Stefanie, how did you find out about Sheet Music Singer?
Fred, before I answer your question let me begin with some background information.
As I told you a little while back, I am researching the life and career of my very distant cousin, Bertha Waltzinger (1867-1927).
She was a Madison (Wisconsin) girl. Her parents were born in Germany and immigrated to America in the 1840s. The Waltzingers, running a successful confectionary business, belonged to the pioneer families of Madison. Bertha, the youngest of eleven children, was a trained soprano. She started early as a church chorus and concert singer (even sang at the famous Carnegie Hall in 1891/1892), then for years joined several of the leading comic opera companies such as the famous “Bostonians” (Henry Clay Barnabee), the DeWolf Hopper, Jefferson de Angelis and Thos. Seabrooke opera companies. In 1901/1902 she sang the role of Dolores in the hit musical “Florodora.” With the turn of the century she entered vaudeville. She would appear alone – as one act among many others in the vaudeville shows and also with her husband, the actor and comedian George C. Boniface Jr., who was a member of a well-known theatrical family of actors, theatre managers and singers. The couple toured all America appearing in little plays with interpolated “songs of the day” such as “Bedelia,” “Big Indian Chief,” “Bright Eyes Goodbye,” ”Gee, I Wish I Had a Beau” and so on. A special feature was that Bertha would often sing the popular, modern songs in the German language – quite unique and ingenious, I’d say.
You asked how I found out about “Sheetmusic Singer.” I think I located a song on you-tube during my researches, and it was one of your recordings on your “sheetmusic singer” you-tube channel – I seem to remember it was “A Pretty Girl, A Summer Night” from the comic opera “Wang” by Woolson Morse, but my memory might fail me in this. I then subscribed to your channel but I have to admit that, as with other channels, I have only been an occasional visitor because of time limits. Only recently I noticed that you also sing songs on request, which I think is a great thing – I cannot see anyone else doing the same – and so I came up with the idea of asking you for help. From what I saw on your you-tube channel I quickly noticed your enthusiasm, seriousness and accuracy in how you put your projects into practice. Simply amazing! Your passion for what you do to delight your listeners and fulfill their requests is so evident and unmistakable.
I gave it a try and contacted you, but I was not sure if you would make things possible – I just had too many requests! However, you did!! And my collection of recorded songs grows and grows now and the gaps are getting smaller. All thanks to you, Fred!
What made you realize this would be a fit for Bertha’s songs?
First, “sheetmusic singer” offers the music I was looking for. It is music that I am not very familiar with as it is not the musical genre I usually would pay attention to.
Secondly, I think it helps me to visualize Bertha’s career and repertoire. It completes my image about her. The songs give a good example of the “zeitgeist” of the early 1900s, and your interpretations with the piano accompaniment might come closer to the “real thing” and as to how the songs were actually performed, and to how they sounded like when sung “live” (and not professionally recorded in the studios) in the vaudeville shows about one hundred years ago. At least that is my opinion since I am certainly no expert in this. I suppose that many singers back than had no specially trained voices. Bertha might have been one of the few exceptions in this regard.
Thirdly, I love to hear different renditions of a song, which means that it is interesting to listen to interpretations by a professional singer as well as an amateur singer. Incidentally, have you ever noticed how different a song sounds and how its impact varies depending on the musical arrangements (piano or orchestra accompaniment, male or female singer, operatic singer vs. pop singer or crooner, modern versions vs. old recordings etc.) it undergoes? The mixture of this does it for me, and for sure your recordings have become part of this large variety, Fred.
Is this the first time you’ve heard her songs?
Indeed, it is a first time experience in every respect. I have located and downloaded lots of sheet music, but if you cannot read music, it does not make much sense.
I did not know the melodies of the songs before you sang and recorded them on my request, and I wouldn’t have known of anybody else making this possible for me so selflessly.
Incidentally, I was particularly delighted that you recorded “Sunbeam” for me, as it was specially written for Bertha Waltzinger by the popular writers Egbert Van Alstyne and Harry Williams.
How did she manage to compete with other singers and succeed?
Difficult to say, Fred. Bertha had already become popular and well-known due to her appearances in comic opera with the leading comic opera companies of that time. Since she was a trained soprano she usually held the position of the “prima donna” of the company (in the real sense of the word, not meant in the way of being temperamental like say Maria Callas!), so when she entered vaudeville she had already made a name for herself. The fact that she and her husband George C. Boniface would often head the bill at vaudeville shows indicates that she had quite a good reputation and enjoyed huge popularity in the vaudeville business. A lot of various and extraordinary acts would appear in the vaudeville shows which would last for hours. There was all kind of entertainment, but I think the appearance of Bertha and Boniface, endowed with this special “German touch,“ simply was an act of its own so to speak; maybe something exceptional. Boniface was no trained singer but rather an actor and popular comedian, so one can only imagine how Bertha’s soprano teamed up with Boniface’s singing!
I don’t think and do not have any indication that Bertha ever had to compete with other female singers/sopranos for the public’s favour – neither in opera, nor during her vaudeville time.
What do you think sheet music means to people now?
Not sure about this, Fred. I can only speak for myself and say that I enjoy looking at the beautiful covers of old sheet music or vocal scores. Would you still find equals these days? I think today’s sheet music is kept simple in its layout and only focused on the essential – the notes. The old sheet music, on the contrary, was elaborate, almost comparable to a work of art. Old sheet music surely are collector’s items.
