Old Folks Concerts
Will Fitzgerald
I'm about to put a scan of "Father Kemp's Old Folks Concert Music" on-
line (from 1889). I remember reading, perhaps on this very list, about
the idea of the 'Old Folks Concert,' but I can't remember now where I
read it.
If anyone is interested in writing a quick introduction to the
collection I'll be putting on line, please respond here or directly to
me. It would be good to have a bit of context for the collection,
which includes a number of pieces in the Sacred Harp and other
tunebooks. (Father Kemp's book isn't in shapes though).
For a preview of the collection, visit: http://www.entish.org/of
Will Fitzgerald
it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Folks_Concerts
Let me know what you think. Better yet, change it so it's even better!
Will
still working on the Old Folks site, though.
On Apr 3, 5:13 am, "Will Fitzgerald" <will.fitzger...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Richard Schmeidler
are sold at prices in the range of ten to twenty dollars, plus
several dollars more for shipping (but just last week I won an
auction for two books for 99 cents.
Copies are also available on the internet from booksellers, at prices
ranging from six dollars to seventy-five (not an unusual range --
just look at asking prices for copies of the Sacred Harp, 1991
edition.) I like to use
for searches.
Also appearing on eBay, but much less frequently, is an autobiography
by "Father Kemp" entitled "Father Kemp and His Old Folks." Again
copies are available over the internet, with asking prices ranging
from $85 to $250.
The easiest way for any of you to get to see either the music book
(which was sold extensively at concerts) or the autobiography is to
ask me to lend a copy.
__________________________________________________
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Will Fitzgerald
is now available at:
Enjoy! The scans are a bit large (in display), but I decided this was
better than shrinking them.
On Apr 3, 5:13 am, "Will Fitzgerald" <will.fitzger...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Annie Grieshop
Preface ("I am not a music-monger....") seems to suggest something about the
way purveyors of singing books (and singing masters?) were viewed by the
public. Does anyone have further info on that?
Annie Grieshop
Will Fitzgerald
he wrote the preface, but I think a number of things are going on:
(1) his success had been in putting on the concerts, and he wasn't
primarily in it to publish music,
(2) he was being rightly modest about his own musical training (and
thus the perceived right to publish music)
(3) related to this, there had been published in the mid-1850s some
somewhat scholarly collections of earlier American tunes (as he
obliquely states in the 3rd paragraph) and he wants to be clear what
it is he has published,
(4) he was acting in the tradition of the earlier tunebook compilers,
who often stated they had been pressed by others to publish their
tunebooks (I can't remember where I read this). And of course, this is
a common enough thing to say in a preface (I didn't set out to write a
book about X ...; I didn't write this to make money, but ...)
For the record, Kemp wasn't a singing master so much as someone who
acted the part of one in the concerts he gave; he was hearkening back
to a time (which would have been when he was much younger) when
singing schools were common.
On the other hand, I did recently read (in the Historic Missouri
Newspaper Project online archives) a warning advertisement for one
singing master who was a shyster and who absconded with funds
collected for the school and for printing flyers, etc.
Richard Hulan
than never. Sometimes.
At the Sacred harp conference at Belmont University in Nashville in
Sept. 2005, Mark Rhoads from Bethel University in St. Paul MN read a
paper that touched upon those (Father Kemp was one, though I believe
Rhoads' paper focused on Mansfield) who resisted the reform movement
led by Lowell Mason, Hastings, Gould, and people who agreed with them.
I'm fairly sure this is not the same paper, but a newer paper by the
same scholar that also discusses this issue may be found on his web
page. On the right side, there are some links; click on the one that
says "Reformers and Resisters: Changing Tastes in American Protestant
Church Music, 1800-1860 (pdf)." The download is 13 pages. (Other
links on his web site are also interesting to many of us. Among other
things, you can find the Prefaces, and facsimile title pages, of a
bunch of tunebooks.)
http://www.markrhoads.com/About.htm
Anyway, after that conference in Nashville I exchanged a few emails
with Dr. Rhoads, and sent him some title pages and prefaces by other
"resisters." I'll paste in part of one of those emails, about things
that might be grist for somebody's mill -- just to keep this sort of
data in one thread:
____________________
Continental Harmony, a Collection of the most celebrated Psalm Tunes,
Anthems and Favorite Pieces; designed particularly for "Old Folks'
Concerts," and the Social Circle. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1857.
Oblong. This had some relationship to the fairly well-known "Father
(R.C.) Kemp," of Reading PA, but is not one of his own books, and lists
several other principal compilers.
(The Rev.) Wm. James Selby, The Old Paths: or Ancient Sacred Harmonies,
adapted to congregational singing, camp-meeting worship, conference,
class and prayer meetings. Original and selected. Utica, NY: Pr. by
E.E. Roberts, for the author, 1869. Not oblong. Somewhat similar to
Hillman's Revivalist, but not as well known.
I also have a little Sunday School book by Joseph Hillman, Sunday
School Hymns and Revival Choruses (Biglow and Main, 1866 -- but it says
Hillman is "of Troy, NY") that mentions his "Troy Praying Band,"
apparently a touring group that sang from his several music books and,
one assumes, promoted their sales. Pretty early precursor of the
Stamps-Baxter Quartet, etc. -- if indeed that is what was going on.
Dick Hulan
Spfld VA
Will Fitzgerald
>
> On the other hand, I did recently read (in the Historic Missouri
> Newspaper Project online archives) a warning advertisement for one
> singing master who was a shyster and who absconded with funds
> collected for the school and for printing flyers, etc.
>
When I wrote this, had no idea that 'shyster' is a racially/
religiously loaded term (an epithet for a Jewish lawyer). I appreciate
having this pointed out to me.
For those who found this offensive, I apologize and ask your
forgiveness. I won't be using it anymore.
