John Nelson Pattison

John Nelson Pattison (1838–1905) was a concert pianist and composer of popular sheet music in New York and surrounding areas during the late 19th century. His most famous composition was "The Pattison Waltz", a widely performed number in the 1880s which became one of the first pieces of recorded music when Thomas Edison recorded it to a wax cylinder on February 25, 1889. This and two other recordings were deemed so historically important by Edison that he enclosed the cylinders in a glass display case which he exhibited at the Recording Department of his company, Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Today, the cylinders reside in temperature-controlled storage at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey, and the digitized sound file has been placed on the National Recording Registry.

Pattison was born on 22 October 1838, in Erie County, New York, the third of eight children in a Methodist family of Scotch-Irish farmers. He must have shown early promise as a musician, because he was sent twice to Europe in his teens and early twenties, where he studied piano and composition under Franz Liszt and other notable German and English musicians of the mid-19th century. He also did a concert tour of Europe.

Upon his return to the United States, he made a name in New York City as a concert performer, accompanying ”Mme Patti” and Clara Louise Kellogg on their tours, and performing with Parepa-Rosa, ”Mlle Lucca”, and other Prima Donnas of the day.

He was also a prolific composer and publisher of sheet music, with over 200 known compositions to his name. Pattison was one of the only musicians or composers who published their own material during the late 19th century explosion in sheet music sales.