Status: 25/03/25 20:10
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"Banff" by W.E.Round

Background
My eldest son visited the Whyte Museum of the Candian Rockies in Banff, Canada earlier this year. He noticed a piece of music placed on the music stand of a piano on display there. Thinking that I might be interested, he took a picture of it, and sent it to me.

He was correct about my interest and I zoomed in on the image to see what it was and whether it was worth having a play through. The piece was called, simply, "Banff", the name of the town he was in, and was written by W. E. Round, who I had never heard of before. I did indeed have a play through after printing off the photo that he had sent, but at the bottom of the second page it was clear that there was more over the page, more that I didn't have.

Research
So I turned to the internet and searched for "Banff piano tune" and all sorts of variations, plus other searches for the composer, Mr., Miss, or Mrs. Round, but drew a blank. I even looked up the publisher whose name was printed at the bottom of the page but it seemed that they were no longer in business. Another blank.

Next step was to find and email the museum. Google "Museum in Banff" gave me the Whyte musuem and I took a look, deciding that this must be the one. Their website showed an email address for enquiries so I emailed them, explaining the background of the situation (pretty much along the lines of what I've just written above on this page) and then asked "Is there any chance at all, that somebody there could just send me a picture, even just a photo taken on a smart phone, of what's over the page, so that I can play the whole song?"

Whether I would get the remaining section of the music, or even a reply, I didn't know but it was worth a try.

Result

A little over a week later, I did get a reply, and a very nice reply it was too with a photo attached, page 3 of the tune called "Banff". The email thanked me for my interest and also said that they would send another picture of the front cover of the music, which they then did.

The cover not only tells me that this music was originally the theme tune for a local radio programme, but also has a lovely sketch of a presumably local scene depicting a lake and mountains in the background.

Having now played it, I can confirm that it is indeed a nice little theme tune.


In publishing this page on my website, I am hoping that I have "fixed the internet" in that future searches for "Banff piano music" or the composer "W. E. Round" will result in something more useful and interesting than what I got, which was "No results found".

These days, it's not easy to get "No results found" as almost anything you search for will find you something even if it's not quite what you were looking for.

Anyway, if it is successful then it might puzzle some future internet explorers looking for information about a little-known composer from Alberta, Canada, when they arrive at the website of a equally little-known piano teacher from Derbyshire, England, but at least a tiny hole in the internet will have been filled.

Result!
During November 2024, I was contacted by somebody who had performed similar searches to mine, and found my website as a result.
Click here to read more.

Details

Title:	Banff
Words and music by:	W. E. Round
From the front cover:	Popular Radio Theme Song of the Banff Mountaineers

Credits
Thank you to the The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Page created: 6th September 2023
Last Updated: 12th November 2024

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