When CDs began to overtake vinyl LPs in the 1980s, many lamented the loss of album cover art, which had grown to become an integral part of the enjoyment of records.
But what few, if any, acknowledged at the time was that music fans had already experienced a similar shift when the ubiquity of recorded music led to the decline of sheet music.
A new exhibit at Villa Terrace, 2220 N. Terrace Ave., explores the art of sheet music art and design.
“The Beat Goes On!: The Art and History of Sheet Music: 1897-1957,” opens Thursday, July 31 with a reception from 5 until 8 p.m., and runs through Jan. 18.
With roughly 60 original examples of sheet music and related objects from the late 19th century into late in the 20th, the exhibition traces the changes in – and, indeed, the rich diversity of – artistic styles that once adorned sheet music in hopes of luring audiences, much like album covers and book jackets.
“I want people to think of it as more than just sheet music, but as art,” says Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, who curated this first-of-its-kind-in-Milwaukee exhibition with fellow art and cultural historian Martha Chaiklin, PhD.
Sawkins says a burlesque exhibit she curated at the Charles Allis Art Museum, which included some sheet music, sparked her interest in the subject and once she began working on this show, it became a passion and she mined numerous Milwaukee sources for examples.
“There's so many connections,” she says. “(Exhibit sponsor and music publisher) Hal Leonard is a natural connection. In 1946, we had the 100th anniversary of Milwaukee and a friend of mine had four pieces (related to that), and I was at his house for entirely different reasons, and I was just like, ‘oh my God, can you lend these?’
“Then another person I met, because I was talking about the exhibition, lent a guitar signed by Les Paul.”
The show opens with Milwaukee composer Charles K. Harris, whose “After the Ball” – reportedly inspired by a visit to a Turner Hall Ballroom dance – sold more than five million copies of sheet music in an era when phonographs (invented by Thomas Edison in 1877) weren’t yet common.
At that time, what was common was a piano in the parlor, around which families and friends would gather for musical entertainment. Thus, the popularity of sheet music.
While music is the medium, the work on display in the exhibition encompasses art and illustration and graphic design.
Considering that sheet music was printed for pretty much every genre, from Dixieland jazz to Vaudeville to blues to ballads to Sousa marches to classical works to show tunes to dance numbers and beyond, the visual diversity of sheet music should come as no surprise.
“The stylistic aspects changed through the decades,” says Villa Terrace Executive Director Alec Story. “The illustration style changes, and you can see the evolution of these characters on the front, which is really neat.”
“Decade by decade there are changes,” adds Sawkins, who points out examples of Art Nouveau, of photo-realist work, of cartoon-like art – among numerous other styles – and much later, the introduction of photography.
The exhibition is organized by themes, including the 1920s passion for eastern “Orientalism,” transportation (featuring planes, trains and automobiles), theater and even a Milwaukee section, with a focus on those examples from the city’s Centurama centennial celebration in 1946.
There are examples of the dark side of American history, too, including blackface performers and anti-Semitic songs.
“Sheet music reflects everything: our hopes, our fears, our prejudices and our joys,” says Sawkins. “It’s a unique cultural artifact that deserves serious attention, both for its musical significance and its visual storytelling.”
I found it especially interesting that there were a number of key artists who did a lot of sheet music art, much like album cover design has had its icons, like Blue Note’s Reid Miles and prog rock legend Roger Dean.
While vinyl experiences a resurgence and the appreciation of album cover art booms again, it seems less likely that sheet music – which is still produced, of course, albeit in much smaller quantities – will get a similar boost.
Thankfully, we have this show to not only remind us of its former ubiquity but also to show us how music has long intersected with commerce and visual art.
“Sheet music was big business that advertised through cover art,” says Chaiklin.
“It’s where America’s most iconic artists, performers and composers met – literally – on the same page.”
In addition to a range of related programming that includes concerts, a micro exhibition of French-themed sheet music covers is on view at the Alliance Française, 1800 E. Capitol Dr. through January.
For more on the exhibition and its programming, visit villaterrace.org.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
