Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 42
Scan 42
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
14 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1couple of years Mr. Stratton was also editor and proprietor of a music journal 48 which was discontinued when he went to Europe.
3As soon as the business was well established Laila was published. The first edition of one thousand copies advertised only in music journals was exhausted in a few weeks. So other editions were published and by the time this sketch of his life was written 20,000 copies had been sold. One of the most interesting performances of this operetta was in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia by the pupils of the city schools numbering over 1,000 singers. [address hidden] was written for children from five to fifteen years of age and the heroine was intended to be about twelve years old. Because of requests for another operetta Genevieve was composed and written for more grown-up girls and intended for academies and seminaries. As Mr. Stratton's Concert Overture No. 1 was used as the Overture to Laila, so Concert Overture No. IV was used as the Overture to Genevieve. Genevieve though more difficult was also a success, 15,000 copies having been sold "from Maine to California, Texas and Florida and some of the Territories." 50 The operetta circular issued by the company contained fourteen pages of notices and editorial reviews.
5Because of requests for another operetta a larger more ambitious one was undertaken, with men and boys in it, handsomer stage scenery and costumes and an entirely new libretto, called The Fairy Grotto. This work was finished and published in Europe. Some 10,000 copies of this also were sold.
7Mr. Stratton then lived in Europe for fourteen years traveling for his business, recovering from overwork and taking up the study of pianoforte.
9In 1885 he gave to his native town of West Swanzey, New Hampshire, the "Stratton Free Public Library and Art Gallery" for which he provided some 2,000 of the best books in the English language, collected by persons experienced in handling books, and over 200 pictures which he had selected in Europe to be educational in the lines of art, history or architecture. The music volumes and sheet music were by the finest classical composers up to that date. The dedication, September 15, 1885, had as part of its exercises a
1148 For this Journal see p. 80.
1249 In Catalogue—Stratton Free Library and Art Gallery, West Swanzey, New Hampshire—Second edition—A Sketch of the Life of G. W. Stratton p. 106.
1350 Ibid pp. 107 & 108.
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