I used to play ragtime piano, and still enjoy listening to it even though I don’t play much these days. Just out of curiousity, I’m wondering how the fame of composers in those times paralleled that of today’s rock, pop, or hip-hop stars. I realize that in those days, the primary means of disseminating music was not records, but rather printed scores which the purchaser had to be able to learn and play. Did that, in itself, prevent most people from having more than the most superficial interest in music?
The sheet-music cover of a 1900 Tom Turpin rag bears the note, “By the composer of the famous Bowery Buck”, which had been published a year before. How famous was famous, in this context? Would my grandfather, who lived in rural Kansas and was 10 years old in 1900, have heard of Tom Turpin and his famous “Bowery Buck”? How about the somewhat better known Scott Joplin? Did the average American eagerly wait to hear the next new Joplin tune?
I’ll venture the opinion that since the Pianola was invented in 1896, there were surely other ways to hear popular songs of the day than by playing them yourself. In fact, some of the piano rolls were by the artists themselves. I couldn’t say personally that people eagerly awaited the next Joplin tune (any more than today we eagerly drea—I mean await—the next Britney Spears tune), but the fact that Scott Joplin wrote a rag called Scott Joplin’s New Rag shows that someone, at least, was trying to hype up the market.
There were also a few venues in which to play for some occasionally well-known acts. The years after the US Civil War were, according to the website, the beginning of institutionalized entertainment in America, and it’s not surprising that some artists did, in fact, become famous worldwide.
I dunno whether any of your four bears would’ve recognized 'em, though.
Forebears. Whatever.
The composer was often listed on the sheet music for the vendor (“Say, Harry B. Smith’s Come Away in My Aeroplane sold lots of copies; I’ll bet his Miss Dolly Dollars will, too!”). Same for customers–it wasn’t so much that composers were “stars,” but if they wrote one hit, they might be relied upon for others.
Then as now, the real stars were the performers: vaudeville singers (Nora Bayes, Eddie Foy), then recording stars (Billy Murray, Ada Jones) . . . They were most often on the sheet-music covers: “As Sung with Great Success by Miss May Irwin.”