Re: Old World vs. Sousa

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

The local orchestra might have five
> pieces, and, if so, they'd only use those parts. I've got parts of
> standard dance music published in the 1850s and 1880s, also like
> that, though the instrumentation was less varied (no piano, flute,
> drums, etc.; only one clarinet and one cornet; the second violin plays
> double stops). A common series used in this area (Michigan) was "Gems
> of the Ballroom," which Sears & Roebuck sold, but mostly they used
> just the violin and piano parts.

Where do you suppose the standardized orchestra comes from?
 
 It would
> be interesting to know if European publishers were using the same
> instrumentation and publishing similar arrangements of popular dance
> music, and, if so, how far east in Europe they were doing it.

I don't own anything of the kind. The only arranged folk music I've got
is the socialist Dinicu/Stanescu arrangements of popular Romanian tunes
for flute, Bb clar, Cobza (yup) Tsimbl, and double string section, but
we're in a different ballpark here. J.

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