Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Notes on the Music 10 - Love's Song After the Ball

[The tenth in a series of postings on the music in my show Just a Song at Twilight: The Golden Age of Vaudeville. Performances are March 26 and 27 at the Kranzberg Center in St. Louis; tickets at licketytix.com.]

Medley: Charles K. Harris: After the Ball (1892); Love's Old Sweet Song – The refrains of these two songs also insisted that they be combined. Sometimes songs make demands on performers and arrangers similar to those made on their authors by characters in novels and plays. The creation can direct the creator. I'll leave you to ponder the theological implications of that another day. "After the Ball" is often regarded as the first truly "popular" song, selling over five million copies. Harris went on to compose over 300 songs (despite the fact that he could neither read nor write music) and establish his own highly successful music publishing company.

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