Silvery Waves: A Song History

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Addison Pinneo Wyman was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, in 1832, and according to the town's 1911 history, music drew him from youth; he went on to work as an organist and to give lessons in singing as well as on instruments.[1] He taught at Kimball Union Academy, in Wheeling, in Claremont, and in Washington, Pennsylvania, where he died on April 15, 1872.[1] The same history credits him with a solid reputation as a composer and names "Silvery Waves" among the works of his that found popular favor.[1]

Engraving of a woman in a wide skirt seated at a piano in a parlor, with a girl standing beside her

Winslow Homer, Mrs. Otcheson at the Piano, wood engraving, 1860. A woman and a girl at a parlor piano in 1860, three years before Wyman's piece; the engraving has no connection to it.

The piece is an original theme with variations for piano, and S. Brainard & Co. of Cleveland issued it with an 1863 copyright date; a copy at the Library Company of Philadelphia carries a dedication to the ladies of the Washington Female Seminary.[2] The International Music Score Library Project lists it as Op. 39 in A-flat major, laid out as an introduction, five variations and a finale.[3] Its catalog of editions shows the piece spreading well beyond Ohio, with printings by Schott in Mainz, Boosey in London and André in Offenbach, alternative titles such as "Les ondes argentines," a violin-and-piano version from 1880, a piano four-hands arrangement from 1885, and a Philadelphia edition from around 1924.[3] Boston's F. Trifet also put out a "Trifet Edition," now held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Mills Music Library.[4] The Library of Congress illustrates its essay on piano music in its American sheet music collection for 1870 to 1885 with an 1872 edition of "Silvery Waves" whose parts are labeled Piano I and Piano II.[5]

Shelley Stevens arranges "Silvery Waves" for one dulcimer in DAD tuning in Classical Music For Mountain Dulcimer, a Fingers Of Steel book first issued as The Three String Orchestra, Vol. II, which pairs tablature with standard notation.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Silvery Waves"

Sources

  1. Internet Archive: "History of the Town of Cornish, New Hampshire, with Genealogical Record, 1763–1910, Vol. 2" (William H. Child, 1911).
  2. Library Company of Philadelphia: "Silvery waves: original theme with variations for the piano forte / by A. P. Wyman".
  3. IMSLP: "Les ondes argentines, Op.39 (Wyman, Addison P.)".
  4. University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries: "Silvery waves" (Mills Music Library, Americana Sheet Music Collection).
  5. Library of Congress: "Music for Piano and Other Instruments" (American Sheet Music, 1870 to 1885).
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Shelley Stevens, Classical Music For Mountain Dulcimer".
  7. Image: Winslow Homer, Mrs. Otcheson at the Piano, wood engraving, 1860. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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