Salle de Valentino, 1855 - UPDATED

SALLE DE VALENTINO,
Late Beechworth Assembly Rooms.
Grand Promenade Concert
and Ball,
ADMISSION FREE,
ON MONDAY, 16TH APRIL,and every other evening during the week, except Saturdays,
on which occasion a
Free and Easy
will be held.

 Programme :

Polka- 'Grand Sultan.' 
Quadrille- from 'Lucrezia Borgia.'
Song- 'Far, far upon the sea.'   
Schottische-
Opera.
Song - 'When swallows homeward fly,'
Waltz- 'Georgette.'
Duett- 'Am I not fondly thine own.'
Descriptive- Russian War Galop.

INTERMISSION.

Quadrille- 'Exhibition.'
Song- 'The Fortunate Man.'

          Polka - 'Beechworth', (first time), composed by Mr G Griffith

Song- 'The Marseillaise.'
Galop- 'Mount Etna.'
Finale- 'God Save the Queen.'

Advertising. (1855, April 14). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 - 1866; 1914 -1918), p. 5. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113013300

 In this advertisement for a Grand Promenade Concert and Ball, George features in the program with his own composition, performed for the first time, a polka called Beechworth.  No other trace of this piece of music exists - missing like so many other pieces of colonial music. 

The "Salle de Valentino" or Valentino Room, was the Assembly Hall attached to the Beechworth Hotel a few months earlier.  It may have taken it's name from a similar venue in Melbourne, operating from 1854, which Robyn Annear described as "a vast canvas dancehall with resident polka band" in her book on Whelan the Wrecker.  This Salle had borrowed its name, from an entertainment venue in London.

This is the only reference so far located suggesting that George Griffith composed music, but we will live in hope.

UPDATED  This concert in Beechworth, to be held on Monday 16 April, was scheduled only two days after the birth of Edward George Griffith in Wangaratta. Various advertisements indicate that George was working in Beechworth in 1855, which suggests that Susan was staying in Wangaratta awaiting the birth of her child.  When the baby was registered by Susan in Beechworth a month later, she did not record any attendants at the birth neither doctor nor midwife.  However, on that score I am familiar with another Registrar who declined to record the names of midwives, and it may be that the information was provided but not recorded. 

Dancing, Dancing, Dancing! 1855 UPDATED

The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum  Inventory no: 2003-5001/2/24008. Beechworth, circa 1857, by Walter Woodbury. The hotel appears to be the Commercial Hotel in Ford St, Beechworth

ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
Dancing! Dancing! Dancing!
M LANGFORD, proprietor of the 
Beechworth Hotel, begs to inform 
the inhabitants of Beechworth and 
its vicinity, that he has rented the 
above rooms, with an intention of 
making it into a Dancing and Musical 
Saloon, which will be opened on
MONDAY, 9TH APRIL, 1855.
It is being fitted up in the best possible 
style, Messrs. Griffiths and Co.
(Harp and Violin players) are engaged 
as musicians, and the lovers of really
good music, singing, and dancing, 
will have an opportunity afforded 
them unequalled in the district.
Doors open every evening, from 
half past 6 to 12 p.m.
N.B.-There will be an entrance from 
the Assembly Rooms to the Billiard 
Room, which will enable persons    
who are fond of this game likewise
to amuse themselves.
Beechworth, March 30, 1855.

Advertising. (1855, March 31). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 - 1866; 1914 -1918), p. 3. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113013270

"Messrs Griffiths and Co, Harp and Violin Players" probably included George Zeplin.  A five and a half hour evening gig would certainly leave George (both Georges) with plenty of daylight hours to work a claim.

UPDATE- Richard Patterson in Nobblers and Lushingtons places the Assembly Rooms next to the first Beechworth Hotel in Ford St.  Michael Langford had been the licensee of the El Dorado (later Exhange Hotel), where George's association with Langford began.