Mendelssohn wrote the melody Camberwell Green for his piano pieces Songs Without Words when staying with friends in Camberwell. The piece became 'Mendelssohn Rag', also known as 'That Mesmerizing Mendelssohn Tune'.
Commissioned for Camberwell Arts Festival 2020, I created this animation celebrating Camberwell's music hall heritage. It is set to a four-part choral arrangement by local composer Jordan Theis, written to fit the 1910 recording of That Mesmerizing Mendelssohn Tune by Collins and Harlan. Singers from Camberwell and beyond came together to form a virtual choir for the project.
The animation traces the history of the Camberwell Palace of Varieties from its heyday through to its later years as a strip venue in the 1950s before its closure. The final image features one of its later performers, Peaches Page, known as "the Singing Nude of Camberwell", winking as the screen closes in a farewell to the theatre.
The animation premiered online as part of Camberwell Arts Festival 2020. During the live event, I appeared in character as Elsie Treacle to introduce the work, share some of the music hall history behind it, and sing with the virtual choir.
The lyric video below was created separately as part of my ongoing Intertitle Tunes project, using the same 1910 Collins and Harlan recording so that anyone can enjoy singing along with the tune.
