Kansas

The official state song of Kansas is a waltz and you probably know the song - Home on the Range. It is the quintessential cowboy song. The Kansapedia of the Kansas Historical Society has an excellent history of the song.  It began as a poem by Dr. Brewster M. Higley which was put to music by Daniel E. Kelley. It was first published as sheet music in 1925 and first recorded by country singer, Vernon Dalhart, in 1929. On June 30th, 1947, the Kansas legislature made it the official state song.  For those who object to calling it a waltz, their attention is called to a very dance-able version from the Dancing Clarinet of Hugo Strasser or to the the elegant waltz performed to Home on the Range as choreographed by Yasuyo Watanabe. There are hundreds of covers of Home on the Range made by singers from Bing Crosby to Bugs Bunny but for the purposes of this blog, the original by Vernon Dalhart will be shared:

There are at least three 19th century Kansas waltzes. In 1883, A.W. Perry and Sons of Sedalia, Missouri, published Belles of Kansas Waltz by Frank F. Bidwell. Also in the 1880's, A.W. Perry published Sunny Kansas Waltz by Lona DeWitt.  A. W. Perry was the dominant music publisher in Missouri and Kansas. Interestingly, they turned down the chance to publish Maple Leaf Rag by Sedalia's most famous resident, Scott Joplin, possibly because they did not see a future in ragtime music. They did eventually publish some of his later works.  DeWitt's Sunny Kansas Waltz is decidedly not ragtime as you tell by listening to the song below.

Sunny Kansas Waltz is a curiously popular title. A.W. Perry, publisher of the above Sunny Kansas Waltz also published a monthly magazine called Perry's Musical Magazine.  The first issue was published in 1881 and the final issue, unbelievably, was published in the 1960's.  In May, 1922 Perry's Musical Magazine contained the full score of a piece titled Sunny Kansas Waltz only this one was written by W.M. Shields, arranged by C.E. Wheeler.  That particular issue has been scanned by the Google Books project and the full score is available online here. It is completely different from the DeWitt version.  And, completing this trifecta of Sunny Kansas Waltzes is one composed in 1906 by Jesse Wilma Blanpied and published by Pioneer Music Publishing Co. Sadly, only the copyright for this third Sunny Kansas Waltz remains.

In 1885, W.F. Shaw published Kansas Waltz composed by Fred. Hoffmann for piano.  A copy resides in the U.S. Library of Congress Notated Music Collection.  You can listen to a computer generated transcription of Hoffmann's Kansas Waltz below.

There is a fiddle tune titled Kansas Waltz.  Mike Black, of the group Three Bean Salad learned Kansas Waltz from fiddler James Bryan.  A score from Bryan suggests that Kansas Waltz is credited to Elias Howe, 1861. Indeed it can be found in Howe's Musician's Omnibus No. 2 published in 1862. (Note - if you follow the preceding link,  Kansas Waltz is on page 147.) While Howe was a fiddle player, he was primarily a collector and publisher of dance tunes popular in the mid 19th century.  It seems probable that Howe collected rather than wrote the tune so it may fit into that category titled "traditional." Regardless, it is thanks to musicians like Bryan and Black that the tune has been revived and currently thrives in the old-time fiddle repertoire.  Several examples exist on YouTube including those of Three Bean Salad, FreshGrass and mandothumper but the most authentic version is probably that of the man who most likely rediscovered the tune, James Bryan. He is accompanied on mandolin by Carl Jones on the CD titled Cricket's Lullaby. You can hear it below.

There is another version of the traditional Kansas Waltz which is worth sharing just because it is beautiful.  It is by talented, multi-instrumentalist Larry Lintner.  Listen below.

Kansas is one of those states that almost missed the flurry of state waltzes when Tennessee Waltz became popular.  There are no 45 rpm or 78 rpm singles of Kansas waltzes from that period but there was a song titled The Kansas Waltz with words written by Charlotte Hiler and music by Howard Redmond.  A copy exists in the Kirk Collection of Song Sheets at Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana University.  It was published in 1950 by Peer International Corporation. A request has been made to that library for a copy.

Kansas Sunflower Waltz was composed by Leo Eiltz and recorded in the back of his van in Stockton, Kansas in August, 2008. He has preserved that moment on YouTube:

What is not included:

The November 2, 1987, Salina Journal reported that Ernestine "Teen" Donahue had composed and copyrighted a Kansas Waltz and had performed it, accompanying herself on the mandolin, at the Herington (Kansas) Centennial in March of 1987. The article also noted that "Teen" is 73 years old. Sadly, no further trace of the song has been found.

A Wichita, Kansas band called Calamity Cubes recorded a tune titled Kansas Waltz on their CD, Old World's Oceans. The band's music has been described as Alt Country, Country Underground, Prairie Grass or Trashicana.  The version of their Kansas Waltz that can be found on-line is far from being a waltz, so it was not included here.

For those of you who have persisted to the end of this blog, here are two scores for the traditional Kansas Waltz.  The first is as it was taught by James Bryan to Mike Black (thanks to Mike for sharing it with Waltz Across the States) and the second is as it appeared in Elias Howe's Musician's Omnibus.

Return to the Index of Other States