What would it be like to dive into all the sheet music songs? We’ve begun this for the year 1922. Getting off the beaten path you find many different kinds of songs: art songs, sacred songs, novelty songs, and lesser known popular song. Since sheet music publishing is a local phenomenon, you find songs published in many places. Local collectors donate to their local university.
You also get a clearer idea of the songwriters and composer’s careers. You see who was active, who was not, and who was prolific at that time. In 1922 we find songs by Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Jimmy Durante, Clarence Williams, etc. Now you take the time to explore a composer deeply. You learn about whole shows.
The styles of covers and arranging change over time. In a deep look you see the character of those elements at that time. The Patter section was added by 1922. Four-part choruses had gone away. Racial subjects were less exaggerated. While it is not practical to do this for every year, it’s well worth the time and effort to go deep into one year. You can already hear 400 of these songs on our YouTube channel, also called Sheet Music Singer.
