The San Francisco call., 1897-09-12
ICLHSSIC MUSIC RENDERED INTO RAG TIME

"Why, sir, that is the music OF the
Egyptians of to-day and the Philippians
OF a thousand years ago" said William
Greer Harrison the other night as Stanley
Whiting played some of his compositions
at the Press Club.
sYes," was the answer. "but it is the
rag lime' of the negroes OF America, too.
WHAT is more, it is music that l will defy
any composer or music writer in America
TO take down properly, unless he makes a
special study of 1t"
IL seemed very easy. There was the
rhythmic swing and the odd cadence
common to all negro singing.
ut has charm of its own," said H. M.
Bosworth, our noted local organist and
composer, as he listened 10 the exposition
of music that was new to him, though
he had spent his life as student of St.
Cecilia's art. Its charm is peculiar
the charm of a suggested savagery. The
music carries with it the picture of the
negros half hutfie, the accentuated walk
that accom- panes his singing"
There is the whole secret of rag time,'' -
Mr.. Whiting asserted. The negro strikes
the KEYS of the piano in the same time
and measure as he taps the floor with his
heels in dancing or pats juba.' This results
in a peculiar movement that interested
me because it evaded me, and later because
l found that no white man had ever writ
ten it, though many had tried.
sit was down Mobile way that l was
first interested in rag time," Mr.. Whiting
explained. II had played the first move
ment OF Mendels sohn's Wedding March
for big buck nlgger'-one of the burly
waterfront roustabouts, barefooted and
with shirt open to the belt that fastened
his ragged trousers above his hips. He
had the hoarse, foghorn voice that still
was full of music-the voice you can find
only in this class of negro-and it was said
he could play anything he ever heard.
"'Ya-as, sir. kin play it, he drawled.
But it seems toe me it's jes' beat too
fas', mistah.'
Then he asked me to play it again. l did
So That negro then sat down. He lad
absorbed Mendelssohn's idea, digested it,
and when it was produced it came in rag
time, this way:
Here Mr.. Whitney played bit of music.
II had the soul of Darkest Africa" in it,
with a reminiscence OF the modern. Know
ing what it was, the musical auditor could
follow and detect the motif of the great
German composer disguised in its Ethi-
opian garb.
81 tried to play that march as my negro
cola borator did and failed. l had him
play it again. Again l atte pied it. to
find that l had before me musical puzzle.
"As l had received good musical edu-
I -
work for a solution.
Again and again l had the negro play
his march. There was the repetition OF
several movements that seemed very SIM
pie. But they were as elusive as they were
simple.
1t was evident that the effect was OBJ
tanned by syncopation, but l could not es-
tablish just where it occurred. For sew
eral DAYS | studied with my colored ac-
quaintance and then light came.
"The movement was not completed IN
one measure as In the music OF the eau
casian. 1t took two bars of rag time to
com plete one movement The syncopa-
tion begins in the latter part of the first
bar and continues into the second meas
ure. The odd part is that not only Is the
time syncopsted, but the accent is svnco-
pated also, being purposely misplaced and
thus giving a striking individuality to the
negro melody.
"Once interested | began TO look into the
matter of rag time in earnest. l found
it wherever there were negroes. They are
natural born lmitators as we'll as natural
born musicians. So | found that all the
negroes Of a certain locality played the
same kind of rag time, but that each