Hearts and Flowers

"Hearts and Flowers" is a song composed by Theodore Moses Tobani (with words by Mary D. Brine) and published in 1899, though its melody originally appears in a collection called "Wintermärchen" written by the Hungarian composer Alphons Czibulka in 1891. Through its use accompanying certain silent films, the instrumental violin version has come to symbolize all that is melodramatic, sentimental or mock-tragic. Indeed, the humming of the tune is often combined with the miming of violin-playing to indicate mock-sympathy at someone's misfortunes.

Cultural allusions

*Character Harry Gordon mentions "Hearts and Flowers" in Book I, Chapter 3 of Willa Cather's novel "Lucy Gayheart".
* The name has been used for, among other things, a 1970 edition of "Play for Today" (broadcast by the BBC and starring Anthony Hopkins) and a track on the 2003 album "Between Darkness and Wonder" by the British-based band Lamb.
*Decapitalized and hyphenated, the term 'hearts-and-flowers' has entered the English language, with the sense "extreme sentimentality, cloying sweetness" [New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary] .

References