Pianophilia

Hi Jellyroll,

Just wanted to thank you for all the amazing postings!! Pasquila I've never heard of and it's from 1895 (2 years before ragtime publications really arrived on the scene in force)! And, as you may know, Tom Cat Rag was tantalizingly posted on the Templeton site with the first two pages of the score missing!! So, I was thrilled to finally see all of it. (And, those two comments only scratch the surface.) So, thanks again for all your efforts and hard work! You're doing so much to preserve great rare music!!

Best,

Rob

This is all indeed excellent work and much joy can be had from these and not just on the piano.

Not really a rag, but I wonder if anyone might have a scan of Mississippi Mud.

Planning on a banjo/piano arrangement.

Thal

JellyRoll,

I too thank you for your postings - please keep them coming, they're much appreciated.

Thalbergmad.
Nope, Don't have Mississippi Mud to hand.
but here's a Charley Straight song:-
NMOS TTOS

regards,
tobyjj

To Rob & Tobyjj
Thanks for the kind words & thanks to all who have downloaded.
I've scanned my individual sheets & sent in the "rarest" & am beginning to scan my out of print folios & will send some from those.
I don't really know what constitutes "rare" on this thread, so if there are any requests.................
Jellyroll

Hi Everyone,

I agree, Jellyroll, that it's hard to know what constitutes rare, but some things we know are rare. This is one of them. This was published by a small firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. I have a friend who's tried to find every rag published in the Cincinnati area (and has done a good job of it) and he'd never seen this. He told me that Groene always seemed to publish quality rags but there don't seem to be many copies extant.

I found this in a local antique shop in the strangest folio. It was the same size as large format sheet music and was called "8 New Issues." It was 8 compositions for piano (there might have been a song or two too, I haven't had it out in a while as I scanned this music long ago) and all seemed to be printed from the original plates (minus the covers, of course). I make that assertion because each composition has it's own individual page numbering--generally beginning with a 2 or 3. You'll notice the second page of this piece is numbered 4. There was one other rare rag in the folio which this friend could not even locate in the LOC under it's title, but it's since been scanned and posted by a University which had an original with the cover.

Also, the notation is interesting. It's in 2/4 time and, in the first theme in the right hand, instead of having 1/16, 1/8, and 2 tied 1/16's in the middle, it has 1/16, 1/8, 1/8 which is bizarre! I'm also posting a midi I made of this piece.

If anyone else has seen a folio like this I'd love to hear about it.

My best,

Rob

Hello again Everyone,

Here's another extremely rare piece of ragtime published literally just across the river from Cincinnati (about a 5 or 10 minute walk I've been told). It's a fantastic self-published piece (I have it memorized). The address you see at the bottom of the cover was the composer's home address at the time. According to the 1910 census his immediate neighborhood was integrated (about half white and half African-American--maybe that's how he was introduced to ragtime). I've been in touch with one side of the family (I haven't been able to get in touch with the side that may have more of his music ).

Herbert Wynne Weaver (Jan. 13, 1888-Oct. 26, 1960), who lived almost exactly the same time as Joseph Lamb, was an electrotyper (this cover is his own work and is in the kitchen of one of his grandchildren in Florida) and piano player. He met his wife while playing at the Georgetown Theater. She sang (beautifully, I'm told), while he accompanied her on the piano. Mabel Carroll was quite petite (less than 5 feet tall). According to one census that marriage occurred when he was 20 and she was 16 so that would be in 1908. In a separate PDF I'm attaching photos of Herbert & Mabel along with their wedding notice and his draft registration.

Most Saturday evenings in the 1950's Herbert would sit down and play the piano for a couple of hours with his wife accompanying him with her voice. If the weather was nice they'd open the windows and all the neighborhood children would sit on the lawn next to the house and listen to the music. When I played Queen City Girl live over the phone for Herbert's grandson he distinctly recalled his grandfather performing it on some of those Saturday evenings. Mabel lived to be about 96 years old (she was born circa 1892 and died August 10, 1988)! If only we'd known about her earlier.

I'll be shocked if you have this one, Frank.

The copy is a little wavy on the last page and a bit of the cover's missing, but this is the best copy of a copy we've got. I'm also attaching my midi of this piece. "Queen City Girl" is Cincinnati's nickname but I really think the girl on the cover is a young Mabel!! (This would be the year before they married). Let me know what you think.

Best to all,

Rob