Composer W Best

[Alan Day]

I have been offered two Concertina Compositions by W Best

"Brilliant Variations No3" and "Fantasia with variations"

These are not cheap by any means and I must admit to not knowing this composer.

Firstly are they of interest? Are they worth spending a lot of money on?

I do not want to lose them for the Concertina World, but as I do not play my concertina to written music (unless forced to)

It would cost me too much to donate them free.

Al

[JimLucas]

I have been offered two Concertina Compositions by W Best

"Brilliant Variations No3" and "Fantasia with variations"

These are not cheap by any means and I must admit to not knowing this composer.

Firstly are they of interest? Are they worth spending a lot of money on?

I do not want to lose them for the Concertina World, but as I do not play my concertina to written music (unless forced to)

It would cost me too much to donate them free.

This guy

might be the composer.

Then again, he might not be.

 

I hope someone else knows more.

[Alan Day]

I have been offered two Concertina Compositions by W Best

"Brilliant Variations No3" and "Fantasia with variations"

These are not cheap by any means and I must admit to not knowing this composer.

Firstly are they of interest? Are they worth spending a lot of money on?

I do not want to lose them for the Concertina World, but as I do not play my concertina to written music (unless forced to)

It would cost me too much to donate them free.

This guy

might be the composer.

Then again, he might not be.

 

I hope someone else knows more.

Thanks Jim for your posting.

It definitely mentions that these were written for concertina (possibly with piano accompaniment).

Sounds like these are pretty rare. The details you provide show that he is a definite possibility.

I am expecting that the person who has them will ring me today and I will find out more information, if it is available.

Al

[Randy Stein]

Alan,

I'd be interested in them also.

Rndy

[Alan Day]

Randy they are being offered at £50 approx (If I buy the two),it is very expensive for sheet music (£25 each) ,but they could be important. I will find out as much information as I can and we can make the decision. Even the ICA may be interested.

I will report back after the phone call.

Al

[Randy Stein]

Randy they are being offered at £50 approx (If I buy the two),it is very expensive for sheet music (£25 each) ,but they could be important. I will find out as much information as I can and we can make the decision. Even the ICA may be interested.

I will report back after the phone call.

Al

 

I would also like to know the condition. If they are copies or in the hand of the composer. Also are they loose or bound. And if they are dated and signed in anyway.

rss

[Dirge]

Randy they are being offered at £50 approx (If I buy the two),it is very expensive for sheet music (£25 each) ,but they could be important. I will find out as much information as I can and we can make the decision. Even the ICA may be interested.

I will report back after the phone call.

Al

 

Sounds a lot to me. Offer him £10 and tell him if he can find someone else who's heard of the man and is interested in the concertina good luck to him! It's not as if it's a Brahms autograph, is it? I wouldn't spend much on unseen music of an unknown tune that I would probably not end up playing anyway for one reason or another.

 

Randy is right though, with "I would also like to know the condition. If they are copies or in the hand of the composer. Also are they loose or bound. And if they are dated and signed in anyway." And how much there is. If it runs to 100 pages nicely bound that doesn't sound so bad; on the other hand 100 pages of music that no one likes is still a bad deal.

[JimLucas]

Randy they are being offered at £50 approx (If I buy the two),it is very expensive for sheet music (£25 each), but they could be important.

They might be important.

Then again, they might be completely unimportant.

I think their value should depend not just on the quality of the documents, but on the quality of the music. And I certainly wouldn't pay much for them if I couldn't examine them first. They say a picture is worth 10 thousand words, but the actual object is worth 10 thousand pictures.

 

Alan, when you examine the items you should have someone with you who is able to sight read the music, even if not up to speed. How else to judge the musical quality? (I would volunteer, but I'm a plane flight distant.)

 

Sounds a lot to me. Offer him £10 and tell him if he can find someone else who's heard of the man and is interested in the concertina good luck to him! It's not as if it's a Brahms autograph, is it? I wouldn't spend much on unseen music of an unknown tune that I would probably not end up playing anyway for one reason or another.

