Beale Street Blues (string quartet)

Title: Beale Street (Blues)

Composer: W. C. Handy, arr. David Gable

Instrumentation: Violin 1; Violin 2; Viola; Cello

Printout: 8 pages

Note: Officially recognized as “the home of the Blues,” Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee was a center for traveling Black musicians as early as the 1860s. Originally designated as “Beale Avenue”, its name was changed after the 1917 publication of this song. Composer W. C. Handy, who referred to himself as the “father of the Blues” did not create the blues style, but was the first to publish music in this style. He was also the originator of the harmonic progression of 12-bar Blues and of the use of flatted thirds and sevenths as blues notes.

Other pieces by W. C. Handy, arranged for string quartet, include Memphis Blues and St Louis Blues.

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