The Post Editor got a really cool Christmas present: a stack of old sheet music. This has led to a new video series I'm calling 'Jazz Babies Concerts'. This is number two.

Joyce Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918. He left some poems, the most popular of which was 'Trees'. For years, 'Trees' was an Arbour Day favourite. 'Arbour Day' was what they had before Earth Day.

The years between the two world wars were boom years for the sheet music industry. They didn't only feature Tin Pan Alley hits and jazz music, though. There was also high-toned, pseudo-classical stuff, suitable for showing off before Company and thrilling audiences at the Tea Room. Such was Oscar Rasbach's setting of 'Trees'.

Oscar Rasbach (1888-1975) was a bonafide serious composer. He studied with important instructors. He even went to Vienna to study, far from his native Kentucky. What did he do with all this musical erudition? He composed 'art songs' for piano solo or vocal performance with piano accompaniment. Either way, as a pianist, you knew you were in for a lot of rippled arpeggios and 'butterfly' stuff. That's the only way the punters knew they were listening to real high-toned music. You know, the sort of thing the Marx Brothers made fun of.

'Trees' was composed in 1922, and it was still a popular musical piece in the 1950s, because I remember it from early childhood. The cats aren't impressed by it at all – TJ tried to knock me off the piano bench during this recording. I was afraid you might not be, either, so I let the cats entertain you while you listen to 'Trees'.

Only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer, 'Trees'.

And cats. Don't forget 'cats' among God's top hits.

Click here for the video, or watch the embedded version in your Pliny-skin page.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

28.01.19 Front Page

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