Pianophilia

I cannot find it in my Joplin file, so perhaps it is someone else. A very famous rag though.

Last heard it in the Handyman scene in Electric Blue 14.

Thal

Hello to all,

to reactivate this thread, i'll get a new subject in. i present you here extracts from a folio called:
Quatrieme Album Francis Salabert Pour Piano Seul. i attach you here the front cover and the contain page.

this folio was published in 1922 by editions francis salabert. there were at least 20 numbers published.

here are some pieces of the folio...

Éléonore (Albert Chantier)
Hayda (R. Casabianca)
Hunting (A. Mario)
Je N'Peux Pas Vivre Sans Amour (G. Gabroche & Fred Pearly)
Je Suis Toujours La (Gaston Gabaroche & Fred Pearly)
Judy & Punch (Chas. Riller)
Pour Danser Le Balancello (Maurice Yvain)
Temptation One Step (Fred Harley)
hope you like it and that there'll be more replies.
Adrien

While doing some research i came in contact with Dan Desdunes. there's only his Happy Feelings Rag available online.
but on its front cover there were other pieces anounced like:

Dandy Dancers Rag
Dixie Notions Rag
Honey Bug Rag
Mexican Thot Serenade
Teasing Omaha Rag, That

especially to those with big collections and a good knowledge (e.g Frank Himpsl), have anyone out there some of this rare Rags?

as publicity on HFR, there comes up a Mickey Music Co. published piece named Viola by Chas. F. Stephens, seems to be very rare. it's an Polka Two-Step.

Bye
Adrien

Hello Adrien,

A hearty welcome to Pianophilia, and to the Ragtime Thread. I know the "Happy Feelings Rag" by Dan Desdumes (or Desdunes) only from its appearance on a very rare 10-tune nickelodeon roll. I have never seen the score. Could you post the library link where you located it? I am fairly sure the piece was never copyrighted, since it was not to be found at the Library Of Congress in my many visits there years ago. Only private collections would be a source for this, and prior to your posting I was not aware of any having this particular score.

As far as the pieces you mention from cover advertisements, judging from the rarity of the tune itself it is sadly unlikely these have turned up. But the possibility always exists of a new find in the future. I call rags like these "phantoms," and certainly the field of ragtime is full of them. Who has seen "Microbe Rag" by Russel Smith, which was advertised on the cover of his "That Demon Rag" published by Seidel in Indianapolis (a fair-sized publisher of the day)? No trace has surfaced to date. There are dozens of other examples, from both large and small publishers. Every year seems to bring Ragtime a new discovery or two. Considering the many years which have passed since its heyday, I think that's a reasonable rate of return.

Here attached for interest is a midi file of the piano roll of "Happy Feelings Rag." It was issued as tune #5 on Kibbey roll No. 416. The slightly "uneven" chords are characteristic of this roll company's output, and not an artifact of the recording.

All Best,

Frank H.

Hello Adrien,
and HELLO Frank,

Thankyou for the posting and thanyou Frank for the additional info and midi file.

Wishing you both seasonal greetings.

Your postings gratefully received.

P.S. Frank - I still have heaps of German sheet music "popular - style" - I have been trying to catalogue it but surely this is not the right forum for most of it.

Regards,

tobyjj

Hello Frank,

thank you for your welcome : = )

indeed there are many Rags dozing in private sheet music collections, or coming up somewhere and sometimes, you don't know why or can't explain it.
but i'm sure there is much more stuff to be discovered. and it's funny that the foreigners (Germans, GB's, Italians, etc.) bring up new pieces or find collections, but you are at the source...the pop music creased in the US. the big publishers with their 1000's of pieces.

i've attached Happy Feelings Rag as pdf.

you find it at two sources:

University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection

http://historyharvest.unl.edu/items/show/182, where i made my pdf from. supposedly Janice Cleary from where the piece come from has a giant
sheet music collection with a lot of rarities, like The Blue Melody as instrumental version by Maceo Pinkard.
perhaps someone here would be able to contact "The History Harvest" and ask for an overview of her collection and that they'll digitize more pieces...


here the link to an interview with her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BvYO9f8f4g

thank you very much for the midi of the piano roll.

