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Pianist Gussie

Though known for composition, I also was a pianist. If a composer was to choose an instrument to play, it would be a piano. Playing the piano helps composers in writing a song. Piano is an easy instrument to hear chords and melodies.

We Sat Beneath the Maple on the Hill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKIXTwfB9BI

This is one of my first hits that I composed when I was 18,  listen.

Cricket on the Hearth

This is not one of my songs but actually by a dear friend of mines, James E. Stewart. He was one of my colleagues at Nelson Musical College. He was an important influence on me and passed down valuable knowledge of the craft of composition to me. He wrote other songs, one being "Jenny, the Flower of Kildare." I will never forget his teachings and how he helped me become the person and composer I am today.

Tin Pan Alley

This is a picture of Tin Pan Alley. Your probably wondering what is Tin Pan Alley. Is it a place, person or thing? Close to the end of the 19th century, a number of more important publishers opened offices on 28th street between 5th avenue and broadway. The term "Tin Pan Alley" was attributed by a writer in the newspaper named Monroe Rosenfeld. The cacophony of the many piano's being pounded in publisher's demo room's which he characterized as sounding as if hundreds of people were pounding on tin pans. Tin Pan Alley is one of America's music publishing industries.

The Fatal Wedding

The Fatal Wedding was one of my most famous plays. This was a dramatic show about a wedding where the groom was only after the bride's father's station and gold. The ending was the saddest part because the bride died at the alter, the bridegroom died the next day, the parson dropped dead in the churchyard, and the church burns down. But, thats not the end of this dramtic post, lastly everyone dies. Isn't that sad?