US322013A - Sheet-music - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) W SHAW v SHEET MUSIG. No. 322,013. Patented Julv 14, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER SHAW, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHEET-MUSIC.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 322,013, dated July 14, 1885. Application filed May 9, 1884. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern Be it known that I, .WALTER SHAW, of Boston, in the county of Suii'olkand State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sheet-Music, of which the fol' lowing is a specification.

My invention relates to sheet-music of the ordinary kind, as used for the publication and performance of musical compositions; and its object is to so construct these publications as to obviate the necessity which now exists of turning over the page during the performance of the composition to theinconvenience of the performer. Such publications, as is well known, are ordinarily, when they consist of a greater number of leaves than a folio, formed like printed booksthat is to say, folded in a quarto, octavo, or other fold, and cut and stitched in the ordinary manner; and it has been the universal practice to print the matter of the musical composition like the matter of the ordinary printed book- -that is to say, upon consecutive or a first and following pages. In this Way the performer, when he has reached the bottom of the first leaf to be turned, is compelled to turn the leaf at once in order to read the matter at thetop of the other side of that leaf; and inasmuch as the rhythm or time of the composition is ordinarily uniform or inflexible, and no interval in time ordinarly occurs between the last bar on one side of the page and the first bar on the other side of the page, this turning has to be done very quickly, and, as is well known to all persons using sheet-music, is not only troublesome, but is likelyto cause the disarrangement of thepages by their being knocked off the music-stand, and also to disconcert the performer. By my present improvement I have so modified the construction and paging of sheet-music that no consecutive portions of a composition occur on opposite sides of the same sheet; consequently no turning of the sheet is required, except while the performer is playing matter printed upon a different sheet, so that the time occupied in turning the sheet does not in any way interfere with the time of the music.

The accompanying drawings represent a printed publication containing a musical composition, and constructed and paged ac cording to my present invention.

the drawings are inmethod of using such The three figures of tended to illustrate the a publication, Figure 1 representing the publication as it is when the matter onthe first two pages (marked in the drawings pages 2 and 3) is read. Fig. 2 similarly represents the publication as it is when matter onpage 4 is in readiness to be read, and Fig. 3 represents the publication when the matter on the final page or page 5 is to be read.

I will now proceed to describe the invention embodied in the publication represented in these drawings. I form all the intermediate orinterior sheets of the publication containing the composition separate or detached, using for this purpose as many sheets as the length of the piece of music may require. In the drawings I have represented one such interior sheet. B. These sheets I inclose in an outside folio-sheet in the ordinary manner. This folio-sheet is represented at A O in the drawings, and is shown therein as lying open, that being the ordinary manner of its use. The title and vignette of the composition may be printed, as is common, upon the unseen page of the left-hand leaf A of this folio. The composition itself commences upon the inside or exposed face of theleft'hand page A of the folio-sheet, and is thence continued upon one side of the detached sheet B. After filling this sheet it is next continued upon the other exposed side of the right-hand leaf 0 of the folio-shcet, and from thence is continued upon the opposite side, B, of the detached sheet where it ends.

The method of using or performing the composition when so printed is as follows: The folio-sheet is laid open upon the musicrack in the ordinary manner, the detached sheet being laid upon and covering the righthand leaf of the folio. (See Fig. l.) The performer first plays the music printed upon the left-hand inside page of the folio, which in the drawings is numbered page 2, the title page being page 1. After playing this part of the composition he continues to play the part which follows upon the exposed side (page 3) of the detached leaf, and at any time during the playing of this page 3 it may be slid over toward the left, without turning, until it covthe right-hand inside. page 4, (see Fig. 2,) to the ers page 2 and exposes page of the folio,

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top of which page the performer passes from the bottom of page 3. At any time while playing the portion of the composition printed upon page 4. the detached leaf B may be turned over in its place, thereby exposing its other side, page 5, (see Fig. 3,) on which the composition is continued from the bottom of page 4:, and on which, as has been said, it is supposed to end. Should the composition be of greater length than in the case supposed, a second detached sheet is introduced, which, at the beginning of the performance, is laid under the first, in the place already designated. One side of this second detached sheet would be paged 4, and would be exposed when page 3 of the first detached sheet was slid to the left in the manner already described. During the playing of this page 4, the first detached sheet being turned would expose page 5, and during the playing of this page the second detached sheet being turned would expose page 6. This in turn being slid to the left during its performance would expose the right-hand inside page of the folio, which would now be page 7, which in this case would be the last page of the composition.

It is evident that by employing additional inside detached sheets, paged according to the same system, enough space will be obtained for printing a compositlon of any length.

The sliding of the page over during its performance is much more convenient than turning it in the old way, for several reasons: In the first place, if the performer is unaided he may select any time in the playing of the exposed page for sliding the sheet over that the composition itself and its musical requirements may make most convenient; and, as is well known to musicians, many opportunities will occur throughout an ordinary page of sheet-music in which this can be conveniently done. The same is true of the opportunities afforded in the same way for conveniently turning one sheet while the music is being played from another. In those cases where an assistant attends to turning the music ample opportunity and time are afforded for this, so that it may be done deliberately and without any fear of interfering with the continuity of the performance.

I have described and shown the outside or inclosing pages as connected in the form of a folio. This form I prefer, because it serves to inclose and hold the inside detached sheet or sheets. All the sheets, however, may obviously be made single and detached, if desired, the folio-sheet being divided into two separate detached sheets. I have also described and shown a publication to contain a musical composition of such length as to require the use of more pages than the two inside pages of the ordinary folio-sheet, which are commonly the only two used for the composition, one of the outside pages being ordinarily used for the 1 title and vignette, if any, and the other being left blank or used for advertising or catalogue matter. It is sometimes, however, found convenient to use all four sides of a folio-sheet for the composition itself, and when so used the folio has heretofore been paged and the composition printed on it consecutively. This obviously requires inconvenient turning in passing from page 1 to page 2 and from page 3 to page 4 each time in interruption of the performance.

According to my present improvement, the folio-sheet must first be divided into two separate sheets, one of which is paged l and 3 and the other 2 and 4, the matter of the composition being arranged upon the sheets accordingly. Page 1 of one sheet and page 2 of the other being then laid uppermost, page 1 is turned and page 3 exposed while page 2 is being performed, and page 2 turned and page 4 exposed while page 3 is being performed. In this specification I use the word sheet in the sense of a single detached unfolded piece of paper, sometimes called a half sheet, and the word folio-sheet in the sense of a similar piece of paper folded once, such as is sometimes called a whole sheet. In the term printed music I mean to include musical characters, written, photo graphed, or impressed in any suitable manner.

I claim- 1. The herein-described sheet-music publication consisting of two or more detached unfolded sheets, each sheet being paged alternately-that is to say, with two succeeding odd-page numbers or two succeeding evenpage numbers, as the case may be-and having the consecutive portions of the music to be performed printed upon the consecutivelynumbered sides of the said sheets, all substantially as herein set forth, and for the purposes herein specified.

2. The herein-described improved sheetmusic publication consisting of an outside inclosing folio sheet, A C, and one or more interior detached sheets, B, the musical composition commencing upon the left-hand interior page, A, of the folio-sheet, and the subsequent sheets, including the right-hand inner side, 0, of the foliosheet being paged alternatelythat is to say, with two succeeding odd numbers or two succeeding even numbers, as the case may beand having the consecutive portions of the music to be performed printed upon the consecutively-numbered sides of the said sheets, all substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 7th day of May, A. D. 1884.

\VALTER SH A\V.

\Vitnesses:

J. HENRY TAYLOR, JAMES F. BLIGII.

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