Look Pleasant, Please!

  

It's an unexpected moment of mischief.
Maybe set off by a bad pun,
a wisecrack,
or something silly.

Instantly the jest spreads
like an electric shock.
Eyes light up,
smiles appear,
as everyone joins the fun.

Then in a flash
the giggles, groans,
and squeals of laughter
can not be contained.

Clowns and comedians
understand how timing
works in humor.

And so do photographers.

This merry moment was captured in a photo postcard of 14 young ladies, members of a small orchestra. They all wear white dresses, though not identical, and are jammed together into a back corner of a stage. Other than a snare and bass drum arranged in front, all the instruments visible are strings—violins, viola, cello, and double bass.

It's a rare image of spontaneous glee. In all of my photo collection it's the only one that makes me wish I could have been there to hear the joke. The girls look around age 16 to 20 and I think they have either just performed a concert or are about to. There is no caption and the postcard was never mailed, but the photographer did helpfully leave their name stamped onto the back.

W. R. C. Mynster,
view photographer
Bell Phone Red 850

It did not take long to find W. R. C. Mynster advertising in the newspapers of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Council Bluffs IA Evening Nonpareil
6 June 1911

                                PHOTOS OF YOUR HOME, PLACE OF
                                business, of the baby,  of your pets,  or
                                anything else,  funerals,  weddings,  lawn
                                parties and social gatherings, a specialty.
                                Taken day or night.  Call Bell phone Red
                                850.  Address  W. R. C. Mynster,  309  Ross
                                St., Council Bluffs, Ia.

His full name was William Rufus Choate Mynster. Like many men named after their fathers, he chose to use his initials as his principal public name, a practice that a century later makes research a bit tricky. W. R. C. was born in Council Bluffs in 1868 and become a professional photographer after several attempts at other careers that included law, medicine, prize fighter, and gambling saloon bouncer. 

His first newspaper advertisements begin in 1911 which may have been in order to compete with a growing number of photographers in his city. His specialty was in commercial photography which included taking large wide photos of convention groups, exterior scenes of buildings, and interior shots of businesses. Council Bluffs is located in Pottawattamie County in western Iowa on the east bank of the Missouri River. On the west bank is Omaha, Nebraska. In 1910 the population of Council Bluffs was 29,292 while Omaha could boast of 124,096. That's a pretty sizeable metropolitan area with a lot of potential for photographers.

{click any image to enlarge}

Panorama View of Council Bluffs, Iowa
1916, William Rufus Choate Mynster
Source: Wikipedia

Here is a panorama of Council Bluffs made by William Rufus Choate Mynster in 1916. It is described as a view of West Broadway in Council Bluffs between 1st Street on the right and the Council Bluffs Post Office and Federal Building on the left at 6th Street. This photo is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Council Bluffs IA Evening Nonpareil
22 January 1915

                                PHOTOS TAKEN FOR LODGES,  SO-
                                cieties,  etc.,  of each member, then  all
                                the photos mounted in one frame ready
                                to hang on wall.  For terms of work of
                                this kind call  W. R. C. Mynster,  321
                                Platner St.,  Council Bluffs,  Phone 850.

Choate Mynster, as he was also known, perhaps from his boxing days, also took photos of prisoners at the county jail and of crime scenes for the police. And every spring he would take hundreds of photos of schoolchildren. I suspect my postcard is one he took of a high school orchestra or maybe a string ensemble from a local music academy. The girls' hair styles and the quality of the photo suggest it was taken some time from 1908 to 1915. 

Unlike most photographers who kept a studio for portrait work, he preferred to go to his clients.  In that way he got to know many families and business people of Council Bluffs. In February 1929 the Daily Nonpareil newspaper published a superb tribute on W. R. C. Mynster's life and work as a photographer in Council Bluffs.

Council Bluffs IA Daily Nonpareil
10 February 1929

 

It is very rare to find a photo of a photographer with his camera
so I feel obliged to include it along with the full piece below.

It begins:

   Like the family doctor who has attended to children and children's children and even another generation to follow that,  so has W. R. C. Mynster, 2128 West Broadway, photographer, said, "Look pleasant, please," to three generations of students in the local schools.

