Small World

[Tim Twiss]

Is this our man Stanwood? Observe signature on cover page.

[Trapdoor2]

Great find! I would say "signs point to Yes".

[Tim Twiss]

It's also a hint to "Mystery Tune #3".

[razyn]

I'd say yes, too. And btw as Elaine has pointed out, he played an accordeon -- normally (in that earliest period, for it) a diatonic instrument. An A minor tune would be played on a C accordeon -- but wouldn't have the G# that's present in this melody. (But this tune is recorded -- by Converse, at least -- much later than the early 1840s.) Ian Bell might have something to say on the matter.

Gumbo Chaff (under his actual name, Elias Howe) published an accordeon tutor before he published a banjo one, and I have it -- will see if the tunes in it throw in any G sharps. It might just have been finessed, e.g. by "bending," or by finding that note in a left-hand chord button -- though I'm not at all sure a C accordeon had (for instance) an E7 chord button, either.

Stanwood might have played a chromatic accordeon, but in the picture we have, his instrument doesn't look like one. He might also have owned more than one instrument -- duh.

http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/photo/ethiopian-serenaders-melodeon

[Ian Bell]

As far as I know the accordions of that era didn't have any chords on the left hand side - just an air valve. The standard 10 button diatonic accordion from about 1880 time to the present (like a cajun accordion) still has only has two "Oom pah" buttons - the root on the push and the fifth on the draw. We diatonic squeezebox box players tend to play tunes wherever we can fit 'em into the compass of the instrument (i.e change the key) or play a harmony and leave the notes we don't have to the fiddle player.

razyn said:

I'd say yes, too. And btw as Elaine has pointed out, he played an accordeon -- normally (in that earliest period, for it) a diatonic instrument. An A minor tune would be played on a C accordeon -- but wouldn't have the G# that's present in this melody. (But this tune is recorded -- by Converse, at least -- much later than the early 1840s.) Ian Bell might have something to say on the matter.

Gumbo Chaff (under his actual name, Elias Howe) published an accordeon tutor before he published a banjo one, and I have it -- will see if the tunes in it throw in any G sharps. It might just have been finessed, e.g. by "bending," or by finding that note in a left-hand chord button -- though I'm not at all sure a C accordeon had (for instance) an E7 chord button, either.

Stanwood might have played a chromatic accordeon, but in the picture we have, his instrument doesn't look like one. He might also have owned more than one instrument -- duh.

http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/photo/ethiopian-serenaders-melodeon

[Ian Bell]

A life by de galley fire
Where de coppers are boiling wild
Who would not dis life admire
It 'zactly suits dis child

I pine as I walk de street
Like a fish widout a fin
Oh get me my own caboose
Where I lay back & grin

From "Gentlemen be Seated - A Parade of the American Minstrels" by Dailey Paskman (no composer credited)
Two more verses available upon request

[Ian Bell]

That last posting with the lyrics was, of course supposed to have gone with the "mystery Tune" thread - They're all getting tied up in each other anyway!