Joe Mitchell Chapple (1867–1950)

Song-book with scored lyrics in four, and sometimes five, part harmony. Collected by publisher and compiler Joe Mitchell Chapple directly from the American people. They sent in their treasured "heart songs".

Has Index, and Classified Index as follows:
Class I - mix of patriotic songs of America and European derivation.
II - nautical and sea-faring songs.
III - cradle lullabye, nursery and children; including "Ten Little Niggers" and Yankee Doodle.
IV - Songs popular as Dance music
V - Negro Melodies and Minstrel Songs
VI - Sacred, revival hymns
VII - Love Songs
VIII - Opera, Oratorios
IX - Concerts, Solos, Quartets
X - College and Fraternal Songs

Treasure trove of what might be called American Folklore Classics -- an unsurprising number of which come from Europe.

Over a four-year period, Chapple and his colleagues looked at submissions from 20,000 people, often accompanied by letters (not printed here) telling how "these songs had been interwoven with the story of their own lives". The compilers chose 404 songs for this anthology.

Heart Songs tell us much about the musical taste of the American people at the turn of this century. For example, we find songs by Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, and other classical composers mixed in with popular music in the British and Irish isles -- including Clairibel, Bayly, Henry Russell and Thomas Moore.

Most of the songs were composed before 1880. Fully 25% are from the Civil War era, including composers George Root and Stephen Foster. The preference for old standards, however, did not prevent such new centennial tunes as Victor Herbert's "Toyland" (1903) and "Because You're You" (1906) from being favorites.

Interesting collection of full-page photographs of celebrated female performers kitted up in finery and costumes of the day:

Geraldine Farrar
Jenny Lind
Adelina Patti
Alice Nielsen
Mary Garden
Luisa Tetrazzini
Jessie Bartlett Davis
Emma Eames
Lillian Nordica
Johanna Gadski
Louise Homer
Maria Gay
Ernestine Schumann-Heink… (mehr)