{click any image to enlarge}

Council Bluffs IA Daily Nonpareil
10 February 1929

The full article tells a great story of W. R. C. Mynster's life but here is an excerpt which I liked for how it described what a photographer like Mynster did for their community. It's true for many of the forgotten photographers that I have featured on this blog.

   He got out among the people he intended to photograph.  He was called to the bier sides of the city's departed great.  He was called to cyclone areas and took pictures of the piling corpses and the wrecks of once happy homes.  

   He met Coxey's army * as it entered the city and he photographed the flotsam and jetsam of the tides of life as they rolled their tragic way towards Washington and disillusion. 

   He photographed the bloody evidence for the murder trial.  He saw first-hand and his camera caught for all time the grotesque shapes of those who died with their boots on, the victims of hatred, passion, averice, jealousy or their own weakness.

   Mynster crowded into the photography business while remaining in one city, all the adventures and experiences that go to brush the moss from the rolling stone. 

   And he photographed the children.  Little ones, medium ones, grown ones, self-satisfied ones, nervous ones, pretty ones, merely cute ones, but never actually ugly ones, for, he said, "all children are beautiful to me.  I love them.  I like to make pretty poses of them and to catch their pictures so that their parents will always rejoice in the possession of a likeness that will last forever." 

   He photographed the children's children and now he is photographing the third generation.  

* Wikipedia:  Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington, D.C., in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history at the time. Officially named the Army of the Commonwealth in Christ, its nickname came from its leader and was more enduring. It was the first significant popular protest march on Washington, and the expression "Enough food to feed Coxey's Army" originates from this march.

On 30 June 1932, William R. C. Mynster died
after suffering a heart attack.
He was 63 years old.

What his tribute report did not mention is that W. R. C. Mynster and his wife Josephine were proud parents of ten children. Two sons: Lyonel and Edwin, and eight daughters: Cora, Sevra, Pearl, Iva, Flora, Nellie, Josephine, and Lillian. 

If the photo of the orchestra was taken around 1908-1915, two daughters, Flora, born in 1893, and Nellie, born in 1894, would have been of the same age as the other girls. Did they play a musical instrument? I don't know. It's only speculation but look at the photo again. Can you spot someone who's heard the cameraman tell this joke before? That's the face that sold me on the photo and still makes me smile today. Whether it is Flora or Nellie, I expect W. R. C. Mynster knew a thing or two about teasing young girls to get them to show off their best features. To tell a good zinger requires a punchline given with the timing of a prizefighter, a nightclub comic, or a watchful photographer.  

William Rufus Choate Mynster (1868–1932)
Walnut Hill Cemetery, Council Bluffs, Iowa
Source: FindaGrave.com 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where best friends always share

everything with each other.

Keeping Count at the Majestic

Most of the photos in my collection, maybe 98%, are of static people, posing motionless for a camera that is usually secluded in a photographer's studio. Therefore this outdoor photo is, for me anyway, a rare exception. It's a quick snapshot of an urban scene. A few dozen people have stopped along a city sidewalk to listen to a band. The bandsmen stand in a circle and actually seem to be playing music. The moment has a little added tension as a car approaches and the band looks like it is blocking traffic. 

The camera was unable to get everything in clear focus and the sepia tones have the usual faded contrast which I improved. There is also no caption or postmark to identify location or date. On the back of the postcard are some numbers, a couple of sums written down by someone likely figuring out a price totaling 14.86, the $ sign being assumed. 

The cardstock has a NOKO stamp box which indicated a brand of photo paper. The NOKO company used four different stamp box designs and according to a catalog on the now-defunct Playle's postcard website this version was popular from 1907 to 1929.

But there is a subtle clue in the automobile partly visible on the right. 

The car's wheels are a simple spoke design, like an old horse-drawn wagon wheel. The fender has a broad open curve that connects to a running board. The motor compartment is a coffin-like box and behind it are lantern sidelights. All are features of an early automobile manufactured in the 1905-1918 era. I found a good example in a 1909 auto trade journal report about the new models being released by the Oldsmobile company.  

1909 Oldsmobile Advert
Source: 1909 Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, v. 13

There is too little of the car in the photo to make a positive match but I think the style is close enough to say that the photo could not have been taken any earlier than around 1908. Since there is another similar car wheel on the left of the street, that suggests this picture is closer to 1908 than 1928. Another clue is that the street appears to be unpaved. This is a small town, not a metropolis.

In the background on the right is a storefront with tall glass windows. Stenciled on one is Steam Laundry and hanging on the other side of the doorway a circular sign. But despite my efforts to digitally sharpen the image and contrast I can't make out anything except for a few letters. It's tantalizing to be so close to reading it, but who knows, maybe it was just an advertisement for laundry starch. 

But the best clue was the sign on the next building: 

Majestic   

Special          To
Feature        Night

Clearly it's a theater, or theatre, to use the fancier term, but the name is unhelpful as Majestic was once one of the most common names for a theater/theatre in America. There were hundreds of them in big cities and large towns that genuinely deserved to be named Majestic as they were built with multiple floors, grand entrances, and opulent interiors that could seat thousands. This theater with just a ground floor and a narrow width, maybe just 20 feet, is smaller than the laundry next door. Its archway entrance looks a bit decorative, if not exotic, but the remaining brickwork is plain and looks hastily constructed. That is a pretty low rung on the ladder of majesty. 

But what drew my attention to this postcard is, of course, the band. This ensemble has around 17-18 men with an instrumentation of brass, drums and a few clarinets. The men are dressed in white military-style uniforms, not unlike those of laundry deliverymen, I suppose, that is typical for many small town bands of this probable era of 1908-1920. Except for one thing. Their uniforms accentuates the contrast of their face and hand complexion. This is a band of African-American musicians. In the American newspaper parlance of the early 20th century they were a "colored band". As demeaning as that phrase is in the 21st century, it does make for a convenient expression when doing historical research. 

The automobile and the small theater are consistent with the era of live vaudeville entertainers and a time when cinema films were still silent and of short duration. The Majestic's "Special Feature" might have been a new silent comedy or western. Or it could have been a variety show troupe touring the vaudeville circuit. And this band of Black musicians might be one of the few professional African-American touring shows. 

Or not. 

Maybe they really were an amateur band of workers at the steam laundry. I truly don't know. The only facts are what we see in the photo.

But I couldn't help but look for a connection between "Majestic Theater/Theatre" and "colored band". The archive found a medium long list which I could filter by limiting the time frame and location, mainly to the southern states. (I tried including "steam laundry" too, but that only added more false trails.)

Marion KY Crittenden Record-Press
13 July 1911

In Marion, Kentucky a weekly county newspaper, the Crittenden Record-Press, ran regular notices of the town's Majestic theatre. In July 1911 it promoted the appearance of a "Troupe of 30 colored people band and orchestra "Black Diamond Aristocracy" two nights July 15th and 17th. At the majestic theatre." 

Marion is the county seat of Crittenden County situated in western Kentucky about 10 miles south of the Ohio River, In 1910 it had a population of 1,627. Its Majestic theatre gave regular performances of touring dramas, comedies, and musical revues typical of the lower level vaudeville circuits. Unfortunately I could not find any address for the Majestic. It seems to have operated only from about 1910 to 1912. 

But I did find a better report on the "Black Diamond Aristocracy" in a Greenfield, Indiana newspaper. Greenfield is about 300 miles north of Marion.

Greenfield IN Daily Reporter
13 June 1911

                            

Jubilee Troupe

   The Black Diamond Aristocracy Company will give a concert at the Rogers opera house Monday evening, June 19th. This is a regular colored jubilee troupe. Its members are selected by the President of the Southern Indiana Institute, and the entertainments are being given for the purpose of raising money to buy a farm where colored boys and girls may receive free industrial training.
   The troupe includes thirty people. The Pickaninny Band is a popular feature. The program includes "Down in Louisiana." "The Suwanee River." "Buck, Ben and Bald." "Just Barely Living and That is All." "Jubilee Whoop and Gospel Train." "Loving Joe." "the Old Kentucky Home." "Teach Our Baby That I am Dead." and many other Southern plantation melodies.

I make no claim for a connection between my photo postcard and the Majestic theatre of Marion, Kentucky other than it is purely a coincidence and it was possible. But my larger point is that here are two examples of how African-Americans found work in the entertainment industry of the early 20th century, despite enduring institutional discrimination, ignorant bigotry, and overt violent racism. It is a history that deserves to be remembered for the talent, determination, and tremendous influence these musicians had on our American musical culture.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where shows are half-price all weekend.

The Boy Cornetist of Washington, D. C.

 

The cornet, like all traditional brass instruments, is not very complicated. It has a small mouthpiece for the player to buzz their lips, three piston valves to lengthen or shorten the plumbing giving it a full chromatic range, and a small bell to amplify its sound. Compared to the finger dexterity and arm coordination essential for playing a string instrument like a violin, the skill set needed to play a cornet is pretty straightforward and relatively easy. Yet it still requires dedication to learn and a good ear to play it well, which is true, of course, for any musical instrument. 

I think this boy's portrait shows a young musician shining with confidence in their natural talent and acquired proficiency. He is one of many boys and girls in my antique photo collection who once posed proudly in a photographer's studio with their cornet. In the 19th century children did not dress-up in athletic uniforms for a formal photograph because there were no school sports teams for kids. But back in the day, parents took such delight in their child's musical accomplishments that portraits of a boy or girl holding their instrument were very popular. And by far the instrument most commonly found in these photos is the cornet. And I have dozens and dozens of similar photos in my collection to prove it.

The full picture is on a cabinet card mount and shows this young man leaning on a faux stone newel post with his feet casually crossed. The botanical backdrop and straw on the floor gives an illusion of an outdoor scene. The photographer has also artfully placed him in a fading oval vignette. Unfortunately as the camera shutter opened the boy moved his wrist and the cornet is out of focus. I feel certain it would otherwise show some fancy engraving around the bell.

The photographer's name is not on the front of the card but on the back. It was taken by Paul Tralles of 309 Ninth Street (between D and Penn Avenue) in Washington, D. C. But the best thing about this photo is that the boy's name and a date are written on the back, too. 

Before scrolling down to see the back, take a look at him again and guess his name. I bet you don't even come close.          Here's a clue. It begins with the letter E. 

The cursive handwriting is clear but has quick twists and it took me some research to figure it out. This young boy cornetist was called Elphonzo Youngs, and the photo was taken on April 10, 1885. He was generally know as Elphonzo Youngs, jr. being named after his father Elphonzo Youngs, a well-known grocer in central Washington. In April 1885 Mr. Youngs advertised 10 lbs bags of granulated sugar for $0.93 and one can of Pure Vermont Maple Syrup for $1.15. His market could also supply fresh oranges imported every week from Florida. Elphonzo Youngs's establishment was "the original no liquor grocer" and was just a block south of Mr. Tralles photography studio.

Washington, D. C. Evening Star
4 April 1885

Mr. Youngs and his wife Amelia's son, Elphonzo junior, was born in December 1870. It's unknown  when the boy began playing the cornet, but Mr. Youngs' grocery was only a two blocks north of the barracks of the "President's Own", the United States Marine Band. And from 1880 to 1892 its band director was the celebrated John Philip Sousa. 

On 13 January 1885 Elphonzo Youngs jr. played his cornet at an event that got him his first notice in one of Washington's newspapers, The Evening Critic, whose office happened to be across the street from the Youngs grocery. A few local businessmen on Ninth Street arranged a free dinner for Washington's newsboys. That evening over 350 boys, white and black, thronged outside a Washington cafe house. As the doors opened the boys rushed in though their boisterous excitement was tempered by a watchful local policeman. A local Sunday school superintendent was master of ceremonies. 

    "There were readings, music, and sensible short addresses to the boys.  The boys were very attentive—often hilarious.  They can sing.  In the chorus of "Hold the Fort" and "In the Sweet Bye-and-Bye" they came out strong.  They "lived" in the chorus.  Good time was kept, and the boys seemed to enjoy the singing immensely.  In the readings policemen were referred to several times.  And when there wore such references, the boys gave Officer Harding, who stood at the head of the room, a benefit.  Between a reading and a song a piping voice about the centre of the room called out "Say Skinny, do you 'spec we'll have turkey?"  This brought down the house.  Five little girls sang a lullaby. 

   "A small boy, Elphonzo Youngs, jr., who gave several airs on the cornet, was encored again and again.  Plates were handed around by ladies, who looked very pretty and very business-like in their white aprons.  They were treated with the greatest respect by the boys.  The empty plates were held as if they were eggshells.  When ladies appeared with the substantials there were "o-h-s" long drawn out and much subdued impatience.  They were all served.  They got a turkey sandwich, cake, apples and oranges and a cup of coffee.  And they liked the repast.  They ate heartily and for a few minutes wore still.  

   "They got away before 10 o'clock, having passed a vote of thanks to the ladies who bad entertained them. 

   "One feature of the evening was an address by Wm. Allen, a veteran newsboy.  He urged the boys to let intoxicants and tobacco alone.  It was a very successful entertainment in every respect." 

 

I bet Mr. Youngs supplied the apples, oranges, and coffee, too.

1891 Washington, D. C., Central High School orchestra
Source: DCGenWeb

Evidently Elphonzo attended Central High School in Washington as I found his name at a website devoted to the history of this school. He is in a picture of the school's orchestra taken from a 1891 school yearbook. Elphonzo is seated on the left with his cornet. He also sang and belonged to the school's boys vocal octet. He is marked standing on right. In other newspaper reports he was described as singing bass. In 1891 Elphonzo would be age 20 which seems old for a high school. The young men and women look more collegiate than scholastic. Perhaps the information on this excerpt for a yearbook is incorrect. But the caption does identify Elphonzo very clearly.

1891 Washington, D. C., Central High School Octette
Source: DCGenWeb

Since his 1885 photograph, Elphonzo had played at many church events, speaker events, and private music school concerts. By the 1890s he was no longer a boy cornetist but a young man making a name for himself. Perhaps he was ready for the Big Apple.

Washington, D.C. Evening Star
9 July 1892

In July 1892 Washington sent a delegation to a huge national Christian conference at Madison Square Garden in New York, where over 24,000 people were in attendance. There was much music performed at this multiday convention which featured choirs of several hundred singers. They were accompanied by "two cornets in addition to a piano and an organ. One of the cornetists (was)  Mr. Elphonzo Youngs, jr., of Washington, a player well known and deservedly popular in his native city.  During the evening's session Mr. Youngs was the only cornetist in the hall, and yet above all these thousands of voices his cornet could be heard leading and supporting the singers.  Mr. Youngs played also at the St. Louis Christian Endeavor convention in 1890."

Though Elphonzo was a talented musician he does not seem to have pursued a career in show business. Instead he worked for his father's grocery company which expanded to several sites in Washington. 

On 25 December 1905 Elphonzo Youngs, sr., died suddenly after being seized by a chill that led to pneumonia. He was a native of New York and a Union Army veteran who, after the war, settled in Washington and opened one of the first temperance grocery firms. One year after his death he garnered some national attention when his will was released.  

Central Law Journal, vol. 63
10 August 1906

   The disgust of a layman with legal phraseology was shown in the will of Elphonzo Youngs, filed here yesterday.  Mr. Youngs was a dignified, well-to-do gentleman, best known for thirty years as a deacon in one of the largest Congregational churches in Washington.  He wrote his will himself, evidently starting out to copy from some book form, which set the example in this wise: 

   "Being by the grace of God in sound mind and body, and mindful of the uncertainty of human life," etc. 

   Then suddenly on the written page there appears a wild dash of ink and the following: 

   "Rats!  This is too formal.  All there is about it is this — at my death, I want my ever faithful and devoted wife, Amelia Loretta L. Youngs to have and control everything I possess." 

In fact Elphonzo Youngs' last will and testament (available on Ancestry.com) was a bit longer—two pages—someone must have persuaded him to add a few instructions about his estate gifts for his son and grandchildren. Yet as wills go, it is still pretty succinct, even though that "wild dash of ink" is not really very wild.

Washington Post
5 July 1928

His son Elphonzo Youngs, jr., died on the 4th of July 1928 of a heart condition while visiting a friend. At the time he was employed as a clerk in the Veterans Bureau. His surviving family included his wife, Phoebe Youngs, and four children. Obituaries noted that he was a trumpet soloist for the Christian Endeavor Society. He was 57 years old.

* * *

For more of my stories
on young cornetists
I recommend:

The Boy Cornetist

The Not-So-Shy Cornetist

Master Tommy Fish, Boy Cornetist

Master Eddie Derville - Cornet Soloist

I wish to thank the unknown person who saved Elphonzo's portrait and whoever signed his name and date to this photo. Having that little extra information transforms an ordinary photo into a genuine human story. It's always a special honor to really meet a person whose picture now resides in my collection. If only we could hear them play.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where kids don't have

anything to do this summer
except sit around.

Music of the Mountains

 

It's a smile that gleams like sunshine.
From just a glance
we can recognize
that this is a fellow
of natural good cheer. 

Likewise the shy smile
of this young man
reveals a person we wish
we could hear more from.

And even though a smile
might be hidden
eyes can still invite us
to stop and listen.

Such is the power
of a good portrait photograph.

Today I present three photos 
of musicians I wish I could have met in person.
They represent a mountainous region of central Europe
called the Tyrolean Alps, whose folk traditions
have helped define western music.

 

My first Tyrolean folk musician is a man seated on a rustic fence below a magnificent snow-covered mountain. He wears lederhosen - short leather breeches, wooden clogs, wool shin-socks, and a broad floppy hat. Besides his smile, what first caught my attention was the small instrument he holds. It's called a recorder, or Blockflöte in German, a woodwind instrument that is very rare to see in antique photos, and the only example in my collection. And what makes it even more unique is that it's a little sopranino recorder in F, the second smallest member of the the recorder instrumental family. 

Recorders make a whistle sound and come in a wide variety of sizes. They are associated with so-called "Early Music" from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. Long ago in another life, I was a member of an early music consort that featured recorders and other forgotten wind instruments. For formal concerts we dressed in quasi-Renaissance costumes. I still have two handcrafted "peasant shirts", very like what this man is wearing, which my mother made for me. I also have about two dozen recorders.

This man's costume is characteristic of a rustic Germanic fashion that was worn in the Bavarian, Austrian, and Italian Alps. His cabinet card photo was taken at the studio of J. B. Rottmayer on Griessstätterstrasse in Berchtesgaden, a town in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, 30 km (19 mi) south of Salzburg and 180 km (110 mi) southeast of Munich. The town and its surroundings were once an independent state of the Holy Roman Empire. However during the turbulent Napoleonic era Berchtesgaden changed rulers a few times until 1810 when it was taken  over by the Kingdom of Bavaria. In the 19th century it became popular with tourists and the Bavarian royal family, the House of Wittelsbach, who maintained a hunting lodge in the former Augustinian monastery in Berchtesgaden. 

The Grand Hotel in Berchtesgaden, 1898
photo by J. B. Rottmayer
(later Grand Hotel Auguste Viktoria,
and from 1936 Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof.)
Source: Wikimedia

In 1898 the photographer of my alpine recorder player published a large landscape photo of Berchtesgaden showing the Grand Hotel Auguste Viktoria. His full name was Johann Bapta Rottmayer (1828–1899). Born in Wien - Vienna, Rottmayer became a successful photographer first in Wien, and later established studios in Graz, Brno, and the port of Trieste. He made countless carte de visites of Austria's aristocracy and upper class, as well as grand landscapes, seascapes, and urban views. However he did not start a studio in Berchtesgaden until around 1898 and then died  in 1899. So my photo very likely dates from 1898-1899. 

