Posted on 01/31/2012 9:16:40 AM PST by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis
An auctioneer has hired experts to try to verify claims by the owner of the century old instrument that it belonged to Wallace Hartley, the leader of the vessel’s eight-man musical ensemble.
If proved, it could become the most valuable Titanic artefact ever to be considered for auction. But the claim is being treated with caution as a result.
Hartley and his fellow musicians earned legendary status for their decision to play on as the ship sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912.
They are said to have played the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” after the vessel hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Press reports at the time said that when Hartley’s body was recovered from the water his violin was strapped to his chest.
The violin and its case were said at the time to be being sent to the White Star line for forwarding to England.
But mystery has surrounded its fate thereafter.
Now the auctioneer Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes, Wilts, which has a worldwide reputation for handling Titanic artefacts, has disclosed that he has been shown what he believes could prove to be Wallace’s violin.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=titanic+documentary%2C+long
Yes, I would. I have always been interested in the Titanic, my grandmother was born the day the Titanic sank.
Another crazy thing is that my husband has an old book about the Titanic from his grandma. It was like an anniversary edition of the tragedy - 1913, IIRC. He doesn’t know how she got it; it was printed before she was born, so maybe her mother/father bought it new, or maybe any of them bought it 2nd-hand. And *I’m* the Titanic nut. Just another strange coincidence between us. ;-)
Please stop the ongoing, foolish attacks, holding the media to blame for everything.
“my grandmother was born the day the Titanic sank.”
LOL, and my mother was born the day the Hindenburg burned!
The last music played by the ship’s orchestra was the song “Autumn”... or was it?
Sometime around 2:10 a.m. as the Titanic began settling more quickly into the icy North Altantic, the sounds of ragtime, familiar dance tunes and popular waltzes that had floated reassuringly across her decks suddenly stopped as Bandmaster Wallace Hartley tapped his bow against his violin. Hartley and his musicians, all wearing their lifebelts now, were standing back at the base of the second funnel, on the roof of the First Class Lounge, where they had been playing for the better part of an hour. There were a few moments of silence, then the solemn strains of the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” began drifting across the water. It was with a perhaps unintended irony that Hartley chose a hymn that pleaded for the mercy of the Almighty, as the ultimate material conceit of the Edwardian Age, the ship that “God Himself couldn’t sink,” foundered beneath his feet. As the band played, the slant of the deck grew steeper, while from within the hull came a rapidly increasing number of thuds, bangs and crashes as interior furnishings broke loose, walls and partitions collapsed–the Titanic was only moments from breaking apart.
For years it has been commonly believed that the last music played by the Titanic‘s band was either the Episcopalian hymn “Autumn” or the popular waltz “Songe d’Automne.” However, the evidence for this has rested solely on the uncorroborated testimony of Harold Bride, who told a reporter for the New York Times that the last song he remembered the band playing was called “Autumn.” Bride, though, was the only person with that recollection, he only mentioned it once, and he never specified if he meant the hymn or the waltz. Moreover, despite the credence given him by some later historians, Bride was never the most reliable or consistent witness, and here his “memories” have to be taken with a rather large grain of salt. Tellingly, neither piece of “Autumn” music, the hymn or the popular waltz, is listed in the White Star Line’s music book for 1912. Also significant is that the hymn is not called “Autumn,” only the melody (much like the melody of the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” is known as “St. Anne’s”), and usually only a professional musician will refer to a piece of music that way–certainly not an 18-year old wireless operator. So without some sort of supporting or collaborating evidence, any piece of music named “Autumn” can be dismissed as the Titanic‘s orchestra’s last musical performance.
A very strong case can be made, however, for the hymn tradition and legend has always said was the last music played aboard the Titanic. There are a number of accounts of survivors who recalled hearing the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” and therein lies a tale. Commentators who have rigidly committed to the “‘Autumn theory’” are quick to point out that there are two melodies associated with “Nearer My God to Thee;” one (“Bethany”) is American, the other (“Horbury”) is British, the two sound distinctly different from each other and are impossible to confuse–yet both American and British survivors claimed to have heard “Nearer My God to Thee” being played by the ship’s orchestra. What those same commentators fail to mention is that there is a THIRD melody for “Nearer My God to Thee,” called “Propior Deo,” composed by Sir Arthur Sullivan, and it is here that the mystery of the last music played by Wallace Hartley and his fellow musicians finally begins to unravel itself. The melody “Propior Deo” would have been well known to the British passengers aboard the Titanic, and in passages it sounds very similar to “Bethany”–and nothing at all like “Horbury.” In the noise and confusion of the night, it would hardly be surprising if both Americans and Britons, hearing only snatches of music, would both believe that they were hearing the version of “Nearer, My God, to Thee” with which they were most familiar.
