Alfred Cammeyer's Nom De Plumes?

[Joel Hooks]

Was there ever a list of these published?  I am presuming that any music published in the Banjo World or by Cammyer under a name that I have never read otherwise is likely Cammeyer, is this a safe bet?

Here is an example, notice that the name is kinda a pun.

https://archive.org/details/frogs-dance-s-m-lander-cammeyer

It is a great piece, but be careful, I wore though my fingertip practicing this too much. 

[Jody Stecher]

I like the piece.

It does not remind me of the compositional style of Cammeyer.  Perhaps that is why he used a pseudonym. If he did.

I'm looking for a pun in S.M. Lander and not finding it.  Or is the pun-ish-ness in the title, suggested by the French subtitle?The French are being Pun-ish-ed by being called Frogs?  Or what?

One can slide on a string almost endlessly with no abrasion or damage is by combining two things. 

1) the string is pushed to the fingerboard when the starting note is struck. Then the pressure is released but the contact between finger and string remains. The slide is made lightly along the surface of the string with no contact with the fingerboard. 

2) In addition the flat part of the first joint of the sliding finger can be used instead of the tip. There is more padding there.

[Joel Hooks]

Salamander 

[Joel Hooks]

Vanity plates are cheap in NH so my wife and I have become very keen on figuring out what they are supposed to say.

A passing glance and SMLander might be read as Salamander.  Of course, I don’t know this to be the intent.

[Jody Stecher]

That instead of Small Münsterländer?  It's a breed of hunting dog.

[Trapdoor2]

Looks about right. I like Salamanders...and Salmagundi. One tastes better than the other.

I just bought two "vanity" plates. Here in SC, for $30, you can register "year of manufacture" plates if your car is 30yrs or older. They treat them as vanity plates. Once approved by the DMV, you can have them restored/repainted. I have a 1969 on our truck and a 1931 on the Model A.

Diane and I also like to decode vanity plates. Some are simply too weird to make sense to outsiders.

Joel Hooks said:

Vanity plates are cheap in NH so my wife and I have become very keen on figuring out what they are supposed to say.

A passing glance and SMLander might be read as Salamander.  Of course, I don’t know this to be the intent.

[Richard William Ineson]

There was some correspondence on this subject in the letters pages of the B.M.G. between J.W.Whittaker, Bernard Sheaff, Mac Macnghten/McNaughton, Alf Lane, etc. in the  early 1950s, if I remember correctly. Bernard Sheaff listed the pseudonyms under which the Cammeyer/Sheaff recordings were sold and also confirmed that Harold Drew was used by Cammeyer as one of his 'nom de plumes'. J.W.Whittaker also proposed various other names as being 'phantom composers', A.E. Nickolds may have been one. Alf Lane's comments were made some months prior to these but I cannot recall which names he put forward. I have never come across S.M.Lander before.

[Joel Hooks]

Thanks Richard!  Off to the BMGs!!

I think I might start scanning my box of Cammeyer music over the Christmas break.  I've also got a few inches of the Banjo World and a bunch of the music supplements clipped out of the Banjo World which is scattered over many file boxes of music that needs sorting. 

[Joel Hooks]

Found a bit by Sheaff in the September 1950 issue.

He mentions,

Douglas Ames

Harold Drew

Jack Tar

Big Bill

Pedro Zarva

So S. M. Lander is not that big of a reach. 

[Joel Hooks]

In the March 1951 BMG, J. W. Whittaker adds the following names.

A. E Nickolds.  

Here is an interesting quote:
"I asked him (Cammeyer) why he used so many pseudonyms and he replied : 'When I do a solo and it does not come up to the standard I set myself, I give it another name.  The strange thing is that the solos published under other names were often my best sellers, so there you are!'"


There is a follow up letter in March 1951 by Robert J. R. White saying that Edith Feldon was not a nom de plume of Cammeyer due to her writing articles on guitar in the Banjo World.  Nor was Charles (C. J.) Gilbert or Nockolds. 

[Joel Hooks]

And speaking of Robert J. R. White, did anyone know him?  In the March 1951 issue there is a nice little piece "Prelude in c Minor" that I enjoyed playing last night.  

[thereallyniceman]

Robert White was a contemporary of Freddie Musselbrook in the London Banjo Club. Here he is playing Wedgewood waltz.

WEDGEWOOD WALTZ played by Robert White

I have several more scores by R White if anyone is interested...but I don't have Wedgewood Waltz !!!

[Richard William Ineson]

A bit of pedantry, Wedgewood with an 'E' is not the famous potting family.