>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. ^M00:00:04 ^M00:00:22 >> Paul Fraunfelter: Good afternoon. I'm Paul Fraunfelter with the Music Division. And I call this presentation, World War One Sheet Music at the Library of Congress, America's War as Viewed by Publishers and the Public. So, 100 years ago today, Congress was across the street debating President Wilson's war resolution. And very soon, songs like the hit, "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier," and the "Neutrality Rag," would no longer be in the national interest. During the period of neutrality, anger at Germany and sympathy towards France and Britain, had steadily increased. Yet, when the War Declaration came, there was little public interest or enthusiasm to actively join in with what was then called the European War. In order to gain support for the war effort and help spread the national message, President Wilson established the Committee on Public Information. The CPI was the official government propaganda instrument. And very quickly, their activities became widespread and pervasive in American life. Only around for two years, CPI quickly expanded from propaganda. Got into censorship. Attempted to control all war news that reached the public. And even engaged in public attacks on groups or individuals that it felt were less than 100% American. Today, the CPI is usually remembered for two things. The posters it commissioned and the work of its film unit. The picture you see up here, the image, is -- that covers both basis. This is a poster about one of their movies there, one of their two feature films that they had. It's also an example of what you can find in the prints and photographs division, online World War One posters. There's a lot of cool stuff there. I love going there. But for the ability to reach a mass audience, in a time before mass communications, probably their most effective initiative was the Speaker series. CPI sponsored programs that featured patriotic, often inflammatory or incendiary speeches, given by Four Minute Men. So called for the length of these addresses. And this really was a saturation campaign. These meetings kind of took like a town hall sort of format. Any place they could get a room, you know, schools, churches, maybe libraries. Every village, every town, any place they could get in. By the end of the war, over 750,000 of these speeches had been given nationwide. The programs also finished -- finished, well, maybe they finished with it, maybe not. But they also included patriotic group singing. Similarly called Four Minute Singing. And this is also another CPI poster. And note the blank space at the bottom, where local printers could put venue and date and time information for upcoming shows. So, with the war, now foremost in the public's mind, the songwriters of New York Cities, Tin Pan Alley, the music publishing district, now began producing work reflective of the new reality. In 1917, the Vaudeville Variety Stage, was the nation's chief source of public entertainment. And the cinema, of course, was still silent. It had not overtaken Vaudeville yet. Recording was important, but at that time, considered a secondary market. And of course, broadcast radio was several years in the future. The publishers promoted their songs to the Vaudeville performers or their agents, to get them to perform the songs. Present them to the public on the Vaudeville circuit. Hopefully make hits, which would drive demand for the sheet music. Sheet music sales was the publishers chief source of income, at that time. And this was still, you know, very much the era of the piano in the parlor and making your own music at home. In 2013, the music division, catalogued and scanned about 14,000 pieces of World War One classified sheet music. As you can see in the breakdown, about 80% of it's printed. About 20% of it is manuscript. From the printed, there's a 60, 40 split between for profit commercial and self-published and amateur vanity press. The manuscripts are essentially all copyright deposits. But within that, it's kind of a mix bag of what they may have been when they came in. There are pieces that are obviously the work of an experienced musician or a copyist. There's some really rough stuff that's obviously amateur work. And there's even more gray area in-between. Where it's hard to determine where that may have come from. There's also a good chunk of non-print manuscript vanity press pieces. But I'd say probably about 35 to 40% of it. We have well over 1,2000 pieces in there. And there are also manuscript drafts that were sent in for copyright deposit, prior to subsequent publication. If you dig around in the website long enough and you look around, you'll realize that there are many songs that we have both the copyright deposit manuscript and the first printed edition. So, overall, what we have in the collection, is a collection that was created by publishers and the public. I want to talk a little bit about the Vanity Press. The column that you see here, is a detail from