Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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While Handel plays his melody ...

Procol sheet-music and songbooks


Please mail us with further details, even about books that are long out-of-print;
we have not seen all these books: hence incomplete publisher details

The 1967 A Whiter Shade of Pale published by Essex Music. (Keith Reid confirms (summer 2006) that this image and Honburg are the work of his then partner, Dickinson)
Thanks, Tormod , for the scan

The cover of the 1967 sheet-music of Homburg (possibly a portrait of Gary, the contour of the song-title representing the brim of a hat) published by Essex Music
Thanks, davelee, for the scan

Signed Italian sheet-music for Repent Walpurgis, from the collection of Italian musician Claudio Bonvecchio. Click the image to find out more.
David Kennedy notes: many years ago (1985 or so) I saw a printed folio for A Salty Dog (the album) in a sheet music/instruments shop in central Oslo, Norway.  I remember the cover was taken from the album, and that it was in P / V / G format. I recall trying out the initial chords to the song Salty Dog on a 12-string in the store and thinking that the chord-box harmonies seemed reasonably accurate. I don't recall the publisher. I should have bought it - the album remains one of my favourites – I haven't seen it since.

Conquistador and other songs from Procol Harum live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (TRO Songways Service Inc): transcription arrangements by Ed di Biase, piano arrangements by George Terry (thanks, Tim)

'Chicky, he was there'

'Off-the-record transcriptions plus special section of piano arrangements with guitar chord diagrams - bonus A Whiter Shade of Pale': more than sixty pages devoted to Conquistador, A Salty Dog, All This and More, In Held 'Twas in I, + A Whiter Shade of Pale; each number appears twice, as 'transcription' and as 'piano'. Interestingly the transcriptions are not entirely 'off-the-record' ... although they are presented in terms of 'Side One' and 'Side Two' they are in fact derived in many cases from the original records: thus Conquistador, for example, starts with the Poison Ivy three-quaver run-in, not with the live album's Latino-orchestration; the guitar solo notated in Grand Finale is Trower's not Ball's. All This and More, on the other hand, notates the counter-melody that we hear in the Live recording but not on the original album.

Words are a bit out of focus here and there: 'For want of iron with no mop' is an error that goes right back to the original Essex Music lead-sheet; but 'Chicky he was there' is a new variant on King Jimi ... 'How wise he tripped'! The full words of Grand Finale are correctly quoted: 'Ah'.

No Whaling Stories!

 


The ‘Exotic Birds and Fruit’ book was published by Warner Bros. Publications Inc. for Chrysalis Music Corp, and has a 1974 copyright date. It includes full page black and white photographs of each member of the band. The lyrics are also printed separately. (Richard Royston)

Grand Hotel (1973) and
Exotic Birds ... (1974)

These songbooks apparently have full piano/vocal score with additional instruments/voices cued in miniature or occasionally commanding a stave to themselves. The music is quite painstakingly notated: Fires (Which Burnt Brightly) takes up ten A4 pages; guitar chord-boxes are provided, with occasional drum-rhythms, and complete words.

The ‘Grand Hotel’ book was published by Warner Bros. Publications Inc. for Chrysalis Music Corp. It has no overall copyright date, but all individual songs are copyrighted 1973. It includes all the colour photographs from the album cover, but none of the drawings. The lyrics are also printed separately. (Richard Royston)


Procol Harum's Ninth [sic]
Warner Bros. Publications Inc. 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10019 (1975)

This album contains the music for all ten tracks, but Antonio Costa Barbé reports that the arrangements are 'not too good'.

Thanks, Larry, for the shiny scan!


Il Tuo Diamante (read translation of Italian words)

Edizioni Musicali Mario Aromandi, s.r.l Milano, Galleria del Corso, 4
The Italian version of Shine On Brightly: all printed on one stave, but the organ solo and counterpoint are notated.


Senza Luce (read translation of Italian words)

Edizioni Musicali Mario Aromandi, s.r.l Milano, Galleria del Corso, 4
The Italian version of AWSoP: all printed on one stave, but the organ solo is notated.


The Art of Rock (TRO Andover Music Inc., New York, 1971).

It has the scores for 30 songs, including nine by Procol Harum. The PH songs are in a two-line score format containing the melodies, lyrics, counter melodies, bass lines and figures (rhythm guitar and drum patterns not shown): Christmas Camel, Conquistador, Homburg, In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence, Quite Rightly So, A Salty Dog, She Wandered Through the Garden Fence, A Whiter Shade Of Pale (3 verse!), and Your Own Choice.

Other artists (with number of songs in parentheses) featured in the book are: The Moody Blues (5), Traffic (2), Black Sabbath (2), King Crimson (2), Michael Chapman (2), and one each by The Who, T Rex, Arrival, Bead Game, Blood Sweat & Tears, David Bowie, The Byrds, and Joe Cocker.

See a page with a good PH portrait

Further info from our kind informant, Chris McLaren


The Best of Procul Harum [sic]:
Wise Publications (New York, London, Cologne & Sydney), 1978 (address) Music selected by Peter Evans. ISBN 0.86001.502.5; AM 20116; (72 pages)  (thanks, Wilfried)

The cover impersonates a detergent advert, with much prominence given to the word 'Whiter' (thanks, Anthony)

Contains arrangements of A Salty Dog, As Strong As Samson, A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Broken Barricades, Conquistador, Grand Hotel, Homburg, Nothing But The Truth, Shine On Brightly, Simple Sister, Something Magic, Still There'll Be More, The Devil Came From Kansas, The Mark Of The Claw (music by 'Mike Grabham') and Whiskey Train.

Purports to provide piano/vocal score with guitar-boxes and words (inc. 'across the straights', 'trample over leaves'); vocal melismas are written out in unnecessary detail; Nothing But The Truth's whole intro is defective, and two of its first five verse-chords incorrect. Elsewhere there's impressionistic detail that doesn't correspond to records or to performances, e.g. semiquaver-sextuplets all through Grand Hotel verse three (which also wastes space: one measure takes up a whole system). But it's better than nothing. Probably.

The songs transcribed herein are

A Christmas Camel
All This and More
A Salty Dog
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Conquistador
Homburg
In Held 'Twas in I (all five movements)
In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence
Quite Rightly So
She Wandered through  the Garden Fence
Shine on Brightly
The Devil Came from Kansas
Your Own Choice

'Printed in Western Germany by Verlagsdruckerei Hans Gerig - Köln "...obviously Copyright Essex Music Ltd. London.'

(thanks, Claudio Bonvecchio)

 


Publisher details; Procol Music Online; AWSoP in multimedia corner


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