me if you wish to use any of the contents in any way. Thank you.