
Ragtime piano music, created almost entirely by black Southerners, has roots in minstrel-show cakewalks, most of them composed, ironically, by Northern white men burlesquing the Southern black tradition. Classic ragtime had a strict form (an opening flourish and contrasting sections), a strong bass line, syncopation ("ragged time") possibly derived from banjo music, and melodies echoing plantation songs and dances. (Later, Tin Pan Alley used "rag" to mean almost any swingy song, as in "Alexander's Ragtime Band," but we're not talking about that." Early ragtime was a product of the outer South. Several pioneers lived in St. Louis, where Tom Turpin's Rosebud Cape nourished their activity. Turpin, a former Nevada gold miner, wrote "Harlem Rag" (1897), the first published rag by a black composer. George H. Tremor toys with the rag traditions in our selection, "Spirit of '49 Rag," available on Ragged Piano Classics. (AU Format) (Real Audio Format)