the sheet music websites display list. And the top nine entries, the most prolific producers of World War One songs, are all either Vanity Press song writers or publishers. There's a little intersection in the numbers here. You see Leo Friedman and North American Music are very close. Well, Leo Friedman was associated with North American Music. Similarly, Hector Richard here, was associated with Legters. Also, not all these song writers worked exclusively for the Vanity Press. Or at least some point of the careers, they did freelance or outside work. Leo Friedman had a hit. He wrote the music for "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." And George Graff, down here, wrote the music for "When Irish Eyes are Smiling." The basic agreement was that someone with a poem, usually an original poem, that they wanted set to music, to make a song of. Would contact a Vanity Press and pay them to have their song writer or pulper, as they were known, to set the song to music. And the Vanity Press would take care of copyright deposit. Beyond that, there are two different business models found in the collection. The first is that the client would then choose from a selection of standard cover illustrations. Here you see four. There were about 16 in the collection that you see over and over again. With just the title and the names changed. The agreed upon issue would then be printed out on cheap stock in a standard piano vocal arrangement. Two versus and a chorus, is what the client usually got. Then the whole thing was delivered to the client, to distribute or market, if they wished. However, they wanted to do that. The other model, according to the account of someone who had worked for one of these people as a copyist during the depression, was that the Vanity Press sold the client on the dream of fame and fortune. ^M00:10:01 By promising to promote their song to a large commercial publishing house. You know, hopefully get it on the Vaudeville circuit and become a hit and fame and fortune. This is a piece by Raymond Brown. And he was the most prolific pulper in this business model. We have over 740 of his pieces. And I find his stuff a little unusual because he would always break his songs down into components. He would identify the introduction, the verse, the chorus. And then put the client's lyrics pasted directly onto the main script sheet. Notice that it is just the melody. There's no harmonization. There's no arrangement. This is also kind of uncharacteristic for one of Brown's pieces because of its length. He's got a 24-bar verse and a 16-bar chorus. Some of his pieces in there are as simple as a four-bar intro, an eight-bar verse and an eight-bar chorus. Other pulpers that worked in this business model, delivered something that looked a lot like Brown's. But they would write the verse chorus sequence out in something that closely resembles a modern lead sheet. The finished product was three copies. The client, of course, would get one. The Vanity Press would keep one, supposedly to show to publishers. And the Library of Congress got the third. And the copyist, I mentioned before, said in her time with the Vanity Press, she had seen her boss attempt to sell one piece of music to a publishing house. So, now let's get to the meat and potatoes of the collection. And look at some of the recurring themes and subjects. Why were we at war? Well, there were a whole lot of contributing factors. But of course, the straw that broke the camel's back was Germanies declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare. The U-boat songs in the collection, typically do not depict U-boats as menaces or high seas killers. But more like nuisances, which we'll quickly dispense of. We'll sweep them from the seas. And in many of these songs, there is a demeaning superior attitude shown towards the enemy. And that attitude -- that's why I put this first, carries over throughout the collection. President Wilson's famous declaration, "The world must be made safe for democracy." Actually, got him some heat in Congress for inserting ideology into the war resolution. But it resounded with the public. There are songs about democracy, the defense of democracy. The triumph of democracy and the doom of the militaristic German autocracy. And I said this resounded with the public, as the majority of these kinds of songs all come from the Vanity Press and the manuscripts deposits. The enemy was often characterized or embodied in Kaiser Wilhelm. He's shown as the chief provocateur and a villain of the war. Old Satan gets the [inaudible], as a very typically cover treatment of Wilhelm. He's shown several times with the devil or with other demons. But he can be chased by goats. He can be tomahawked by a gigantic American Indian. He can be thrown in a prison van by a laughing John Bull and Uncle Sam. And those variations go on. The Bleeding Belgium Campaign, was an appeal of sympathy that brought Britain its first wave of volunteers in 1914. And though there a few Belgium songs in the collection, prior to 1917, the