Four Little Blackberries (Schottische)..Lawrence B. O'Connor.

[Steve Harrison]

This is one of five tunes written by O'Connor which follow a similar theme. I have arranged all of them and will post them in due course. It was only after I had written this arrangement that I came across Ossman's recording in original recordings. My arrangement is similar but it does differ in parts. The piano score was written in D/G but after some experimentation, I found that G/C worked better on the banjo. Steve.

[Joel Hooks]

Here is the Walter Jacobs arrangement:

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Joel, thanks for that, I guessed there must be another arrangement somewhere in banjo land...Steve. 

Joel Hooks said:

Here is the Walter Jacobs arrangement:

[Joel Hooks]

Walter Jacobs was fairly good about publishing banjo arrangements for a good chunk of his catalog (up until people stopped buying banjo music).  They tend to be high quality and errors/typos are usually very minimum to none. 

Most of the time (though not always) the banjo solo versions will be in the same key as the piano and other parts (various dance orchestra instruments) for them to work together. 

This would sometimes go the other way too.  I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I remember seeing examples of banjo solos that were then arranged for piano and other instruments (if memory serves, the ones I saw were by A. J. Weidt.)

Around 1908/09 Jacobs bought the Gatcomb catalog of music and begin to reissue some of the more popular pieces in C notation, cleaning them up and making some corrections with the new editions.   He is one of my favorite publishers. 

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Joel, I can see the logic regarding the choice of key in the early banjo arrangements. I've never considered it an issue as most of my arrangements are  Banjo solos and I choose the key which I find suits the banjo which is a subjective personal choice. I also like to experiment to see what is possible...Steve.

Joel Hooks said:

Walter Jacobs was fairly good about publishing banjo arrangements for a good chunk of his catalog (up until people stopped buying banjo music).  They tend to be high quality and errors/typos are usually very minimum to none. 

Most of the time (though not always) the banjo solo versions will be in the same key as the piano and other parts (various dance orchestra instruments) for them to work together. 

This would sometimes go the other way too.  I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I remember seeing examples of banjo solos that were then arranged for piano and other instruments (if memory serves, the ones I saw were by A. J. Weidt.)

Around 1908/09 Jacobs bought the Gatcomb catalog of music and begin to reissue some of the more popular pieces in C notation, cleaning them up and making some corrections with the new editions.   He is one of my favorite publishers. 

[Joel Hooks]

It is all good stuff Steve, the more the better.  We own this public domain music collectively, we should take advantage of it and do what we like with it.  Transposing to suit the banjo is good.

The whole Walter Jacobs thing was part of a system.  Even the A. J. Weidt methods were all mix and match, made to work with each other in any combination.  That is kinda cool too.