School of Syncopation - Jazz, Stride, Novelties & the Like

[Rob C.]

Dixon, Harold - Scarecrows' Convention (1927).pdf

Hi Toby,

Here's the next Harold Dixon scan. It's another fine piece too!

FYI the inside front and inside back covers are blank in this piece. Of the 5 originals I have, only one (Snuffins) has something printed on the inside front and back covers (in Snuffins' case, it was the 1st & last pages of the score--which is why they look less yellow). The back cover ad in all 5 of my originals is always the same but the coloring varies at times.

Enjoy the music!

Rob

[tobyjj]

Hello, Rob C,

Thank you very much for these posts. I'm very happy to see them. They are much better than I thought they might be and the midis are excellent. I'm looking forward to the other scans with pleasure.

When you say you made midis of his pieces, does that indicate you are the pianist in the midis ? if so, perhaps you can be persuaded to do some more midis of some other "novelty" pieces, which I, (and maybe others), find impossible to play, (or certain measures, at least), and for which I've yet to find any aural assistance or even simple files to help. (Be Warned: - I have quite a long list! )

Thanks again for the postings.

Looking forward to the other scans.

Regards,
tobyjj

[Rob C.]

Hello Tobyjj,

Here's the scan for "Brownies on Parade." I was playing my Harold Dixon midis while scanning and my wife walked in while this piece was playing (perfect timing). Her comment was, "That's very cute." That's the perfect description of this piece. Not overly difficult, but cute and catchy.

The Brownies depicted in the cover illustration were a series of characters immortalized in a series of children's books written and illustrated by Palmer Cox (1840-1924). They first became popular in the 1880's and still were in the 1920s. "Brownies in Fairyland-An Evening's Entertainment," a 118 page book with lyrics and music, was published in 1925 (though Palmer had died the year before). Also, the famous Eastman Kodak Brownie camera was named after these characters! I'm embedding a 2 page PDF file of Brownies illustrations (including some Kodak ones) with a 2 sentence description of the Brownies (written by Palmer himself) for those interested.

I'm so glad you were pleased with the scans and midis. No, those midis weren't hand played. (I'd need an electric keyboard to hook up to my program and I'm still using an acoustic piano.) The software I use is a less expensive version of Finale, the music notation software (my software's called "PrintMusic!" and though not the least expensive version the company makes, it's still only about 1/4 of the cost of Finale). I enter the notes by hand (you click on the note value you want, a picture of it appears in place of your cursor, you drag it to the correct place on the staff, and click to fix it in place). It's a labor of love and I've always been very happy with the resulting sound. Do send me your list and I'll see what I can do! (If we're very lucky I might have already done a few on your list.)

Enjoy!

Rob

Cox, Palmer - Brownies Illus. & Quote.pdf

Dixon, Harold - Brownies on Parade (1927).pdf

[Rob C.]

Dixon, Harold - Lock the Barn! (1927).pdf

Hi again Tobyjj,

Here's the next scan. For this posting I scanned one of my 3 Harold Dixon photocopies (this is "hands down" my favorite of the three). Again, mostly a simple one note melody in the right hand but quite contagious.

Frank,

This will save you trying to locate it as my photocopy is quite nice. If, however, you happened to run across it in your travels and would like to scan the cover in color I'd enjoy seeing it. But, of course, the music's the most important thing and now it's on pianophilia. And, Frank, hope your feeling better these days.

Best to all,

Rob

[tobyjj]

Thanks again Rob,

I had meant to say earlier that of your midis I was particularly looking forward to Lock The Barn! as a score.
I like them all, however, - thanks again for the scans.

Regards,
tobyjj

[Rob C.]

So glad to hear that Tobyjj! That is probably my second favorite of the 8.

And, regarding your midi file request, I do agree that aural assistance can be a great help. (I know it is to me!) Did you want to post your list of difficult pieces or send it to me personally, via private message, or email?

I'll post the next piece a little later today (if there's another one you're interested in seeing earlier, let me know and I'll move that to the top of the list). What's preventing me from posting, say, 3 pieces a day is not the scanning, but creating the PDF file. I put my jpgs into WORD and save as a PDF. WORD keeps wanted to create blank pages, move the files to different pages, put one file on top of the other and all sorts of other uncalled for mischief. Fortunately, through trial and error, I'm learning ways to prevent some of this mischief.

Best,

Rob

[Rob C.]

Dixon, Harold - Toy Town Topics (1927).pdf

Hi Tobyjj,

This is a nice piece, but I can't get past the fact that the opening theme sounds SO much like Nacio Herb Brown's "Doll Dance," the first novelty I ever heard. Published the year my grandmother turned 18, she could still play it from memory 50 years later. My sister and I would beg her to play it because we loved it. I have an old cassette tape of Grandma performing it and decided several years ago to compare it to the sheet music. She'd recalled the whole piece except for a few bars of the intro.

Enjoy!

Rob

[Rob C.]

Dixon, Harold - Manikin Ball (1927).pdf

Hi TobyJJ,

Back again with the next Dixon novelty piano scan. In this PDF file I put a digital photo of the cover which I saw on eBay 7 years ago (the other scans are from my photocopies). The quality of the cover's not the highest, but, on the bright side, the photo's in color and you can see the whole cover.

Many have commented that Maple Leaf Rag's first theme is like a long introduction and that the actual rag doesn't begin until the 2nd theme. Well, the first theme of this piece sounds to me like a long introduction.

Happy downloading!

Rob

[Rob C.]

Dixon, Harold - Dance of the Gnomes (1927).pdf

Hi Tobyjj,

Here's the next scan. It's mostly from a photocopy except for the cover, which, like the last posting. is a digital photo I saw on eBay 7 years ago. As before, the quality of the photo is lacking somewhat, but the whole cover is there and in color.

Upon re-listening to this piece, I must confess that this is my least favorite. I like the introduction a lot but the rest of the piece falls short. It's as if Dixon had a couple of good ideas for themes but never fully developed them. He definitely had talent, but it's not as much on display here (at least in my opinion). Perhaps that makes this piece rarer, I don't' know.

After I scan the one Dixon song I have, I'll scan the piece that you already have which will give everyone on this site access to all of Dixon's known novelty piano compositions. I've worked out most of the kinks with WORD so things are going a little faster now.

My best,

Rob

[Rob C.]

Dixon, Harold - Call Me Back, Pal O' Mine [waltz song] (1921).pdf

Hi Tobjj,

Per your request, here's the one Harold Dixon song I own (it's a waltz song and I was mostly interested in it because Dixon wrote the music--however the large cover photo of Dixon himself is a plus too).

The good news is that this song has 3 full page ads for other songs. The bad news is that only one ad is guaranteed to have music by Dixon himself. The first has music written by another (but arranged by Dixon--which is interesting), the 2nd does have music written by him, and the 3rd is probably by him, but the composer's name is written as "Hanolid" Dixon (mmm... could it be a relative? Personally, I'm going with my gut feeling--it's Harold).

Enjoy!

Rob