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Ragtime Music in Canada
Chapter 3:
Canadian Ragtime Publishers and Record Producers
By Ted Tjaden
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[go to Chapter 4]
One
indication of the popularity of the piano
and parlour entertainment during the early
1900's in Canada is the relatively large
number of Canadian sheet music publishers
and the variety
of sheet music they published. Canada and
Canadians also played a leading role in
producing early recorded music, some of
which included ragtime. Set out below on
this page is more information divided into
the following three topics:
3.1) Canadian sheet music publishers
during the ragtime era
3.2) Canadian record
producers during the ragtime era
3.3) Sampling of
ragtime era recordings
3.1) Canadian sheet music publishers
during the ragtime era [top]
For the period from 1900 to 1920, the market for
sheet music in Canada was particularly strong:
Most works were either songs with piano
accompaniment or short character pieces for solo
piano. Music at this time was one of the
favourite parlour activities, and such songs and
piano pieces provided many hours of happy
entertainment for performers and listeners alike
.... The reason behind the remarkable quantity
of music publishing was simply that in this
period it made money, Rolex Replica
since musical scores of
the type described were extremely marketable. So
also were pianos: there were approximately
thirty pianos manufacturers in Canada prior to
1914, compared with fewer than half a dozen
sixty years later. (Proctor 1980:3)
Melhuish
(1996:33) reports that Geoffrey O'Hara's "K-K-K-Katy
(The Stammering Song)" (see the sheet music for this
song), which was written in Kingston,
Ontario, sold over one million copies in sheet
music form.
Since there were relatively few "pure" rags
written and published in Canada, there was no
single publisher of ragtime music per se;
instead, we can observe that there were a number
of Canadian publishers who appear to have
published the bulk of ragtime and similar
syncopated marches and two steps and other
ragtime-related music during this period:
- Anglo-Canadian Music Company: According
to The Canadian
Encyclopedia, the Anglo-Canadian
Music Company was established in London in
1885 with a branch set up in Toronto for the
purpose of printing and selling British music
copyrights in Canada. By doing so, due to arcane
provisions in the Canadian Copyright Act at
that time, the company could stop American
publishers from trying to import pirated copies
of music into Canada. Although most composers of
sheet music published by the company were by
British or European composers, the company did
start to publish songs by Canadian composers in
the late 1890's.
- HH Sparks: One of
the main publishers of ragtime and
ragtime-related music in Canada was HH
Sparks Music Co, established in Toronto in
1900 by Harry H Sparks. In the decade or so it
remained in business, it issued over 200 pieces
of music (according to its
entry in the The Canadian
Encyclopedia. Joseph F Lamb
was a major composer for HH Sparks, as was
Arthur Wellesley Hughes.
Image
source:
Library
and Archives Canada
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Left:
Sample advertisement from 1904 for
sheet music published by HH Sparks
(with, presumably, a picture of HH
Sparks in the lower left corner).
Although there are no ragtime pieces
advertised, there are several
two-steps and marches, in addition to
the standard, likely maudlin, fare of
ballads and sacred songs. Note that
this advertisement includes the Celestine
Waltzes by Joseph Lamb (click here
for this piece).
Source: Advertising page from the
back of The Elephant Trot
by Karl Kahn (Toronto: HH Sparks,
1904) (right).
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Image source:
Library
and Archives Canada
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- Le Passe-Temps: Le
Passe-Temps was a periodical
published in Montreal from 1895 to 1949 and,
according to its
entry in The Canadian
Encyclopedia, covered
stories relating to music, literature, theatre,
fashion, and sports. Many of the ragtime music
and marches and waltzes of JB
Lafrenière were published in Le
Passe-Temps.