And we aren't even sure who the composer is. The research so far suggests that he is either little known or completely unknown. None of our members has yet indicated that they're familiar with the name.

 

Randy is right though, with "I would also like to know the condition. If they are copies or in the hand of the composer. Also are they loose or bound. And if they are dated and signed in anyway."

Or if they're printed, who published them?

 

And how much there is. If it runs to 100 pages nicely bound that doesn't sound so bad; on the other hand 100 pages of music that no one likes is still a bad deal.

Alan said "two compositions", not "two books of compositions". I wouldn't expect the total to be more than 20 pages, and maybe less than 10. So I think those would be rather expensive pages.

[Rod]

Randy they are being offered at £50 approx (If I buy the two),it is very expensive for sheet music (£25 each), but they could be important.

They might be important.

Then again, they might be completely unimportant.

I think their value should depend not just on the quality of the documents, but on the quality of the music. And I certainly wouldn't pay much for them if I couldn't examine them first. They say a picture is worth 10 thousand words, but the actual object is worth 10 thousand pictures.

 

Alan, when you examine the items you should have someone with you who is able to sight read the music, even if not up to speed. How else to judge the musical quality? (I would volunteer, but I'm a plane flight distant.)

 

Sounds a lot to me. Offer him £10 and tell him if he can find someone else who's heard of the man and is interested in the concertina good luck to him! It's not as if it's a Brahms autograph, is it? I wouldn't spend much on unseen music of an unknown tune that I would probably not end up playing anyway for one reason or another.

And we aren't even sure who the composer is. The research so far suggests that he is either little known or completely unknown. None of our members has yet indicated that they're familiar with the name.

 

Randy is right though, with "I would also like to know the condition. If they are copies or in the hand of the composer. Also are they loose or bound. And if they are dated and signed in anyway."

Or if they're printed, who published them?

 

And how much there is. If it runs to 100 pages nicely bound that doesn't sound so bad; on the other hand 100 pages of music that no one likes is still a bad deal.

Alan said "two compositions", not "two books of compositions". I wouldn't expect the total to be more than 20 pages, and maybe less than 10. So I think those would be rather expensive pages.

 

In theory we could all compose a couple of tunes, give them pretentious titles, and then look for someone who might be prepared to pay us £50 for the manuscripts unseen and unheard. We might strike lucky !

[JimLucas]

In theory we could all compose a couple of tunes, give them pretentious titles, and then look for someone who might be prepared to pay us £50 for the manuscripts unseen and unheard. We might strike lucky !

Good idea!

I have more than 300 tunes and "pieces" of my own. One of them is even a "Fantasia".

 

At £25 per (maybe I should drop it to £10 each for single sheets?), I could even afford to print them on fake vellum.

 

Maybe I should change my name, too. Instead of "W. Best", I could give the composer's name as "J. Pretty Good".

 

But to be serious, I am quite curious as to just what this music is that has been offered to Alan.

[Alan Day]

This is getting more interesting. I have contacted the person, who deals in Victorian and early sheet music.

These are original manuscripts (Hence the costs)date approx 1840. In addition to the ones I mention he has found another four one of which mentions Regondi, who I originally asked him about. He is sending me more details by Email and when I get them I will carry the investigation further. Now it could be that Mr W. Best has taken the Regondi music and re written it or altered it and put his name to it. I may need someone (Like Allan Atlas ) who knows all the pieces written by Regondi, or yourself Jim to peruse a section of the music before anyone gets excited about this.

Thanks for all your postings by the way it is very useful when discussing these subjects that you can mention"I am sorry but the whole of the Concertina World has never heard of W Best".

Al

[Ex Libris]

This is getting more interesting. I have contacted the person, who deals in Victorian and early sheet music.

