The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-20
PSYCHOLOGY IF
 RAGT|ME MUSIC Created in America, Con- quers All Europe SUITS THE PERIOD Outstanding Feature of Ragtime Is Its Syncopation-England and
 the Continent Are Rag
 time Mad
SUITS THE PERIOD

From the London Standard
 The mysteries of "Rag-time' music. the extraordinary Vaccinations of Its rebel lous, revolutionary methods. and the reasons for it's phenomenal success amongst the great masses of the British public prompt an inquiry into it's psy- chology. It Is almost impossible to con- ceive that there now remains a single person in Great Britain who IS not famil- lar with this new music. which, created in America, has conquered the great re- public entirely, has spread to the re- motest villages of the continent, and is now whistled by London office boys and Yorkshire farm laborers and established in every grade of English society.
 The "Rag-time" craze Is only nine months old in England. and yet, if one may quote a famous rag-time song-"Ev- erybody's doing It." The writer heard a gamekeeper at the top of Wensleydale. in the heart of Yorkshire, only a week ago, singing, word perfectly, the rag-time melody which commences Fiddle, on your fiddle, in the middle play some rag time" There must be some very strong IdSNihaAioH III d SOii6 NhOti iAH "cAND' though completely foreign to the York shire moorland, are remembered and sung in preference to all the local ballads, and whisted far away from music halls and restaurant orchestras which may give the initiative to city bred people.
 What is the explanation? What Is the fascination of this new and wonderful lit? What Is the psychology of Rag ffrnaoH GapkiDQ solution ifS terious popularity a representative called upon MT. B. Feldman, the head of the music publishing firm which Is selling copies of ragtime songs not by hundreds, but by hundreds of thousands of copies.
 Mir Feldman's explanation of rag-time' s popularity was simple. We live In an age of rush." he said, and ragtime music suits the period. The old sing song. or smoking concert, with its slow, gentle, altogether boys chorus, is fin ished. Life is too short for it. We have been speeded up all around. English com posers have been unable to adapt them selves to the changing conditions, and America has stepped in and done it, and the whole busy world Is humming new music which rushes just as fast as mod ern, hustling life.
 "The genius of the new music-call him the Rag-tme King and you will be quite safe in doing so-is Irving Berlin, young man in New York not more than "A years of age. Three years ago he was a waiter fin restaurant, earning $15 week; last year the royalties on his rag-time songs brought him G12,000 sterling, and this year the sum must reach 420.000. But he is only one man making a fortune out of rag-time music The publishers the agents, the artists who sing 1t, all of them-everybody connected with rag-tine are making a fortune. It is the music for the modern age. It has gripped all that part of the world which is busy, rushing and up-todate."
 Perhaps a more ingenious explanation of this new music craze was supplied by MT Jacobs, the conductor of the Troca- dero orchestra, who finds rag-time melo- dies the most popular items on his pro- gramme. The outstanding feature of rag time music, said MT. Jacobs, lis it's syncopation. That means that you must slur one note up against the other against the time following on weak beat. Syncopation is also a medical term which applies to the beating of the heart when it is skipping or surring beat It means excitement just as the music does. Dou you know that a man playing rag time music cannot keep still? His shoulders must work up and down or his feet must tap the ground. It is music that grips the player and audience alike. Its sets everybody on the jump. People drop their knives and forks and snap their fingers to the lilt of it as soon as the melody begins. think 1t must have some effect the heart and make it alter it's beat to the time of the music
 Mir Barrett of Francis, Day & Hunter another publishing firm which is flooding the country with the Won Tilser compost tions, addressed himself to the origin of rag time, which is so frequently supposed to have originated amongst the colored population of America, which supplied the successful plantation melodies. Tt Is purely white mans music, said MT, Barrett though, judging by the words of