Please Don't Quote Me By Caralee Aschenbrenner Father Dixon, Jon Dixon that is, said that the recording of history should be accurate, not pretty. Don't skew the facts to make a better story, in other words. It should be what it was. After all, truth is stranger than fiction and a lot more interesting. We remind ourselves of that in the writing of this article because even after six-to-eight years of collecting material and being determined that the results did not have the local connection that I wanted, only a slight one, it came down to just telling about a

one-time well-known person who did accomplish a lot in a life unknown to most of us. It could've been a central theme in a movie of the 1930's, '40's or '50's and was except that our "Hero" was not one of them and probably won't be. But we decided to search and wind it up. "Get the facts, ma'am," which ended up being somewhat of a non-profit trip ... Gas-wise, food-wise (two meals out for two), library and copying fees ... But we met some very nice people, enjoyed the autumn scenery, learned some unexpected details and got better acquainted with Egbert Van Alstyne, our objective.

Don't know that talented Egbert, the songwriter? Few appreciated him in his heyday, let alone fifty years after his passing, but as it turns out he was quite influential in the music world for several decades though filled with the incongruities of the artistic.

Although a northern Illinoisan, he is on the periphery of our northwest corner but we had hoped to remind you with direct ties to our area. He did entertain here and had relatives but not as close as we'd hoped. But then there are disappointments at many levels of life.

Egbert Van Alstyne (All-steen) was born to Charles and Emma Rogers Van Alstyne in March of 1878 at Marengo, Illinois. He was named for his paternal grandfather who was a McHenry County pioneer; a grocer/dry goods merchant from New York state where the family had settled from Holland as early as the mid-1600's.

The grandparents had opened stores in Marengo and nearby Coral. Dissolution of a partnership is found in an ad of 1897.

Besides being a merchant, Grandpa Egbert was also a some-time minister at the local Methodist church where little Bert's talent came to light at the early age of seven. He'd play hymns on the church organ "by ear." From then on he was called upon to play often and wherever. His ability encouraged the family and observers to promote lessons. A local classically-trained teacher was chosen and Bert, as he was called, began years of training as well as using his innate gift.

At a young age he won a scholarship to the Chicago Music Conservatory and was sent to Cornell College at Mt. Vernon, Iowa where, too, his abilities were recognized.

At age eighteen, perhaps, tired of the regimentation and routine, he ran away with a traveling road show as its piano player, that in 1896.

That year his first piece of music was published, "The Rivals Two-Step," with next year, "Maryland Waltzes," being printed, though no publisher or copyright was found on the music sheets.

At about that time he settled at Omaha, Nebraska where he taught piano and affiliated himself with the Anton Hospe Music Company. By 1899-1900 the company had published only three other pieces of his music, not a particularly lucrative position.

Composers/pianists worked for music companies by circulating around with new pieces and old, playing them to entice listeners to buy. Whatever the pianist wrote was published by the company; hopefully to become a "hit" and sell hundreds of that item, too. It was a popular pastime to go hear the soon-to-be chart toppers. Meanwhile, Bert had married the first of four wives, Lucille Wilson listed on the marriage certificate as residence was 'Chicago" and that their future residence was "on the road."

That was an era of LIVE entertainment everywhere ... Even the small towns had an Opera House where usually weekly or one or two days at a time, troupes, touring companies of all sorts appeared at the local venue ... Orators such as Fredrick Douglass or Frances Willard, both of whom made Carroll County stops, vaudeville acts, plays such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," gas-lit projected pictures of Civil War scenes or Paris, Yosemite, semi-intimate boudoir poses and etc.! When silent movies arrived a local or traveling pianist played music to enhance the action. Yes, entertainment was live.

Marengo's second floor Opera House was the site of "Rosita," performed by an all local costumed cast and where Egbert van Alstyne took his seat at the piano and the newspaper reported, "He was his usual bashful self, shyly acknowledging the audience with a sparkling smile and a nod of the head," the article continued, "He is making an appearance in his old hometown while gaining world-wide publicity for his compositions."

