The Anvil Chorus

Comment by Tim Twiss on July 26, 2010 at 1:20pm

Got it. Must have have SOOO loud. Awesome.

Comment by Jim Dalton on July 27, 2010 at 8:07am

Great playing, Tim -- as always. Thanks for this.

Brian -- Thanks for the photo.

The Boston performance listed below is from the Peace Jubilee concert that was organized by the famous bandleader Patrick S. Gilmore who was the most famous bandmaster before John Phillip Sousa and a great influence on him.

I recently gave a presentation on Gilmore's early career in Salem MA. My wife's forthcoming book has a chapter on Gilmore's Peace Jubilee in it,

A point of interest for us here is that in the 1850s Gilmore was a member of the minstrel ensemble Ordway's Aeolians with whom he played tambourine and cornet.

Comment by Greg Adams on July 27, 2010 at 9:18am

Very cool Jim. What was the overall instrumentation that you found with Sousa's participation with the Ordway's Aeolians?

Comment by Jim Dalton on July 27, 2010 at 10:55am

Greg -- I'm just beginning my work on Ordway's Aeolians -- they were a peripheral part of my Gilmore research earlier this year. I'm just starting to look more in depth at the group.

So, to answer your question, at this point I'm not completely clear about the full ensemble. Here's what I do know:

Gilmore (not Sousa) played the tambourine and cornet with them for a while (it's unclear how long --at this point). They had 2 violinists in the 1854-55 era Johnny Pell and W.H. Brockway later they were joined for a while by a Signor Di CDarlo (also violin)


Interestingly, they actually had three banjoists in the mid-50s -- Johnny Pell, Lon Morris and Billy Morris who all seem to have left at the same time to start their own group.

BUT --the programs in the mid-50s list banjo solos as well as duos and trios!!!

This is surely a long shot but wouldn't it be great to find a score for some of those multiple banjo pieces?

Comment by Greg Adams on July 27, 2010 at 11:10am

Jim,

Thanks for the added context (oops, I meant Gilmore, not Sousa--thanks). A full score of arranged banjo pieces for multiple banjos would be fantastic! Perhaps a cornet player might show up to AEBG III. That'd be a blast.

Comment by Ian Bell on July 27, 2010 at 11:22am

I couldn't resist sending the Anvil Chorus picture around to some other friends - I got this thoughtful analysis back from one of them.

"Did someone slip up with the gig promo? Or were there just a few invited guests. Or.. could this be the sound check? And what about the strange rig-of-the-day for the gig! The ranks seem to be made up of alternating toffs and firemen. Could the apparent toffs be orchestra members planted to make sure the firemen don’t go ding when they are not supposed to? And, I don’t see any music stands. Surely they didn’t memorise the whole thing.

What is the woman with the braids holding behind her back? Looks suspiciously like a small child being held by the neck.

The more you look , the more you see! "

Comment by david caron on February 9, 2018 at 1:03pm

So I know that this thread dates back to 2010, but I began working on this piece last night. Quite the doozy. I had to listen to Tim's amazing rendition a number of times before getting a basic gist and still a few spots where I don't really understand what it is I'm supposed to do. My feeling is that this one isn't very popular. Tims is the only banjo video that I can find online. Obviously there a quite of few of the original opera version.

Comment by Al Smitley on February 9, 2018 at 1:17pm

Tim was a mere youngster then........by the standards I now use!

Comment by Chris Prieto on February 9, 2018 at 5:03pm

This tune is quite the beast

Comment by Strumelia on February 9, 2018 at 5:40pm

My private suspicion is that Tim's probably the only person brave enough (or goofy enough?) to actually play this whole thing since the book was published in 1868.   lol

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