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| 25 new of 256 responses total. |
remmers
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response 125 of 256:
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Apr 4 13:45 UTC 1999 |
A couple of recent visits to music stores - King Keyboards in Ann Arbor,
Carl Fischer in Chicago - have netted some nice new sheet music:
(1) Three recently-published folios edited by David Jasen. He and Trebor
Tichenor, by collecting and reprinting music from the ragtime era, are
probably more responsible than anyone else for making this music
available to today's public. These are facsimile reproductions of the
original sheet music - including covers - with no editing or
modernization. Fans like me owe much to Jasen, Tichenor, and their
publishers, Dover Publications. The Jasen folios - not all ragtime, but
from that era:
"Cakewalks, Two-Steps, and Trots". Popular dance music dating from
1895 to 1915. Includes some wonderful pieces. My favorites thus far are
Duane Crabb's "Fluffy Ruffles" (a two-step), Charlie Johnson's "All the
Money" (another two-step, published under the pseudonym "Raymond
Birch"), William H. Tyers' "Panama", Harry Von Tilzer's "The Cubanola
Glide", Chris Smith and Jemes Reese Europe's "Ballin' the Jack" (a
fox-trot tune, still popular today), Will Vodery's "Carolina Fox Trot",
and James Reese Europe's "The Castle Doggy" (Europe was bandleader for
Vernon & Irene Castle, the legendary dance team of that era.)
"For Me and My Gal: and Other Famous Song Hits, 1915-1917".
Highlights for me in this one include W.C. Handy's "Beale Street Blues",
Shelton Brooks' "Darktown Strutters' Ball", Tony Jackson & Egbert Van
Alstyne's "Pretty Baby", P.G. Wodehouse & Jerome Kern's "Till the Clouds
Roll By" (Kern has become my favorite songwriter of that era; he
composed beautifully), and Euday Bowman's "12th Street Rag". Bowman's
piece is of course the most popular rag of all time, and is also a bear
to play. Maybe one of these years I'll master it. There's also lots of
Irving Berlin tunes in this volume.
"35 Song Hits by Great Black Songwriters." Haven't gotten into this
one too much yet. Contains old standards like Sissle & Blake's "I'm Just
Wild about Harry" and "Love Will Find a Way", McPherson & Lemonier's
"Miss Hannah from Savannah", Bert Williams' "Nobody", and Bob Cole's
"Under the Bamboo Tree."
(2) "The Saint Louis Blues and Other Song Hits of 1914." This is
another Dover collection, edited by Sandy Marrone. Haven't done a whole
lot with this yet, but I've had fun playing "The Missouri Waltz", a
wonderful traditional folk tune which became a big hit when published as
a song in 1914. W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" is published in its
original 1914 edition.
(3) "Cripple Creek: A Ragtime Suite for Piano". Published in 1993, this
is a collection of six contemporary rags by Max Morath, one of the
leading performers, composers, and promoters of ragtime in the 1960's
and 1970's. He's still around and still working.
(4) "The Golden Era of Ragtime". Another recent collection, edited by
Tony Esposito and published by Warner Brothers in 1995. This is mostly
duplication of stuff that I already had; the one reason I got it was for
George Botsford's "Black and White Rag" - one of my favorites - which I
hadn't been able to find elsewhere.
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remmers
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response 126 of 256:
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Apr 11 18:07 UTC 1999 |
I attended my first ragtime festival two and a half years ago.
In that short space of time I've become addicted to them. Why
else would I have dragged myself to Muscatine, Iowa in the dead
of January (see an earlier response)? This spring and summer, I
have four festivals on my plate:
(1) Zehnder's Ragtime Festival, Frankenmuth, Michigan. April
22-25. This will be my third time at this annual event. Lineup:
Bob Milne, Jeff Barnhart, Molly Kaufmann, Tony Caramia, Kerry
Price. I expect I'll be whipping off a couple of tunes myself
at the after-hours in Zehnder's Tap Room. Got email from my
friend Audrey the music collector, who's also attending and
says she'll be bringing me another "big stack of sheet music,
as usual." Eek! Where will I put it all? I still haven't sorted
through the ton of stuff she gave me last year.
