Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-08
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With Boyd's theater dark the first half
OF the week and occupied the latter half by
play that has been seen here several times
before, and nothing OF more than ordinary
Interest at either the Trocadero or Orpheum,
the week Just closed was anything but a
lively one in Omaha theatrical circles The
Boyd enjoyed unusually good patronage,
however, and as AT Gay Coney Island"
has been worked over bit and new spe-
cialties added, 1t is practically new, and the
attendance was well merited. The special
ties are better than those interpolated in
the usual run OF farce comedies.
There were several good acts upon the
vaudeville bill at the Orpheum. The Mou-
Here sisters, horizontal bar performers are
remarkably good in this line Of work. Car
ron and Herbert are as good as anyone in
the country in the comedy -acrobatc field,
II not the best. Other good features were
Apollo, who performed upon the slack wire,
and the biograph pictures. The balance of
the bill was made up of what might prop
erly be termed "fll ms"
AT the Trocadero a very good performance
of "olvette" was given by the stock opera
company. which closed It's ninth week at
this theater last night.
AT Gay Coney Island" continues at the
Boyd until Thursday night, when "a Hot
Old Time comes, finishing the week. The
Trocadero Opera company will sing THE
Pirates OF Penzance," and the Orpheum bill
will be headed by Neil Burgess Of County
Fair" fame.
With the AT Gay Coney Island" company
there is a man with heavy burden upon his
shoulders. His name Is Stanley Whiting,
and he the first who male the writing
OF "ragtime' possible to the musical world.
He did not invent ragtime, for ragtime
like Topsy, "jes' growed," but he gave years
TO its scientific study and he put 1t on pa
per for the first time. Therefore to him Is
due the present flood of coon songs-to which
the end is not yet.
Whiting, who is a big, round faced, jolly
chap, is trained musician. He studied un-
der Prof ]. K. Paine, now instructor at
Harvard university, and at one time he was
a member Of the Boston Symphony orches-
ira. So he knows what he is talking about.
In regard to how he discovered "ragtime'
his own story Is here given
1t was down Mobile way that I first
became interested in ragtime. had
played the opening bars of Mendelssohn's
bouts that abound there had listened. 1
watched him and repeated the piece.
PLAY dat agin, boss" he said, and 1
'can you play it?'' 1 asked.
,,,n, "Yasser," he replied, But you done
He tried IT, and never in your life did
you hear Mendelssohn played as that negro
it. l could not see wherein the difference
lay, yet it was different. Finally l caught
taned by what we call syncopation-the
dropping of beat-which is nothing more
nor less than the ''patting" that accom-
panies all negro playing-the 'juba," they
call 1t.
If you watch a negro play you will see
that he loses a beat every so often But
he strikes the floor with his foot and that
accounts, for the missing note. That is
watched this, negro and I found that
he required two bars to complete a move
ment that has only one in the musical
to discover this, but when I did | had
his secret. The syncopation begins In the
time and accent are syncopated.
Thus interested l began to look into the
theory . and the execution lon of a ragtime: i
ert kinds OF ragtime, too The primitive
italy i''r religious' + hat att found far down
In the south; 1t is more or less solemn:
xbout x.n Memphis % change @ IS noticed as
the influence of the whites is felt up there.
In Louisville and thereabouts there there are are
would set trained musician crazy with
its elusiveness. and beauty
The more stuuieu IastiHe ,iie more
trying to write 1t and It took much hard
work to get it on paper. have taken rag
time melodies into the studies of the best
musical writer's in the country and until
they have dropped on to the secret they
cannot put them on paper.
Dvorak, the celebrated composer, and !
studied together on this idea for long
time and I collaborated with him on the
negro melody part of his famous SYM
phony From the New World" wherein
ne exploits the songs of the cotton field
the meeting.
had funny experience with this rag
time two years ago when l took 1t tc
Frisco They don't have many negroes
ont there-ali Chinese-so they did not un.
derstand what l was giving them After
/ had been a frost" for week a news:
paper man came to and said he hao
been sent to find out what | was driving
at that no one knew. | explained 1t tc