Year composed:2000

The Heroine Triumphant links four songs of the 1890s which together trace the story of a young girl who comes to town in search of her brother (“Mother Was a Lady”); she is cruelly deceived by a drummer, an unscrupulous low-life, claiming to know her brother.  He proposes marriage, but in “Take Back Your Gold we find his intentions are less than honorable.  The heroine finds herself alone and cast out in “She Is More To Be Pitied Than Censured.”  Finally, she rises above her misery and woe to find a new life in “Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!” This arrangement features tenor/bass voices with a soprano solo.

The opening barbershop quartet may be sung by a small ensemble, but the character voices of the narrator and the drummer should be assigned to soloists.  The Heroine Triumphant easily lends itself to some simple staging.

“Mother Was a Lady” (or “If Jack Were Only Here”)
Words by Edward B. Marks; music by Joseph W. Stern
Original copyright by Jos. W Stern & Co, 1896

“Take Back Your Gold”
Words by Louis Pritzkow; music by Monroe H. Rosenfeld
Original copyright by Jos. W Stern & Co, 1897

“She is More To Be Pitied Than Censured”
Words and music by William B. Gray
Original copyright Wm. B. Gray, 1898

“Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay!”
Words and music credited to Henry J. Sayers, 1891