"Jewish and Black music are both forms of soul.
They share the Blue Note.
They share the wail.
They share boundless energy and humour." --
(F. Rousso-Lenoir)
(NOTE: Music and lyrics PUBLISHED IN 1922 OR EARLIER are in the Public Domain in the United States. NO ONE can claim ownership of a song in the public domain, therefore public domain songs may be used by anyone!)
'TIN PAN ALLEY' was the name given to the collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The start of 'TIN PAN ALLEY' is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan. The end of TIN PAN ALLEY is less clear cut. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930's when the phonograph and radio supplanted sheet music as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider TIN PAN ALLEY to have continued into the 1950's when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the rise of Rock 'n' Roll.
TIN PAN ALLEY was originally a specific place, West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.
The name "TIN PAN ALLEY" was originally derogatory, a reference to the sound made by many pianos all playing different tunes in this small urban area, producing a cacophony comparable to banging on tin pans. With time this nickname was popularly embraced and many years later it came to describe the U.S. music industry in general.
The term is also used to describe any area within a major city with a high concentration of music publishers or musical instrument stores - a good example being Denmark Street near Covent Garden in London.
In the 1920's the street became known as "Britain's Tin Pan Alley" due to the large number of music shops, a title it holds to this day. The Tin Pan Alley festival is held there each July.
"Rhapsody in Blue (part 1)" (George Gershwin)
Origins
In the mid-19th century, copyright control on melodies was poorly regulated in the United States, and many competing publishers would often print their own versions of whatever songs were popular at the time. Stephen Foster's songs probably generated millions of dollars in sheet music sales, but Foster saw little of it and died in poverty.
With better copyright protection laws late in the century, songwriters, composers, lyricists, and publishers started working together for their mutual financial benefit.
The biggest music houses established themelves in New York City. Small local publishers (often connected with commercial printers or music stores) continued to flourish throughout the country, and there were important regional music publishing centers in Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Boston. When a tune became a significant local hit, rights to it were usually purchased from the local publisher by one of the big New York firms.
Prime
The music houses in lower Manhattan were lively places, with a steady stream of songwriters, vaudeville and Broadway performers, musicians, and song pluggers coming and going.
Aspiring songwriters came to demonstrate tunes they hoped to sell. When tunes were purchased from unknowns with no previous hits, the name of someone with the firm was often added as co-composer (in order to keep a higher percentage of royalties within the firm), or all rights to the song were purchased outright for a flat fee (including rights to put someone else's name on the sheet music as the composer).
Songwriters who became established producers of commercially successful songs were hired to be on the staff of the music houses. The most successful of them, like Harry VON TILZER and Irving BERLIN, founded their own publishing firms.
Song pluggers were pianists and singers who made their living demonstrating songs to promote sales of sheet music. Most music stores had song pluggers on staff. Other pluggers were employed by the publishers to travel and familiarize the public with their new publications.
When vaudeville performers played New York City, they would often visit various TIN PAN ALLEY firms to find new songs for their acts. Second- and third-rate performers often paid for rights to use a new song, while famous stars were given free copies of publisher's new numbers or paid to perform them, the publishers knowing this was valuable advertising.
Initially TIN PAN ALLEY specialized in melodramatic ballads and comic novelty songs, but it embraced the newly popular styles of the cakewalk and ragtime music.
Later on Jazz and Blues were incorporated, although less completely, as TIN PAN ALLEY was oriented towards producing songs that amateur singers or small town bands could perform from printed music.
Since improvisation, blue notes, and other characteristics of jazz and blues could not be captured in conventional printed notation, TIN PAN ALLEY manufactured Jazzy and bluesy Pop-songs and dance numbers. Much of the public in the late 1910's and the 1920's did not know the difference between these commercial products and authentic Jazz and Blues.
"Swanee" (George GERSHWIN; performed by Al JOLSON)
Influence on law and business
A group of TIN PAN ALLEY music houses formed the Music Publishers Association of the United States on June 11, 1895, and unsuccessfully lobbied the federal government in favor of the Treloar Copyright Bill, which would have extended the term of copyright for published music to 40 years, renewable for an additional 20, and also included music among the subject matter covered by the Manufacturing clause.
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded in 1914 to aid and protect the interests of established publishers and composers. New members were only admitted with sponsorship of existing members. By the end of the 1910's, it was estimated that over 90% of the sheet music and phonograph records sold in the U.S. paid royalties to ASCAP.
