![]() ![]() Felix Arndt (1889-1918) a composer of light popular music best known for "Nola" also used elements of ragtime, and he was in turn an influence on George Gershwin. The composer Eubie Blake (1887-1983) published his "Charleston Rag" in 1915, but then turned to songwriting with the Broadway musical "Shuffle Along" which included the song "I'm Just Wild About Harry". Among other songwriters, there was Irving Berlin who wrote "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "Everybody's Doing It" among many other popular songs. Wolfe Gilbert in 1912 (and later sung by Al Jolson) owes an obvious debt to ragtime. Harney's works were songs, and the song "Waiting for the Robert E. Ragtime was an influence on songwriters of the day, who wrote songs called rags although they were only loosely based on the conventions of genuine ragtime. Influence of Ragtime in Popular Song and other Genres Though currently out of print, copies of the book are available at .uk and It is a major source of reference material about ragtime and includes 16 complete scores. "They All Played Ragtime" was originally published in 1950 and has been re-issued and revised since then. ![]() It wasn't until many decades later that Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis thoroughly researched the subject, interviewing surviving ragtime composers, pianists and publishers to create their book which has been called the Bible of Ragtime. In those days many more homes than today had a piano, and so sheet music sales plus live performances were the main source of income for ragtime composers.Īt the time of its inception and for many years afterwards, no-one realised that the emergence of a new form of music was in itself a culturally important phenomenon, and no-one thought to document the emergence of ragtime for posterity. Instead the commercial aspect of the music business was driven by the supply of sheet music. Such piano rolls are the main audio record of the ragtime era, because this was before the days of recorded music. Although many performers had a tendency to play ragtime very fast for comic effect, Joplin frequently indicated on many of his rags that they should be played quite slow or "not fast", and the piano rolls which he created and left for posterity demonstrated the desired slow tempo. Joplin continued to lead this new art form producing a large number of piano rags, many named after dances such as Two Steps, Cake Walks and Slow Drags, and even demonstrating that ragtime could be adapted with different time signatures including the 3/4 Waltz time. The tunes and rhythm are "catchy" and foot-tapping, the syncopations lively and with humour (often poking fun at serious or pretentious music), and anyone with a piano could participate. It's easy to see why this style became popular. He was closely followed by Scott Joplin, who with the publication of the Maple Leaf Rag had the equivalent of a top ten hit. An all round entertainer, he did much to popularise ragtime allowing it to spread beyond its humble beginings. Harney was one of the first practitioners to bring ragtime to the Vaudeville shows in New York. Another possible inspiration to Ragtime composers is the classical composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) who almost anticipated ragtime with some of his lighter piano works which exhibit a blend of influences including Carribean music.īen R. Towards the end of each section or phrase there might be rising bass lines, changing harmonies or accidentals to give colour and emphasis to the cadences (phrase endings). Indeed ragtime may have drawn some inspiration from the military style marches of John Philip Sousa (1854-1932). This structure is similar to the classical form known as a Rondo, and to various dance forms and marches. They were usually in 2/4 time, and consisted of a number of contrasting 16 bar sections (sometimes with a middle "trio" section), with repetitions and returns to previous sections or a "Da Capo" (return to the begining). Despite the fact that the Right Hand syncopations were far in excess of anything produced in classical music, the structure of these pieces was nevertheless quite strict in a classical sense. The word Ragtime means "syncopated time", the main characteristic of these pieces being the Right Hand playing a syncopated tune while the Left Hand plays a simple regular line of alternating bass notes and simple chords, not unlike the "Alberti Bass" used in classical music by the likes of Mozart and Haydn. In its purest form Ragtime was played as an instrumental on a solo piano, an instrument which most honkytonk bars and saloons possessed. ![]()
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