St. Louis Blues
W. C. Handy
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Browse piano sheets by W. C. Handy on Zen Virtual Piano. In 1903, while waiting for a train at a station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, W. C. Handy heard a Black musician playing a guitar with a knife, singing about going Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, and Handy recalled that “it was the weirdest music I’d ever heard.” A train station and an unfamiliar sound make a scene in which one listener’s surprise became part of a musical story. William Christopher Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, on 16 November 1873, attended public schools in Alabama and, after graduating, became a school teacher and then worked in iron mills throughout the South. His first instrument was the coronet, and he advanced from lessons in a barbershop to studying classical music. At the age of twenty he organized a quartet to play the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, which attracted other musical luminaries of the time, notably the ragtime pianist Scott Joplin. A teacher, an iron-mill worker and a bandleader in one early life show a musician who came to music alongside other trades. In 1909 Handy and his band moved to Memphis, Tennessee, establishing a new home in the musical surroundings of Beale Street, where, combining his own musical style with the sounds he had heard in Clarksdale, he began shaping the music he would call “the blues” into an identifiable form he later defined as “the sound of a sinner on revival day.” In 1912 “Mr. Crump” was given new lyrics and published as “The Memphis Blues,” firmly establishing his name in the white-dominated music publishing industry. A tune that began under another title and received new lyrics shows how a song could be reworked into a published piece. Defining the blues as the sound of a sinner on revival day sets the music beside a Memphis street and a day of revival at the same time. Joining forces with partner Harry Pace, he operated Pace & Handy Music Co. on Beale Avenue from 1913 to 1918, publishing many popular tunes, including “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues” in 1914 and “Beale Street Blues” in 1916. In 1917 Handy and his orchestra began making recordings for Columbia Phonograph Company, becoming black pioneers in that field of entertainment, and in 1928 he produced an all-black program at Carnegie Hall. Recording for Columbia Phonograph Company as black pioneers in that field ties his name to the record business. In 1941 he published his autobiography, Father of the Blues, and he was honored by the United States with a postage stamp in 1969, with statues of him standing in Florence and Memphis. A publishing house, recordings with his orchestra, a concert hall program and an autobiography show a musician extending the blues through several kinds of work.
Browse piano sheets by W. C. Handy on Zen Virtual Piano.
In 1903, while waiting for a train at a station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, W. C. Handy heard a Black musician playing a guitar with a knife, singing about going Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, and Handy recalled that “it was the weirdest music I’d ever heard.” A train station and an unfamiliar sound make a scene in which one listener’s surprise became part of a musical story.
William Christopher Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, on 16 November 1873, attended public schools in Alabama and, after graduating, became a school teacher and then worked in iron mills throughout the South. His first instrument was the coronet, and he advanced from lessons in a barbershop to studying classical music. At the age of twenty he organized a quartet to play the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, which attracted other musical luminaries of the time, notably the ragtime pianist Scott Joplin. A teacher, an iron-mill worker and a bandleader in one early life show a musician who came to music alongside other trades.
In 1909 Handy and his band moved to Memphis, Tennessee, establishing a new home in the musical surroundings of Beale Street, where, combining his own musical style with the sounds he had heard in Clarksdale, he began shaping the music he would call “the blues” into an identifiable form he later defined as “the sound of a sinner on revival day.” In 1912 “Mr. Crump” was given new lyrics and published as “The Memphis Blues,” firmly establishing his name in the white-dominated music publishing industry. A tune that began under another title and received new lyrics shows how a song could be reworked into a published piece. Defining the blues as the sound of a sinner on revival day sets the music beside a Memphis street and a day of revival at the same time.
Joining forces with partner Harry Pace, he operated Pace & Handy Music Co. on Beale Avenue from 1913 to 1918, publishing many popular tunes, including “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues” in 1914 and “Beale Street Blues” in 1916. In 1917 Handy and his orchestra began making recordings for Columbia Phonograph Company, becoming black pioneers in that field of entertainment, and in 1928 he produced an all-black program at Carnegie Hall. Recording for Columbia Phonograph Company as black pioneers in that field ties his name to the record business. In 1941 he published his autobiography, Father of the Blues, and he was honored by the United States with a postage stamp in 1969, with statues of him standing in Florence and Memphis. A publishing house, recordings with his orchestra, a concert hall program and an autobiography show a musician extending the blues through several kinds of work.
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In 1903, while waiting for a train at a station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, he heard a Black musician playing a guitar with a knife and singing about going Where the Southern Crosses the Dog; Handy recalled that it was the weirdest music he had ever heard.
Many popular tunes, including “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues” in 1914 and “Beale Street Blues” in 1916. The company was run by Handy and Harry Pace on Beale Avenue from 1913 to 1918.
A song published in 1912 when “Mr. Crump” was given new lyrics, which firmly established Handy’s name in the white-dominated music publishing industry.