(2) Scott Joplin Festival, Sedalia, Missouri. First week of
June. This is the biggest and best of all the festivals.
This year it's even bigger and longer in celebration of the
hundredth anniversary of the publication of Scott Joplin's
"Maple Leaf Rag" -- a full week of concerts, afterglows,
and other events. International in scope, this festival
attracts performers and attendees from all over the world.
(3) The 2nd Egbert Van Alstyne Festival, Woodstock, Illinois.
Second week of June. Last year's festival was a pleasant little
event, with concerts held in Woodstock's historic 1890's opera
house. I expect this year's will be the same. Performers include
Richard Zimmerman, Sue Keller, "Ragtime Bob" Darch.
(4) Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival, Boulder, Colorado. Mid-July.
This will be my first visit to this annual festival. Like the
Joplin festival, it's one of the "big" ragtime events. Featured
performers include Scott Kirby, Frank French, Glenn Jenks, David
Thomas Roberts, Virginia Tichenor, and a rare festival appearance
by Joshua Rifkin, who started the ragtime revival in the early
1970's with his recordings of Scott Joplin's piano rags. I'm
especially looking forward to the Ragtime Institute, three days
of master classes, seminars, and private lessons, held on the
University of Colorado campus just prior to the festival.
Figuring that the opportunity to be coached and critiqued by
the likes of Scott Kirby and Glenn Jenks was just too good to
pass up, I've enrolled in the Institute as a performer. Wish me
luck.
I'll let you know how all of the above went, after they've
happened.
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bookworm
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response 127 of 256:
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Apr 13 04:08 UTC 1999 |
We're finally studying Ragtime in my "History of Jazz" class. It's nice
to know more or less what the terms are.
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remmers
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response 128 of 256:
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Apr 14 13:41 UTC 1999 |
This response has been erased.
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remmers
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response 129 of 256:
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Apr 14 13:52 UTC 1999 |
(Oops, botched that response. I'll try again...)
Ragtime is certainly relevant to jazz history, although I'd expect it
to be dealt with at the beginning of a jazz history course. The heyday
of ragtime was the first two decades of the 20th century. Jazz, which
had its beginnings towards the end of the ragtime era, evolved from
ragtime.
Recently, I've been working on various rags by James Scott, who along
with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb is consider to be one of the "big
three" ragtime composers. Of the big three, Scott tends to be the
most technically difficult, so perhaps it's a measure of my progress
that I've been able to learn several of his pieces in a fairly short
time, pieces that I viewed as quite daunting a few years ago. In my
repertoire are Scott's "Princess Rag", "Ophelia Rag", "Evergreen Rag",
and "Dixie Dimples". I'm currently working on "Peace and Plenty Rag".
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lumen
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response 130 of 256:
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Apr 15 04:31 UTC 1999 |
Curiously enough, ragtime was influenced quite heavily by military march
music, i.e. Joplin was very influenced by Sousa.
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remmers
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response 131 of 256:
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Apr 15 13:00 UTC 1999 |
Absolutely. In his lectures on ragtime, Bob Darch gives a nice
example of the military march influence. He starts by playing
a tune on the piano in standard 19th century march style -- very
square rhythmically, no syncopation. Then he plays it again,
adding the characteristic oom-pah bass of the cakewalk. Still
no syncopation, but suddenly the march has been transformed into
something you could dance to. Then he adds a syncopated "banjo-
picking" effect in the right hand, and voila -- it's ragtime.
