"Blind Tom." [Bethune, Thomas. or Wiggins, Thomas.] (1849–1908)
The Battle of Manassas. For the Piano.
Cleveland: S. Brainard’s Sons. 1866. Sheet music for the most famous composition by Blind Tom, the musical prodigy. Small folio. With text regarding the music and Tom on the verso of the front wrapper; 3 - 11 pp. Engraved throughout. [PN] 4907. Covers detached, ownership signature to upper right front cover, minor browning and marginal wear. As the explanatory text states, this piece was Blind Tom’s best-known composition and, “…his own conception of a battle.” Rare.The Battle of Manassas, for solo piano, is considered one of Wiggins' greatest compositions; he musically describes the first land battle of the Civil War vividly, with incredible skill and creativity. It starts with the left hand playing a gesture that's akin to the drums in a march, while the left hand sounds like it could be a piccolo, in a very quintessential Civil War sound and style. The first theme is that of the Confederate Army, and the next theme is of the Union, both marching to where they be stationed. A thoughtful and sad Adagio breaks up work, representing the eve before the battle. Out of that section comes a battle call, followed quickly by the actual battle. Patriotic works like Yankee Doodle Dandy are played with large, loud dissonances, which represent cannons and gunfire. The pianist has to vocalize in this piece too, with some "choo choos" and a high-pitched whistle, much like a train.
Born enslaved and formally uneducated, his unique musical talent led to world tours, performances at the White House and an enthusiastic fan base that included Mark Twain. His unusual ability to play the piano and recall speech was discovered at an early age so that before he was ten he was touring the country and making vast sums of money for his owner, General James Neil Bethune and his manager, Perry Oliver. Now believed to be an autistic savant, during his amazing life this musical prodigy is reported to have learned to play more than 7,000 pieces, including standard classical and Romantic repertoire and many original compositions. One of the earliest concert reviews published in the Baltimore Sun on June 27, 1860 announced that Tom was a phenomenon in the musical world "thrusting all our conceptions of the science to the wall and informing us that there is a musical world of which we know nothing." Mark Twain, a great enthusiast for Tom's playing, wrote in 1869 that Tom "lorded it over the emotions of his audience like an autocrat. He swept them like a storm, with his battle-pieces; he lulled them to rest again with melodies as tender as those we hear in dreams; he gladdened them with others that rippled through the charmed air as happily and cheerily as the riot the linnets make in California woods; and now and then he threw in queer imitations of the tuning of discordant harps and fiddles, and the groaning and wheezing of bag-pipes, that sent the rapt silence into tempests of laughter. And every time the audience applauded when a piece was finished, this happy innocent joined in and clapped his hands, too, and with vigorous emphasis...Some archangel, cast out of upper Heaven like another Satan, inhabits this coarse casket; and he comforts himself and makes his prison beautiful with thoughts and dreams and memories of another time... It is not Blind Tom that does these wonderful things and plays this wonderful music--it is the other party." (23143)
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