Month January 2022

i78s Now Has More Than 8,000 Vintage Sheet Music Covers Online

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i78s Now Has More Than 8,000 Vintage
Sheet Music Covers Online

 

By David Giovannoni and Kathy Sheram

 

Click here for more information on i78s.org, the exciting new 78- and cylinder-streaming website. Registration is free, simple, and secure.

 

Over 8,000 records at i78s are now illustrated with sheet music covers from the Giovannoni–Sheram Collection.

Registered users can check them out by browsing through any list of records. When you see the SHEET MUSIC tab, there’s something to look at. (Roughly one-in-five records are linked to sheet music covers.)

Here a few examples. [Note that these scans are only for demonstration purposes, and not indicative of the high quality you’ll see on the site. Click the link below each image to stream a recording of the selection; if you’re a registered i78s user and currently logged on to the site, you will also be able to view both the front and back covers. To access all 41,000 recordings, the associated discographical data, and 8,000 sheet music covers, you’ll need to register on the site.]

 

Here’s the Unique Quartette cover that spawned the Celebrated reissue:

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https://i78s.org/preview/65dec4a2e54cafcda08e972c85d44c1b

 

This isn’t a sexy cover, but look at the publisher….

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https://i78s.org/preview/d1fe9c18e0f398890c2b6078d69871a7

 

We often have multiple copies of sheet music selections, so records of the same title can link to different sheets. Here’s one with Bobby North’s picture and another with Belle Baker’s:

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https://i78s.org/preview/eb218f5cd40074798514e13c7544cdb3

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https://i78s.org/preview/57227eec9f3784068d229766cb83bf50

 

Sometimes there’s cool bonus material on the sheets (see backside):

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https://i78s.org/preview/ce836db7600c215f0327666764317478

 

Later this month, i78s will gain the ability to search data from the sheets (composer, publisher, artists on cover) and include hits in its search results. For instance, a search for the “Unique Quartet” will bring up the records linked to the Unique Quartette cover photo on “Where the Sweet Magnolias Bloom.” We hope these upgrades will help contextualize the recordings and make the site richer and more useful to more folks.

As always, your thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Many thanks, and enjoy!