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remmers
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response 132 of 256:
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May 29 18:13 UTC 1999 |
Tomorrow I'm heading off to Sedalia, Missouri for the annual Scott
Joplin Ragtime Festival. Since 1999 is the 100th anniversary of the
publication of Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag -- the piece that more than any
other single thing started the ragtime craze -- the festival is extra
big and extra long this year, running for a full week and with many
many ragtime luminaries participating. I'm attending the whole
thing. Can I take that extensive a ragtime immersion? We shall see.
I attended the Joplin festival for the first time last year and was
impressed by the free-wheeling, democratic, small-town-jubilee
ambience. There are formal scheduled concerts (two or three a day),
but there is also music going on all the time at various places around
Sedalia's historic district. Opportunities abound for anyone to sit
down and play the piano, and many do. In the main tent -- at the
former site of the Maple Leaf Club, where Scott Joplin worked as a
piano player at the turn of the century -- it's not at all unusual for
one of the headliners, like John Arpin or Morton Gunnar Larsen to play
a set, followed immediately by a couple of 7th graders playing "The
Entertainer" arranged as a duet. Like I say, very democratic.
Sedalia is the only festival I've been to where you can't possibly
attend every event, because several things are happening at the same
time. During a scheduled concert at Liberty Theater, there are folks
playing in the Maple Leaf Tent, somebody else jamming away on a piano
at the gazebo, and yet another person performing in a tent set up on
the court house lawn.
And then at night, after the last formal concert is over, there's
"after hours" in the Best Western ballroom, where they've got two
pianos set up and anybody who wants to can sit down and play. The
after hours sessions typically go on until 3am or so. And if the
ballroom isn't intimate enough for you, you can hang out in the hotel
lounge and listen to (or play) the piano there, or go to the lobby
where another piano is set up that's open to all comers, etc. etc.
And this all goes on for six full days and part of a seventh. Sedalia
is a festival that knows how to be *festive*.
There's an incredibly stellar lineup of performers this year,
including Max Morath, Bob Milne, Terry Waldo, Mimi Blais, Scott Kirby,
Peter Lundberg, Galen Wilkes, Tony Caramia, John Arpin, Ian and Regina
Whitcomb, Bob Darch, the Elite Syncopators, the Turpin Tyme Ragsters,
Morton Larsen, Sue Keller, Glen Jenks, the Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra,
Trebor Tichenor, Virginia Tichenor, and many more.
The festival also has an explicitly educational component in the form
of symposia on various aspects of ragtime music and history. There's
about twice as many of them this year as in the past. Presenters
include Bob Darch, Scott Kirby (speaking on "Band Concerts in Classic
Ragtime", a subject in which I have an interest), Tony Caramia, ace
washboard player Mike Schwimmer (giving a history of the washboard in
ragtime), Ed Berlin, Max Morath, Dave Jasen, Galen Wilkes, and
Patricia Lamb Conn (daughter of the great ragtime composer Joseph
Lamb).
Something else that's educational: Tony Caramia, one of the headliners
(and also an Associate Professor of piano performance at the
Eastman-Rochester School of Music) gives private lessons. I've signed
up for an hour with him. Should be interesting.
This is going to be a great festival. In addition to all the music,
I'll get to see friends whom I never see other than at ragtime
festivals. When I get back, I'll let y'all know how things went.
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tpryan
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response 133 of 256:
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May 30 17:51 UTC 1999 |
Wasn't The Maple Leaf Rag the first million selling peice of
music in America? Could it also be the first million selling thing?
(before McD's sold a million copies of the same burger).
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bookworm
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response 134 of 256:
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Jun 11 23:29 UTC 1999 |
It wouldn't surprise me. Maple Leaf Rag was very big during its time.
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remmers
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response 135 of 256:
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Jun 15 02:52 UTC 1999 |
The Maple Leaf Rag is widely cited as being the first million-seller
piece of sheet music. According to Scott Joplin biographer Ed Berlin,
this is questionable. There is no doubt, however, that it did sell
very well and was a major factor in sparking the ragtime craze.
