E.T. Paull

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Edward Taylor Paull started out as fledgling publisher and composer until he hit upon a formula in the mid-1890s that launched him to success. It started with his first published march, The Chariot Race, a.k.a. Ben Hur March. His thought was to grab the potential pianist or listener's attention before they even heard the piece. This was accomplished through the process of some extraordinary cover art, sometimes suggested or designed by Paull, and printed with an expensive five-color lithograph process utilized primarily by the A. Hoen and Company printing firm in Richmond, VA. The names of many of the lithograph artists have been obfuscated by that of the firm. The process involves creating grooved stone faces in which the desired portion to be printed must be represented in relief. There were four or five stones for each cover, depending on color depth; one for each primary color, and one for black. That these artists made all of these stones overlay to create a single multi-color picture is a testament to their amazing skill.

The topics Paull chose, most often disasters, wars, victory, or exciting activities, lent themselves to the public's desire for the spectacular or the profound. The music often included descriptions entailing what each section of the piece was intended to represent in terms of action or exposition. This may have been more for the amusement of the pianist than the listener, unless there was someone to announce the action as the music was played (I've done it during a performance!).

Anyone who has played through a large part of the E.T. Paull catalog, particularly pieces written by Paull himself, knows summarily what to expect and when. In other words, it is not necessarily the music that sold the piece, as his writing was both predictable and limited in scope.