It's been a while since I have been able to use this odd picture.
I still think it's comical and queer, just as I did when I found it.
I was looking through one of the many sheet music websites I use as sources for many of these great picture I use on this blog, and I found a small picture of someone that I recognize:
Hmm, I think I know him from another piece of sheet music...
Yep, that's Hylands' last vaudeville partner, as seen in the first picture above with Hylands. This picture is a good 7 years older that the other one, but it's still the same guy, before he got entangled with Hylands. Now, I don't really know anything about him, but I do know that he was three years younger than Hylands and that he came from Kentucky, also that he was a popular singer and minstrel man. That's about it, I don't really know anything else about him.
He was one of the few who went on that tour in England with Hylands though, so he saw him in his last days. He can be found listed with Hylands here:
Hylands is listed first, as deceased, probably at the explanation of Marie.
This was the log of the passengers aboard the ship that they came back on from England.
It was so sudden, Hylands just croaked quick while they were over there. The small troupe that came along with them were planning on staying over in England for two years, but how that was severed short. They were all forced to come back to the US after only three months or so of traveling around, and as I know now, Marie was broken by this. I do think it's interesting that she and the others of the troupe did a few more shows after Fred passed before they came back to America. That was either a little bit hard to configure or it was hard for them to even get through with.
Enough of Hylands' death(it gets me all blue!), I found a piece of music just after I began this post that Hylands arranged back in 1896. I had only found his "Narcissus Gavotte" from 1897 his oldest piece, but now that I did a little digging on the LOC website, I found this here:
I wish they had it digitized just as much as you probably do. It really got me frustrated, because who knows what it says on the cover about Hylands! It would certainly have all the usual things on the cover just like any piece of sheet music from 1896, but it could label him something "Rag" related for all I know! It will certainly say he is the arranger, and if we ever get to see the music, it will unlock many things about his pre-1897 piano style. I really want to see it, and if any of you can help me do that, it would be wholly appreciated!
I do have the feeling that Hylands may have been mentioned on some Chicago sheet music from the mid-1890's, just like Silas Leachman was, and W. H. Krell. Someone like Trebor Tichenor would probably get stuck on this also, as he did particularly know Hylands too well, but he had certainly been aware of him, and his relatively few Rag-Time compositions.
Since I found a picture of Burt Green, I can finally put him and Hylands together, and picture them together reasonably well, at least better than before.
These two must have been really something to see together. I can see that Burt Green had some interesting hair, and wasn't very tall. That's quite a contrast to Hylands' 250 pound weight and 6 feet of height. It's similar to the contrast between Ben Harney and Hylands, Harney was about 5 foot eight, and had the perfect build for an athletic dancer, whereas Hylands was almost near a freak compared to Harney. It wasn't this way with Len Spencer though. When Hylands was with Spencer, it seemed as though it was meant to be that way. Having roots in neighboring states, Spencer and Hylands were both hicks at heart and had the same love for music, the kind that had broken time that is. I have yet to know how the two met first, but it may have just been a studio encounter, or something more unexpected.
However they first decided to be recorded together, their records were great nonetheless, and are among the best examples of recorded Rag-Time prior to 1900, both vocally and musically. Such as this one here from 1899(the music starts at 6:00!).
Proves the point enough. I cannot get over his playing on the one in the link above! It's such a perfect example of Indiana Rag-Time, and vaudeville piano as well.
This final thing I would like to speak of is a record that I have plucked through on this blog before, but would like to bring back. It is that record where you can hear Hylands singing among the crowd of brass players and sound effects. There are many cylinders from 1898-1903 where you can hear the boys in the band yelling and clapping, but there are few where you can hear them all sing. When they cheer, it's harder to pick out single voices, but when they sing, you can easily pick out more voices. Here is that record from 1898.
Did you hear it? There's this one voice that really sticks out when they all sing at the end, and I have a notion that this voice is probably you know who(Hylands). There are several pieces of evidence I have to back up my theory here:
1. Hylands would be the only one who would be able to sing while he played his instrument, other than Harry Spencer and maybe a few more engineers.
2. Hylands did in fact sing, and since he did, considering his build other obvious feature of him, he would have been a baritone, and that is the range of the one voice that sticks out here
3. The volume at which the one voice is would indicate being about the length away from the horn that the pianist would be, and it slightly indicates the height of the piano chair as well, if your ears are good enough to notice
4. I hear a slight dialect in the voice as well, which would indicate one of only two people in that studio I am certain are present
5. Only Tom Clark would be doing the calls, and playing coronet, so he can't be singing at the end
I have more ideas on this theory, but I don't need to list all of them, as I think I got the point across with these few ideas. I hope you can hear that voice I'm referring to! It's still a fun record nonetheless. This record is similar to this one here, recorded also in 1898. This record is played too fast though, so the cheering and yelling does not sound the same as the last one. This one is much more wild though, by the whole "Commence firing!" thing goes. Hylands hits the piano keys fiercely(probably with his elbow) and everyone else is swinging those wooden things that make a big Click! when you swing them around in a circle, and yelling and etc. Those "descriptive selections" were really fun things to do I bet, which makes them so fun to listen to.
1. Hylands would be the only one who would be able to sing while he played his instrument, other than Harry Spencer and maybe a few more engineers.
2. Hylands did in fact sing, and since he did, considering his build other obvious feature of him, he would have been a baritone, and that is the range of the one voice that sticks out here
3. The volume at which the one voice is would indicate being about the length away from the horn that the pianist would be, and it slightly indicates the height of the piano chair as well, if your ears are good enough to notice
4. I hear a slight dialect in the voice as well, which would indicate one of only two people in that studio I am certain are present
5. Only Tom Clark would be doing the calls, and playing coronet, so he can't be singing at the end
I have more ideas on this theory, but I don't need to list all of them, as I think I got the point across with these few ideas. I hope you can hear that voice I'm referring to! It's still a fun record nonetheless. This record is similar to this one here, recorded also in 1898. This record is played too fast though, so the cheering and yelling does not sound the same as the last one. This one is much more wild though, by the whole "Commence firing!" thing goes. Hylands hits the piano keys fiercely(probably with his elbow) and everyone else is swinging those wooden things that make a big Click! when you swing them around in a circle, and yelling and etc. Those "descriptive selections" were really fun things to do I bet, which makes them so fun to listen to.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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