Sheet Music Cover vs Victorian Ornament
楽譜表紙 / ヴィクトリアン装飾
Sheet Music Cover comes from Printed Ephemera and Victorian Ornament from Ornament. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Sheet Music Cover
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Lithographed covers kept alive by the piano in the parlor. Illustration of the song's scene combined with ornamental lettering into a single picture, and before the record sleeve existed this was how music was shown.
Victorian Ornament
Builds a thickly layered system of ornament from many revival styles and the riches of industrial printing.
| Sheet Music Cover | Victorian Ornament | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1820s–1920s | 1837–1901 |
| Family | Printed Ephemera | Ornament |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Scenes of the song / Ornamental title lettering / Lithographic color / Publishers' stock frames | Dense borders / Symmetry / Botanical pattern / Chromolithography |
| Best used for | Announcement visuals telling the scene of a song or a performance · Covers for reissues and compilations that borrow a period to signal content | Giving packages and invitations the dignity of a collection · Making the act of studying detail the value itself |
| Type | Title in ornamental lettering, composer credits dropped to light type | Ornamented serifs and small capitals |
| Composition | Title across the upper half, scene below, publisher block at the foot | Fix a central axis; nest frames, headings and text |
| Material | Three or four flat lithographic colors over a yellowed paper ground | Deep red, green, gold, cream; repeat hairlines in steps |
| Caution | Lining up ornamental faces without painting the scene of the song leaves a cover holding the signs of a period and none of its subject. | Never mix other cultures' patterns as anonymous ornament. Research origins; quote precisely. |