J.L.Truax

Who is J. L. Truax?

John L. Truax, more commonly abbreviated to J. L. Truax, was an American composer active in the mid to late 1800s. He mostly wrote songs for the piano, many of which were very popular in his time. The most remarkable thing about him, however, was that he was completely blind for most of his life, and learned piano without being able to see. Most of his songs have long been forgotten, but thanks to several libraries expanding their online content, the sheet music is now easily available to the masses.

Biography

The details of Truax's life are difficult to find, and I have spent hours searching through Google and the Internet Archive to find what I have. A lot of what is written here is educated speculation, not necessarily fact, but this is at least the most concentrated source of information about him on the internet, if not in general.

John L. Truax was born in 1826 in Steuben County, New York State. He had several siblings, most notably Peter Truax (1828 – 1909), who was a wealthy businessman in Winconsin ^[1]. In 1836, at the age of ten, he became blind ^[2]. His family sent him to the New York Institution for the Blind, where he received his education. The school placed an emphasis on teaching students music, and it was there that Truax learned to play the piano and organ (and also read and write, there's actually a written piece by him in the school's yearly report) ^[3].

After graduating from the Institution for the Blind, he moved to Matilda, Upper Canada (now South Dundas, Ontario, Canada) and became a music teacher. He was one of the first teachers at Matilda County Grammar School (later Iroquois High School), which opened in 1846 ^[4]. He was described as being a "wandering minstrel" (meaning a travelling musician) and that no one knew where he came from or anything about him, and this is likely why so little is know about him today.

Sometime after his teaching gig (between 1846 and 1849), he moved back to the United States to Columbus, Georgia. With his musical experience, he became the pianist and organist for Trinity Episcopal Church, as well as performing classical and popular music in public concerts ^[5]. At this time he also published his first piece of sheet music, the City Light Guards March, which was self-published. This piece is the only one to give his first name, which would otherwise be lost to time. It also indicates that he was likely still teaching because it referred to him as a professor. On August 2, 1853, he was married to Ida Burnes ^[6]. He remained in Columbus until at least that year, publishing two more pieces there.

By 1855, his compositions had attracted the attention of major publishers, being published by Oliver Ditson based in Boston along with its subsidaries in New Orleans, Cincinnati, New York, and Philidephia. By 1866 he had moved to Detroit ^[7][8], continuing to sell his works under C. J. Whitney. His sheet music became popular with the public, selling around 100,000 copies in total. The Wounded Heart was one of his most popular pieces, selling around 25,000 copies.

By 1872, Truax had moved to Black River Falls, Wisconsin^[9], likely to be with his family. He continued his music composing there, with the local newspaper describing his process as follows:

In writing a piece of music, he seats himself at the piano and works out the air on the instrument, according to the laws of harmony and musical composition, repeating and improving upon each part until every note is in the right place and exactly the right length and force. ... After the tune is perfected and learned so that he plays it with ease, the Professor employs an assistant. Provided with a pencil and blank music paper, the assistant writes the notes as dictated by Professor Truax seated at the instrument. The music is then recopied and sent to the publisher.^[2]

J. L. Truax's exact date of death is unknown, however his last known compositions were published in 1898, and an article about his brother published on March 18, 1909 listed him and his brothers as deceased at that time. He was living in Menomonie, Wisconsin at the time of his death ^[1].

Songs

J. L. Truax wrote at least 30 songs in his lifetime. Their names, initial release date, and sheet music location is summarized here:

* As much as I can tell, Champion Banner March is just a rerelease of City Light Guards March, but under a different name. However, I only have a 3 bar preview of Champion Banner March, so the rest of the song may be different.

How to Help

This is my personal research project, and as such I'm the only one working on it with no support whatsoever. There's only so much I can do myself. If you're interested, I would be grateful for any help you could give. Here are some ideas:

• In the table above, you'll notice there's a few pieces with sheet music listed as located "in person" at a library. If you happen to live near any of these locations (New Orleans, LA; Ann Arbor, MI; Hanover, NH; Williamsburg, VA; East Lansing, MI), then you could help by finding the sheet music and either scanning it or transcribing it (ie into Musescore) so that it can be made available for everyone.


• Similarly, if you live in any place Truax has lived (South Dundas, ON; Columbus, GA; Detroit, MI; Anywhere in Wisconsin but especially Black River Falls, Menomonie, and Oshkosk), try checking local libraries and museums for any information on him that I may have missed.


• If you're in university, your school probably pays for online access to journals and such. They may also have sheet music in their library collections. Try searching the library database for J. L. Truax and see what comes up.


• Check places with lots of old sheet music (ie antique shop, grandparent's house) to see if there's anything by Truax there. If you find any, scan them and upload it to IMSLP.


• If you can play piano, learn some of his songs, preferably directly from the sheet music. If you post them online, it both gives me an idea of how they are meant to be played and helps to spread awareness.


• Use his songs however the hell you want. Everything I've provided you (sheet music, midis, mp3s) is absolutely free for you to use. In the case of historical preservation I see no point in preventing access because lack of access will have the same impact as the information not being preserved in the first place. So feel free to use it in videos, your own music, whatever. I just ask that you link back here so people can learn more.

Or maybe you already have information or sheet music to contribute, in which case please let me know here.

References

1. Schwarze, Stan. "Truax, Peter (1828 - 1909), Clark County, Wisconsin History & Genealogy Records." USGenNet, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/county/clark/5data/103/528.htm.

2. MacCrellish, Frederick. "How a Blind Man Composes Music." Daily Alta California, [San Francisco], 30 Dec. 1872, pp. 2, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18721230.2.50&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1.

3. Annual Report of the Managers of the New York Institution for the Education of the Blind. New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, 1839, https://archive.org/details/annualreportofma03newy/page/n89.

4. Harkness, Adam. Iroquois High School, 1845-1895: A Story of Fifty Years. William Briggs, 1896, https://archive.org/details/iroquoishighscho00hark/page/n41.

5. Koch, Mary Levin. “Entertaining the Public: Music and Drama in Antebellum Georgia.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 4, 1984, pp. 529. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40581297.

6. Martin, John H. Columbus, Geo., from Its Selection as a "Trading Town" in 1827, to Its Partial Destruction by Wilson's Raid, in 1865: History, Incident, Personality. T. Gilbert, 1874, pp. 248 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_YPQxAQAAMAAJ/page/n247/.

7. Farmer, Silas. The History of Detroit and Michigan. Silas Farmer & Co., 1884, pp. 357, https://books.google.ca/books?id=2dtMHBxD6R8C.

8. Ross, Robert B., and George B. Catlin. Landmarks of Detroit: A History of the City. Edited by Clarence M. Burton, The Evening News Association, 1898, pp. 594, https://archive.org/details/landmarksofdetro00ross/page/n789/.

9. Circulating Directory Company. West Tennessee combination directory. 1872, pp. 246, https://archive.org/details/westtennesseecom00circ/page/246/.

Special Thanks To: