Dear Arthur,
I'm most fortunate in having a signed copy of Bone's excellent work (not, alas,
addressed to me - I'm not that old!). He gives Shand's essential details as
born Hull (England) Jan 31 1868, died Nov 24 1924 Birmingham(NB the original
Brummegen). I'm quite fond of his stuff which is redolent of the late
Victorian/Edwardian period.
Bone also writes that Mme Pratten wrote to S ('in a large hand in red ink' he
reports) saying " Of course I would teach you; but I cannot teach you anything,
you are too great a genius"..
Bone is undervalued as a source: the lasting regret is that he rarely gave
detailed footnotes of sources - this wasn't his fault particularly - it simply
wasn't fashionable at the time (1914).
rgds
Martyn
Arthur Ness <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear Martyn,
Thanks for that additional bit of information. I am definitely going to get Dr.
Yates's edition from Mel Bay and find out what his music is like. There seems
to be quite a bit of sheet music by other composers and lyricists, some with
his picture on the cover, advertising that the song was sung with much success
by Ernest Shand. Most of the songs, including his own, seem to be music hall
fare: "Come, come, come and sail with me on my yacht, yacht, yacht," "At our
tango tea last week."
I didn't realize that in addition to being a music hall tenor he was a comedian
as well. He must have been tremendously popular. It is Zuth in his Handbuch
that says that Shand was an American. I wonder where he got that notion. He
knew the Bone dictionary, and I can't imagine that Bone would get his
nationality wrong, particularly since he provides a date and place of birth.
Stanley Yates has much praise for the concerto for guitar and string quartet,
which he reconstructed from the surviving guitar and piano edition. Bream is
among those who has performed the work (with piano). From the musical examples
it seems to be a formidible work. His article is in _Soundboard_ 24/3 (1998):
9-17.
Arthur
----- Original Message -----
From: Martyn Hodgson
To: Arthur Ness ; Lute Net
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 3:58 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: [LUTE]Madame Robert Sidney Pratten, Victorian guitar
virtuosa
Dear Arthur,
You might have added, by way of curiosity, that Shand was much more famous in
his day as a Music Hall comedian; I believe Bone inherited much of his
collection and he writes that Shand never used the guitar in his stage
act................
rgds
Martyn
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