The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center
Guion, David W. (David Wendell),
1892-1981
David Wendell Guion Collection
ca. 1902-1937
1 box (.42 linear feet)
The David Wendell Guion Collection
consists of handwritten manuscripts of Guion's music from about 1902 to 1937,
primarily influenced by cowboy songs and African-American spirituals. All pieces are
written for piano, and some have lyrics.
English
TXRC03-A9
Biographical Sketch
David Wendell Guion was born in Ballinger, Texas, on 15 December 1892 to John I. and
Armour Fentress Guion. His earliest musical influences included the cowboy culture
of his rancher father and the songs of his family's African-American household
servants. Piano studies took Guion to Vienna, Austria, in 1912 to study with Leopold
Godowski at the Royal Conservatory of Music, but he was forced to return to Texas in
1914 by the onset of World War I.
Guion supported himself by teaching and composing and moved to New York in 1929.
There an association with publishers G. Schirmer, Inc. brought new popularity for
his arrangements of cowboy songs and spirituals. His biggest hit,
Home on the Range, emerged from his New York
production Prairie Echoes. Guion hosted a weekly
radio program entitled Hearing America with David
Guion and later, David Guion and his
Orchestra with an NBC studio orchestra. His larger work, Ballet Primitive, "Shingandi," was originally intended
to be film music for Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan.
When "talkies" changed the film landscape, however, Guion instead premiered Shingandi in 1931 in a different orchestration with a
prominent jazz group, the Paul Whiteman Band. The work eventually toured as a ballet
production with Dallas's Kosloff Ballet Company. In 1950 Guion was commissioned to
write the suite Texas for the Houston Symphony
Orchestra, and he completed the piece in 1952.
In addition to
Home on the Range, Guion is best
known for his arrangements of Turkey in the Straw,
The Yellow Rose of Texas, and The Arkansas Traveler, and for his piano pieces
The Harmonica Player and The Scissors Grinder. He captured Texas cowboy
culture in tunes such as Ride, Cowboy, Ride,
Ol' Paint,
The Bold Vaquero, and Lonesome Song of the Plains. His piano arrangements
caught the interest of pianist and composer Percy Grainger, who included Guion's
work in his own concerts to great acclaim. Guion's affinity for African-American
spirituals appears in both his own songwriting and in collaboration with lyricist
Marie Wardall in the opera Suzanne. He also worked
with lyricist Jessie B. Rittenhouse, a poet and anthologist in New York.
Guion lived on a Pennsylvania estate he called "Home on the Range" from 1937 until
moving to Dallas in 1965. He taught at Howard Payne University, Fort Worth
Polytechnic College, Fairmont Conservatory, Chicago Musical College, Daniel Baker
College, and Southern Methodist University. Guion died in Dallas on 17 October 1981
and was buried in his hometown of Ballinger. In 1987 he was honored by a permanent
exhibit of his personal items and recordings at the International Festival Institute
in Round Top, Texas.
Sources:
Buchanan, Steven Erle.
The Piano Music of David W. Guion
and the Intersection of Musical Traditions in America after World War I.
Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, 1978.
Dick, James.
Guion, David Wendel.
The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical
Association.
(http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook.online/articles/view/GG/fgu16.html)
Index Terms
People
Rittenhouse, Jessie B (Jessie Belle),
1869-1948.
Wardall, Marie.
Subjects
Composers -- Texas.
Cowboys -- Texas -- Songs and music.
Piano music.
Songs.
Spirituals (Songs)
Document Types
Scores.
Scope and Contents
The David Wendell Guion Collection consists of handwritten manuscripts of Guion's
music from about 1902 to 1937, primarily influenced by cowboy songs and
African-American spirituals. The pieces are arranged in a single series,
Compositions, ca. 1902-1937. All pieces are written for piano, and some have lyrics.
Individual titles include
Home on the Range,
The Yellow Rose of Texas,
Turkey in the Straw, and others. Also included
are scores for two larger works, Ballet Primitive,
"Shingandi" and selections from the opera Suzanne. The music is often marked with handwritten notes and publication
dates.
This collection reveals Guion alternately functioning as composer, arranger, and
collector of folk tunes. Collaborations with lyricists include extensive work with
Marie Wardall and Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Most compositions were written either in
Texas or New York and are often marked accordingly.
Acquisition:
Gift, 1960
Access:
Open for research
Processed by:
Sarah Norris, 2002; Richard Workman, 2003
Other Guion materials are held in the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University,
the Crouch Music Library at Baylor University, the Dallas Public Library, and the
International Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas.
Container List
Compositions, ca. 1902-1937
1
1
Home on the Range, original
manuscript, 1908
1
2
Ballet Primitive, "Shingandi,"
1929
1
3
Suzanne, nd. Lyrics, Marie
Wardall
1
4
Cowboy/Texas songs, 1906-1935
1
5
African-American spirituals, 1918-1929
1
6
Songs with other lyricists, ca. 1903-1937
1
7
Other compositions, ca. 1902-1936
Index of Titles
- All Day on the Prairie--1.4
- Ally [<emph render="italic">sic</emph> for "Alley"] Tunes--1.7
- Arkansas Traveler (Old Fiddlers'
Breakdown)--1.7
- Ballet Primitive, "Shingandi"--1.2
- Barcarolle Espanol--1.7
- The Bell-Buoy--1.6
- The Bold Vaquero--1.4
- Brudder Sinkiller and his Flock of Sheep
(Alley Tunes: I)--1.7
- Chloe (Negro Wail)--1.5
- The Cowboy's Dream--1.4
- Cowboy's Meditation (Texas Range
Song)--1.4
- Country Jig--1.7
- Creole-Creola--1.6
- The Crucifixion (or) At the Cry of the First
Bird--1.7
- Darkey Spirituals--1.5
- Embers--1.6
- The Ghostly Galley--1.6
- The Harmonica Player (Alley Tunes: III)--1.7
- A Heartbreak--1.7
- Holy Bible (Darkey Spirituals)--1.5
- Home on the Range--1.1
- In Galam (Suzanne)--1.3
- I Sees Lawd Jesus a Comin--1.5
- Jubilee--1.5
- Lef' Away (Negro Wail)--1.5
- Life and Love--1.6
- Lil' Black Rose--1.6
- Little Joe the Wrangler--1.4
- Little Pickaninny Kid--1.5
- Lonesome Song of the Plains (Anonymous ink
drawing on cover)--1.6
- The Lonesome Whistler (Alley Tunes: II)--1.7
- Loss--1.6
- Love Is Lord of All--1.7
- Mam'selle Marie (Suzanne)--1.3
- Mary Alone--1.6
- De Massus an' de Missus (Suzanne)--1.3
- My Own Laddie--1.7
- Negro Wail (Lef' Away)--1.5
- O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (The Dying
Cowboy)--1.4
- O Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie (In
Remembrance of Will Rogers),--1.4
- De Ol' Ark's a-Movin'--1.5
- Old Maid Blues--1.6
- Ol' Paint--1.4
- O' My Lawd, What Shall I Do? (Darkey
Song)--1.5
- One Day--1.6
- Praise God and I'm Satisfied--1.5
- Prayer during Battle--1.7
- Rabbit's Foot (Gettin' Over the
Blues)--1.6
- Rag Crazy (Jazz Scherzo)--1.7
- Resurrection--1.6
- Return--1.6
- Roll Along, Little Dogies--1.4
- Run, Mary, Run!--1.5
- Sail Away for the Rio Grande--1.4
- Satan's a Liar an' a Conjur Too (Darkey Spirituals)--1.5
- Sinner, Don't Let dis Harvest Pass--1.5
- Suzanne--1.3
- Texas Cowboy's Meditation--1.4
- This Night Can Never Come Again!--1.6
- To the Sun (Suzanne)--1.3
- Turkey in the Straw--1.7
- Valse Arabesque--1.7
- Voodo [<emph render="italic">sic</emph>] (Suzanne)--1.3
- De Voodo [<emph render="italic">sic</emph>] Man (Suzanne)--1.3
- Voodoo Gal (Suzanne)--1.3
- What to Do with a Drunken Sailor (Sea
Chanty)--1.7
- When the Work's All Done this Fall--1.4
- When You Go--1.6
- Wrong Livin' (A Slow Drag)--1.5
- The Yellow Rose of Texas--1.4
- You Jes' Will Get Ready, You Gwine a Die
(Darkey Spirituals)--1.5