Notes from the Past

Music notes from the past, that is. 😉 Today we’ll be going down the vintage road again, and taking a look at some sheet music from days past. Let’s get started!

These are the three music sheets we’ll be looking at today. Oh, and since I have a whole stack of music sheets such as this, there may be more being posted on Reading Wednesday’s in the future.

As you may have noticed, this musical journal is from the year 1891. That puts it as the oldest paper product such as this that I own, which is kind of exciting. 🙂 It contains a few stories in the first portion, then a few songs afterwards. I find items such as this very interesting. It gives a glimpse into what life was like back then, beyond what we usually think of or imagine when we think of a certain time period.

The next bit of music skips forward about 30 years, to the year 1922. (Which, you may realize, makes it a hundred years old this year.) This set of paper differs a little from the musical journal. Only one full song, as well as a few advertisements on the first page and back cover. Advertising songs “for your piano, phonograph, or your player piano.” I suppose those last two were a lot more common in 1922 than in 2022. 😉

Something I noticed about many of these music sheets is how very dramatic (or melodramatic) the titles of the songs are. Maybe next week I’ll show a few of the sheets that really showcase that. 😉 Some of them also have very pretty covers, which are interesting to see.

The music sheet for this song, “I’m lonely without you”, is from the year 1926. A little newer than the last one, but still very much vintage. 😉 It follows the same pattern as the previous one: a few advertisements and the music for the song, of course.

Notes from the past: Wrapping up

I hope you enjoyed this look at notes from the past! Would you be interested in more content of this sort? ~ Emily