No quadrilles, but more lobster sheet music. Here are two pieces for piano, once again featuring ladies in large hats (see previous post) Published in Cleveland … lobsters are an exotic menu item in Cleveland perhaps?
Dana Gee
April Fool’s Day: odd sheet music
The Historical Sheet Music Collections at Houghton have been yielding some weird cover art lately. Here are a few in honor of April foolishness: This song tells the story of a gentleman escorting a lady friend to a cabaret, where she pawns him off on a female friend enamoured of his wealth; her friend calls Read More
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day
Houghton’s Historical Sheet Music Collections have a wealth of music about Ireland; many songs are American, whether adaptations of traditional Irish tunes, or songs from Tin Pan Alley, Broadway musicals or vaudeville. Here are some examples in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day. [chorus] The minstrell boy to the war has gone, and bold Jack Donoghue Read More
Queen Liliʻuokalani’s composition “Aloha ʻOe” and American sheet music about Hawaiʻi
In honor of Women’s History Month, we invite you to look at some examples of sheet music composed by Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawaiʻi. The Historical Sheet Music Collections are home to a great number of songs about Hawaiʻi, many of them written by popular music composers in the period following the annexation of the islands Read More
Male impersonators in early 20th century American sheet music
In the aughts and teens of the 20th century, a few female vaudeville performers, British and American, had great success with male impersonation acts. In performance, they sang romantic love songs (as boys or young men), comic songs and bragging songs. Here are a few examples of their songs as published sheet music. Florence (or Read More