Today I went to a book sale and grabbed some really good bargains. I also got a book which is a huge collection of piano music, but the first page is missing.
I know the piece, but right now I am very tired (after travelling a very long way loaded with books ) and can't remember its title....
Does anybody know where I can get the first page(s) of this piece?


Thanks!!

CA

I don't know what piece it is but maybe this will give you a start: I'd bet my bippy that it's Mendelssohn. I had already decided that even before I got to a couple of measures that seem to be a giveaway: those last 2 measures of the 4th line are very similar to a snatch of the last movement of his violin concerto.

I'll stick my neck out and say that it looks - and sounds - pretty banal to me. Look at the third line, left hand : repeated C major chords with a few C major 7ths, and the fourth line : four measures of C octaves in the left hand. Not much imagination in this work, I think.

The harmony seems elementary throughout.

You can bet your bippy, Mike, and I'll eat my hat if it turns out to be anything worthwhile.

Regards,

That doesn't help him, does it.....

I wasn't trying to help him, I was expressing my opinion.

Maybe....

Anyway, the name of the collection is "Giant Folio of the very best Pianoforte Music" Wickins Edition (VERY OLD)....

What are the titles of some of the other pieces in this collection?

Regards,

I only have the front page.
It is obviously not really what we would call the "best" piano music, although SOME pieces are good... Anyway, only $2.50 and probably a rarity.... I bought it more as antiquity than for the music...

I'd bet a penny or two that this is "Fragment (Mendelssohn)".....

That is the first piece I checked (after your post)... But it is in the book (complete.....)

Dam!!!
Good thing nobody took me up on the bet.

....but actually, all you need to do is see which of those listed pieces isn't complete in the book......

One wonders what they mean by "complete original editions" when some of the originals were not piano, but orchestral, pieces.

A lot of things claimed way back then were iffy. Take this, for example:


Wonder what people a hundred years from now will think about some of our stuff?
I'm impressed that you actually go out and collect old books, ChopinAddict. I have an aversion to old books, similar to my aversion to old clothes. Something about the yellowed (and sometimes stained) paper and the fact that I don't know who touched it creeps me out.

I love to think that those books have been touched by people who are actually dead....

I'm OK as long as there isn't any pet hair or living creatures in them.

P.S. Great get on the ad!
(Yeah, "sanitized tapeworms"....)

Old Ads
Even Better...

Just going by the titles on the cover of the music, I'm going to guess that it's Gaieté de coeur. Second choice, Maypole Dance.

I love old music like this, especially when a teacher has marked it up or changed fingering. But my problem with it is--dust mites, allergens, crumbling paper, whatever it is that makes me sneeze and get a runny nose [TMI, sorry] and then get a sick headache in my sinuses. I kind of like the idea that someone took the book or sheet home with excitement, practiced it, played it, and put a lot of energy into it. It's kind of special that it was special to someone before . . . you know? But I agree about the old clothes--aaack, and you know what really squicks me out? Human hair wigs. YOUR hair on MY punkin head-- Now, THAT is just creepy. Sorry. But aarghh! (grin)

I used to get "lots" of these books on eBay from estates, and much of the stuff was interesting, but it would turn out that MANY of them were extremely stained, crumbling, or whatnot. I did get some cool method books that taught "swing" from the Big Band era and some Steve Allen piano books that way. Now I am looking for an old book that we used to have in our piano bench--probably will never find it. Thrill of the hunt!

Oh, and my guess for this piece? Maypole dance. It just seems that the Bang-Bang-Bang of the chords would correspond to the dancers skipping around the pole wrapping the ribbons. You DO know what a Maypole Dance really is . . . well, good, then. *Grin*

Gaieté de coeur is in the book.... Maypole Dance... I haven't found it yet, and I woke up at 1 am thinking of it (I just HAD to)....
So that might be it! The problem is I don't know where to find it... Not that I really enjoy this kind of music, but the missing page is driving me crazy...

Unfortunately I have bad allergies too....
But one of the reasons I love it, like you, is that I "feel" the passion others put into it, I feel the love.
AND old books stay open....

You could always write your own first page. Could be fun.

Good idea! It should really be fun....

If you write down the names of all the pieces which are complete in the book, and check off the ones that are on the cover, you might find the name of the piece you want.

"For complete list of contents, see inside of cover." Let's hope that means the reverse of the cover - which he has - not the first page, in which case he might be out of luck.

Regards,

Unfortunately I am out of luck. I don't have the complete list. Otherwise I would have posted it instead of the cover.
I did try what BDB suggested the other night, but without writing down the names, I just went through all of them, paying attention in particular to the Maypole Dance, which had suddenly come into my mind. The Maypole Dance is definitely missing. And it worries me, but I think Dorothy is missing too... Plus possible other pieces not listed on the cover....

Sherlock Holmes here

Having just played the first two lines of this lumbering composition ... so glad to hear that ChopinAddict (the bloke who’s putting us through this grind) doesn’t like the page 3 cited and is only going on a bit because of having discovered a lost page
(not quite as bad as losing the last page of a who-dunnit) .

By a process of elimination we can exclude

1. Top composers ... who wouldn’t pen such lame, unimaginative and inferior music which let’s out ... Chopin, Schumann, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Handel, Liszt and Tchaikovsky .
2. Waltzes ... anything in 3-time including mazurkas.
3. Suggestions already identified as being present ... Maypole
4. Works with French titles ... presumably by classy French composers.
5. Known works like Narcissus, Soldiers Chorus, Marche des Troubadours .

Which reduces the field to

Silver Trumpets, Dorothy, Alice Transcription, Lily of the Valley and Sparkling Cascades.

Please check these out ChopinAddict ... my guess is that one of these 5 is the culprit ...
if not, I go stand in the corner!

Elementary my dear Watson!

Hi,

I remember Silver Trumpets, Alice Transcription, Lily of the Valley and Sparkling Cascades... They are in the collection.

I think Dorothy is missing too from the collection (although I am not 100% sure, I am only sure of Maypole Dance because I really looked for it). I am trying to find Dorothy on the net, but it comes up with all sorts of things apart from what I need... Probably not a big loss...

The funny thing is that they put one of the worst pieces at the very beginning.... They also left out from the Selection on the front page the best pieces by the best composers.... There are also good pieces inside. Weird! It is a huge collection, I will have to write an index myself as soon as I can (I have a couple of deadlines next week).

Thanks for the help.

CA

The rhythm reminds me a march... what you people think?

I have the piece "Dorothy" (Old English Dance) by Seymour Smith. It comes from a collection of piano pieces published by Century Music Publishing Co., Inc. (1964) titled Most Popular Piano Pieces volume 1.

It sounds like a march to me, too.

I'm almost sure it's not Sparkling Cascades - titles from these popular collections were usually descriptive. Cascades would contain voluminous arpeggios!