Bone explains: ' Shand was known to the British public as a variety artist - a comedian - who for many years headed the bills with the stars of variety ['Burlesque' I suppose in the US - my comment], Lottie Collins, Gus Elen and Vesta Telley, at the most popular music halls,' Get Bone's book - it is eminently readable and, I believe, was republished in comparatively recent times - of course, it's not infallible........... MH
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Details pertaining to the lives of both Madame Pratten and Ernest Shand appear in Stewart Button's 1984 dissertation "The Guitar in England 1800-1924" (University of Surrey) published by Garland in 1989. Shand was the pen name of Ernest William Watson, born in Hull in 1868. He studied guitar with Madame Patten from roughly 1888 until her death in 1895. Unfortunately, Button says nothing about Shand's stage career other than to say he was "an immediate success, and was invited to appear at all the leading London theatres." Botton implies that Shand's stage career was made necessary by a lack of interest by the British in guitar music. Shand may have been inspired to the stage by his brother Sidney, who moved to Australia and "made his name as an actor." Shand was clearly a singer. Botton relates how, during World War I, he had sung a patriotic song in Nottingham "to which a Russian in the audience took offence. The following Monday morning the Russian attacked Shand in his dressing-room... and never recovered fully from the attack." (Shand died in 1924.) The Shand concerto was played by a very young Julian Bream as early as 1947. Pieces by Shand were republished in the summer 1993 and winter 1998 issues of Soundboard (Guitar Foundation of America). A reproduction of the title page of Madame Pratten's "Last Compositions of Leonard Schulz" (mentioned earlier in this thread) appears on page 42 of the fall 1997 issue. Peter Danner -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --------------------------------- To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. --