amount of songs about German atrocities in Belgium that appear in 1917, suggests that when we entered the war, we too took up the Bleeding Belgium campaign. If there's one thing the common person, just about everybody knows about World War One in America, is that the invocation of the Great Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, was a powerful, popular, emotional appeal at that time. And there are, indeed, songs reminding the listener that it was now Lafayette's homeland that was facing its dark hour. And we had an old debt to repay. ^M00:15:34 ^M00:15:39 When we entered the war, literally, we did not have a plan. Certainly, we knew that our money and our Navy would be involved. But as to if we were going to commit troops and what level of that commitment would be, was still unknown. And certainly, no one in Washington here, in April,1917, thought we were going to send troops to Europe and rescue the allies. However, there's always a however. The day after war was declared, George M. Cohan, who was already a popular songwriter and Broadway producer, wrote, "Over There." And three weeks later, when he presented it to the public, it was an instant hit. And was one of the driving forces of creating the idea of the Grand Crusade. In 1909, the U.S. became the world's largest economy. In 1914, a lending nation. And entering the war, solidified America's position as a world power. Cover illustrations of songs about the alliance, often relay a message of equality with the traditional powers, France and Britain. Usually you see the three flags together. The U.S. flag is always front and center. Sometimes you'll see Pershing and his counterparts or even Wilson and his counterparts. This is also the first time we sent large numbers of troops overseas. And there's a body of mostly self-deprecating songs about young American's experiences with French culture and French language and French women. The most enduring of these songs, actually comes from the post-war period. And the name of that song is? ^M00:17:49 [ Inaudible Answers ] ^M00:17:52 "How Ya Gonna Keep'em Down on The Farm, After They've Seen Paree?" Exactly. But we did not come empty handed. We brought with us, arguably, the greatest cultural export of the twentieth century and jazz. And there are, indeed, early jazz songs in the collection. And for those inclined to want to go looking for them, I think I need to offer some sort of kind of a caveat. You know, today, we have well, clearly defined genres. Back then, not so much. And when you're working in a collection and you see the terms ragtime, blues and jazz, keep in mind that they used those terms pretty interchangeably. There are also songs about jazz. And these normally follow a narrative of the young Americans on their way in Europe. And they're eagerly anticipating what the European reception to jazz is going to be. The mantra or motto of the day, was 100% American. And that came, not from the CPI, but from a still active and very vocal former President Theodore Roosevelt, during the run up to the war. Songs of general appeal, have names like, "We're All Comrades Now." "We're All True Americans." "We're All in the Same Boat Now." And "There's no Hyphen in My Heart." There are songs by, about or directed to, most every ethnic group present in the country, at the time. But the numbers favor three groups in particular. For African Americans, this was a time of flux and change. The Great Migration from the rural south to the industrial north, was underway. ^M00:20:03 The NAACP had been founded. And the Modern Civil Rights Movement, is rooted in as time. African American song writers were active in Tin Pan Alley. African Americans, of course, were the driving force in jazz. African Americans now had influence in mainstream American culture. Irish Americans, then, as now, were one of the two largest ethnic groups present in the country. And historically, their participation in the American military has been critical. But at that time, there was unrest in Ireland. And a degree of anti-British sentiment in the Irish American communities here, that had to be addressed. Italian Americans were the newcomers. Between 1880 and 1920, about four million Italians immigrated to the U.S. Most in the decade before the war. And the songs of serious or earnest appeal to Italian Americans, differ in that most are not calls for volunteers. But rather, songs in support of the European Italian allies. And what of my people? The other of the two largest ethnic groups? Well, you'll find a lot of German names in the collection. They're all song writers and publishers. I found two songs, manuscript deposits, about patriotic German Americans. We must remember that ethnic comedy was a staple component of the Vaudeville stage. And for every one heartfelt earnest appeal made to any particular ethnic group, there are multiple songs directed to that same ethnic group that mock appearance, accents and customs. Ironically, even the stereotype stuff is couched in terms to serve unity and the war effort. The Civil War had been over for a scant 50 years. And the grandsons of the Confederacy, were expected to fight and die for the Federal Government. Appeals had to be made to the still disenfranchised south. There are Civil War reunion songs, "Boys of the Blue and the Gray," "Sons of the Blue and the Gray." "Dixie Land" and "Yankee Doodle Land," are one in the same today. There are also songs about or directed to the south. All you really need to do is get to the site. And in the search box, type in the word Dixie and see what you get. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the collection though, is given to the traditional wartime topics, patriotism, home and hearth and women. The patriotic stuff is pretty much what you would expect, my homeland, my nation, my flag, my president. But there are some topics in there that are historically important or has a -- I'll keep it at that. Uncle Sam, the characterization or the personification of the U.S. Government, had been around since the early nineteenth century. But his appearances were sporadic. His physical appearance could change. His name could be different. It was not until here, in World War One, that the tall, goateed man in the red, white and blue suit, became universal. And if this collection has a star, it's Uncle Sam. And in titles, cover illustrations, song content, lyrics, he's everywhere. The use of the service flag is a tradition that began in World War One and continues to this day. When a family member in the military is deployed, the family is issued a small flag or banner, bearing a blue star for that service member. Here you see one in this window here. Particularly during World War Two, it was not uncommon to see flags with two, three, four stars, for however many that household were serving. If the member is killed in action, the blue star is replaced by a gold star. And there's songs about service flags, blue stars, gold stars. And when the blue star turns to gold. And these songs seem to be evenly divided between the commercial and the amateur song writers. At that time, the traditional roles of women still prevailed. We have wives, we have patient, sympathetic sweethearts. And first and foremost, centrally and most important, there are mothers. In cover illustrations, it's not unusual to find female architypes. You know, often with the long clarion horn or the sword, rallying the boys, calling to the boys. Leading to the boys. There's Columbia, there's liberty. There are generic noble looking women in Greek and Roman dress. And of course, as we were going to France, Joan of Arc makes her appearances. When it comes to women's war work, there's a slight schism between the commercial and the amateur pieces. The commercial pieces are almost solely given to two occupations. The nurse, in particular, the Red Cross nurse, as opposed to the military nurses. And the Salvation Army girls, who dispense coffee and donuts and cakes, near the front. Again, cover illustrations. Sometimes you can see women in other war work, carrying hose or spades or maybe driving a truck or maybe working in a factory. But the songs themselves, don't go into any great detail about this work. The amateur songs, also skew heavily towards nurses and Salvation Army girls. But here you can find songs about particular women's wartime occupations. Like, the operation of the Women's Land Army, that replaced agricultural workers gone to war. And the conductorettes that worked on the railroads. How does the collections treatment of these themes, compare with the CPI's agenda? Overall, content of the commercially published pieces, is consistent with the national message of the time. Public reception, if we can judge it from the amateur pieces, was positive. As the vast majority of these things mime what Tin Pan Alley was producing. That's not to say that everything fits into a nice big mainstream package. Outside the larger better represented themes, there are smaller groups or individual songs. Which are also reflective of American society at the time. And an ethnic group, I hadn't mentioned earlier, was Eastern and Central Europeans who came here in the millions, at the same time the Italians came. We can find Polish Freedom Fighter songs, calling for Polish Americans to go back to the homeland and free it from the Russians. And the Austrians and the Germans. There are Zionist songs. There are anti-Bolshevist songs. Some of them calling for intervention in the Russian Revolution. The largest group of a war related special interest songs, are songs in support of Wilson's Internationalists Agenda, i.e.; the Foundation of the League of Nations. But you know, you can also find the other camp. You can find more nationalistic songs that would appeal to people like the National Security League and Teddy Roosevelt's followers. The U.S. did not impose food rationing, during World War One. But a Federal Agency, was established that encourage people to economize on food. And looked into things like better food distribution. There is, to me, a surprising amount