Frog Legs Rag

"Frog Legs Rag"
"Frog Legs Rag"
	Cover page to the sheet music. Full sheet music available at Wikisource.
Song by James Scott
Language	English
Written	1906;118 years ago
Published	December 1906;117 years ago
Released	December 1906;117 years ago
Label	Stark Music Company
Songwriter(s)	James Scott
	; A full-length synthesized performance of "Frog Legs Rag" by Adam Cuerden.

Last updated July 07, 2024

"Frog Legs Rag" is a classic rag composed by James Scott and published by John Stillwell Stark in December 1906.^[1] It was James Scott's first commercial success.^[2] Prior to this composition Scott had published marches.^[3] With "Frog Legs Rag", Scott embarked upon a career as a successful and important ragtime songwriter.^[3]

Background

In 1909, Scott Joplin orchestrated "Frog Legs Rag" for publication by John Stillwell Stark, Joplin's publisher,^[1] and his company, Stark Music Company.^[4] Edward A. Berlin, author of the Joplin biography King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era asserts that there was no direct evidence that James Scott and Scott Joplin were personally acquainted. "They certainly knew each other's music," Berlin affirms while describing the Joplin orchestration, and they "had similar temperaments, both being mild-mannered, quiet, and thoroughly engrossed in their music". However, he considers assertions of personal acquaintance between the two men to be speculation.^[2]

Other music historians take a different view. The authors of Black Bottom Stomp credit Joplin for discovering and mentoring the young artist "even while his [Joplin's] own career was faltering" and assert that "Frog Legs Rag" was published "at Joplin's insistence".^[1]

Structure

Ragtime encyclopedist David A. Jasen identifies a number of characteristic James Scott compositional devices in this early work.^[5]

The crisp freshness of the A section gives way to a sophisticated use in the B section of the "Maple Leaf Rag" B section. The lyrical C is an interesting development in feeling on the A section, with similar harmonics. The D section introduces us to one of Scott's favorite devices, the echo, or call and response phrasing in which an idea, usually of one measure, is stated and then repeated an octave higher. This develops the feel of B, once again with the use of similar chords. The modulation at the trio is unusual in that it goes to the dominant (A flat) instead of the subdominant, which would have put sections C and D in the key of G flat.^[5]
— David A. Jasen, Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography

Jasen's appraisal of "Frog Legs Rag" is not unreserved: he also places "Frog Legs Rag" within the early period when James Scott compositions were "flag-waving" and lacking in the restraint the songwriter developed after 1906.^[5] Unlike Joplin, who lengthened traditional ragtime phrasing, Scott explored the genre's dynamic qualities with shortened phrasings.^[3]

Reception

Among songs published by Stark, "Frog Legs Rag" was second in sales after Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag".^[2] "Frog Legs Rag" has been described as "brash" and "exuberant". It was also considered to be a landmark in ragtime sheet music, composed with "vigor" and "brilliance", and to be "one of the great hits of the ragtime years".^[6]

Related Research Articles

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 syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott Joplin, James Scott and Joseph Lamb. Ragtime pieces are typically composed for and performed on piano, though the genre has been adapted for a variety of instruments and styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Joplin</span> American composer, music teacher, and pianist (1868–1917)

Scott Joplin 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 "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music meant to be played in concert halls and largely disdained the performance of ragtime as honky tonk music most common in saloons.

Joseph Francis Lamb was an American composer of ragtime music. Lamb, of Irish descent, was the only non-African American of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime, the other two being Scott Joplin and James Scott. The ragtime of Joseph Lamb ranges from standard popular fare to complex and highly engaging. His use of long phrases was influenced by classical works he had learned from his sister and others while growing up, but his sense of structure was potentially derived from his study of Joplin's piano rags. By the time he added some polish to his later works in the 1950s, Lamb had mastered the classic rag genre in a way that almost no other composer was able to approach at that time, and continued to play it passably as well, as evidenced by at least two separate recordings done in his home, as well as a few recorded interviews.

James Sylvester Scott was an American ragtime composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb.

The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, becoming the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces. Its success led to Joplin being dubbed the "King of Ragtime" by his contemporaries. The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life.

John Stillwell Stark was an American publisher of ragtime music, best known for publishing and promoting the music of Scott Joplin.

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Classic rag is the style of ragtime composition pioneered by Scott Joplin and the Missouri school of ragtime composers. These compositions were first considered "classic" by Joplin's publisher, John Stark, as a way to distinguish them from what he considered the "common" rags of other publishers. Today, any composition fitting this particular ragtime structural form is considered classic rag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Entertainer (rag)</span> Piano rag by Scott Joplin

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunflower Slow Drag</span> Ragtime composition by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden

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References

1 2 3 Jasen, David A.; Jones, Gene (2002). Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz. New York: Routledge. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-415-93641-5 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.
1 2 3 Berlin, Edward A. (1995). King of ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-19-508739-0 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.
1 2 3 Hentoff, Nat; McCarthy, Albert J. (1974). Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the World's Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars. New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 54–56. ISBN 978-0-306-80002-3 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.
↑ Nolan, Rose M. (2003). Hoecakes, Hambone, and All that Jazz: African American Traditions in Missouri. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-8262-1501-7 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.
1 2 3 Jasen, David A. (2007). Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography. New York: Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-415-97862-0 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.
↑ Ping-Robbins, Nancy R. (1998). Scott Joplin: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland Pub. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-8240-8399-1 . Retrieved 2008-09-27.

External links

Sheet music of Frog Legs Rag at Wikisource

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Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
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[jasengordongene-1] 1 2 3 Jasen, David A.; Jones, Gene (2002). Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz. New York: Routledge. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-415-93641-5 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.

[berlin-2] 1 2 3 Berlin, Edward A. (1995). King of ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-19-508739-0 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.

[jazz-3] 1 2 3 Hentoff, Nat; McCarthy, Albert J. (1974). Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the World's Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars. New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 54–56. ISBN 978-0-306-80002-3 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.

[4] Nolan, Rose M. (2003). Hoecakes, Hambone, and All that Jazz: African American Traditions in Missouri. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-8262-1501-7 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.

[jasen-5] 1 2 3 Jasen, David A. (2007). Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography. New York: Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-415-97862-0 . Retrieved 2008-09-26.

[6] Ping-Robbins, Nancy R. (1998). Scott Joplin: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland Pub. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-8240-8399-1 . Retrieved 2008-09-27.

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