I've been to two ragtime festivals since I last posted here - the
Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, Missouri (a BIG one), and the
Egbert Van Alstyne Festival in Woodstock, Illinois (smallish). I'll
try to post reports on both soon.
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lumen
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response 136 of 256:
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Jun 19 13:38 UTC 1999 |
I was at John's place the other day, working on a rag I sent him. It's a very
rough draft, and I was working in 8-bar phrases instead of the standard 16.
He played his interpretation of it, added some ideas for additional eight-bar
material, and started developing the material for a B section. It was pretty
easy-- I could see he was inverting the musical lines and motifs in general,
and we dropped the key a major 3rd from G major to E flat major.
John has a diskclavier built into the Yamaha piano he uses in his music room,
so we got it programmed into memory and saved to disk. He graciously gave
me the disk so I can take it to our small university piano lab and see if I
can't have a computer MIDI program read it. It's much easier to then have
a manuscripting program take care of the writing for you.
The song is nothing terribly new-- I was almost certain that I'd heard the
tune somewhere before when it popped into my head. When I first started
playing it, before I wrote it down, I thought back to the few rags I've
played, and realized I'd never played it. Many of the techniques I've used,
however, are used in other ragtime pieces.
I hope to get the song finished, and send John a demo tape of something
MIDI-sequenced. I'd like to have him record it, and I also would like to hear
it played sometime, even if it isn't terribly original.
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orinoco
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response 137 of 256:
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Jun 19 21:26 UTC 1999 |
I'd love to see a copy too, when you get it finished, Jon.
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remmers
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response 138 of 256:
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Jul 4 21:57 UTC 1999 |
Next week I'll be attending the Ragtime Institute at the University of
Colorado in Boulder. Three days of lectures, master classes, and private
lessons with some of the top performers and composers in ragtime today:
Scott Kirby, Glenn Jenks, Frank French, David Thomas Roberts, and
others. It's being held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Ragtime
Festival, which I'm also attending.
I recently learned something about the age distribution of the students
enrolled in the Institute. Five people (including myself) in their 50's
and 60's, one 39-year-old, and everybody else under 20.
This data tends to confirm my suspicion that ragtime appeals the most to
kids and coots.
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tpryan
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response 139 of 256:
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Jul 5 21:08 UTC 1999 |
Overlooked by the Baby Boomers? Then again, a number of boomers
I know are also into other pre-Rock and Roll music, including swing era
jazz or early Blues.
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remmers
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response 140 of 256:
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Jul 6 14:54 UTC 1999 |
Well, ragtime had its last big revival in the 1970's, as a spinoff of
Joshua Rifkin's Joplin recordings and the soundtrack of "The Sting". I'd
say it's about due for another one. I'm not sure if the current
popularity of swing era music will help foster a new ragtime revival or
not.
I'm encouraged by the fact that some talented younger performers are
doing ragtime. Reginald Robinson, for example. In Sedalia there were
several featured performers who are still in high school and who are
really excellent: Neil Blaze (17), Marit Johnson (16), Martin Spitznagel
(16), Sara Roth (15). Spitznagel in particular is extremely talented and
accomplished; he composes as well as plays. I expect he'll be putting
out CD's soon.
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remmers
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response 141 of 256:
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Jul 6 15:31 UTC 1999 |
Spitznagel has a web page at
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/2422/
The site has a few MIDI files of his own renditions of rags by Joplin
and others, plus biographical information at
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/2422/personal.htm
(Be forewarned that being a Geocities site, it inflicts annoying pop-up
ads on you.)
Martin's renditions of Joplin are somewhat idiosyncratic and I think
show the jazz influence of his teacher Tony Caramia. Check out in
particular his original but somewhat brash interpretation of "Maple Leaf
Rag". (It helps if your browser has a MIDI plug-in.)
