There’s a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Girl.

What’s on the piano is going to be a regular feature of my blog and I couldn’t think of a more lovely way to start than with this piece with its beautiful deco cover. I have to admit this piece is on our piano more for its ornamental value rather than something I am currently learning and then this got me musing about old sheet music and the value of it in my life. My show Forget-Me-Not was inspired by a box of music which my Dad gave me having found it in a garage. Further songs for the show were found in a Salvation Army store in New Zealand for an absolute pittance and then Paul and I wrote the rest. To me old sheet music is real treasure in so many ways, and not only for musical reasons.

Firstly I love the feel of old sheet music and the smell of the aged ink and paper with its mustiness reminiscent of times gone by, (or it can just be a sign of bad storage which isn’t so nice!) Some copies can be so fragile it’s like holding enormous butterfly wings, and from the numerous repairs you can tell it was a much loved and cherished piece. The covers often have glorious pictures of beguiling flappers, movie stars or stout German women in breeches from the Edwardian era, so they become great reference material for costumes. Then I think about the people who used the music before me with their names proudly inscribed in ink on the covers. My imagination runs wild here with visions of old fashioned music teachers in woollen suits pounding the keys on the humble school upright! Or more romantic visions of the cosy 1950s family sing-a-longs with Dad at the piano abundantly playing and Mum and the children all rosy cheeked singing in harmony. It interests me to read their personal script notes in the score or alternative words to the ones written. One copy I have of the National anthem has had “God Save the King” changed to “God Save the Queen.” I think that’s quite sweet as it could be rather embarrassing if you were invited to sing at the local Proms and got it wrong! I wonder how the songs were used: just for pleasure and sheer joy or for performance in amateur or professional productions? Who listened?
On my treasure hunting trips I often find huge bundles of music dumped unceremoniously on the floor all marked with the same name. As I search through it is like taking a glimpse into the previous owner’s musical soul. Mmmmmm. What would someone make of my sheet music collection with its opera arias, theatre songs and cheeky cabaret numbers such as “Soprano in the Shower,” (a song Paul wrote for me to perform)? Then the title of the song I began with comes to mind. Perhaps they would conclude... “There’s a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Girl.”

Enough of this musing... I can tell these ramblings could go on forever so I think it is time I get on with using some of this sheet music!

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