January 13, 2023 at 11:19 a.m.
Fish Like A GIRL
The timelessness of music
Fish Like A GIRL
By Beckie Gaskill-bjoki@lakelandtimes.com
Let me explain.
Not too long ago, I saw a post on Facebook Marketplace. Someone had a bunch (over 200 pieces, so a big bunch) of "old sheet music," the post said. They said some of it was in bad shape and they would sell the entire box for a super small amount. Those who know me know that I am a music geek at heart. I always have been. So I could not pass it up. I had to see what the lady had. I felt, if nothing else, it could make some cool artwork for the music corner of my office.
It did not take me long to decide that this sheet music was not going to be an office decoration. Some of it might be, as I am finding a few pages here and there that do not seem to go with anything else. At the same time, I am not done sorting through everything yet.
Apparently, back in the day, there was a Boston Weekly Journal of Sheet Music. The first piece I came across was put out on May 24, 1899. A person could get a yearly subscription at that time for $1. This was the piece of sheet music that prompted the text to my sister. I am not sure when the price came down to $1 per year, but I found another edition of the Weekly Journal from 1895, and the price then was $3 per year.
I started going through all of the music and looking at copyright dates, just to get an idea of what was there. Of course, simply because something is copyrighted 1908, for instance, does not mean it is necessarily from that year, so I have more research to do. However, there are a few pieces where a person wrote their name and the date on the cover. Several of those dates were 1917. It made me think about each person whose name I saw there, and what they might have been thinking in 1917, with most of the dates being that summer, shortly after the United States had declared war on the German Empire (April 6, 1917). I wondered what their lives were like and how music helped them cope with world events. The names I have found thus far have been women, at least those handwritten. Were their husbands at war? Brothers? Did they have children? So many questions came to my mind as I sat starring at these handwritten names.
One of the most interesting finds (who am I kidding? They are all interesting) was filled with blank sheet music paper. But, to my delight, not all of the pages were blank. The book was from 1924, and Lois Bredeman had written her very own song, "Are Ye Able?" I know she wrote it, because, in her own handwriting, at the top of the page, she told me so. On the bottom of the page were drops of ink. I could see her taking the pen from the inkwell and, while she was thinking, composing, that ink dripping on the bottom of the page, right there, where I was to find it almost 100 years later.
"Can you imagine?" I snapped a photo with my phone and sent it off with those words to my sister, also a lover of music. Of course, she thought it was the neatest thing, too. She could see Lois in her own mind, I am sure, toiling over each note of her new creation.
Some of the music is church choir music, as I expected at the outset. Some of it is familiar and other pieces not at all. There are several pieces for which I have more than one part. For instance, one portion may be "for two mens voices" and another "for three women's voices," or something similar. While I play piano, and have off and on since I was a child, some of the music may be beyond what I would ever attempt to play. I marveled at its complexity. I imagined the church organist of the day, fingers flying deftly over the keys, with the congregation singing in their Sunday best.
There is also quite a bit of "contemporary" music there as well. Contemporary for that time, of course. What I loved was that almost all of that type of music also had ukulele accompaniments! I am not sure why the ukulele was so popular back then, but perhaps it was its small size. I could see a musician jumping on a train, ukulele in hand, hurrying to their next gig. Maybe they played a quick song for the other passengers, something catchy like "When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley."
Yes, that is the name of one of the songs. I do not remember if the tune felt catchy or not as I read it, but it definitely speaks to another time.
What did strike me, though, was that music has always been the same. The stories are all the same - stories of love, stories of loss, stories of hope - all can be found in the pages of sheet music from any era, I suppose. Music is the story of the human condition, and that condition has not changed over the decades, or even centuries, at least not at its core.
I asked the lady who posted the sheet music for sale if she knew anything about its previous owner, if the person were involved in a church choir or a city choir or something. Sadly, she did not know. I will spend some cold winter days researching the publishers, composers and music stores that are attached to these great works I have stumbled upon. Just unraveling the mystery of who the people were that played these pieces, and perhaps even how they all came to be in this one box, is exciting in itself. I feel as though I did not simply "buy a box of old sheet music." I feel as though I became its caretaker. It is up to me, now, to find out as much about these pieces as I can, and to learn the history.
What fun adventure.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached at bgaskill@lakelandtimes.com or outdoors@lakelandtimes.com.
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