Vintage Musical Greeting Cards for Mother’s Day: FredGrams celebrating Mom

Go directly to the musical MOTHER’S DAY CARDS at FREDGRAMS.COM.

FREDGRAMS, vintage musical greeting cards created by New Jerseyan Fred Miller, uses the good old songs to express the sentiments of virtually all holidays and occasions celebrated in America and abroad.

MOTHER’S DAY celebrates that one person who literally gave us life and, as much as anyone, shaped what life would be for us.

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Go here on the FredGrams blog for a history of Mother’s Day. Among the most fitting traditional songs chosen for Mother’s Day FredGrams are:

A SERENE DAYThe most famous movement from “The Carnival Of The Animals” (1886) by French composer Camille Saint-Saens(1835-1921). The musical setting for Pavlova’s legendary “Dying Swan.”

AN OUNCE OF MOTHER-“Giga” from Suite for Strings, oft-performed chamber piece by Baroque era Italian violinist & composer Arcangelo Corelli(1653-1713).

HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, THE“Wiegenlied” (Cradle Song) by German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Composed in 1868 in honor of the birth of a friend’s second child, the most celebrated of lullabies.

I WANT A GIRL JUST LIKE THE GIRL-5 million-seller, 1911, music by Harry Von Tilzer (born Aaron Gumbinksy, 1872-1946), lyrics by William Dillon. Von Tilzer also wrote the music for “A Bird In A Gilded Cage” and “Wait ‘Til The Sun Shines, Nellie,” and was the older brother of another Tin Pan Alley notable, Albert Von Tilzer (“In Apple Blossom Time,” “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”).

M-O-T-H-E-R-Music by Theodore Morse (1873-1924), lyrics by Howard Johnson, first popularized by music hall star Eva Tanguay, the “I Don’t Care” girl. Johnson was also the lyricist for “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream” and “When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain.”

MOTHER MACHREE-Music by Ernest Ball and Chauncey Olcott, lyrics by Rida Johnson Young, from “Barry Of Ballymore,” 1911. All of the song’s creators have numerous prominent credits, among them, Ball & Olcott’s “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and Young’s lyrics for “Naughty Marietta” (“Italian Street Song,” “Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life”)and “Maytime” (“Will You Remember”) “Machree” is a term of endearment: “my dear,” “dearest”…

PLAY A SIMPLE MELODY(Like My MOTHER Sang To Me)-Music & words by Irving Berlin(1888-1989) from “Watch Your Step,” 1914. One of the earliest of Berlin’s trademark counterpoint songs, 2 melodies sung separately, then simultaneously as a duet.

PRESIDENTS SPEAK OF MOTHERS-“Memories,” music by Egbert Van Alstyne(1882-1951), lyrics (not included here) by Gustavus(Gus)Kahn(1886-1941), 1915. (See Holidays/Valentine’s Day and Occasions/Apologies-Partings). The first of what would be dozens of standards by lyricist Gus Kahn for Tin Pan Alley, on Broadway and in Hollywood. Van Alstyne also wrote “In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree” and “Pretty Baby” (see Occasions/Baby and Holidays/Valentine’s Day).

SHE’S ME PAL-Sub-titled on the original sheet music as “East Side Love Song. Lyric by Vincent Bryan, Music by Gus Edwards, 1905, early Tin Pan Alley favorite. Edwards, vaudevillian & impresario of a famed children’s stage troupe, also penned “School Days,” “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon,” and “In My Merry Oldsmobile.”

SMILES-Music by Lee S. Roberts, lyrics by J. Will Callahan, 1917.

SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME-Perennially popular art song for piano & voice by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). English lyrics by German alto/pianist/translator Natalia Macfarren(1827-1916).

TO A WILD ROSE-A selection from the piano solo collection “Woodland Sketches”(1896) by American composer Edward MacDowell (1860-1908).

Mom, August 2012

Go directly to the musical MOTHER’S DAY CARDS at FREDGRAMS.COM.