New Findings, exhibitions, and strange sheet music

Yes, it has been ten days since my last post, and this time, I have not been out on another music festival adventure, which usually a long hiatus such as this would indicate. It has been a time of learning new things from those of whom I spoke in my last post, though I will keep them anonymous still. One of the findings included information about the notebook that once belonged to this chap: 

Yes indeed, Len Spencer. 

I have spoken very highly and often of his notebook that is held at the Library of Congress, and still have yet to actually hold the thing in my hands. As far as I have heard of the "sacred" contents of this notebook, it would seem that it really was a piece of ledgers from late-1890's Columbia! It would seem that there are many record numbers listed in there, such as no. 7487, which happens to be his recording of "My Hannah Lady" from 1900 on Columbia. 

So, since that record is listed, that would mean that this notebook's timeframe literally splits right in the middle of his time working with Hylands at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. It was written in at a perfect time for Spencer! Not everything was told to me of course, as there's no way everything could be explained to me at one time, the only way to know that would be to actually sit down and read through it. Though I was told that most of it was written in ink pen with a thin and sharp nib, in that beautiful script that he practically created(to some extent).  

The one that we al recognise from the world-famous "Coke" logo, that is just like this: 

and this: 

Indeed, these works of art were just nicer versions of how the man wrote normally. I have more examples of Spencer's not-as-formal writing, and they aren't in pen either, but those cannot be shared just yet. Even without more examples, you get the point. All of the writing in that notebook looks like the examples just above. Once I hear more of what the contents of the notebook are, I will get to it and figure out more about it. What has been said so far is a good sign, and says that this notebook is not useless by any means. Some friends of mine a while back said that this notebook might be useless to recording information and might have nothing to to with Spencer's popular Columbia's from 1898-1900, but they were very wrong. 

Since yesterday was the 4th of July, I dressed like a familiar face...

That lady Columbia on their boxes! 

That be correct. It actually looked great for once, since it was a last minute decision. I looked like an exhibition piece from them in July of 1898!

 Speaking of exhibition piece, they must have had an immense gathering on July 4 of that year, since that was right in the middle of the period where the exhibitions were happening every night at their first floor hall. It was in the summer of 1898 that these exhibitions were a popular Broadway spectacle, with July through September being the most eventful of the months. Their July 4th exhibition(which was on a Monday night just like this year), must have not only had a feast for everyone, but also had some of the daring and confident young ones of the staff lighting off the fireworks out in the street, at a moment where no street cars were rushing down Broadway. Of course those lighting off the rockets would be the Spencer's, Roger Harding, Russell Hunting(who was still living in the U. S. at the time), Steve Porter, and probably Fred Hylands also among other familiar faces. We have seen how well-decorated their hall was in September 1898: 

but try to think of how extraordinary that room would have looked just fully two months before this picture...

It must have been an absolute zoo there on that night. How much fun it must have been! Master Easton and Vic Emerson probably came to witness it for once, since they never came to the exhibitions for some reason(even if they were the ones who decided to do this). 

The final thing I would like to discuss is a piece of music that I got in the mail last week or so, written by a familiar pianist mentioned often here...

Wow! What a cover! 

It did help that all of the covers on Hylands' music were unique and eye-catching... 

Yep, that's Hylands' 1912 composition, "The Lightning Rag". The first thing that made me slightly sad is the fact that the first thing under Hylands' name was guess what?

"You Don't Stop the World from Going 'Round"

That song was 13 years old by that time! Whew, they could have at least acknowledged that he was a Broadway show performer, or something between 1899 and 1911. Hmm, that was very strange to me, I guess that that tune of his really was popular, as much as they had described in The Phonoscope, as not everything in that magazine is completely true, or at least after Russell Hunting left them in November 1898, and as we know, everything on Hylands Spencer and Yeager came after that. This music was not published by Hylands' second-to-last vanity firm, which is what I was expecting, which might indicate that his "The Rag-Time Boardinghouse" came a little bit later in 1912. There were many interesting little things buried on the sheets once I got it open, but once I looked at the back, I found a little something strange:

What! Really? No foolin! 

That was unexpected. I didn't look at the advertisements on the back page until several days after I got the music for some reason, but how I was in for a surprise. I had not seem any written music of Etta's before, and was hoping to from the kind descendants of hers, but had not until last week. Of course, it's not a piece of Rag-Time for good comparison to her brother's, which really would be great though. Another thing to notice here is the fact that the publisher at the bottom states "Hylands and Hylands", which is fantastic. That can only be the siblings in this case, since Etta didn't know about being a publisher, and Fred had experience in the business(not the best one could get however).  It's just strange to see the two of them doing anything together, but apparently, it did happen! 

*This music is for you Ali and Anna!*

Hope you enjoyed this! Sorry about posting for so many days, hopefully there won't be as much of a break before my next post.