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Thread: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

  1. #1
    Registered User Cary Fagan's Avatar
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    Default What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    I'm not quite sure where to post this. It touches on classical, old time, period popular music, vintage instruments....

    The bowlback mandolin craze ran, I believe, from the 1890s to 1910 and beyond. Does anyone know what the repetoire was--what people were playing in their parlors? I'm interested in solo pieces as well as group or orchestra works. Is any of this music available (preferably in tab, though that may be unlikely)?

    I thought it would be interesting to recreate an evening of casual parlour mandolin music circa 1900.
    Cary Fagan

  2. #2
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    Ragtime was pretty hot then. Check out this collection of original sheet music from the University of Colorado: http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/cgi...l?Rag&titles&3
    Bobby Bill

  3. #3
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    My grandfather played mandolin around 1900-1910, and I found a bunch of his old books when we cleaned out my parents' attic after their deaths. Let me give you a sampling from one of them, Louis Tocaben's Whitney Warner No. 7 Mandolin & Guitar Collection (1909):

    Rainbow
    Mandy Lane
    My Rosie Rambler
    I Want Someone To Call Me Dearie
    Dill Pickles
    Love Watches
    Naughty Eyes
    Black & White
    Hang Out the Front Door Key
    It Looks To Me Like a Big Night
    Pride of the Prairie
    Shine On Harvest Moon
    The Bolo Rag
    I Used To Be Afraid To Go Home


    etc., etc. There are a few ragtime pieces, like Dill Pickles and Black & White Rag, that are still played. And everyone knows Shine On Harvest Moon. The rest seem like fairly disposable pop songs of the period, few of which seem to have survived.
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  4. #4
    Destroyer of Mandolins
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    Try a Google of 'Gaslight era music'. I just found a pile of stuff with that term.
    Dedicated Ovation player
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    Registered User Pete Martin's Avatar
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    A Hundred Years From Now
    -----------
    Pete Martin
    www.PeteMartin.info
    Jazz and Bluegrass instruction books, videos, articles, transcriptions, improvisation, ergonomics, free recordings, private lessons

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    Western Swing music

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    Still Picking and Sawing Jack Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    I remember talking about this with my grandmother before she passed away. She told me that she didn't ever listen to popular music back then because it was indecent. (If you look at the titles to songs that were popular 100 years ago I think you will agree that some of them were not very nice.)

    So what did they sing and play? "hymns and camp music."

    I also remember asking her about drinking during Prohibition. She said: "I never touched a drop of alcohol in my life, but I got as happy as a lord on applejack once."

    She was a great lady. If she were still alive she would be 109 years old.
    Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
    When time is broke and no proportion kept!
    --William Shakespeare

  7. #7

    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    What did your mom and grammy sing?

    "Just a song at twilight, when the lights are low;
    And the flickering shadows softly come and go.
    Tho' the heart be weary, sad the day and long,
    Still to us at twilight comes love's old sweet song."

    or

    "There's a long, long trail a-winding, into the land of my dreams,
    Where the nightingales are singing, and a white moon beams.
    There's a long, long night of waiting, until my dreams all come true,
    'Til the day when I'll be going down that long, long trail with you."

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    Registered User Bob DeVellis's Avatar
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    "After the Dance is Over" was very popular for years. Still a nice song.
    Bob DeVellis

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    Registered User Laurence Firth's Avatar
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    You might want to email the folks at aurora mandolin orchestra in San Francisco. Check out their web site for info.
    http://www.auroramandolin.com/
    They have a long history dating back to 1920s. The current director Josephine Pellegrini will be able to answer your question.
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    Laurence

  10. #10
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    Default Re: What were they playing a hundred years ago?

    Under The Willow Tree
    (Bury me beneath the willow)
    H.M. Belden 1909
    most likely from older sources, but (collected? and) published at this date.

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