The Birds of Spring Early Wohlman Cover Art Sheet Music

The Birds of Spring by George L. Spaulding and Jessica Moore
Cover art: Wohlman

The Birds of Spring

George L. Spaulding, composer

Jessica Moore, lyrics

Publisher: Hinds, Hayden and Eldredge, Inc., New York, 1919

Price at time of publication: 15 cents

This blogpost offering was written by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.

It is not as curious as you might think to see an article about a children’s piano solo on a blog site dedicated to vintage and antiquarian sheet music for the reason of the cover art, which I will address in the second paragraph.  Arthur Hinds, of Hinds, Hayden and Eldredge, operated a bookstore in New York in the last part of the nineteenth century.  In 1886 Mr. Hinds hired a recent Harvard graduate named Gilbert Clifford Noble, eventually making him a partner.  

Gilbert Clifford Noble, 1893
(image source: wikipedia.org)

Gilbert Noble of Hinds and Noble bought out his partner in 1901, and thus was Barnes and Noble booksellers that today is still in business.  Obviously, though, this was not the end of Mr. Hinds’ relationship with printed matter as many publications (along with the one written about here) with his surname included will be found for sale by used and antiquarian booksellers on the internet and in brick and mortar retail stores.

 I would be interested in adding to this article further history in regard to Messrs. Hinds, Hayden and Noble, giving proper credit to the person offering information.

On the sheet music cover printed in the lower left corner in tiny letters is the name of the cover artist: Wohlman.  I will again site and refer readers to the excellent web source published by PerfessorBill Edwards (scroll down the page) for more information about Joseph and Saul Wohlman upon which I base my remarks.  The cover art on The Birds of Spring published in 1919 would have been among the earliest renderings of Saul Wohlman, perhaps done in Cuba where he lived as a conscientious objector of WWI, and mailed to the U.S. for publication.  What caught my attention and led me to purchase this particular piece of sheet music were the birds in the cover art.  Perhaps they are drawn in the style of the period, but to my eyes they look to have no feathers—naked birds, and I think them very funny.

George L. Spaulding was for the most part a self-trained musician who was known as a gifted crafter of simple music for children.  This may seem to be insignificant and certainly children are less critical of compositional maturity, yet writing less does take a certain amount of talent because there nothing extra present to cover any flaws.  The music is of the type that children would play by composers currently writing music today, though the lyrics might be a bit different.  The phrase that stuck out in my mind was Calling one another, too, Just like human beings do,…  I thought it rather silly until I thought to think as a child might, and so decided it would be logical to a person in the early elementary grades.  What is poorly constructed is the phrase Calling one another, too…but I am sure the purpose was to getting it to rhyme with …do.

Jessica Moore wrote many lyrics for George, and convenient it was since she was his wife.  George was a romantic to be sure.  Published in 1900 is a song for which he wrote the words himself--asking Jessica to marry him, Pretty Jessie Moore:

Refrain:

Pretty Jessie Moore, lives in my heart all day,

Life would seem a perfect dream if she would only say,

That she would be my wife happy then I would be,

For she is the nearest and dearest in all the world to me.

What a sweet song when you know the story behind it!  Sheet music for Pretty Jessie Moore can be found in the New York Public Librarydigital collection for purchase or download.

You can hear The Birds of Spring (MP4 format) on my YouTube channel, or listen to the MP3 version, and view and/or download the transcribed sheet music by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Mary Katherine May