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Concert Programme From 1900


premo

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I belong to a drama group at my local church and we are putting on a show based on the history of the area (Chadwell Heath in Essex on the East London/Essex border). During research for this our director has come across some Chadwell Heath Church monthlies from 1899/1900. These record concerts from that time. In a concert on 26th October (year unclear) there are two Edeophone solos by a Mr W. Hornby, one is 'Le Diademe' and the other 'Myostosis' (it's the Latin name for the forget-me-not flower). In a later, undated, concert Mr Hornby plays 'Linden Leaves', 'Scotch Airs' on the Edeophone and sings 'The man who can't keep still', although it doesn't say whether he accompanied himself.

 

Since part of our show is music from the period I am trying to persuade the director that there should be a concertina piece! I have tried to find either 'Le Diademe' or 'Myostosis' but without success. I have found a reference to an English waltz called 'Myostosis' which seems consistent with the period, but no score. If anyone out there knows these pieces I would be grateful. Also, is there any information about Mr Hornby himself?

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The US Library of Congress is a useful resource, and here you can search some of their collections. I found piano arrangements for both Le Diademe and Linden Leaves, though not Myostosis or The man who can't keep still. (Use "Match this exact phrase" when you search, then when you get the reference page, click on "View this item".)

 

I know that this search doesn't access all the Library of Congress materials, since I did simple searches on a couple of things I know they have, and I came up blank. If I learn how to access other materials I'll try again and let you know the results.

 

I thought there might be a selection of Scottish airs in the Salvation Army Tutor for the English concertina, but I'm not sure, and I can't seem to find my copy at the moment.

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Hello,

 

Could it be a misspelling for "Myosotis?" This is the true scientific name of the genus in the Boraginaceae that includes a number of species commonly called "forget-me-nots" (Myosotis spp., e.g., Myosotis alpestris F. W. Schmidt subsp. asiatica Vestergr., the state flower of my favorite state).

 

I don't have a latin dictionary at hand so I cannot confirm if "Myostosis" is an ancient latin name for a plant in this genus (or for something else). But it might be worth searching "Myosotis" to see if the music can be found under that spelling.

 

BTW, in the floras I consulted the derivation of the genus name "Myosotis" is given as from the Greek "mus" + " otos," meaning "mouse ear;" this is another common name for some Myosotis species. But other, totally unrelated plant species are also called "mouse-ears," which is why we have the scientific names.

 

Paul

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He who drinks British, thinks British :rolleyes:

 

The British Library is a useful resource, and hereyou can search most of their material. I found Le Diademe , Linden Leaves, The man who can't keep still, and Myosotis (well done Paul!); and in some cases more than one composer of pieces of the same name. You can order photocopies from them.

 

There are numerous pieces called 'Scotch Airs' so it would be near impossible to find the exact piece again - just pick a few well known ones and play those.

 

best wishes ...wes

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Thanks Wes and Jim,

 

In a former life I was a botanist, and in fact I'm thinking of going back to it...

 

Keep in mind that I did not rule out the existence of another piece spelled as premo did.

 

Premo - thank you for the very interesting and unusual documents and websites you keep providing us!

 

Paul

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It looks as though it should be 'Myosotis'. Well done! I will have to go and check the original list from which I copied it. The only trouble is that, using Jim's link, there is more than one possible tune.

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There are numerous pieces called 'Scotch Airs' so it would be near impossible to find the exact piece again - just pick a few well known ones and play those.

It seems very likely that these were a set of "Scotch Airs" arranged for the concertina, so I did a search of the online British Library Catalogue (BLPC) for "scotch airs concertina" and got 6 matches, one of which is too late (Shackleton's, 1925), and another is of Favorite English, Irish & Scotch airs (Sedgwick's, 1854). The remaining 4, just of "Scotch airs", are :

 

William Henry Birch. Favorite Scotch airs. (1854)

 

Richard Blagrove. Fantasia on Scotch airs. (1855)

 

George Tinkler Case. A fantasia on Scotch airs. (1855)

 

Joseph Warren. Favorite Scotch airs. (1850)

 

So I would suggest that it was probably one of these.

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...I got loads of botanical/gardening hits when I did a Google search on the cut-and-pasted misspelling.  :unsure:

Pursuing details posted here can be very educational.

 

From some of the hits I got on the "misspelling" Myostosis, it does appear that it is a word, though not necessarily for a flower. In one reference it appears to be the name of a drug, in another the name of a restaurant. Yet there were hits on quite a few different web pages where it clearly does refer to a flower.

 

What did I learn from this?

... That plagiarism seems to be rampant on the web! :o

 

All of these pages that I looked at had exactly the same content -- identical lists (including that misspelling, if that's what it is) and descriptive text -- yet in distinctly different "pretty" formats. And while I admit I didn't dig deeply, I didn't see any notices that the material was copied from some other source. :ph34r:

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Myosotis/Myostosis. In this case mea culpa I am afraid. I copied the word down correctly from the original source but misstyped it when I started the thread. Another nod to Typos, the god of typnig msitaeks.

 

Incidentaly, I printed out a violin part of one of the Myosotis waltzes on the LC site. It is an interesting tune and I have discovered one or two interesting things about the phrasing of such waltzes that I had never come across as I usually play only folk tunes, although I recognise them from listening to 'classical' waltzes

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Re W.Hornby, who is the performer mentioned above. I have had a look at the 1901 Census site and there is a listing for a Watson Hornby of Ilford, which is not too far from Chadwell Heath, who is listed as a dealer in musical instruments. I wonder whether this is the same person? It sounds as though he might have played and sold concertinas.

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Watson Hornby ran a Music Warehouse at 4 Cranbrook Rd, Ilford in 1902, as well as a Stationers and Post Office at No. 5. He was still listed as a sub-postmaster at Cranbrook Rd in 1914.

 

QUOTE : Jim

What did I learn from this?

... That plagiarism seems to be rampant on the web!

A particularly virulent form of web spread caused by cut and paste - sandwich spread?

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Interesting that Chadwell is mentioned here. I don't know if Chadwell Heath is close to Chadwell St Marys, but by coincidence I am just working on a C Jeffries 28 button anglo inside which is written in pencil:

A Fuller

Chadwell St Marys

Near Grays, Essex

April 10th 1886

Maker C Jeffries

 

Out with the Kelly's again , Wes :-)

 

Regards

Malcolm

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Chadwell St Mary is about 15/20 miles east of Chadwell Heath.

Thanks for the geography lesson, Mark.

Quite a long way by UK standards.

I apologise for the totally off topic and useless info :(

Regards

Malcolm

Edited by malcolm clapp
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  • 5 months later...
...there is more than one possible tune.

...I printed out a violin part of one of the Myosotis waltzes on the LC site.

I just came back to this, because I was leafing through an old tune book (The Violin Player's Pastime, pub. by Carl Fisher; some pages missing, including the one with the date) and noticed... "Myosotis Waltzes", by "Lowthian"! :)

 

So I decided to check it against the other references. Of the six sheet-music copies returned by the Library of Congress search, two are polkas, unrelated to each other. But the other four seem to be variant arrangements of the same waltz, which was apparently composed by a Caroline Lowthian. All are dated 1884 or 1885, though one of those in the British Library search (only a catalog listing; if the music is viewable, I don't know how) is dated 1882, with Lowthian as the "author".

 

Of the four LoC waltz entries, the Septimus Winner arrangement has the same six parts as my copy, arranged in 3 sections of 2 parts each, with a fourth section as a reprise of the beginning. (Interesting to me is that my copy has the first four parts in D and the last two in G, while the Winner arrangement has the middle two in G and the other four in D. Mark did you already notice that this is an arrangement for violin, piano, and cornet, with all 3 parts there to print out?) The Pierre Latour arrangement has 5 parts, of which the first four match my copy, but then has an independent tag ending. The John Theophil arrangement only uses the first two parts, but it calls itself "easy". The James Freeman arrangement uses parts matching 1, 4, and 6 of my copy.

 

I'll try to keep a lookout for the other titles.

 

(P.S. My 2300th post.)

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