The Music Of Charles K. Harris

Last month (October, 2001) we featured "tear jerkers", songs that are sad or that tell a sorrowful tale. That idea was submitted to us by one of our loyal ParlorSongs fans, David Chase. This month though we focus on the overal music of Charles K. Harris, this issue is in many respects a continuation of the tear jerker theme, many of the songs we feature this month were suggested by David as a part of the tear jerker theme.

Not only did Charles K. Harris start the fad for "story" songs with After The Ball, but he developed, perhaps more so than any other songwriter, the sorrowful song to its peak of sadness and even horror. Many of his songs dealt with death and misery. A prolific songwriter, surprisingly according to several accounts, he never could read or write music and many of his songs though credited to him were actually written by other composers including Theodore Morse and his "arranger" Joseph Clauder. To learn more about this composer and see and hear more of his songs, see our biography of Harris in the "In Search Of" series about him.

For this month though, we will continue to plumb the depths of musical misery with his music, but will also show some other songs including an excellent patriotic song from 1898.

As with most of our features, this month's is covered on two separate pages to speed your downloads and to avoid a mile-long page. Be sure to see them BOTH to fully enjoy all of this month's music!