HANDY William Christopher (1873-1958).

Lot 218
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1500 - 2000 EUR
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Result : 1 100EUR
HANDY William Christopher (1873-1958).
P.S. "W.C. Handy", New York May 20, 1922; 1 page in-4 typewritten on blue letterhead Handy Bros Music Co, Inc. Successors to Pace & Handy Music Co., Inc. in English; in a midnight blue half-maroquin slipcase. Contract for the recording of St. Louis Blues. Contract between Handy Brothers Music Co. as publisher, and the Pace Phonograph Corporation. Handy authorizes Pace Phonograph Corporation, as producer of St. Louis Blues, to mechanically record and reproduce his composition of St. Louis Blues, which will be marketed at a royalty rate of 2 cents per record. Handy signed the document as secretary-treasurer of his publishing company Handy Brothers Music. In his autobiography, W.C. Handy, the father of the blues, tells how he composed St. Louis Blues: "While sleeping on the cobblestones in St. Louis, I heard some street guitarists playing a tune called East St. Louis. The tune had many one-liners that they sang all night. I walked all the way across town and didn't even have a dime to my name. The impression left on me by this phrase and the tone used by these singers certainly contributed a lot to my composition of St Louis Blues, but I want to make it clear that in creating my blues tunes, I am only inspired by a few bars, phrases, shouts or styles that I have heard. I don't reproduce them faithfully." In 1913, W.C. Handy and Harry H. Pace joined forces to form the Pace and Handy Music Corporation, a recording company located in Memphis, Tennessee, the birthplace of the blues. In 1918, the company moved to New York City, where Handy composed new blues songs, held auditions for new talent, and ran the company. Because it published only blues, the African-American songs of the American South, Pace and Handy Music became known as a producer of African-American music. Enclosed are: - a contract signed by Harry Pace and countersigned by Handy to authorize the production of copies of Shake it and Break it; - 3 partially printed certificates of compliance issued by Pace Phonograph Corporation and its Black Swan label with details of 23 titles produced in 1922, all signed by Harry Pace; - a typed letter from Pace Phonograph Corporation, May 1922, requesting that Handy Bros. Music to send them the contracts for St Louis Blues and Yellow Dog Blues; - 3 typed letters from Pace Phonograph Corporation to Handy Brothers Music Co in 1921 concerning I like you because you have such loving ways, Bring back the joyce and Why did you make a plaything of me?...
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