Description
Theodore Presser Co., Published 1940. Sheet music, 4 pp.; 30 cm; catalog no. 27005; illustrated cover printed in red on cream, a rickshaw puller drawing a woman with a fan, with a paper lantern above.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
13
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Good condition. Splits of about half an inch at the head and foot of the fold, with a few small nicks and creasing along the edges. Previous owner's name in ink twice on the cover, in a child's hand and again in an adult one. Light pencil performance notes in the music. Toning and mild soiling throughout. A Grade II character piece in F major, one of the short picture pieces Theodore Presser published by the thousand for students a year or two into their lessons. The cover, a rickshaw puller and a woman with a fan drawn in red on cream with a hanging lantern, is a strong piece of 1940 Japonisme graphic design. "Hugh Arnold" was a pseudonym of Ada Richter (1900-1988), among the most prolific writers of children's piano material Presser ever published, active from the 1920s through the 1950s and the author of pieces such as "Caterpillar Ride," "Hippity Hoppity Hop-Toad," and "More Stunts for the Piano." Richter also published as Eileen Gail and Wilma Moore. The connection between the pen names and her own was documented by the Music Division of the Library of Congress while processing the Theodore Presser Company Archive, and Presser's own catalogue records the piece under her real name. Teaching was one of the few musical professions open to women of her generation, and a good deal of the educational music of the period was written by women working, as she did, behind a man's name. The back cover carries Presser's advertising page, "Piano Pieces for Advancing Young Pupils," with musical incipits.