This portrait has a novelty quality which suggests it was a holiday/vacation style photo made to fool the folks back home. It's not impossible that this sunny fellow was outfitted in a costume borrowed from the studio and given a recorder and walking stick to complete the illusion of a mountain rustic. Even so, it is still a terrific portrait that delights the eye. 

Johann Rottmayer's name is still remembered because of his connection to a bizarre musical story.  In October 1863 a group of medical scientists exhumed the bodies of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1927) and Franz Schubert (1797–1828) who were buried near each other at a cemetery in Währing, northwest of Vienna. The purpose of this macabre disinterment was supposedly to prevent further decomposition to the bodies and establish more worthy resting places for these two great composers. After the skeletons were removed it was Rottmayer's duty to take a series of photographs of the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert. Each body was carefully examined and measured and plaster casts were made of the skulls. Two weeks later the remains of both composers were reverently placed into new metal coffins and installed into vaults at the cemetery. 

The 1860s were a time when phrenology, a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of the skull, was used as a way to predict human behavior, personality, and intelligence. In the case of these two famous composers, it was thought that their musical genius could be determined from the shape of their brain case. Needless to say, phrenology is a stupid and wicked theory that has been disproven many times. 

To add further insult to the memories of Beethoven and Schubert, in June 1888 the remains of both composers were relocated to the Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof) in Wien. 

(Since Rottmayer's photos of Ludwig and Franz show them in a rather undignified condition, I've decided they don't need to be presented on this blog. Better to remember them by their music.)

* * *

In this photo postcard my second Tyrolean musician is standing in a photographer's studio dressed in longer lederhosen fastened below the knee, white stockings, sensible walking shoes, a wool jacket and a large hat with a long thin feather. The card's caption identifies him as Rudolf Hechensteiner, Zithermeister and on a table he displays his instrument, a zither. This string instrument has a strings over a fretted fingerboard and more open strings to add bass notes. It is usually played on a table which increases its dynamic resonance. Rudolf looks very young to be a master musician, late teens or early 20s maybe, but presumably the medals on his belt are a testimonial to his musicianship  

The postcard was sent from Kufstein, a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, right on the southern border with Bavaria. It's the second largest Tyrolean town after Innsbruck, the state's capital. The postmark imprint on the green face of Kaiser Franz-Joseph is not clear but fortunately the photographer, D. Amort of Kufstein, has left a notice Nachdruck verboten ~ Reprinting prohibited with the year 1910. 

* * *

My last photo is another string player, this time an older man with a contraguitar, also known as a Schrammel guitar. He sits in a photographer's studio with dramatic thunderclouds looming in the backdrop. He is identified in a caption as Seppl Lorenz. Like my recorder player, he is dressed in lederhosen, wool shin-socks, wool jacket and a classic Tyrolean hat with its distinctive Gamsbart plume, made exclusively from hair taken from an Alpine chamois' lower neck. His mustache conceals a hint of a smile but the photographer has captured a moment in his eyes that I think conveys a lighthearted spirit. 

The card was sent from Chemnitz, Germany on 9 October 1919. I expect Seppl Lorenz earned those medals pinned to his jacket in the late war which may account for his good humor. Chemnitz is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and is about 260  miles north of Berchtesgaden, a long way from the Alps. But I think Seppl Lorenz's folk costume is enough to connect him to Tyrolean traditions. Certainly his Schrammel guitar is very much an Austrian instrument. 

To finish here is the "Schrupp-Schrupp Polka"
played on Zither by Balthasar "Hausl" Brandhofer
and on Kontragitarre by Florian Möckl.
Notice how bass notes are played
on the contraguitar with the right thumb
and on the zither with the right pinkie.

And to demonstrate how Tyrolean music
is connected to dancing,  

here is a short historic film
of a Tyrolean dance filmed in 1896.

It was colorized  by the "not.bw" project

and uses the jaunty zither music used as
the soundtrack for the 1949 British film "The Third Man". 

It was written and performed by Anton Karas.

 Berchtesgaden, Germany with a view of Mount Watzmann, 2007
Source: Wikimedia

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where you don't have to climb every mountain
to get to where you are going.