Today we are going to be playing a little bit more of music/history detectives!
I found this piece of sheet music in an old box at the antique store (surprise surprise), and was really taken with the epic artwork and pristine condition of the piece.
In the blue inset there are two people, a man and a woman. It's very common for sheet music of t his time to feature the photograph or likeness of popular performers of the day who would sing the music. In this case I was intrigued by the duo pictured, as they have different last names. Were they a married couple? Was one a singer and the other an instrumentalist?
In the blue inset there are two people, a man and a woman. It's very common for sheet music of t his time to feature the photograph or likeness of popular performers of the day who would sing the music. In this case I was intrigued by the duo pictured, as they have different last names. Were they a married couple? Was one a singer and the other an instrumentalist?
It seems that Horace and Rene preformed a prodigious amount of songs together, though there is little in the way of biographical information online for either of them. I did find a digitized copy of a book called "Who's who in music and drama: an encyclopedia of notable men and women in music and the drama" from 1914. It says that Horace Wright was born in England and came to the US at the age of 4. He began his career as a boy soprano in church choirs and quartets. He broke into Vaudeville shortly thereafter and married Rene Dietrich in 1909. They preformed widely together in Vaudeville acts.
Besides that I wasn't able to find out much about them! Surprising given how many songs they did together...
So, this is kind of awesome. There is an actual recording of Wright and Dietrich singing together on YouTube. It's a different song but it's pretty interesting to be able to hear their voices! Warning: it gets a little shrill, so adjust your speakers accordingly ;)Because this sheet music is in such lovely condition (I just don't have the heart to cut it), I'm listing it for sale in my shop, check it out if you are looking for something different and pretty to frame!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/78473542/vintage-sheet-music-cross-the-great
4 comments:
This is so interesting! I love hearing about the history of sheet music.
Fascinating piece. Love the antique stores. That would be awesome framed.
Wow- never thought about the history of sheet music. Fascinating!
Thanks for sharing. I'm just now beginning to get into sheet music. The history behind it is fascinating.
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