Bye
Adrien

Hello tobyjj,

thank you. perhaps you could start a new "European Popular and Ragtime Music"-thread, i saw you uploaeded several "Zu Tee und Tanz"-folios, it would match there.
i also have a large collection of German folios...so if you know what you would be interesting and rare for this thread here, please tell me, so i could get my scans started.

Do you own the "Musik zum Tanz"-series, published by the legendary Eric Plessow Publishing Co., where the maestro himself added some rare piano solos...


Bye
Adrien

Hello Friends New and Old...Adrien and tobyjj,

First off, my thanks to Adrien for posting the extremely rare "Happy Feeling Rag," "Blue Melody," and "Kansas City Pep," all of which are new to this old-timer and each a pure delight. It is remarkable to see a Maceo Pinkard imprint out of Omaha, Nebraska; and as composer/publisher as well. I had no knowledge of his western exploits! I would characterize this piece as a rag fox-trot. The trio section is similar to parts of Sweatman's "Down Home Rag" as well as S.R. Henry's "By Heck." (By the way, S.R. Henry was Henry R. Stern, brother of the famous publisher Joseph...a little piece of ragtime ephemera).

Yes, there still are a number of great privately held collections, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to those owners who had the foresight to see their contributions to musical culture preserved within the libraries of great Universities throughout the world, for everyone to enjoy, for all time. The University Of Colorado, which you cited as source for the scores posted, certainly has one of the finest on-line ragtime catalogs in the US. Another, at the University Of Mississippi at Starksville was started through the generosity of Charlie Templeton, whom I very fondly remember as a dedicated collector, historian and wonderful friend. There are many others, and no doubt the future will bring yet more. All founded on the philosophy that what we share with others, we keep forever.

My friend tobyjj, well you know I grew up listening to my mother singing those alte Schlager auf Deutsch so I will always welcome and applaud your efforts to save this great material; especially knowing the high acid content paper used during that period means that they will frequently crumble if intimidated in the slightest way! As far as posting in a separate thread, I would defer to our Moderator's judgement on this. It could be argued that the category Ragtime is sufficiently broad so as to include the European Novelty idiom; and hence perhaps the song and dance folios as musical kissing-cousins. In any event I think these are exceptionally rare and certainly worth preserving for posterity.

And hearing the name Eric Plessow brings back memories of dazzling, highly pianistic novelties like so many of the German novelty masters of the 20s & 30s, Ernst Fischer, Rio Gebhardt, Paolo Planter, Hans Bund, Lothar Perl and a host of others. I think Plessow was one of the most melodically gifted. And so Adrien, if the folios you have of Plessow have not been posted on Pianophilia in the past, I certainly never had them or ever knew of their existence. I'm sure that they would be received with great appreciation by all your friends here.

Thanks, and All Best,

Frank H.

fhimpsl wrote:Hello Friends New and Old...

Congratulations to Frank for getting to 1000 posts on PP and thereby becoming our fourth official pianomasochist.

Regards
Fred

Ragtimer wrote:Hello tobyjj,

thank you. perhaps you could start a new "European Popular and Ragtime Music"-thread, i saw you uploaeded several "Zu Tee und Tanz"-folios, it would match there.
i also have a large collection of German folios...so if you know what you would be interesting and rare for this thread here, please tell me, so i could get my scans started.

Do you own the "Musik zum Tanz"-series, published by the legendary Eric Plessow Publishing Co., where the maestro himself added some rare piano solos...


Bye
Adrien

Hello Adrien,

I shall see what I have - it is possible I have some Musik zum Tanz, (I may even have posted some) but I certainly don't "own" the series and since I have always been on the look out for Eric Plessow compositions I suspect I may not have. However, if the solos are buried in folios I certainly can't say I've searched them thoroughly enough to unearth them yet. I shall start digging.

On the other hand if you have the series already, please post - particularly any Eric Plessow rarities.

regards,

tobyjj