I have have had an interest in the popular music from the early decades of the 20th Century since childhood.  When I was in my early 20s I discovered and became an admirer of the writings of Ayn Rand - the author of the philosophically provoking best selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  A few years later, I was amused to learn that Rand enjoyed a type of turn of the century popular music that she called "Tiddlywink Music." 

Of course, there is no such formally recognized musical genre.  "Tiddlywink" seems to have been the name that Ayn Rand gave to music that she responded to in a certain way.  The music does not seem to come from from any one particular genre: Canadian Capers is an example of ragtime; El Choclo is a tango. 

When I discovered that Rand enjoyed music from the same era that I do, I became very curious as to what specific tunes she liked and classified as Tiddlywink music.  Unfortunately, only a few examples have been cited in books and lectures about her. Because I find it fascinating when different interests of mine meet,  I always try to keep an eye open for recordings with an Ayn Rand connection.   There are two obstacles that I face in doing so.  One is the previously mentioned limited information.   The other is the fact that locating  specific vintage recordings can sometimes take a lot of time.  As I find them, however, I will transcribe them to Real Audio and place them on this site. 

The recordings presented here are of songs that I am told that Ayn Rand either liked or had some connection with - such as through one of her movies.  As someone with extremely strong musical opinions, I think it is important for me to mention that, just because someone likes a particular song, it does not mean that they will like every rendition of it.  For example, every so often I will be hear one of my favorite songs resurrected and played in a dreadful "easy listening" style.  Whenever this happens, my usual reaction is revulsion over what I consider to be aesthetic vandalism.  When I listen to music, how something is played is often more important than what is being played.  I think it is reasonable to assume the same was true for Ayn Rand as well.  Please keep this in mind when listening. 

Unlike today where most popular music stars use material written exclusively for them, in the early decades of the 20th century the music industry was dominated by "Tin Pan Alley"  publishers.  When a new song showed signs of becoming popular, record companies tried to get as much mileage as they could out of it by having several artists record it in a variety of styles.  In the 1920s, an especially popular tune could have been recorded by a "hot" jazz band, a "sweet" society band, a Hawaiian guitar duet, a novelty vocalist, an organ soloist,  a "popular concert" orchestra, a "salon" orchestra and, for the rural markets, a "hillbilly" group.   A fan of a particular hot jazz  rendition would probably not care much for the hillbilly or Hawaiian versions - and perhaps may not even like versions by other hot jazz bands. 

The majority of the selections presented here come from my personal 78 rpm record collection.   A few come from subsequent reissues or from the generosity of other music collectors who have been credited. The music on this page does not necessarily present a representative  view of the popular music of the era or of my own personal musical tastes. 

If you enjoy the music presented here, you  might want to visit my musical website, Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine, which features a variety of music from my collection recorded between 1900 and 1940.  I also publish Dismuke's Hit of the Week which is updated every Thursday.  Also check out my Internet radio station Radio Dismuke which is devoted to popular music from the decade 1925 - 1935

Anyone familiar with Ayn Rand's writings already knows how she much she loved New York City and its skyline.  Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to decorate the site with New York City skyscraper pictures from roughly the same era as the recordings.  Included are all of the New York buildings that were, at some point in the 20th century, the tallest in the world. The images come from either my personal collection or from the United States Library of Congress. 

I found out that this was one of Ayn Rand's favorite songs when I saw the film Ayn Rand: A Sense Of Life.   I was already familiar with the song and was honestly a bit scandalized!  In the 1900s and 1910s, jokes and songs making fun of the automobile were very popular.  Usually the focus was on how unreliable they were.  This one is no different.  Imagine Ayn Rand enjoying a song poking fun of the latest technology!  Actually, the story that the words tell is kind of funny.  This recording is NOT from my collection.   I recorded it from a public library copy a few years ago.  Unfortunately,  I have misplaced the notes I took on the artist and recording date. If my memory is correct, it was recorded around 1912.   If  I ever locate the notes, or even better yet, come across a copy of the actual record,  I will immediately put that information up.   A brief excerpt of  a different version of this song was featured in Ayn Rand:  A Sense Of Life.

Get Out And Get Under

"Canadian Capers"

Canadian Capers
Victor Arden - Phil Ohman                                                         1930

My understanding is that this is the version that Rand had in her collection. Arden and Ohman were an extremely popular piano team throughout the 1920s both on records and piano rolls.  The record label characterizes this selection as a "tap dance."  If you listen carefully, about 2 minutes and 17 seconds into the recording, you can hear what sounds like a tap dancer in the background.  Of course, it may have simply been a sound effect from the  percussion section.  It took me many months - as well as a nice chunk of change - to locate this recording.
 

Canadian Capers 
Harry Snodgrass, piano                                                                   1926

Burnswick Records billed Snodgrass as "King of the Ivories."  I think the Arden -Ohman version is better.  Unfortunately, this poor record has been subjected to quite a bit of abuse over the decades and is not in the best of shape - though it is still listenable.

