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Irving Berlin's transpose button.


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I, of course, insist on playing terribly in all keys. But I'm not trying to eat from playing. I do consider it as a weight loss method at times.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I knew he "just played on the black keys" but I always wondered why his work has such a wide variety of color when it was all created in F#. I'm playing alot of Irving Berlin right now, along with the usual suspects in the American Songbook.

 

48996084093_73054dac50_z.jpg

Remember by unoh7, on Flickr

 

"Ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up," He sang that one to his kids all the time, I guess. LOL

 

41575642090_1d252a8723.jpg

WWII 121.B1.F3.4 by State Archives of North Carolina Raleigh, NC, on Flickr

 

Gradually, more and more sheet music is available to download free:

Online Sheet Music Collections

 

I'm used to Songbooks "40's Hits" or whatever. Only a tiny fraction of the music widely sold between 1900-1950 are in those books, and it's interesting to browse these online collections. Gets your sight-reading chops going too, as many are very easy to read.

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

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Another example of songs that were popular with a whole generation, and now very few of those songs are known to the general public.

 

Transposing piano- I"m surprised this is first I'm hearing of it.

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Another example of songs that were popular with a whole generation, and now very few of those songs are known to the general public.
I still think of these songs as pretty embedded in American culture, but maybe that's because I've spent so much of my life around theater people.

 

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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Another example of songs that were popular with a whole generation, and now very few of those songs are known to the general public.
I still think of these songs as pretty embedded in American culture, but maybe that's because I've spent so much of my life around theater people.

 

Beyond embedded, but actually the source of a lot of American Culture as we know it---or so it's increasingly postulated by academics.

 

48996932186_b7dcbea867.jpg

without by unoh7, on Flickr

 

More resources:

Another list of Online Sheet music Collections

 

Also interesting to note, for Hammond lovers, about the same time sheet music really took off, the Azuza Street Revival took place (1906-1920ish), which really got the COGIC flames going, and has provided a living for countless keyboard players of all stripes over the years in the churches. I only discovered the Clark Sisters within the last year.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I'm not very religious, until I hear that LOL

 

Here is alot more from the same evening in 1981, in Oakland's Paramount Theatre:

 

 

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

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I just read a fascinating article about it, and it turns out that "Transposing Pianos" were actually extremely common in the early 20th century, just about every music publishing company had them, and they were quite common for theaters and other establishments. Remember, piano was a lot more common than it is today, almost every household had one, and there were a million different curious designs: from spinets built into radio cabinets to sofas and cupboards. It's not hard to believe that some unique musical features (which have been lost to time) became commonplace too. Nowdays, the few people that own a piano are more likely to have a few years of training and don't feel that they need to transpose.

 

Here's the article:

https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2664/if-irving-berlin-could-not-read-or-write-music-how-did-he-compose/

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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I just read a fascinating article about it, and it turns out that "Transposing Pianos" were actually extremely common in the early 20th century, just about every music publishing company had them, and they were quite common for theaters and other establishments. Remember, piano was a lot more common than it is today, almost every household had one, and there were a million different curious designs: from spinets built into radio cabinets to sofas and cupboards. It's not hard to believe that some unique musical features (which have been lost to time) became commonplace too. Nowdays, the few people that own a piano are more likely to have a few years of training and don't feel that they need to transpose.

 

Here's the article:

https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2664/if-irving-berlin-could-not-read-or-write-music-how-did-he-compose/

 

Great Find :)

 

Here is very well done bio of Berlin:

[video:youtube]

 

You really can't make it up. He's wandering the streets so his Mom doesn't have to feed him. He gets a job as singing waiter, 8pm to 6am, at a very colorful bar/eatery. His specialty, at age 15ish, is obscene lyrics to popular songs LOL

 

His first wife literally fights to be the one to sing one of his songs. She looses the fight but wins him. They go to Cuba for the honeymoon. Shortly after their return, she dies of typhoid. He is stricken, but pushed by friends, makes a big breakthrough with:

 

When I Lost You (full sheet folio)

 

The ups and downs continue in a spectacular scale. It's a Benny Goodman style story, but Berlin is a lot more social! OMG.

 

Eric, you remind us of that incredible time when the keyboard was really central in so many American homes. Such great sound without power.....and when the grid finally reached many homes, what soon followed? The tonewheels! They were really the cadilacs, though, way beyond the reach of the average piano owner.

 

So fancy they did not allow a transpose button! You would think that was easy to add, but maybe the tonewheel layout defied it.

 

I had not realized he also wrote "God Bless America", untill I watched the Documentary. His Daughter's stories are priceless.

 

Another figure I am crazy about from this period is Fats Waller. Compared to Berlin, he was a rich kid, LOL. But unlike Berlin, who lived to 1989, 101 years, Waller was just 40 when he got sick and died. The way Fats lived, it's almost as if he knew that was his fate.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Fats had his hands on the fanciest church organ in Harlem at age 10. He was one of the first Hammond owners.

 

 

 

 

 

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

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I just came across this 1994 documentary film, A Great Day in Harlem, about a famous Esquire photo in 1958, which sort of paints the culmination of the classic age, as the new small group flavors had already begun to take over....what was left, as rock and roll became the national Dance Music. It's all narrated by the participants, but they are speaking in the early 90's---a snapshot in itself--I forgot how much of the 70's was left! Utterly unique, priceless snapshot of Jazz, old and new.

 

Lots of Keyboard greats, a few I had not been aware of, like Willie the Lion's mentor :) A ton of stories.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

 

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

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