Leading TIN PAN ALLEY composers and lyricists include:
Milton Ager
Thomas S. Allen
Ernest Ball
Irving Berlin
Shelton Brooks
Nacio Herb Brown
Irving Caesar
Hoagy Carmichael
George M. Cohan
Con Conrad
Buddy DeSylva
Walter Donaldson
Paul Dresser
Dave Dreyer
Al Dubin
Dorothy Fields
George Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
James P. Johnson
Isham Jones
Gus Kahn
Jerome Kern
F.W Meacham
Ethelbert Nevin
Maceo Pinkard
Lew Pollack
Cole Porter
Andy Razaf
Harry Ruby
Al Sherman
Ted Snyder
Kay Swift
Albert Von Tilzer
Harry Von Tilzer
Fats Waller
Harry Warren
Richard Whiting
Harry Woods
Jack Yellen
Vincent Youmans
 
 
 
..tershalloffame.org//asset/exhibit/104_img_anchor_home.jpg" alt="Rudolf Friml">
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Leading TIN PAN ALLEY publishing houses included:
Ager, Yellen, & Bornstein Inc.
Irving Berlin, Inc.
Broadway Music Corporation
Walter Donaldson Music
Leo Feist
Harms, Inc.
Charles K. Harris
Jerome H. Remick & Co.
Remick Music Corp.
Shapiro, Bernstein, & Co.
Joseph Stern & Co.
Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co.
M. Witmark & Sons
TIN PAN ALLEY's biggest hits included:
"After the Ball" (Charles K. Harris, 1892)
"The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (Charles Coborn, 1892)
"The Sidewalks of New York" (Lawlor & Blake, 1894)
"The Band Played On" (Charles B. Ward & John F. Palmer, 1895)
"Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" (Ben Harney, 1896)
"A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (Joe Hayden & Theodore Mertz, 1896)
"Warmest Baby in the Bunch" (George M. Cohan, 1896)
"At a Georgia Campmeeting" (Kerry Mills, 1897)
"Hearts & Flowers" (Theodore Moses Tobani, 1899)
"Hello My Baby (Hello Ma Ragtime Gal)" (Emerson, Howard, & Sterling, 1899)
"Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage" (Harry Von Tilzer, 1900)
"Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" (Huey Cannon, 1902)
"In the Good Old Summertime" (Ren Shields & George Evans, 1902)
"Give My Regards To Broadway" (George M. Cohan, 1904)
"Shine Little Glow Worm" (Paul Lincke & Lilla Cayley Robinson, 1907)
"Shine on Harvest Moon" (Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth, 1908)
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (Albert Von Tilzer, 1908)
""By The Light of the Silvery Moon" (Gus Edwards & Edward Madden, 1909)
"Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Tell Taylor, 1910)
"Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine" (Fred Fisher & Alfred Bryan, 1910)
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Beth Slater Whitson & Leo Friedman, 1910)
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" (Irving Berlin, 1911)
"Some of These Days" (Shelton Brooks, 1911)
"Peg o' My Heart" (Fred Fisher & Alfred Bryan, 1913)
"The Darktown Strutters Ball" (Shelton Brooks, 1917)
"K-K-K-Katy" (Geoffrey O'Hara, 1918)
"God Bless America" (Irving Berlin, 1918; revised 1938)
"Oh by Jingo!" (Albert Von Tilzer, 1919)
"Swanee" (George Gershwin, 1919)
"Carolina in the Morning" (Gus Kahn & Walter Donaldson, 1922)
"Juanita" (Al Sherman & Sam Coslow, 1922)
"Lovesick Blues" (Cliff Friend & Irving Mills, 1922)
"Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" (Creamer & Turner Layton, 1922)
"Yes, We Have No Bananas" (Frank Silver & Irving Cohn, 1923)
"I Cried for You" (Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown, 1923)
"Everybody Loves My Baby" (Spencer Williams, 1924)
"All Alone" (Irving Berlin, 1924)
"Sweet Georgia Brown" (Maceo Pinkard, 1925)
"Baby Face" (Benny Davis & Harry Akst, 1926)
"Lindbergh (The Eagle of the U.S.A.)" (Al Sherman & Howard Johnson, 1927)
"(Potatoes Are Cheaper, Tomatoes Are Cheaper) Now's The Time To Fall In Love" (Al Sherman & Al Lewis, 1933)
"You Gotta Be a Football Hero" (Al Sherman, Buddy Fields & Al Lewis, 1933).
JOIN HERE
Copyright © 2006-2007 Saul A. Schoenbrodt - SHOF. With thanks to B.-Alec Lancel.
|
|
|
Nov 16, 2007 10:52 AM
|
NEW BULLETIN POST!
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2007 11:46 PM
|
NEW BULLETIN POST!
|
|
|
May 1, 2007 12:56 AM
|
NEW BULLETIN POST!
|
|