For those who didn't, I recommend that you learn from my ignorance.
There are plenty of words around to describe crooks and thieves
without bringing race or religion into it -- to say nothing of
occupation.
Will
Stephen Conte
Granted, you have used the word incorrectly: a singing-school master is
not to be confounded with a lawyer, crooked or otherwise. Twenty lashes
with a wet noodle.
However, the term is not inherently anti-Semitic by denotation, nor does
it necessarily connote anti-Semitism except in the minds of a certain
class of people colorfully described by Larry the Cable Guy in words too
graphic to be used in these refined circles.
Take a break, dear Will, from your self-flagellation and read the article
at http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg041603.asp
And check some of the online dictionaries; none mention anti-Semitism, and
one even derives the word from Yiddish:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transwiki:Shyster
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=shyster
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Shyster
http://www.answers.com/topic/shyster
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0011871.html
http://www.bartleby.com/61/8/S0380800.html
Ever,
Stephen Conte
http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg041603.asp
Annie Grieshop
shyster was an unscrupulous person (coming from the German "scheisser", with
all the defecatory implications of that word).
So, calling someone a shylock is certainly anti-Semitic, but a shyster is
just a shyster.
Annie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:fasola-di...@googlegroups.com]On Behalf Of Will Fitzgerald
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 10:33 AM
> To: Fasola Discussions
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Old Folks Concerts
>
>
>
Roberta Goodell
says "shyster -- prob, after Scheuster -- 1840 Am. attorney frequently
rebuked in a New York court for pettifoggery" -- no ethnic connotation. And
a "pettifogger" is one who engages in legal chicanery. And "chicanery"
is -- but I think that's far enough, yes?
Sing on,
Bobbie Goodell
Searsmont, Maine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Will Fitzgerald" <will.fi...@gmail.com>
To: "Fasola Discussions" <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 11:33 AM
Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Old Folks Concerts
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
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6:30 AM
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>
Nikos Pappas
doesn't even list the word "shyster" in it. The closest you can get
is either: "Tranteh altvarg" or "noiteh lomus" meaning a decrepit
person or thing, or "Ganef" or "shvindler" for a swindler.
Interestingly, lawyer or attorney is not in the dictionary! It looks
like "shyster" is an identical type of American colloquialism as
"bunk."
Mach nit kain tsimmes fun dem!
Nikos Pappas
Annie Grieshop
I've sent a query off to WorldWideWords, one of my favorite etymological
research sites. The oft-repeated story of lawyer Scheuster seems a bit too
convenient (actually, it reminds me too much of the supposed Mr. Shoddy who
sold soft goods to the War Department, hence "shoddy goods").
Yes, of course this discussion has moved pretty much OT for the group... but
it's still fun to find out. And if you like words (and which of us does
not?), I'd certainly suggest taking a peek at www.worldwidewords.org and
signing up for the weekly email.
Annie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:fasola-di...@googlegroups.com]On Behalf Of Roberta Goodell
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 12:29 AM
> To: will.fi...@gmail.com; Fasola Discussions
> Subject: [fasola-discussions] Re: Old Folks Concerts
>
>
>
John Bealle
central to the list. If you absolutely have to say something further, I
won't reject it. But I suspect many had just let the thread die. -
John, moderator
Victoria Bolles
Will, a kind and immensely generous contributor to this list, was made
to suffer unnecessary embarrassment. The discussion -- debunking,
really -- that's gone on in the last day or so has been fascinating,
and I thank everyone who took the time to look into the subject and
point the way to all kinds of interesting and useful information.
Will, I especially thank you for all you've contributed and I hope you
know how much your good work is appreciated.
With best wishes,
Victoria Bolles
Alto/Massachusetts
Richard Schmeidler
Just a minor quibble.
The Boston "Father Kemp" who was responsible for the book that gave
rise to this thread lived in Reading, Massachusetts, then as now a
northern suburb of Boston.
His book had a long history; I have at hand a copy that has a 1934
copyright, but quotes extensively from the preface to the 1860 first
edition. According to a footnote, obviously added by Oliver Ditson,
the publisher of both books, the Continental Harmony book had
credited R.C. Kemp, among others, for assistance in selecting the
contents. In his 1860 preface, Kemp reports that before he had
prepared his own music book, he had referred those who wished to buy
the music to the Continental Harmony and other then current books
that reprinted the old music.
There were other people who passed themselves off as Father Kemp and
gave similar concerts; it is conceivable that one of them came from
Reading, Pennsylvania.
Richard Hulan
Growing up in a family of Tennesseans and playing Monopoly, mostly with
my equally insular brother, I used to pronounce the name of that city
(wherever it may be) "reeding." It was one of the railroad cards. I
believe I was an adult before I happened to meet someone who grew up in
PA, and pronounced it "redding." We thought each other's accents
fairly strange, still do sometimes, but we've been married since 1964.
Anyway, I know how to say Tullahoma, Waxahatchie, and Biloxi.
Dick Hulan
Spfld VA
On May 1, 2007, at 2:51 PM, Richard Schmeidler wrote:
> The Boston "Father Kemp" who was responsible for the book that gave
> rise to this thread lived in Reading, Massachusetts, then as now a
> northern suburb of Boston.
>
Richard Schmeidler
autobiography with the following:
... although I have swung my baton before a large choir in upwards of
six thousand concerts, my word upon it, I NEVER KNEW A NOTE OF MUSIC,
AND CANNOT DISTINGUISH A "MINIM" FROM A "DEMISEMIQUAVER." I flatter
myself, however, that I can beat time with the most accomplished
impressario.
I repeat that I won't know that any of you want me to lend you a copy
of the book if you don't ask me for it.
--- Will Fitzgerald <will.fi...@gmail.com> wrote: