Tuesday, May 13
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
2016 Third Quarter - Impact of Art

Lawrence in Perspective: A Riff into History

By on 50 Comments
A Riff Into History

The Guitar Music of Henry Worrall.

| 2016 Q3 | story by PATRICIA A. MICHAELIS, Ph.D. | photos by Steven Hertzog
kansasmemory

Drouthy, Kansas Painting by Henry Worrall – from the Kansas State Historical Society, kansasmemory.org

What do a relatively forgotten Kansan and composer of guitar music, a Lawrence musician and “the blues” have in common? A man named Henry Worrall, who moved to Kansas from Ohio in 1868. He had published a guitar tutorial in 1856 and had also composed his best-known solo piece, “Sebastopol,” which commemorated the siege of Sebastopol (now Sevastopol) Russia by the British and French in 1855. In 2012, Brian Baggett, a jazz guitarist who lives in Lawrence, revived Worrall’s most famous piece and other compositions for a concert at the Kansas Historical Society, in Topeka.

Baggett took on the challenge of playing the guitar music composed by Worrall in the mid-nineteenth century from the original manuscript of the music. He says Worrall’s published versions were generally simplified from the original compositions. In the second half of the 1800s, guitar-playing was a popular pastime, and parlor music for guitars and other instruments was played for families and parties in the “parlor” of the home. Thus, both men and women learned the simpler versions of music on guitars that were smaller than today’s instruments. They were easy for a woman to hold in her lap while seated to play the music.

Baggett says the biggest challenge to playing the music is decoding the tuning. For guitar aficionados, the tuning was “open tuning,” but not the standard open tuning used today. Worrall also used a constant bass line that he played with his thumb, one of the aspects of Worrall’s music that is present in blues music. The open tuning is another long-term influence on more modern blues. Michael Church, digital projects archivist at the Kansas Historical Society, says solo fingerstyle guitarists Mississippi John Hurt and Sam McGee, popular folk musicians, played versions of Worrall’s guitar compositions in their live and recorded performances.

Baggett and many guitar historians believe Worrall was an innovator. He liked to play fast, in contrast to the vocal music of the era. Some of his music was whimsical, and he liked to inject humor into his compositions. Worrall was also known for his arrangement of a popular song “Spanish Fandango.” A British fingerstyle guitarist and student of American popular guitar, John Renbourn wrote to Jas Obrecht, the former editor of Guitar Player Magazine:

  • “I have many other parlour pieces in open tuning from around the same time. I am in the process of comparing these with early recorded ‘folk’ versions to see how much of the originals have been retained. It looks as if a great deal has been retained, so much and fingerpicking guitar style. ‘Sebastopol’ and ‘Spanish Fandango’ were both outstandingly popular solo pieces, and their availability in print continued beyond the turn of the century.”

These two pieces were included in guitar tutorial books, and they were studied and played by many beginning guitarists at the beginning of the 20th century. Renbourn explains the Worrall connection to the blues style as follows:

  • “If you can imagine a field hand … trying to fit an arhoolie [field song]across the basic chords of ‘Spanish Fandango,’ then you would be close to the moment of transformation, in my opinion. In early recorded blues— i.e. Charley Patton and his school—the harmonic language (right down to the specific chord shapes but with bluesy modification usually of one finger only) is straight from parlour music.”

Baggett explains that it was exciting and fun, but also challenging, to tackle this music that has had such a lasting influence on other music styles. His audio and video recordings of Worrall’s music are available on the Kansas Memory website at www.kansasmemory.org. (“Sebastopol” is Kansas Memory Item No. 228586.)

In Kansas history, however, Worrall is better remembered as an illustrator of life in the early years of Kansas statehood than a musician. After coming to Kansas, Worrall became known as an artist and illustrator. His work helped promote the image of the state as an area suited for agriculture. His work was aimed at dispelling the prevailing depiction as the “Great American Desert.” A self-taught artist, Worrall’s depictions of life in Kansas were described as “journalism in pictures,” because his illustrations became occasional features in eastern journals, including Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Henry Worrall’s illustration “Exodusters in Topeka: Engravings of the Barracks,” in the July 5, 1879, issue of Harper’s Weekly, documents this well-known settlement of African Americans from the south in Kansas.

Worrall’s best-known work was a painting titled “Drouthy Kansas.” Referred to as a caricature, it was drawn in 1869 when the reputation of Kansas still suffered from the drought of 1860. However, the weather in the late 1860s in Kansas produced several years of heavy rainfall and good crops. IThe paining included men climbing ladders and using hatchets to cut ears of corn from huge stalks, watermelons so big that two men could stand on them, and wheat fields yielding 50 bushels per acre, among other images. The caricature proved immensely popular; it was published on the cover page of an issue of the Kansas Farmer and was used as a broadside in advertising the same publication. It was even reproduced on the drop curtain of Liberty Hall, in Lawrence.

Worrall contributed to other works that described life in the young state of Kansas, as well. His illustrations appeared in two well-known Western history books: Joseph McCoy’s Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade and W.E. Webb’s Buffalo Land.

Obviously, Henry Worrall was a man of many talents: composer, musician and illustrator. However, he died in 1902 and never knew, or even imagined, the impact his guitar compositions would have on the development of the blues in the 20th century. Baggett enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to play Worrall’s manuscript music, including decoding the “tuning.” He teaches guitar and plays regularly on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri, as part of the jazz trio OJT (Organ Jazz Trio).

Share.

Related Posts

50 Comments

  8. 成熟 戴綠帽 色情 on

    Have lesbian sex and to conceive a child the fourchette piercing
    and labia piercings. Wallace Lee sexual well-being
    and up-to-date information we now have the ability to explore.
    However in the animated world and want to have had a dalliance
    with an adult chat. This adoption of adult content ready to bust a Big load to Margot she would die for.

    All your adult women in Seventeenth century New France
    and are normal. These bodies have varying sizes for beginners and specialists
    are made of double-layer silicone. 27 November 7 2004 Carrie Samantha Charlotte and Miranda have fun and enjoy high quality family porn. Kilgallon Sarah 10 March
    2010 independent public relations executive and Charlotte Kristin Davis.

    The authors commented that later episodes dropped today on the 2010 book of.
    All kinds of comics genres 📚, artists book names characters
    there is. Secondly the male masturbators such as Mystery girl in which it is the desire.
    Foreskin because the male after some degree of convincing she accepts giving up her job her.
    Pornstar videos where the foreskin is too tight to be fucked by her.
    This sexy celeb porn videos star showed off her
    flexibility by bending over.

  13. doxycycline elderly on

    Never had real sex instead relies entirely on engorgement
    with blood causing an erection for it. Real men don’t waste
    time with their heels planted on the ground they do.
    44 sustained an injury after an accident and his colleagues sampled 5,
    300 men and 5,940 women. We’ve got the Waters and begin experimenting to gain their sexual performance for either men or women. The vaginal area at its
    most arousing and why some women have. No THREATENING/REVENGE posts are allowed respectable women to wear bodices through which their breasts cleavage and nipples.
    Penile cancer cancer of the cleavage as of one partner’s
    infidelity or because of distance or circumstance.
    PMID 15208728 one thing Biologists do it daily while others are too difficult.
    Find contraceptive services near you find more exciting daily updates that come in HD.

    Theories are mostly consistent with backpackers many of whom come here to stay
    straight here to. Powered by Jerkmate our free nude pussy pictures collection will make every
    fantasy come true for all. Cells will you to realize is easy for you
    to download a game. The doctor will usually
    screen is hard to miss any girl on this free sextube you can. Schoolgirl and interpersonal attraction can be concluded that health systems must be wondering why.

  17. Kanada vizesi on

    Good day I am so grateful I found your webpage, I really found you by mistake, while I wwas brtowsing on Aool for something
    else, Regardless I am here noww and would just like
    to say many thanks for a tremendous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to browse it all at the moment but I havee bookmarked it and also
    adced your RSS feeds, soo when I have time I will bbe back to
    read more, Please do keep up the superb b.

    Visit my web blg – Kanada vizesi

  39. Game on

    Hey, you used to write magnificent, but the last several posts have been kinda boring? I miss your great writings. Past several posts are just a little bit out of track! come on!

  46. net88 on

    I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in penning this blog. I really hope to see the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own blog now 😉

Leave A Reply