The violin was Shield's instrument of choice the playing of which he was quite accomplished. At the age of twenty five he was a member of the King's Haymarket Theatre as a member of the violins but became the leader of the violas. It was not until the age of thirty that he began publishing music. Shield composed approximately thirty operas the first of which was a pastiche, "The Flitch of Bacon," 1778. As in all of Shield's operas two thirds of the music was original but at least one third of the melodies were derived from folk songs, particularly Scottish and Irish folk melodies. Orchestration for his operas was unique and innovative so much so that he became the house composer at Covent Gardens for a period of fifteen years. A number of now familiar tunes were made famous by the works of Shield. In his opera, "Rosina," for example, what is known as "Auld lang syne" was popularized by Shield though not his own music. Likewise the melody for "All those endearing young charms" is found in "The Flitch of Bacon." Though John O'keefe failed to mention Shield in his own autobiography, they collaborated in a number of efforts including "The Poor Soldier" and a number of songs in Moore's compilation of "Irish Melodies." After leaving Covent Gardens, Shield traveled to the continent including the cities of Paris and Rome. On this foray, Shield collected a number of folk melodies contained in a later anthology which also included Bach's Prelude in D minor, the first time any of Bach's preludes from Book 1 had been published. ~ Keith Johnson