{"id":393,"date":"2015-03-02T22:51:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T04:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=393"},"modified":"2015-03-22T19:02:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T00:02:49","slug":"the-memphis-blues-a-controversy-of-publications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2015\/03\/02\/the-memphis-blues-a-controversy-of-publications\/","title":{"rendered":"The Memphis Blues: A Controversy of Publications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke P. Simonson<\/p>\n

C. Handy, considered to be the founder of blues,\u00a0published The Memphis Blues <\/em>in 1912. The Memphis Blues <\/em>was originally written without lyrics; however, the version included in A Treasury of the Blues:<\/em> Complete Words and Music of 67 Great Songs from Memphis Blues to the Present Day <\/em>includes lyrics, but does not disclose who wrote the lyrics. We can only assume that these lyrics were in fact written by W. C. Handy himself. Here is a recording<\/a> of the Victor Military Band playing E. V. Cupero\u2019s arrangement of The Memphis Blues <\/em>in 1914.\u00a0Cupero\u2019s arrangement accurately takes every note and rhythm from A Treasury of Blues <\/em>version publication.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Memphis<\/dt>\n
The Memphis Blues<\/em> by W. C. Handy<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Memphis<\/a>

The Memphis Blues<\/em> page 2<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Memphis<\/a>

The Memphis Blues<\/em>, page 3<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Memphis<\/a>

The Memphis Blues<\/em>, page 4<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

From listening and looking at the score, one can tell that this piece unfolds in three binary sections. The first section (which I will refer to as Section A) includes the AAB structure of the 12-bar blues. Section B (page 2) features an AABA form and from A Treasury of the Blues <\/em>lyrics it also contains the same two bars of singing and two bars of instrumental break feel (shown below). Section C (pages 3-4) does not have the same structure as the previous sections, yet still contains the instrumental fills.<\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about The Memphis Blues, <\/em>I continued to search for more recordings. I came across Morton Harvey\u2019s performance<\/a> of the work recorded 3 months after the Victor Military Band\u2019s. At first listen it sounded exactly the same, just with lyrics. Slowly I started to notice that the lyrics were not the same as The Treasury of Blue<\/em>\u2019s printed lyrics. Curiously, the lyrics and performers matched a copy of The Memphis Blues <\/em>that I found of imslp.org<\/a>. \u00a0The cover of the score (found below) claims that this piece was \u201cGeorge A. Norton\u2019s\u201d only founded on the W. C. Handy\u2019s \u201cWorld Wide \u2018Blue\u2019 Note Melody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Memphis<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Memphis<\/p>\n

However, George A. Norton\u2019s version takes out the\u00a0most crucial opening A Section (see above), only including a tiny bit of the A section and tacking it on the end of the B section. As mentioned before, the A Section is 12-bar blues form. Without this section, I hardly believe that this piece can be entitled The Memphis Blues. <\/em>Even the B section of A Treasury of the Blues <\/em>version is marred by Norton\u2019s lyrical arrangement, adding lyrics to the two bar instrumental interludes (see Norton page 2 and Handy page 3). I think it is a crude infringement on Handy\u2019s blues form, changing the piece from The Memphis Blues <\/em>to The Memphis Ragtime. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke P. Simonson C. Handy, considered to be the founder of blues,\u00a0published The Memphis Blues in 1912. The Memphis Blues was originally written without lyrics; however, the version included in A Treasury of the Blues: Complete Words and Music of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":788,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-6l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}