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remmers
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response 142 of 256:
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Jul 26 18:30 UTC 1999 |
Hmm... I've attended four ragtime festivals this past spring and summer,
and haven't gotten around to writing my planned comprehensive reports on
any of them. What stops me is the daunting task of trying to organize
complex events into what would be rather long essays. So I think I'll
give up on comprehensiveness and coherence and instead post short
snippets about my experiences, in no particular order. That way, I'll at
least get *something* written down.
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remmers
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response 143 of 256:
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Jul 26 20:03 UTC 1999 |
I spent nine days earlier this month at the Rocky Mountain Ragtime
Institute and Festival in Boulder, Colorado, where the mountains begin.
It was the 8th annual RMRF and the first one that I attended. (In fact,
I'd never been to Colorado before this trip.)
The Institute, held on the University of Colorado campus, was a new
feature this year - three days of lectures, master classes, and private
lessons, intended for both young people and adults who wanted to improve
their skills in performing ragtime music. The instructors were four of
the leading performers and composers of ragtime today: Scott Kirby (my
favorite Joplin interpreter), Frank French, Glenn Jenks, and David
Thomas Roberts.
There were about a dozen people enrolled in the Institute, with an
almost even split between high school students and folks over 50, and
one 30-something person representing the middle. Enrollees' skill levels
were all over the map, ranging from near beginners to some rather
accomplished musicians.
For my private instructor, I drew Glenn Jenks, whom I already knew from
previous festivals. In two private lessons, we worked on James Scott's
"Peace and Plenty Rag" and "Ragtime Oriole," for which Glenn had some
useful suggestions regarding interpretation and technique.
In the master class, all the students had to perform a solo in front of
the other students and the four instructors, who would then critique the
student's performance.^OThis was the most nerve-racking part of the
Institute for me as it was, I suspect, for most of the other students. I
did "Peace and Plenty Rag", and it went decently except that I let the
tempo run away with me a bit much (I tend to play faster when I'm
nervous).
Three days after the Institute was over, there was a Student Concert in
which the Institute enrollees were all expected to perform (except for a
handful who were at a distinctly lower skill level). Between the
Wednesday when the Institute ended and the Saturday of the Student
Concert, I put in about six hours of practicing to make sure I had all
the technical and interpretive points nailed down. For the concert, I
played Scott's "Ragtime Oriole," which went quite well. Despite the fact
that I was playing in front of a couple hundred people in a large
auditorium, I found this to be much less nerve-wracking than the master
class had been, and so was able to be much more relaxed. I'm sure the
practicing helped.
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lumen
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response 144 of 256:
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Jul 26 21:26 UTC 1999 |
By the way, John, I haven't examined the diskclavier disk yet-- I still
need a Mac program that will translate it as a file readable by a
manuscripting program. (Um, even if it was for IBM PC instead, a Power
Mac could still read it, right?)
note to those who came in late: I'm hoping to one day have a new ragtime
composition that John could showcase for me.. just for the experience..
don't know about getting it published for royalties..
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remmers
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response 145 of 256:
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Jul 29 17:47 UTC 1999 |
Over the last couple of years I've collected a little original sheet
music from the ragtime era. I haven't been systematic about it, and have
no intention of getting into collecting in a big-time way - it's a
pretty expensive habit - but if in my travels I spot an antique store or
used bookstore with a sheet music collection, I'll look it over to see
if there's anything interesting that's not too expensive.
I spotted my most interesting recent acquisition last June at the Egbert
Van Alstyne Festival in Woodstock, Illinois. Dick Zimmerman was at the
festival as a performer. In addition to performing, Zimmerman is a
considerable researcher and music collector - he was the person who
unearthed a copy of Scott Joplin's long-lost "Silver Swan Rag" back in
the 1970's.
