Description
Author: Ronchetto
Publisher: Chart Music Publishing House
Place of Publication: New York
Format: Vintage dance album / bound sheet music
Date of Publication: early–mid 20th century
Condition:
Good. Original early–mid 20th-century dance album with age toning, edge wear, and light surface wear consistent with use and age. Corners show mild wear. Binding remains intact. Interior pages are complete and legible. Paper is fragile. Preserved in an archival sleeve.
Description:
Ronchetto’s Italian Dance Album is a period folk-dance music collection arranged for piano, violin, or piano accordion, reflecting the strong interest in ethnic and regional music among immigrant communities in early 20th-century America. Publications of this type were intended both for home musicians and for community dances, preserving traditional melodies while adapting them for popular instruments.
The album was issued as part of a broader series devoted to international folk traditions, as evidenced by the back-page listing of Scandinavian, Polish, Irish, Hungarian, Balkan, Latin American, and other regional dance collections. This contextual framing places the volume within a wider movement to document and popularize folk music during a time of cultural preservation and assimilation.
The cover features a photographic portrait of Ronchetto, reinforcing the authority and authenticity of the collection while aligning with publisher practices that emphasized recognizability and trust. This is an original period printing, not a reproduction, and survives as a representative artifact of American ethnic-music publishing and community music-making.