A Bird in a Gilded Cage

Description

A rhythmic poem, A Bird in a Gilded Cage, written and composed by Arthur J. Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer. It is an emotional song that was among the highly notable songs of 1900, which revealed to be sold to more than two million copies in sheet music. Jere Mahoney or Edison and Steve Porter or Columbia taped two early famous forms of this ballad.

Harry Von Tilzer said that he was requested by Arthur J. Lamb in 1899 with the verses of the melodic poem. Though Von Tilzer appreciated it, he suggested Lamb to alter a few of the lines to make it visible that the lady in the song was wedded and not a paramour. Subsequently that night, as he composed a song in the piano in a public residence with his friends, he had seen that a number of the girls not so far were moved and teary eyed because of his song, he thought that may be his composition will become well-known. Afterwards, Von Tilzer stated that this ballad will be “the key that opened the door of wealth and fame” for him. Its fame and popularity indicated the prominence of the songs in American popular music through 1914.

The lyrical poem illustrates the desperate life of an attractive woman who decided to get married because of money and not because of love. The woman was described to be the bird in the gilded cage, because people thought that she is very happy and free but she is not. Although she is rich and fortunate to marry a man with bunches of gold, she is sad because she does not love her husband.

Arthur J. Lamb was a British lyricist most famous for his 1897 song Asleep in the Deep and the 1900 song A Bird in a Gilded Cage. He associated himself with a number of composers such as Albert Von Tilzer, Harry Von Tilzer, Henry W. Petrie and Kerry Mills.
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