Folk Ragtime

Folk ragtime is a subgenre of

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

, a distinctly American music. It is thought to have originated with illiterate itinerant

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

piano players, who learned the

syncopated In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat (music), off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of ...

music not formally, but through their peers. Folk Ragtime as a form stayed active until the early 1920s, when young America shifted its attention to early jazz. It was later revived, starting in 1947 with the 'rediscovery' of Sanford Brunson Campbell (March 20, 1884 - November 23, 1952) who was one of the most noted folk ragtimers as well as a student of

Scott Joplin Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the ...

, and then in the early 1960s by the now foremost authority on Folk Ragtime,

Trebor Jay Tichenor Trebor Jay Tichenor (January 28, 1940–February 22, 2014) was a recognized authority on Scott Joplin and the ragtime era. He collected and published others' ragtime piano compositions and composed his own. He authored books about ragtime, and both ...

(1940-2014). Another exponent of folk ragtime was Thomas Shea (November 14, 1931 - March 12, 1982); his music is sometimes referred to as "prairie ragtime." The writers of folk ragtime often simply mixed together themes of theirs in a random fashion, in structure loosely resembling the typical Classic Rag structure (IntroAABBACCDD.) Good testimony of this are the legendary multiple takes of Folk Rags by Sanford Brunson Campbell, recorded on acetates in 1947. They illustrate a performer who embellishes and improvises on basic themes, at times seeming as if he is making it all up as he goes along. In terms of melodic and harmonic content, Folk Rags have a distinct

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

influence. In addition to themes based on 12-bar patterns, the non blues-structured themes almost incorporate flatted 'blue' notes. Many themes in Folk rags are based on tonic-dominant chord relations with forays into other simple chords. A typical chord progression in B major would go: B, B, E, E, B, B, F7, F7, B, B, E, E, B, F7, B, B :, , I , I , IV, IV, I , I , V7, V7, I , I , IV, IV, I , V7, I , I :, , At the center of the revival of folk ragtime has been historian, collector, and composer/pianist

. His modern interpretations of Folk Ragtime, as well as his original compositions in the style, have set the standard for all folk ragtime pianists today. Some of his noted works are: "Hickory Smoked Rag" (1974), "Days Beyond Recall" (circa. 1960), and "Pierce City Rag" (circa. 1961) among many others. {{DEFAULTSORT:Folk Ragtime Ragtime Music genres