These are original manuscripts (Hence the costs)date approx 1840. In addition to the ones I mention he has found another four one of which mentions Regondi, who I originally asked him about. He is sending me more details by Email and when I get them I will carry the investigation further. Now it could be that Mr W. Best has taken the Regondi music and re written it or altered it and put his name to it. I may need someone (Like Allan Atlas ) who knows all the pieces written by Regondi, or yourself Jim to peruse a section of the music before anyone gets excited about this.

Thanks for all your postings by the way it is very useful when discussing these subjects that you can mention"I am sorry but the whole of the Concertina World has never heard of W Best".

Al

 

 

Hi,

 

The ICA Library has a very large collection of Victorian music written for the concertina, but my B listing for printed music goes: Binfield ... Birch ... Blagrove - I don't have a W. Best.

 

The biggest publisher was Wheatstone & Co. who appears, in its time, to have bought up smaller publishing houses. I have a copy of Wheatstone's music catalogue, kindly donated to the library by Douglas Rogers, there's no mention of a W. Best in there either.

 

Intriguing ...

 

Jeremy

[RatFace]

Presumably the same seller as here. These are both "Arranged for the Concertina and Piano Forte", so I guess they were originally written for organ and arranged by somebody else who is not being mentioned...

[Boney]

Presumably the same seller as here. These are both "Arranged for the Concertina and Piano Forte", so I guess they were originally written for organ and arranged by somebody else who is not being mentioned...

So would "W. Best" be "W.T. Best" mentioned in the same page? There exists an album of his organ compositions.

[Alan Day]

Well found Danny, so we now all have the same information regarding these two compositions.

Do not be concerned if you read that they are sold, they are reserved to me at the moment.

I have requested a section of the music that I have not yet received.

Where we go from there I am not sure, I suppose they could be sold at so much a copy, but that seems unfair on the first purchasers and I certainly would not like to profit from it.I certainly would not put them up for sale

Would the ICA be interested in these Jeremy? This would be the most sensible option. (Subject to them being of interest)

If the music sample is suitable I will post it here so you can all have a look at it.

Al

[Ex Libris]

Would the ICA be interested in these Jeremy? This would be the most sensible option. (Subject to them being of interest)

 

 

I'm relatively new in post at the ICA and I'm not sure whether the Association has actually bought music for the library. At a personal level, yes, I would love to acquire music which would add to a unique collection of music especially written for the concertina. However, I must balance my own interests with what the majority of the membership would want. There is already a significant amount of music that is possibly beyond the scope and interest of modern players - me included. So there's loads from the Victorian era - a zenith in concertina music publishing - that is under utilised. Does that mean that we should give up maintaining, preserving, and growing a library of this type? - no, absolutely not! Since December I have distributed well over 100 pages of music to members from all over the world who are interested in experimenting with playing and arranging music for the concertina and who want to reference types of playing from former eras. And there are gaps, particularly in the music published by Wheatstone, that I would love to fill.

 

However, what I would be really interested in are new compositions and arrangements from current players. Yes, we've got Case, Regondi, Blagrove and the more recent Stanley - but what would be even better would be Day, Chapman, Lucas (300 tunes!) Stein et al.

 

My favourite drawer of all the music the ICA owns are those handwritten arrangements by members themselves: Alf Edwards, Arthur Clements, Frank Butler and my grandfather Herbert Hague and so on. Yes, again, some of the tunes are from a different era, but obviously fondly practised and played - I'll ask Michel to stick an example or two, on the ICA website in the near future.

 

Jeremy

[Alan Day]

I now have some further information regarding these manuscripts.

I have passed the info on to Allan Atlas, but if anyone else would like the further details I have please get in touch.

It would appear that Regondi was involved here, whether by agreement or variations on the Regondi music I am not sure.

I will let others decide.

Alan

[Alan Day]

I can now inform you that all the Concertina Manuscripts by W Best have been purchased by the ICA for their members to down load. These are currently being processed.I am sure that Jeremy will post this information when available.

I must applaud the ICA for their response and forward thinking regarding this music and it will add to their expanding library for members of the Association.

I can also inform you that the book that I own of old concertina music ,that many of you found interesting, will also be available to ICA members in the near future.

Al