Ragtime Sources
by
Ted Tjaden
Set out below is information on sources of ragtime music, organized
into the following categories:
1) Books on Ragtime
2)
Print Sources of Ragtime Music
3)
Online Sources of Ragtime Music
4)
Essential Recordings of Ragtime Music
5)
Ragtime Organizations
6)
Major Ragtime Websites
1) Books on Ragtime
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The following books on ragtime music and the ragtime
era represent some of the more important titles in the ragtime
literature:
- Badger, Reid. A Life in Ragtime:
A Biography of James Reese Europe. New
York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.
- Batterson, Jack A. Blind Boone: Missouri’s Ragtime Pioneer. Columbia, MO:
University of Missouri Press, 1998.
- Berlin, Edward A.
King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and his Era. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 1995.
- Berlin, Edward A. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 1980.
- Berlin, Edward
A. Reflections and Research on Ragtime. Brooklyn, NY:
Institute for Studies in American Music, Conservatory of Music,
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, 1987.
- Blesh, Rudi and Harriet
Grossman Janis. They All Played Ragtime. 4th ed. New York,
N.Y.: Oak Publications, 1966. Citations on this website to this book
are to the 4th edition. The book was first published in 1950 by
Alfred A. Knopf.
- DeVeaux, Scott and William Howland Kenney, eds.
The Music of James
Scott. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
- Frew, Timothy. Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime. New York,
NY: Friedman Fairfax, 1996.
- Gammond, Peter. Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era. London: Angus & Robertson,
1975.
- Gilmore, John. Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal.
Montreal, QC: Vehicule Press, 1988.
- Hasse, J.E., ed. Ragtime: Its History, Composers, and Music. New York, NY:
Schirmer Books, 1985.
- Jasen, David A. and
Trebor Jay Tichenor. Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History.
New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1978.
- Jasen, David A. and Gene
Jones. Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early
Jazz. New York, NY: Routledge, 2001.
- Jasen, David A. and Gene
Jones. That American Rag: The Story of Ragtime from Coast to
Coast. New York: Schirmer Books, 2000.
- Laird, Ross. Tantalizing Tingles:
A Discography of Early Ragtime, Jazz,
and Novelty Syncopated Piano Recordings, 1889–1934. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1995.
- Morath, Max et al.
The Road to Ragtime. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Company
Publishing, 1999.
- Ping-Robbins, Nancy R. Scott Joplin: A Guide to Research. New York, NY: Garland
Pub., 1998.
- Rose, Al. Eubie Blake. New York,
NY: Schirmer Books, 1979.
- Schafer, William J. and
Johannes Riedel. The Art of Ragtime: Form and Meaning of an
Original Black American Art. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana
State University Press, 1973.
- Sutton, A. Cakewalks,
Rags and Novelties: The International Ragtime Discography
(1894-1930). Denver, CO: Mainspring Press, 2003.
- Waldo, Terry. This is Ragtime. New York,
NY: De Capo Press, 1991.
- Whitcomb, Ian. Irving Berlin and Ragtime America. New York, NY: Limelight
Editions, 1988.
2) Print Sources of Ragtime Music [top]
An excellent compilation of published sheet music is
available online in a downloadable Excel spreadsheet through the efforts
of Michael Mathew and a number of volunteer contributors. See:
The foregoing
Ragtime Compendium is an excellent resource to verify the existence
of a ragtime composition or find out is publisher and whether the piece
has been published.
In addition, a number of libraries, primarily American, have large
collections of ragtime-era sheet music that has not been digitized (for
online, digitized sheet music, see below). The
following list of libraries have large sheet music collections:
3) Online Sources of Ragtime Music [top]
There are a number of excellent
online sources of digitized sheet music collections that include large
selections of rags and ragtime era music. The most comprehensive
starting point would be the Sheet Music Consortium, which is a
clearing house for the following 4 (free) digital collections (which can
also be searched separately):
The next most comprehensive databases of (free)
digitized sheet music of interest to ragtimers would include the
following collections (in alphabetical order):
The following collections also contain (free)
digitized sheet music, including some ragtime, but to a much lesser
extent (set out below in alphabetical order):
Finally, you can usually find extensive sheet music
for sale on EBay, which can be another way of
obtaining hard to find ragtime sheet music:
4) Essential Recordings of Ragtime Music
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On each of the separate essays I have written on
ragtime music (see the table of contents to
these essays) I have included recommended commercial recordings
of ragtime related to each essay. In addition, there are a number of free MIDI recordings of
ragtime music on the Internet, including the following sites:
Additional ragtime MIDI links can be found
here.
5) Ragtime Organizations
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There are a number of ragtime organizations listed in
the next section. In this section, I wish to mention a
recent online chat group hosted by Yahoo! called "Elite Syncopations":
Members of this online discussion group share
information on ragtime music. Sample recordings and sheet music are
occasionally posted. On Tuesday nights, there is a "live chat" session
that sometimes involves ragtime performances. There is also Elite
Syncopations Radio, available at:
6) Major Ragtime Websites
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Set out below is a select list of ragtime websites:
- John Arpin
<http://www.johnarpin.com>
Note: John Arpin passed away in 2007 so I am surprised this site has
not been archived
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