What did Sheet Music Look Like

Dominic Vautier  8/7/2011

Sheet music came in two sizes; the old style song sheet measured a little more than 11 inches wide and 14 inches high.  The smaller size sheet introduced later was close too 9 by 12 inches.  Most pieces were printed in the larger size until about 1910, when the piano music holders began to get smaller and publishers wanted to save paper and transportation costs.  The 9 by 12 size started appearing about that time and became the standard after the First World War, but a few of the larger sized sheets can be found as late as 1920.

Some music came in books of songs, marches, or waltzes, but most of the time each piece contained one song and was usually made up of one double folded sheet with a single sheet inside, making a total of three pages or six sides.  Since one side was for the cover and the other for advertisement, four sides were left for the music.  The songwriters had to consider these things when they published.  Songs had to be written and arranged in a way that accommodated four printed pages.  I have sheets that have one and two inserts.  Some are bound with a staple, but more often nothing. 

The advertisement was usually a full page on the inside front cover and/or on the back side, and it frequently showed samples of other songs available through that publisher.

After 1900 I notice the front cover was often done in color, and some covers are very artistic.  However, more often there was just a title and the picture of a singer or famous song plugger who popularized the song.  This practice was carried forward into the recording industry, when singing stars became the main advertisers for a song and appeared on the record jacket.  The back of record jackets or record sleeve advertised other songs by the same publisher, a continuation of sales practices used in sheet music.

Most of the time, we know who wrote the music but we don’t know too much about who was responsible for the sometimes excellent artwork on the song cover page.  Each publishing house could employ one or more artists to design the sheet covers, but they didn’t keep good records.  Even up until 1900 most of the artists who designed the sheet-music covers remained unknown.

                                    Included also on the cover  is thepublishing house.  All publishing houses had their own logo.  Sometimes there was a picture of the songwriter or lyricist or, more frequently, the publisher.  The copyright date appears on the inside cover on the first page often in Roman numerals..

Song sheets usually had no list price.  The price for a piece of sheet music could be 25 to 50 cents, although it was totally negotiable.  There were price wars, and the cost could got down to 5 cents a sheet.  Publishers printed sheet music for as little as 2 cents a copy, so even at this low bargain price, lots of opportunity for profit remained.

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