"Nothing on board was more popular than the orchestra," recalled first class passenger Mrs. Helen Churchill Candee. Before dinner the orchestra serenaded guests with light music, and after dinner it provided concerts in the lounge or the recption room.
The White Star music booklet reveals that the repertoire ran the gamut from light opera to popular songs of the day. Not long after the Titanic struck the iceberg, the orchestra gathered in the first-class lounge and played lively tunes such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band." The the musicians moved to the Boat Deck level of the grand staircase and later still to the exterior of the Boat Deck while the lifeboats were bing loaded and lowered. There can be little doubt about the bravery of thee men who knew they had no chance of survival yet still chose to spend their last moments cheering others.
Of particular intest is selection number 137, "sone d' Automne," a piognamt and popular waltz of the day which may have been the last piece played before the Titanic sank, the other the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee," which has become part of the popular mythology surrounding the disaster.
The Making of History
| Register for Transmission to Registrar-General
of Shipping and Seamen | The Report of
Survey of An Emigrant Ship |
| Titanic's boilers |
Leaving for the New World
| Certificate for Clearance |
Boarding Card | Luggage Stickers |
Steerage - the Aks family |
On Board
| Passenger List | Music
Booklet | Notes for First-Class Passengers
|
| 1st Class Dinner Plate |
| First-Class Lunch Menu | The
"Last Dinner" Menu |
Disaster
| Telegraph transcripts from Titanic intercepted
By SS Birma |
Lifeboats and Carpathia
| Photograph of a Survivor climbing aboard
SS Carpathia | Landing Card |
Aftermath
| Correspondence from the White Star Line
to the Board of Trade concerning loss of Titanic |
| Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Worker's
Union |
| The politician's responce | Commemorative
Medal |
British and American Inquiries
| Sub-committee of the Committee on Commerce
of the United States Senate | A
Report on the Loss of the "Titanic" (S.S) |
| Report on the Senate Committee enquiry
report into the loss of the Titanic |