Rosslyn Redux

Tag: Alfred Bryan

  • “On Lake Champlain” Singalong

    “On Lake Champlain” Singalong

    Victor's “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)
    Victor’s “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    With Christmas leftovers diminishing, Christmas tree needles succumbing to gravity, and Christmas carols beginning to sound slightly cloying, it’s starting to feel a lot like… time for a transition. Sure, New Year’s Eve will briefly wrap us in Guy Lombardo’s “Auld Lang Syne” and Bing Crosby’s “Let’s Start the New Year Right”, but then what? How about an “On Lake Champlain” singalong? It’s only two verses, and I’m able to offer some constructive coaching since my previous post.

    Let’s rewind back to my discovery of this early 20th century song.

    Care to join me for a singalong? Today I’d like to share with you the sheet music cover image for the song, “On Lake Champlain” by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble.

    […]

    So for now I’ll pause this post in the hope that the vintage color lithograph for Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble’s sheet music will miraculously move us closer to an audible version of “On Lake Champlain”. If fortune smiles upon us, I’ll update this post. (Source: “On Lake Champlain” Song by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    I have some good news for you. Today I’m ready to pass along the original sheet music, several early recordings (pops, scratches, and all), and a stripped down midi recording if you’d like to rig up your own karaoke.

    Columbia Record's “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)
    Columbia Record’s “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    Sterling Trio & Mills Brothers

    Without further ado, I invite you to hear the song as it was originally recorded. Enjoy.

    If you experiment with pitch and tempo, you might modernize this ditty by a few decades, possibly rendering it a little catchier in the process.

    In addition to the Columbia Record version above here are links to the Victor recording (Sterling Trio), the Decca recording (Mills Brothers), and the Silvertone recording (Vocal Trio; Orchestra Accompaniment).

    Silvertone's “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)
    Silvertone’s “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    MIDI Sans Vocals

    The time distorted sound of an old 78 speed LP is evocative and slightly romantic, but what if you’re ready for a “On Lake Champlain” singalong? More good news! You can download Geoff Grainger‘s midi recording of “On Lake Champlain” (part of his online repository and resource called Ditty Box Enterprise) for hours of fireside enjoyment. Of course, you might need to play around with the raw file to make replay convenient. I just slurped it into Garage Band and then output it as an MP3. Good luck.

    “On Lake Champlain” Sheet Music

    Now if you’re feeling ready to invite the neighbors over and spark off the bonfire, I encourage you to first download the sheet music from Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library so that everyone can join in the revelry. After all what fun is an “On Lake Champlain” singalong if you’re solo-ing through two verses while everyone else roasts marshmallows?

    And, once you’re good and comfortable with your new-old song, how about recording it and sending it my way?! Thanks in advance.

  • “On Lake Champlain” Song by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble

    “On Lake Champlain” Song by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble

    Care to join me for a singalong? Today I’d like to share with you the sheet music cover image for the song, “On Lake Champlain Song”, by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble. I’ve added this song to my hyperlocal music wishlist along with “Essex-on-Champlain“, a hymn composed by George Webster.

    Color lithograph of cover for sheet music of "On Lake Champlain" by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble.
    Lithograph cover for sheet music of “On Lake Champlain” song by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble.

    Call it sentimentality. Or nostalgia. Or burning curiosity. (After all, I may well be spiritually and nominally descended from Curious George.) Whatever you call it, it’s unlikely you’ve overlooked my wandering wonder. Inquisitiveness may have proved troublesome for some fabled feline (although I’m not 100% confident in this oft parroted truism about curiosity and the cat), but I’m no cat, and my wandering wonder has invested my half century with no end of good adventures.

    I hope that Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble’s “On Lake Champlain” will not prove to be an exception. After all, music (a ballad, I suspect) celebrating our magnificent Lake Champlain? Perfect!

    I was fortunate enough to stumble across this sheet music, but I’ve now misplaced it. I vaguely suspect I lent it out in the hopes of soliciting a performance or a recording. But that may be my overly optimistic imagination stepping in to assist m memory. No doubt I’ll reconnect with this artifact anon, and perhaps then I’ll have more luck transforming sheet music into audible music.

    In the mean time, I’d like to see if someone out there might be able to boost this wishlist item a bit. Let’s learn this song! Here’s a little more information to [hopefully] catalyze some sort of progress toward a listenable and eventually singalong-able version on “On Lake Champlain” by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble.

    Instrumentation: voice; piano
    City of Publication: New York
    Illustrator: L.P.N.
    DCMI Type: Still Image
    Is Part Of: 1910-1920
    Publisher: Jerome H. Remick
    (Source: Duke Libraries)

    What else do we know? It looks like “On Lake Champlain” was composed in 1916, Albert Gumble lived from 1881 to 1946, and previous collaborations with Alfred Bryan included:

    • 1908
      • “Are You Sincere?”
      • “When I Marry You”
      • “Can’t You See?”
    • 1910
      • “I’m Afraid of You”
      • “I Won’t Be Back ‘Till August”
      • “Get a Girl to Love You”
      • “Winter”
    • 1911
      • “You’ll Do the Same Thing Over Again”
    • 1912
      • “Somebody Else Will if You Don’t”
      • “When I Waltz with You”
      • “When You’re Married”
    • 1913
      • “I’m Goin’ to Stay Right Here in Town”
      • “Think of Me When I Am Near”
      • “Flow Along River Tennessee (To the Home of the Girl I Love)”
      • “You’re Never Too Old to Love” (Note: w/William Jerome)
    • 1914
      • “Down in Waterloo”
      • “I’d Like to Be on an Island with You”
    • 1915
      • “Things Are Getting Better Every Day”
    • 1916
      • “His Cute Moving Picture Machine” (Source: Ragpiano.com)

    So for now I’ll pause this post in the hope that the vintage color lithograph for Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble’s sheet music will miraculously move us closer to an audible version of “On Lake Champlain”. If fortune smiles upon us, I’ll update this post.