That year of presentation is not clear nor if he wrote the operetta though as he lay dying in 1951 he asked repeatedly for a copy of the manuscript so he could read it again. The newspaper article had suggested that his was a retiring personality, quiet and he was writing a wide variety of kinds of music. Compiled in later years it was commented on that besides operettas, novelettes there were fifty-six instrumentals, waltzes, intermezzos, 17 rags, marches, comic songs, fox trots, two-steps and many ragtime pieces besides the numerous ballads he was most noted for and which became long-time favorites.

To note the popularity (or excellence) of his ability as early as 1900 he'd had several instrumental works published and, at the time, one was included in a program of the great John Phillip Sousa, a march.

Bert's first entry in the ragtime genre was the "Hula Hula Cakewalk" published in 1899. Sousa also added it to a program and then recorded it in 1901.

Reference gives that about 1900 he had taken off for the far Southwest, going town to town with a band, the "Chicago Marine Band" but later turned up as part of a road show, "A Wise Member," for which he played piano and was pollishing his ragtime syncopations, a little known segment of his compositions.

Until recent years those who infrequently wrote about Van Alsyne ignored those early years, primarily because it was a difficult, long search but in the early 1990's a young journalist, Tracey Doyle, began to study his career. Her musical ability, surely equaled her writing talents, she understanding the riffs and glides, the themes which pervaded the hundreds of pieces extant of Van Alstyne's works, much to our enjoyment. At first she was interested in ragtime tunes because she herself had been playing them since age ten. It is her knowledge, critiques, which give we musically-challenged some insight into an unexplored world. Some of those comments appear in various back issues of "Rag Times," a specialty periodical.

Ms. Doyle points out that by as late as 1902 Van Alstyne had as many or more ragtime and cakewalk songs published as the legendary Scott Joplin or Tom Turpin or Arthur Pryor and other noted ragsters.

We recognize the wonderful, captivating ragtime rhythms from the movie, "The Sting." When compared to the later ballads of Van Alstyne's, the contrast is wide and diverse, just as his early disciplined life in a religious atmosphere seems to have been quite dissimilar from the descriptions of him later.

Bert's father, Charles, had died in Rockford where they'd moved when the boy was seven. His mother, Emma, took in roomers and Bert himself delivered papers and did the chores boys of that era did. A news item stated that after a move back to Marengo, the older men of the town took him under their wing because he had few friends his own age.

The quiet routines of small town life were quite dissimilar to what he then experienced in the Southwest where he'd ended up when with the touring road company.

He was playing ragtime music at "honky-tonks," the low saloons and "sporting houses" which not only had questionable reputations but the music did, too. Ragtime, an American creation was considered "naughty," immoral, and was only played in "unseemly" venues but the upbeat and happy syncopations escaped into the nation's farthest corners. Ministers preached against the sinful naughtiness while parents monitored what music was coming from the front parlor as the "kids" gathered 'round the piano or Victrola. But here was a minister's grandson actually writing such tunes let along playing them. Stranded in Arizona and New Mexico he played to make carfare back home to Illinois. It was suggested that it was his attention to that genre that helped it escape to the mainstream.

His most important piece was "Darkie's Spring Song," which is unknown today. It's title was not at its inception considered politically incorrect as it would be today because times were different, remember. It pointed out to whom it was directed or derived and accentuates a technique Bert was said to use throughout his career. The first few bars were from some classical composition, in that case, "Mendelssons Spring Song," the balance being original. Other pieces use that unusual accent also.

Not only was the sheet music for piano or instrumental widely sold at the time, it was recorded also and ragtime was heard in every corner.

Van Alstyne's ragtime period, while influential, was about to end on his striking up a friendship with Harry Williams. It was one of their early songs, Harry being the lyricist of the duo, that we were determined to have been inspired by a Carroll County community, "Old Orchard."

Next week.

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