Moreover, “Nearer My God to Thee” was known to be a favorite of Bandmaster Hartley’s–who was also a friend of Sir Arthur Sullivan and who liked Sullivan’s music–and it was the hymn played at the graveside of all deceased members of the Musician’s Union. Perhaps most convincing of all is a report in the Daily Sketch on April 22, 1912, where a colleague of Hartley’s recalled how some years earlier, while working aboard the Mauretania, he asked Hartley what he would do if he found himself on the deck of a sinking ship. Hartley replied that he would assemble the ship’s orchestra and play “O God Our Help in Ages Past” or “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” Somehow, taken all together, it seems definitive enough.
Thank you. As I compose this post, I'm listening to this haunting symphonic piece.
I'm among those who prefer A Night to Remember over the James Cameron film. Maybe I'm a sentimental sap but, while listening to the Gavin Bryars piece, there is one part of the 1990's that I really do like. It's the fantasy ending sequence where Wallace Hartley (the orchestra leader, shown below) and others are shown reappearing in the approach to the Grand Staircase.
Don'cha know, if it's not on youtube, it didn't happen.
Thanks for the recommendation, I will order a copy. I have Last Dinner on the Titanic, Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner.
I bet you never thought your post would generate this much traffic, eh? :-)
Just wait until the really heated discussions get going about the role of Captain Stanley Lord of the SS Californian. There are a number of people known as "Lordites" who come to his defense in support of his actions or in-actions.
The voices that you can barely make out in the mix are recordings of Titanic survivors.
The name Lowell Mason, who wrote the music for “Nearer, My God, to Thee” in 1856, may not be all that familiar today, but he composed the music for many famous antebellum hymns, including “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” (1823). Perhaps the best known of these is “Joy to the World,” one of the most popular Christmas carols, for which he wrote the music in 1836.
“Nearer, My God, to Thee” was reportedly played by a Confederate military band at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Do you know of a good website which plays melodies of different hymn versions rather than just the hymns themselves?
Yikes, ping us next time someone is born in your family so we can all stay in bed with the covers pulled up tight.
So when your mother was born, They Can't Take That Away From Me by Fred Astaire was the bestselling record. Ozzie Nelson and Tommy Dorsey also had hit versions at the time. And when Kalee's grandmother was born, Moonlight Bay by the American Quartet would have been the chart topper had song hit charts existed at the time.
Would it possibly be Sinking of the Titanic The World's Greatest Sea Disaster?
I have a copy; lots of passenger accounts, taken immediately after the disaster. (The copyright is 1912).
It’s common to mark time in one’s life by the significant events that occurred. We all remember where we were when the Challenger exploded, JFK was killed, 9/11, etc. My great grandmother used to talk about the Titanic. My grandmother talked about the Great Depression and the Lindbergh kidnapping.
Still listening to it. I had not heard it before, thanks for posting.
I have that one as well ... found it in my grandmother's attic years ago. Unfortunately, the mice had gotten to the back cover a little bit and the adhesive holding the spine and pages together had dissipated over the years as a result of the fluctuations between summer heat and winter cold.
I still have it, but it's pretty much contained in a zip-lock bag to keep it all together. What a shame ...
I was wondering why the White Star Line would send anything on but then I realized it may have been to make up for the bad PR from this;
“The body of Jock Hume, my grandfather, was one of 190 recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett and brought back to Halifax (more than a thousand bodies were never found). The corpses of first-class passengers — including that of the American millionaire Jacob Astor — were unloaded from the ship in coffins and driven to the mortuary in horse-drawn hearses. Those of the crew and of steerage passengers had been thrown on to ice in the hold for the sea journey, and were carried off in handcarts on arrival.
The day the Mackay-Bennett docked, Jock’s father in Dumfries received a 5s 4d bill for his son’s uniform. Jock’s pay was stopped the moment the ship went down at 2.20 a.m., and the wages owed to him were insufficient to cover the cost of the brass buttons on his bandsman’s tunic. When the family asked if his body could be brought home, they were told that ‘normal cargo rates’ would apply.”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/7141073/my-grandfather-the-titanics-violinist.thtml
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