- Whaley & Royce: In addition to
manufacturing and selling musical instruments
(including pianos), Whaley,
Royce & Co Ltd also published and sold
music. The Canadian
Encyclopedia suggests that
their advertising slogan of "Canada's Greatest
Music House" was probably justified due to their
large inventory of music and musical
instruments. The company had its own engraving,
lithographing and printing facilities and also
published music magazines. According to its
entry in The Canadian Encyclopedi,
the "first Whaley, Royce publications date from
1890. The catalogue grew quickly and during the
next 30 years surpassed that of any other
Canadian publisher. The output declined later
and came to a halt about 1940, after which date
only reprints of earlier issues were undertaken,
and a very few new items."
- WH Hodgins & Co: According to The Canadian
Encyclopedia, WH
Hodgins & Co, based in Toronto,
published around 100 sheet music titles of
dance, march and popular song tunes. From 1897
to 1900, the pieces are published under the name
"Amey & Hodgins," while from 1900 to 1907,
they are published by WH Hodgins & Co. As an
individual, WH Hodgins was a major composer for
the company (see Chapter 8 for copies of
the sheet music for compositions he wrote
as an individual).
The names of other publishers of ragtime-related
music in Canada include The Northern Music
Company, Imperial Music Pub House, and JE Belair,
but unfortunately, not much information is easily
available about these publishers.
3.2) Canadian record producers during the
ragtime era [top]
Canada was at the forefront of
early record producing during the ragtime era.
Emile Berliner, who had established the gramophone
in the United States in 1893, established a new
Canadian company (E Berliner) in Montreal in 1899
to produce gramophones in Canada based on a patent
for gramophones he filed in Canada in 1897. Later,
Herbert Berliner, eldest son of Emile Berliner,
established The Compo Company Ltd in Lachine
Quebec in 1918.
For a fascinating look at the history of both
companies, see "The
History of Recorded Sound in Canada" from
The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada). The site also has a
huge database of ragtime era recordings (in .mp3
format), although most of them are not rags
but instead represent a broad spectrum of
(Canadian) music recorded by these companies at
the time.
On a related note: Do you know the
connection between the name of HMV (the music
store) and Emile Berliner? According to Melhuish (1996:30), Emile
Berliner registered a Canadian trademark in 1900
of Nipper,
the fox terrier, looking down the horn of a
phonograph. This trademark was later used by
Victor Talking Machine Co and inspired the naming
of "His Master's Voice" records, the initials to
which are "HMV." Now you know.
3.3)
Sampling of ragtime era recordings [top]
Set out below in chronological
order are a selected example of recordings by
Canadian performers or producers from the ragtime
era:
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Harry Thomas,
A Classical Spasm (.mp3)
(Camden, NJ: Victor, 1917)
Source: The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada) [top]
|
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Geoffrey O'Hara singing the Canadian
wartime patriotic song Doughboy
Jack and Doughnut Jill
(by Gitz Rice) (.mp3),
with Willie Eckstein on piano (Montreal,
QC: Berliner Gram-O-Phone Co, 1919)
Source: The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada) [top]
|
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Listen to: George Cobb's Russian
Rag (.mp3)
played by the Waldorf-Astoria Dance
Orchestra (Montreal, QC: Berliner
Gramophone, 1920)
Source: The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada)
Download
sheet music: Indiana
University Sheet Music Collections [top]
|
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Willie Eckstein, Turkey
in the Straw (.mp3)
(Lachine, QC: Compo Company Limited, 1923)
Source: The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada)
Download
sheet music: The
Lester S Levy Sheet Music
Collection [top]
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Listen to: The Dumbells, The
Photo of the Girl I Left Behind
(.mp3)
(London, ON: Starr Company, 1924)
Source: The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada) [top]
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Listen to: Vera Guilaroff, Maple
Leaf Rag (.mp3)
(Lachine, QC: Compo Company Limited,
1926)
Source: The
Virtual Gramophone
(Collections Canada)
Download
sheet music: Indiana
University Sheet Music Collections [top]
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In the
next chapter, I briefly discuss the history
of piano manufacturing in Canada.
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