Canadian Capers
Harry Roy & His Orchestra from The Cafe Anglais                    1933

This is a jazzy British dance band recording that comes courtesy of Michael Herklotz, a German record collector I occasionally correspond with.  I really like this arrangement; it is guaranteed to put you in a good mood!   Herklotz, by the way, has an excellent website,  Die Shellack-Seite , that regularly features British and German dance band recordings from the 1920s & 1930s.

Canadian Capers
Al Donahue and His Orchestra                                                    1939

For most of his career Donahue had a society band.  However, in the late '30s and early '40s, he adopted a swing format - of which this recording is an example.

Canadian Capers
Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra                                              1941

Welk was just as schmaltzy in the 1940s as he was in that ghastly television show you may remember. This is the first Lawrence Welk record I have ever intentionally bought.  What little I do have by him was obtained in bulk purchases and was quickly relegated to its proper place:  my "junk record" pile in the garage!  Back in the '30s and '40s, jazz and swing enthusiasts had a derogatory term for bands such as Welk's:  Mickey Mouse bands.

Canadian Capers
Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra                                              1921

Paul Whitman led the 1920's most successful dance band.  He helped make the newly emerging jazz music "respectable" and introduced Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue in a now famous 1924 Aeolian Hall concert.  In the late 1920s, his band featured many of the era's top white jazz musicians and provided the start for the singing careers of Bing Crosby and Mildred Bailey.  One of the most influential names in the 20th Century music industry, he is mostly forgotten today.

Canadian Capers
Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra                                            1937

Here is an interesting bit of trivia:  Ayn Rand was buried one grave over from Tommy Dorsey.   Dorsey was one of the top white jazz sidemen  of the late 1920s.  After an ill-fated attempt to run a band jointly with brother Jimmy in the early 1930s,  he took over the Joe Haymes band and became one of the biggest stars of the swing and big band eras. 

"It was dark by then, it was kind of early evening, I think about seven o'clock or so.  And seeing the first lighted skyscrapers - it was snowing, very faintly, and I think I began to cry because I remember feeling the snowflakes and the tears sort of together"

--  Ayn Rand on her 1926 arrival to New York from Russia as quoted in Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life.

Ayn Rand was fond of his operettas.   Lehar was extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the century.  I highly recommend Lehar's music.  Happily, it is widely available on CD.
 

The Merry Widow Two Step
Victor Dance Orchestra                          1908

This is a selection in dance tempo from Lehar's most famous operetta, The Merry Widow
 

Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
(Your Are My Heart's Delight)
Richard Tauber, tenor; 
Franz Lehar conducting the Orchestra of the Berlin State Opera House                                       mid-1930s
* I have replaced the previous Real Audio file for this selection with a cleaner copy that I recently acquired.

Patiently Smiling
Richard Tauber, tenor;
Franz Lehar conducting the Orchestra of the Berlin State Opera House                                       mid-1930s

These are selections from  Lehar's operetta The Land of Smiles.  Lehar himself is conducting the Orchestra of the Berlin State Opera House.  The singer is famed tenor Richard Tauber, about whom Lehar said: "As a singer he is tremendously gifted:  it is his voice that I hear as I compose." 

"The Internationale"

For the first time in Petrograd, Kira heard the "Internationale."  She tried not to listen to its words.  The words spoke of the damned, the hungry, the slaves, of those who had been nothing and shall be all;  in the magnificent goblet of the music, the words were not intoxicating as wine; they were not terrifying as blood; they were as gray as dish water. . . .

[But] The tune sang a promise, calmly, with the calm of an immeasurable strength, and then, tense with a restrained, but uncontrollable ecstasy, the notes rose, trembling, repeating themselves, too rapt to be held still, like arms raised and waving in the sweep of banners.

It was a hymn with the force of a march, a march with the majesty of a hymn.  It was the song of soldiers bearing sacred banners and priests carrying swords.  It was an anthem to the sanctity of strength. . . . 

Kira stood smiling at the music.  "This is the first beautiful thing I've noticed about the revolution" she said to her neighbor. . . . "When this is all over. . . . when the traces of their republic are disinfected from history - what a glorious funeral march this will make!"
 

The Internationale
Red Army Chorus                                     circa 1950s?

Made in Fascist Italy in the early 1940s without Rand's knowledge or approval, this film was able to get past the initial censors because Italy was then at war with Soviet Russia.  But, once the movie was released and had become a big hit,  Mussolini's government ordered it withdrawn and destroyed - it finally occurred to them that the story was not merely anti-communist, it was anti-totalitarian. Years later, a surviving copy was discovered and purchased by Ayn Rand's attorney. The restored version, with some changes suggested by Rand herself,  was released in the late 1980s.
 

Chansons Paroles (Songs Without Words)
Tchaikovsky - Op. 2 No. 3

This selection is a violin solo from an old Edison Diamond Disc and comes courtesy of R.A. Friedman.  This song is featured in the scene where, after hearing Lydia play this tune, Andrea asks her to continue.  Instead, Lydia refuses and walks away. 