The price for new sheet music is $4. Incidentally, that’s what you donated per song. Do you think others would donate $4 to support the old sheet music songs they want to hear?
I hope that others appreciate your work as much as I do and make donations, no matter what amount they are willing to spend. Your engagement – and I can only imagine how much work, time and effort you put into your project – should not been taken for granted. There should be a mutual taking and giving. Of course, I understand that not everybody can afford to donate money, but I see on your “sheetmusic” singer website that people are also welcome to support you in other ways, for example, by locating sheet music, typing the lyrics, creating panels for the videos or even by singing the songs for your channel. There are so many ways to “donate.”
Fred:
Tell us more about your research!
Stefanie:
Many times Bertha and Boniface were “top of the bill.” and I understand they attained quite some fame, prominence and popularity in the vaudeville circles during the first decade of the 20th century. I’d say that they were at the peak of their vaudeville career around 1905.
To name all the well-known people that Bertha worked with or the artists who crossed her path during her career would fill a few pages. Many are forgotten today but at least I would like to mention a few who might still be remembered. The famous march king John Philip Sousa (Bertha was his very first Isabel in “El Capitan” when this comic opera premiered in 1896); the composer Reginald De Koven; Harry B. Smith, lyricist and librettist; Olive Fremstad, the famous Metropolitan Opera singer who sang with Caruso. Walter Damrosch, conductor (Carnegie Hall); Victor Herbert, the composer who heard Bertha sing at a comic opera performance. The “Boston Pops” orchestra, today still one of the most famed orchestras in the world. Chauncey Olcott, called the “Irish tenor;” Eugene Cowles, a famous basso, and Arthur Pryor, trombone virtuoso.
Bertha even became friends with the famous Australian soprano Nelly Melba, and in the late 1890s Melba advised her to go to Europe for further vocal studies. It did not happen however due to a tempting offer by the actor William DeWolf Hopper which she could not resist.
I was able to track Bertha’s career from the late 1880s up to May 1911, and then it was as if she just vanished in thin air – without any official statement of her retiring from the stage. I can only guess as to what prompted the abrupt end of her career.
After years of researching (since 2010 with some interruptions) – and this is an ongoing, probably never ending, life time project – I thought the time was right to put all the stuff together in a book. My first attempt ended up in 2014/2015 with three large volumes counting about 1800 pages altogether and mainly containing newspaper articles, reviews, adverts, photos etc. However, this was just too comprehensive and unwieldy to use it as a “giveaway” for my friends (and just too costly, too!). My next project, shortly after, was to be a compressed version of the three volumes (I have never intended any official publication!) with the idea of putting more emphasis on Bertha’s repertoire. I completed this late in 2015. The book featured a lot of arias and songs she sang and contained the lyrics, provided they were accessible to me from old sheet music, the internet in general or even booklets from CDs. All was “garnished” with newspaper stories about Bertha and her various comic opera and vaudeville engagements as well as with quotes from critics and what they had to say about Bertha in particular. However, written lyrics surely are not enough to get an overview of a singer’s career but it is mainly the vocal aspect, the composition, the melody that is significant. Since I do not know if Bertha ever did some recordings, I had to find another way to showcase her repertoire. I cannot read music so as a consequence, I had to rely on other sources. So I started looking for recordings made by other artists. I found some very old ones but also had to rely on newer recordings and modern interpretations. At times I had to stick with instrumental renditions.
Of all the recordings I had collected during the making of the book, I compiled four CDs which I included with my book in order to make it both a reading and listening experience (which means you can follow the lyrics in the book while listening to the music on my CDs at the same time). I sent my book to a few friends. Sadly, I did not get much feedback and I realized that it is quite difficult to make people excited about something you yourself are passionate about and which you want to share with them. Nevertheless, I did not get disillusioned and therefore have continued my researches and the locating of songs and appropriate recordings. Right now I am working on a second, much revised edition of my book.
My “Bertha song collection” is a mix of vocal and non-vocal versions – anything that helps me to illustrate Bertha’s musical developments (And isn’t it some development for a soprano to start with church music, art songs, operatic arias etc. and to end up with the easy going vaudeville repertoire and somewhat trivial songs like “My Irish Rosie,” “Under the Bamboo Tree,” “June, My June” or “Somebody’s Sweetheart I Want to Be?” – Bertha surely could be characterized as what we, these days, call a “cross-over artist.”
Many comic opera songs as well as the vaudeville songs were particularly difficult for me to locate (Most comic operas, apart from a few exceptions, have not survived the passage of time). As you know, I live in Germany. So many things that would be easily (or at least more easily) accessible to you, who live in America, would not be available to me. Consequently I am quite limited in my possibilities. Furthermore, researches, as you have certainly experienced yourself, cannot only be very time consuming but also very costly as many archives charge a lot for their services. You can spend a fortune to get material, that’s for sure. Apart from that, this genre of music was like a foreign world to me and without Bertha I probably would not have paid attention to this kind of popular songs (We would call them “Schlager” in Germany”). However, all things considered, I am quite proud to have gathered so many recordings, but as for the songs Bertha sang in comic opera and in vaudeville, I still had a lot of gaps to be filled. You-tube offers a wealth of material, so this, together with websites such as chroniclingamerica.loc.gov has always been my primary source for locating recordings (I often used to visit the website of halhkmusic.com of Colin M. Johnson as he offered a large collection of midi files and karaoke versions for numerous comic operas, but I noticed the other day that his website sadly expired in 2016).