of songs devoted to this initiative. And to the food administrations rising political star, Herbert Hoover. There are, of course, war bond songs. ^M00:30:02 And a curious little group of amateur songs about Pershing's, 1916 Mexican exertion or incursion. That's the one where he failed to capture or kill Pancho Villa. And these songs all promise that Black Jack is coming home. And he's going to take care of unfinished business down there. And it seems that the -- no sooner was the ink dry on the armistice, that some of the disillusionment and cynicism that post-war period was known for, starts creeping into some of the song lyrics. Probably the easiest place to spot them is songs about Veterans returning home, looking for work, often unsuccessfully. There's even one song called, "Why Shouldn't They Be Good Enough Now." Which is about women war workers resisting pressure to return to domesticity, to make room for the males. Another post-war hot topic was the impending ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, the Prohibition Amendment. And based on the songs, I don't know how that thing ever got ratified. It was not popular. There are some pro-temperance songs in there, but they are a decided minority. And then we get to my favorites, which is the occasional piece that displays a personal view or an opinion or may even relate an experience. Something I noticed, while working with the collection, was that socially conscious songs, like the one I just mentioned. And are they equal, in the eyes of the law? All are self-published. I'll let y'all draw your own conclusions about that. There is a manuscript called "What Price Has Pershing Paid for Dead Man's Hill?" Which takes issue with casualties sustained during part of the [inaudible] campaign. There is another manuscript called "Heaven." Which was written for the composer's sister, who was nurse that died during the war, that was killed during the war, actually. And it's the only mention I found in the collection that young women who served near the front, could also be casualties. And then we have, "A Soldiers Wife," which is basically a hum and hearth song. Which tells the tale of soldier who dutifully sends home his pay, only to find that his wife had spent it all on another man. And this is personal favorite of mine, as it's local. It's by Mrs. Carrie Baker of Martinsburg, West Virginia. And one can only speculate on what Mrs. Baker's inspiration for this song was. So, there you have it. That's the grand tour, the big overview. I pointed out some of the highlights. But again, with almost 14,000 pieces up online, there is just so much to explore. A whole lot to discover in that collection. The war notwithstanding, this was an active and exciting time in American music. I mentioned the development and the rise of jazz. People like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, the teenage George Gershwin, were young, developing. American musical theatre was soon going to explode, full flower. It's probably also the high-water mark of the Vaudeville variety stage, before the talkies and radio took over. Now, to be honest, I have seen online, from some other collections, a handful of pieces that we don't have in this collection. But that said, this is still the largest. And with the inclusion of the Vanity Press and manuscripts, most comprehensive collection of World War One American sheet music in existence. Again, with the Vanity Press and manuscript stuff, I'm speculating that 95% of that stuff has to be unique. Has to be the only copies left in existence. There just can't be too many copies of great grandma's song, still floating around out there. And finally, sheet music may not automatically come to mind, when looking for historic source material. But remember that these songs were written by the people that were experiencing these things, at the time they were experiencing them. And getting familiar with this collection, may help to develop a better understanding of the collective consciousness of wartime America. Thank you. ^M00:36:01 [ Applause ] ^M00:36:08 And now we're -- David, right over there. >> If you have questions, please wait for the microphone. >> Sorry. >> Going back to your point about over there and its huge influence on the American attitude. Did Cohan have that objective in mind? Or was it just dumb luck? Was there a relationship between the author and --? >> Paul Fraunfelter: Cohan was a known flag waver. I mean, from his previous work, you know, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy." And he wrote, "She's a Grand Old Flag," prior to this. So, he was patriotic, in his musicals, from the start. You know, was a perfect storm sort of situation. ^M00:36:52 ^M00:37:00 >> Hi. Can you tell my why so many people published through Vanity Press and just didn't do the copyright themselves? I mean, I'm looking at the titles. And the titles seem to me, to be the same as the copyrighted music. >> Paul Fraunfelter: Yeah, yeah. A lot of -- a lot of just -- a lot of people just sent it in. But