Zimmerman brought some of his old sheet music to the festival that he
wanted to unload and had it on display for sale. In leafing through the
collection I spotted a copy of George Botsford's classic "Black and
White Rag" from 1908. It was one of the most popular pieces of the
ragtime era; its popularity survived the ragtime era and it went on to
become a big band staple in the 1920's and later. It's a piece I like a
lot and learned to play recently from a reprint of a 1920's edition. In
examine Zimmerman's 1908 copy, I immediately spotted a some differences
from the version I know - completely different introduction, walking
bass, and a few other things. So I decided I had to have this, since (1)
it was the original version, and (2) it's significantly different from
the version I knew and had heard other people play. Plus it was only
$14, since it wasn't in particularly good shape, although all the music
was there and perfectly legible.
Over the last few weeks I've been re-learning the piece using the 1908
edition, and have it pretty well down now. The original works better at
a slower tempo than the 1920's edition, suggesting that the composer (or
someone else, perhaps) made changes to accommodate the faster tempos
fashionable in the 1920's, which was the era of "novelty ragtime". In
any case, I prefer the 1908 version musically. Since I've never heard
anyone else play this version, it may be a unique feature of my
repertoire.
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remmers
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response 146 of 256:
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Jul 31 14:13 UTC 1999 |
By the way, I found an excellent MIDI file of Botsford's "Black and
White Rag" (1908 version) on Warren Trachtman's website:
http://www.trachtman.org/MIDI/Misc/blakwhit.mid
It's played a little bit faster than I do it, but I think the tempo is
just fine.
Trachtman's ragtime-oriented website is excellent, and I recommend
checking it out for MIDI files, sheet music, and other things:
http://www.trachtman.org/
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lumen
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response 147 of 256:
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Aug 13 21:11 UTC 1999 |
In case you see this before you get your mail (Grex is down):
I need a backup of the diskclavier disk; I've misplaced it.
I'm beginning to think I need to work on this rag after I get to Michigan. I
have no idea when I'll find the time to finish it.
Did you find any translator programs that could convert the data to an IBM/Mac
file that a manuscripting program could read?
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remmers
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response 148 of 256:
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Nov 12 16:27 UTC 1999 |
Greetings, live from Sacramento, California! I'm here for the West
Coast Ragtime Festival, which runs today through Sunday. Thought I'd be
out of touch with Grex, but I found a Kinko's with internet access near
my hotel, so here I am. Since I'm being charged by the minute, I'll
make this brief.
Arrived Wednesday evening. Before I left, I got email from a California
ragtime friend of mine by the name of Nan Bostick. She was a headliner
at last summer's Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival and recommended that I
try the piano in the Ice Cream Emporium there. So yesterday I drove
down to Sutter Creek to check things out.
Turns out that Sutter Creek is a little tourist town near the site of
Sutter's big gold discovery of 1849. It's even located on highway 49.
The whole town if about four blocks long, with a heavy emphasis on gift
shops, antique stores, and eateries. I found the Ice Cream Emporium.
In the back sat an upright piano with various folios of ragtime music on
the music desk. A good sign -- the place was ragtime-friendly. Nobody
was playing the piano, so I asked the counter clerk if it was okay to
try it out. She said sure, the boss usually plays it all day, but he's
not here today.
So I sat down and played a few tunes. They went over well with the
assembled customers. They especially seemed to like the Charlie Johnson
tunes I've learned recently: Barber Pole Rag, Fun on the Levee, Pigeon
Wing. If there's time, I'll head back to Sutter Creek before I return
to Michigan; I'm curious to meet "the boss".
It's about 8:30 a.m. now; the festival gets underway at noon and goes
more or less continuously until late Sunday afternoon. Terrific lineup
of performers this year. I'm really looking forward to it and to seeing
various ragtime friends again. Dunno if I'll have time to check into
Grex before I get back home.
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remmers
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response 149 of 256:
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Dec 12 23:36 UTC 1999 |
Hm, someday I'll post a followup report on the West Coast Ragtime
Festival, maybe. It was a fine event.
In a few minutes I'm off to the annual "Christmas Ragtime Bash" at
the Unitarian Church, featuring Bolcom & Morris, Mike Montgomery,
and others. Ta ta for now...
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