British Columbia Sheet Music

 

What is sheet music?

Due to the fact that the physical characteristics of sheet music varies over time, it is difficult to define what sheet music is. A general definition of sheet music would be that it describes unbound or unattached music usually in the form of songs, piano or guitar pieces and is popular in nature. The music is printed on one or more folded sheets and measures up to 27 cm in width and 36 cm in height and may vary from one page to many pages in length. The sheet music often has illustrated covers, elaborate or simple, colored or black and white.

Why a web site on British Columbia sheet music?

There are several reasons for creating a web site on British Columbia music:

1) Sheet music has often been regarded as ephemera and has often not been been given serious attention. Due to the physical nature of the material and the vast amount of sheet music that is published, it has not been catalogued but stored in boxes or filing cabinets. This web site pays more serious attention to this sheet music with the theme of sheet music about British Columbia.
2) Upon closer examination of sheet music about British Columbia, there evolves not only a segment of music history of British Columbia, but a social and local history and popular culture through the music.
3) Information found in researching the music and composers of this music presents a part of the local and provincial music history which has been lost or forgotten. This web site collectively displays all the sheet music about British Columbia that can be found.
4) This web site gives renewed life to this music by displaying scans of the music and sound files when the music is in the public domain or permission has been granted by the copyright owner.
5) Research has been done in folk music of British Columbia notably by Phil Thomas and native music by Ida Halpern. Little research has been done in British Columbia popular music. Much of the sheet music on this site is popular music.

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Sheet Music Used in This Site

This web site will eventually consist of about 155 pieces of sheet music about British Columbia, its cities, geographical features, people and other features. There remains in existence only one copy of about one half of the 155 compositions. This will be an ongoing project and more pieces will be added once it has been determined that they are in the public domain, permission has been granted by the copyright owner, a license has been granted by the copyright board for unlocatable copyright owners, or missing and unlocatable pieces are found. As more and more people are becoming aware of this site, new pieces are appearing.

Most of this music has been composed by people whose livelihood was not in creating music. Music has been written by prominent citizens of British Columbia such as William Templeton who is responsible for building the present airport and A. S. Wootton who engineered many of Vancouver's parks and is credited for building Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. This music has also been written by prominent musicians or composers such as Bobby Gimby who wrote the very popular Ca-na-da song for Canada's Centennial. B.C. Hilliam who teamed up with Malcolm McEachern to form the team of Flotsam and Jetsam, a popular music hall team in England in the 1920s and 30s wrote a song about Vancouver. Noted Canadian author Wilson MacDonald also composed songs.

Prominent Canadian writers also wrote songs or lyrics used in this music. The poems of Pauline Johnson were used as lyrics to many of the songs on this web site. Novelist John Murray Gibbon who created the lyrics to many songs about Canada also penned lyrics for songs about British Columbia. Vancouver poet Blanche E. Holt Murison also contributed freely lyrics to some of the songs.

Most of the sheet music about British Columbia is written for medium voice and piano. There is also much music written for piano, chorus, guitar and even ukelele. Much of the music is in the form of waltzes popular in the early 1900s and other dance music such as lancers and two-steps. In the late 1940s and 1950s Canadian country and western music became popular, most of which was published by Empire Music.

Themes vary in the music on this web site. Music was written for many of the song competitions held for several of the province's or cities' anniversaries. This includes the centenary of British Columbia becoming a colony in 1858 and the province's becoming a member of Confederation in 1871. Vancouver has been celebrated for its incorporation as a city in 1886. Songs have been written about the people of the province such as the ever popular Vancouver mayor Louis D. Taylor and a royal visit in 1939 from King George VI and the Queen Mother. Although most of the music has been written about the province or cities as a whole, there are songs about places within cities such as the Wigwam Inn, Kitsilano, Butchart Gardens, Lost Lagoon and Stanley Park. There are even two songs written about the legendary Ogopogo, Canada's version of the Loch Ness monster.