well, for the one thing, the printed Vanity Press, which is, you know, the biggest chunk of it, I mean, your song is printed out. It has a publisher's name on the bottom. It has a patriotic cover on the front. Plus, Vanity Presses advertised and the Library of Congress didn't. >> Following up, I'm still a little confused. So, is Vanity Press the only -- so, what you're saying is that there's a group of publishers, at the time, who will get a poetry, set it to music, print it. And then they promise their clients that they will sell it to other publishers? >> Paul Fraunfelter: No, no. >> I'm really sorry. >> Paul Fraunfelter: Yeah. There were two different business models. >> Okay. >> Paul Fraunfelter: One would print it and then deliver it to the client and say, good luck with that. Have fun. The other would take the client's money, have their pulper put it to music. >> Right, okay. >> Paul Fraunfelter: And then they send them a manuscript copy. Now, granted, the copy that we say there, was in a copyist hand. So, most of that stuff is very legible. But yeah, the second model, the client just got a manuscript copy of their music. And the promise of, you know, you're going to be famous, once I got somebody to put it on Vaudeville. >> And there were a lot of different companies who did that business model, is what you're saying. So, the term Vanity Press, really encompasses a number of companies. >> Paul Fraunfelter: An inclusive term, yeah. >> Okay, okay. That was my confusion. >> Paul Fraunfelter: There were a lot of people that practiced in both business models. >> I see, okay. I apologize. >> Paul Fraunfelter: No problem. >> I wasn't totally clear on that. Okay. ^M00:39:13 ^M00:39:21 >> Since so much of this industry was concentrated on one street in Manhattan, how much does all of this -- what was sent to Vaudevillians, what was actually recorded or what was just shipped back to the writer? How much reflects what Ted Cruz would call, New York values? >> Paul Fraunfelter: New York values. I see -- I've seen in the collection, a lot of, you know, old New York Broadway type of stuff in there, okay? I don't know what -- I'm sorry, but I don't pay a whole lot of attention to what Ted Cruz says. ^M00:40:06 That's me. That's not the Library of Congress. That's just me. So, I don't know what he was implying with that remark. ^M00:40:14 [ Inaudible Question ] ^M00:40:26 ^M00:40:32 I don't know. You know, I really wasn't looking for that. I mean, you do get -- you do get a pretty good mix of what America was at that time. Everybody kind of in here gets a little exposure, a little chance. And you know, the lower Eastside Jewish experience. You know, the have the, what's it called, the Yiddish Army Blues. You get songs like that. I mean, it's like, you know, everybody has a little piece of the pie here. It's not, you know, strictly white bread. I mean, you have to figure, too, the published stuff here, was more to entertain. It was to entertain and inspire. So, the printed stuff was basically what you see on TV and cable today, their version of that. So, you know, there is, you know, a certain view of America. But as far as trying to put like that type of message in there, I didn't see it. ^M00:41:53 ^M00:41:58 >> Had a similar amount of sheet music been generated during the Spanish American War on public sentiments for that? >> Paul Fraunfelter: I don't know how many Spanish American War pieces there are, to be honest. But no, this is the biggest chunk. Civil War, north and south combined, are less than 5,000 pieces. And that's the next biggest chunk of war music we have. >> Did the recorded music industry also sell sheet music to go along with their hits? Or were those done independently? >> Paul Fraunfelter: That was done independently. They bought sheet music from the publishers. And in fact, created libraries. We have a collection here that we think came from the old Victor Library or the Edison Library, Edison sheet music. So, yeah, they had -- recording companies and later radio symphony orchestras and radio orchestras, they had their own music libraries. And that was all sheet music that they published or scores, orchestrated scores, in parts they got from the publishers. >> I was wondering, I sensed that there might be a tension between some of the songs that were emphasizing unity. You know, "There's no Hyphen in My Heart." >> Paul Fraunfelter: Right. >> And songs on the other hand that suggested, not necessarily divided loyalties, but maybe multiple loyalties or investments. As when you talked about the Polish Freedom Fighters calling for action, back in Poland, against say, Russia or Austria. And so, I was curious about that, to what extent do some of the immigrant groups, as well as groups that by then, of course, are deeply rooted in the United States, such as African Americans. To what extent do we see multiple messaging or multiple loyalties expressed in these songs? So, that people are actually speaking of fights on different fronts? >> Paul Fraunfelter: I know I'm the poster boy for