When the We The Living movie was reissued,  I thought this tune was incredibly beautiful and attempted to learn its name for years.  Fortunately, Mr. Friedman, who remembered hearing it on a tape he had made of some of his records, told me about it and sent me a copy - but he could not recall the name of the composer.  Finally, after after posting it here on the site, a number of visitors kindly informed me that it was written by Tchaikovsky.

One of the things that had for so long frustrated my search for the song's name was the fact that the novel describes the tune Lydia played as being by Chopin.   My guess is that the producers of the movie substituted one by Tchaikovsky on the premise that it was more appropriate for the story's Russian setting.

I am keeping my eye out for a piano version on 78 rpm for future inclusion.

Titina
International Novelty Orchestra                       1925

This selection also comes from R.A. Friedman, who informs me that this is the song that was played in the bawdy bar scene.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Rand's love of Rachmaninoff's music is well known.  Rachmaninoff was also a talented pianist and his solo recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company sold well.  I have read that before he went to Victor, Rachmaninoff briefly recorded for the Edison label.  Edison may have been a brilliant inventor, but sometimes he lacked business sense when it came to running a record company.  Despite being almost deaf, for years Edison insisted on personally listening to and approving every record that was produced under his label.  To hear the music, he had a special machine that he bit into and thereby used the bones in his skull to amplify the sound. To make matters worse, Edison had  rather narrow and old fashioned tastes when it came to music. Much to Victor's gain, Rachmaninoff's piano playing did not meet with Edison's approval. 

Another bit of interesting trivia: Ayn Rand and Rachmaninoff are buried in the same cemetery. 

Prelude In G Major ( Op. 32, No. 5)
Sergei Rachmaninoff, composer, pianist                                                  1920

Because this recording is low in volume, you will hear quite a bit of surface noise.  It sounds much better when it is played as it was intended on a wind up phonograph.  If you are interested in hearing more recordings by Rachmaninoff, most of his output has been reissued on CD using state of the ar technology to remove most of the surface noise. 

In the early decades of the 20th Century, the player piano was serious competition to the wind-up phonograph for space in the parlors of  middle and upper class households.  The pianos - "programmed" by a series of holes punched in a roll of paper - offered one major advantage over acoustical recording:  more accurate sound reproduction.  Indeed, thanks to the player piano, we can today hear the piano greats from the past exactly as they sounded live.  Like the record industry, the player piano industry was nearly wiped out by the Great Depression.  But, unlike records, piano rolls never made a substantial comeback - largely due to the advent of improved recording technology as well as radio and, later on, television.  All player piano selections come courtesy of  Gabe of Gabe's Piano Player Page - a site that is definitely worth a visit.  All selections here are played on Gabe's restored 1925 Lexington Simplex Straightline Player Piano.
 

Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto Number 2
Rudlolph Martin, Piano

This selection is seven and a half minutes long - something that, with the exception of a short-lived attempt by Edison,  was not possible on the commercially available records of the time. 

Schubert Impromtu Op 90 Number 4, A Flat
Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano

This was composed by Schubert - but it does provide an opportunity to hear Rachmaninoff play.
 

Eccentric
Jack Bund and His Bravour Dance Band                            1932

This is a British recording that I loved the moment I first played it.  It reminds me a lot of Canadian Capers and the Minute Waltz.  I would be very interested in knowing whether Rand was familiar with it and, if so, what she thought of it.  It sounds like something that she might have enjoyed.  Now that you have an idea about the music she liked, you be the judge.

Maori
Green Brothers Marimba Orchestra                             1930

When I first heard this - especially the first half of the recording - I immediately thought of Ayn Rand and her Tiddlywink music.  It is yet another song I wonder what she would have thought of.  Regardless, I think  it is very beautiful.  While this particular recording is more recent, the song itself dates back to 1908.

I took this photo of the Woolworth Building framed by the World Trade Center's twin towers in the distance during a visit to New York in 1999.  To Ayn Rand, New York City and its skyscrapers were a symbol of "achievement and of life on earth."  It is precisely achievement and life on earth  that the modern day savages desperately hate and seek to destroy.  It is no coincidence that the tallest skyscraper in New York City was chosen as the target of their murderous attack. 

There is talk of rebuilding the World Trade Center - but, so far, the plans are to replace it with several much smaller buildings.  It is said that potential tenants would be afraid to locate in another tall, high profile building.  Not long ago, had someone expressed such a fear, they would have been laughed at.  We will know that our war against savagery has been won when such a fear is once again considered absurd.

In the final chapter of The Fountainhead, architect Howard Roark signs a contract to build the Wynad Building, which was to be New York City's tallest:
 

If you consider the behavior of the world at present and the disaster toward which it is moving, you might find this undertaking preposterous.  The age of the skyscraper is gone....This will be the last skyscraper ever built in New York.  It is proper that it should be so.  The last achievement of man on earth before mankind destroys itself.

Mankind will never destroy itself, Mr. Wynand.  Nor should it think of itself as destroyed.  Not so long as it does things such as this.

As what?

As the Wynand Building.