The sheet music is not part of any one collection. The music comes from private collections, museums, archives and libraries throughout the province and Canada. Vancouver Public Library, Library and Archives of Canada and the British Columbia Archives hold most of the pieces in this web site. The late Henry Metke of Kamloops, and Dianne Danneffel, daughter of the late Carle Hodson who owned Empire Music also contributed several unique pieces.

The music dates from 1860 (Vancouver Island waltz) to 1991 (Grand Hotel) Most of the music was written and published in the early 1900s and 1940s and 50s. Very little music was published in the 1930s and 1960s to the present time.

It is interesting to note the keys in which this music has been written. Most songs have been written in F major, C major, G major or E flat major in that order. The following is a breakdown in percentages of the key in which the music was written.

Key Percentage
F major 27.5
C major 21
G major 16
E flat major 13
B flat major 10
D major 7
A flat major 2.5
A major 1.75

The music is searchable by title, composer, subject and lyricist. Biographcial information and other details of the piece are not searchable, but it is hoped that this will be searchable in the near future. Do to the small size of this collection, it was not deemed necessary to have use metadata software. Contentdm may be considered in the future.

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Anatomy of Each Web Page

Each web page consists of the following:

1) Copyright statement: Where permission from the copyright owner has been granted to use this piece, this notice will appear: Permission to use this music has been granted by the copyright owner for educational and archival use only. Canadian Copyright Law must be respected by users of this site. Use of this material is restricted to those activities permitted by law. Users may not make multiple copies, distribute or sell this material without permission from the copyright holder. No notice will appear for works in the public domain.
2) Status of images and sound files: The following notes will appear depending on the status of images and sound files:
  a) To view a larger version of the image, click on the image: Click on each thumbnail to view a larger version of the image. Only one image can be observed at a time. Each page from the music has been scanned except for the second page where often no music appears. Back covers have been scanned to show the presence of additional material such as advertising or other pertinent information.
  b) Images and sound files are not yet available (They will be available when copyright permission is granted): Permssion has not yet been granted to include images or sound files. This is due to the fact that the copyright owner has not yet been located or a license has not yet been granted by the Copyright Board for unlocatable copyright owners.
  c) Images and sound files are not yet available (More will be available when copyright permission is granted): Permission has been granted by the copyright owner but written permission has not yet been received. Displaying the cover has been deemed in the interest of fair dealing, or in the case of an artist who has not granted copyright to the publisher to use the artwork, this is now in the public domain.
  d)

Images and sound files will not be available: Permission from the copyright owner has not been granted to use either images or sound files.

  e) This sheet music exists, but no copy could be found: This would include sheet music which the web master is aware of having existed at one time or was once at a particualr institution and is now missing.
3) Play MIDI sound file: or Play .mp3 sound file: A console has been provided on each page where there is a sound file. QuickTime, a now widely accepted standard application for listening to sound files, is used. Most of the sound files are MIDI produced from the Finale notation and where permission has been granted, .mp3s are included. Often the .mp3s are arrangements of the original so both MIDI and .mp3s are included. The MIDI file reflects exactly how the original sheet music sounds. More .mp3s will be added to this site as recordings are found and permission has been granted from the copyright holders to use them.
4) View and print Finale notation in pdf: .Pdf files have been created from the Finale notation.
5) Biographical information: Information on the composer and background information is given when this is known. Archives, museums and libraries throught BC and Canada have been searched for this information. Information comes from newspapers, personal files, pamphlets, etc. and from the copyright owners themselves.
6) Details of the piece: A standard form for the details of this piece has been used. The form includes most of the standard details found in sheet music. Cataloguing is according to AACRII rev. ed. Authority records, both Canadian and LC, have been consulted and used for all name entries (composers and lyricists) and subjects. Birth and death dates have been added when known. Hyperlinks for headings have been provided to take one to other items under that heading.

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