Vanity Press and the manuscript deposits. And there is a lot of bad poetry in there. But that is really the value that amateur stuff serves. Because yeah, the -- as I just said, the published stuff, the mainstream stuff, was mainstream. It was, you know, general consumption stuff. And you do get into the amateur stuff. And you can see stuff that is, you know, from someone else's point of view. Now, again, most people, like, pretty much ate it up. The CPI was pretty effective in selling the war to us. Because the -- it's pretty consistent during the war of, like, you know, this is my experience. But you know, being a Paul, you know, yeah, I want to go over there and fight. But I want to get, you know, the damn Russians out. And those Germans want to take over and I don't want to let that happen either, you know. But it's, like, the end of the war, where you start seeing what we call today dissention. Where, as I said, the guy goes, like, you know, I don't think Pershing should have, like, you know, marched straight into those guns. ^M00:45:52 ^M00:46:02 >> Thanks. A question about the publishers. The published manuscript sounds like, actually, I mean, I'm speculating, they actually have the pulse on what the country wants. Because they're publishing things that they think will sell. As far as the Vanity publishing, where would somebody like Carrie Baker in Martinsburg, learn about a Vanity Press? Where were they advertising? And how were people from all over the country sending something into New York to get out their songs? >> Paul Fraunfelter: They used to advertise in newspapers and periodicals. You know, have your song set to music. But I think it lost. I think it flew away [brief laughter]. I'm sorry. >> Do you have any -- I know these are copyrights, so these are everything that was submitted. Do you have any idea what actually sold? And what sort of numbers are we talking about for the sheet music? >> Paul Fraunfelter: No, I don't. But it's easy enough to find out. Because we have the trade magazines. Just go over to the performing arts reading room and look it up. And I have friends that will help you do that [brief laughter]. Yeah. But a lot of the recognizable hits are in here. You know, of course, over there, Irving Berlin's, you know, "How I Hate to Wake Up in the Morning." Which supposedly was written about his experience as a private in the army. And so, my grandfather's favorite song, "K-K-K-Katy." He used to sing that. He was a World War One vet. So, yeah, there's quite a bit of it is popular. And there's some titles I recognized when I went through it. But even more, I didn't. And again, it's just like anything else it -- what was popular, is what the public bought. And they did their market research. And the whole -- I really over simplified Tin Pan Alley's promotion system. I mean, the whole thing about how many pieces of sheet music you print at the first pass. And they used to have kind of like, I forget what they called them, promotional or like fair copies about something they were thinking about printing. But they would just print like about 1,000 pages first and you know, distribute them. So, I mean, they were market savvy. Even though it was 100 years ago, they were market savvy. And you're right, I mean, they had figures and they were keeping track of what kind of stuff was selling. ^M00:48:59 ^M00:49:03 >> Is there any anti-war music at all? Is there a Pete Seegre of that generation, a Phil Ochs? Or would they not be published? How about in the Vanity Press, do you see any, we shouldn't be in this fight, at all? >> Paul Fraunfelter: No, just, you know, just some of the neutrality stuff in there. Just some neutrality stuff in there. Again, at the end of the war, you start seeing people second think sometimes. But that all comes from the Vanity Press, from the copyright deposits. I've seen nothing in the commercially published pieces. But then again, like I pointed out, the potentially controversial songs, were all self-published. So, the, you know, Pete Seegre got a label here. ^M00:50:00 He never would have back then. But also, you know, we have what we have, when it comes to the commercial stuff. Apparently and I don't know the provenance of the collection, but apparently, it was put together sometime after the war, it was assembled. Because there are dates from like the twenties. There are stamps like from private collections. I found a Korean war song mixed up with them. So, the commercial stuff is, we have what we have. But the copyright deposits, wouldn't lie. And I went looking for that and I didn't find it. But then again, I was trying to get 14,000 pieces of music up online. So, you know, go ahead, it's all up there. Do us a service and find it, the Pete Seegre of 1917. ^M00:51:04 ^M00:51:07 >> I think we have time for one more question if there is. ^M00:51:09 ^M00:51:15 >> All right, well, thank you Paul. We really appreciate it. >>Paul Fraunfelter: Yeah. ^M00:51:19 [ Applause ] ^M00:51:24 >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov. ^E00:51:31