"Chopsticks" - who wrote it?

[mikepetty]

Most people can play “Chopsticks”, but nobody seems to know who, if anybody, wrote it. Any clues?

[BarnStormer]

Steve Allen.

By the way, you posted on the wrong forum to get a better answer. Go to General Questions.

Good luck. I have a hunch there’s more than one wrong answer awaiting you there.

[bare]

Chopin

[TubaDiva]

Moving this to General Questions.

mikepetty, please take a moment or two to look at our forum listings on the SDMB front page. Might make things more understandable for you.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

[bibliophage]

Although
“Chopsticks” seems to be of Asian origin, extensive research has
shown it to have been composed by a Benedictine monk in the
1920’s, playing on a keyboard that was having the sharps
relaquered.
source: http://www.newartistsrecords.com/2levybio.html

[Max_Torque]

Whew, finally found it:

In 1877, 16 year old Euphemia Allen, a British girl, published “Chopsticks” under the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli. Included with the sheet music were instructions telling the pianist to play the song “with both hands turned sideways, the little fingers lowest, so that the movement of the hands imitates the chopping from which this waltz gets its name.” Allen never wrote another song.

The text is from one of "Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader"s, but searching for “euphemia allen chopsticks” will produce multiple verifications.

[omni-not]

Would you settle for a Medieval Italian nun?

[sailor]

A good MIDI version with a historical explanation can be found here. (third sond down) This is an excellent site for ragtime MIDIs.

[Lamia]

Didn’t Franz Liszt help to make “Chopsticks” famous? My music scholar friend assured me that this was one of the actual facts contained in Ken Russel’s film Lisztomania (a strong contender for worst movie ever made).