GEORGE FOLEY PLAYS CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY FOLIOS

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sat, 11/03/2007 - 14:46.


George Foley closed his entertaining afternoon on Saturday October 27 with   Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag - a eager request of the lady in the feather boa.    

 

George’s Casio electronic piano seemed a bit out of context with the marble library interior and special exhibition display cases of the Old Cleveland Public Library - filled with original music folios with their colorfully illustrated covers.  The audience of about 40 (old and young) soaked up the warm atmosphere and George’s piano, singing, and historic reminiscences.

 

The event should have been videoed for web TV and the library curator interviewed -  realneo will get there eventually.   

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See George in action

Great post! I am a music libarian at CPL and as far as your videocast is concerned, I did film one complete tune, available on the Fine Arts Department blog also available are a few more pics on our Flickr account. Also, you mentioned the display, the following is the official press release about it:

A Sentimental Journey: Selections from the Cleveland Public Library Sheet Music Collection



Exhibit located on the 3rd floor of Main Library, Fine Arts & Special Collections





September through January 2008 – For more information, call 216-623-2848




This exhibit features highlights from the library’s collection of over 20,000 titles of sheet music. On display are examples of  19th century popular songs by Henry Russell, George F. Root, Stephen Foster, Henry Clay Work, James A. Bland, David Braham, Paul Dresser, and others.  Included are songs from operettas, the Ziegfeld Follies, Broadway and soundtracks from movies.  





Also exhibited are songs written or sung by famous personalities such as Adelina Patti, Bert Williams, Al Jolson, Elvis Presley, Patti Page, and the Platters. These songs will take you to far off places and recreate America’s bygone days. Other great songs written by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, and Rodgers and Hammerstein are just a few of the many composers and lyricists featured in this exhibit.  Included are songs about Ohio and Cleveland as well as featuring many Cleveland music publishers and composers such as Ernest Ball and Henry Mancini. 



Librarian X

I picked up the sheet music to Woody Woodpecker by George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss and Riders in the Sky : A Cowboy Legend by Stan Jones at the South Hills Antique Gallery.  I don't read music, but I want to learn.  I had planned to be at the George Foley event, but life intervened.  We have so many resources available to us in Cleveland and we should take this time of year to reflect and be thankful.  After listening and watching your tape, I know that we can also be thankful for the artist George Foley.

While, our institutions don't always encourage us to speak out, but we need to keep talking, especially to promote all the positive things we have in our community.  I am reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.  It is brilliant and appropo for our times and I am so glad that I will have a chance to see the artist at Cleveland Public Library on Sunday, November 18 at the Louis Stokes Auditorium at 2:00 p.m.