Egbert Anson Van Alstyne (March 4, 1878 – July 9, 1951) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

. Van Alstyne was the composer of a number of popular and ragtime tunes of the early 20th century.

Biography

Van Alstyne was born in Marengo, Illinois. After some time touring in

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, initially working as a Tin Pan Alley song-plugger until he was able to make his living as a songwriter. He teamed with lyricist Harry H. Williams. Their first success was "Navajo" which was introduced in the Broadway

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

'' Nancy Brown'' in 1903 and became one of the first records by Billy Murray early in 1904.Arwulf Arwulf. "Egbert Van Alstyne", All Music http://www.allmusic.com/artist/egbert-vanalstyne-mn0000178190/biography Their best remembered song is " In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" from 1905. In 1913 Egbert Van Alstyne and lyricist Gus Kahn began a productive partnership creating several notable hits of the era, including "

Memories Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is Encoding (memory), encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future Action (philosophy), action. I ...

". Other Van Alstyne hits included "Won't You Come Over to My House?" and " I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark". Van Alstyne shares credit with Tony Jackson on the hit " Pretty Baby". It was common for Tin Pan Alley publishers to add the name of one of their famous hit makers to tunes, and many have speculated this as being the main reason for Van Alstyne's name appearing on the piece, but Van Alstyne may have had a hand in writing or modifying the verse to Jackson's famous chorus. He recorded a number of piano rolls. Van Alstyne lived for many years in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He died there on July 9, 1951, and was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

Works, 1900–1920

Awards and honors

He was inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Egbert Van Alstyne in IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0885579/

References

* Charosh, Paul, and Robert A. Fremont. ''Song Hits from the Turn of the Century: Complete Original Sheet Music for 25 Songs.'' New York : Dover Publications, 1983. * Evans, P., and P. Lavender. ''Music for the Millennium: The Twenties A Century of Popular Song.'' London: Wise Publications, 1997. * Ewen, David. ''Popular American Composers from Revolutionary Times to the Present; A Biographical and Critical Guide.'' New York: H. W. Wilson Co, 1962. * Jasen, David A. ''Ragtime Gems: Original Sheet Music for 25 Ragtime Classics.'' New York: Dover, 1986. * ''Songs with Music by Egbert Van Alstyne: Pretty Baby, in the Shade of the Old Apple Tree.'' .l. General Books, 2010. * Studwell, William E. ''They Also Wrote: Evaluative Essays on Lesser-Known Popular American Songwriters Prior to the Rock Era.'' Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000. * Van Alstyne, Egbert, A. J. Mills, Harry Castling, Walter Emerson, and Fred Hallam. ''In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree: Parody.'' London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1906. * Van Alstyne, Egbert, and Gene Arnold. ''My Prayer for Today.'' .l. M. Witmark & Sons, 1949.

External links

Digital image of "On the Road to Home Sweet Home" in the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections

"I'm Goin' Back to Oklahoma" in the Lilly Library Sheet Music Collection, Indiana University

List of works by Egbert Van Alstyne in the Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections
* * *
Egbert Anson Van Alstyne biography by Bill Edwards at Ragpiano.com

Egbert Van Alstyne, Tin Pan Alley Pioneer

Egbert Van Alstyne in the National Jukebox

Egbert Van Alstyne recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Alstyne, Egbert 1878 births 1951 deaths Songwriters from Illinois American keyboardists American vaudeville performers People from Marengo, Illinois

Biography

Works, 1900–1920

Awards and honors

References

Further reading

External links