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Rod's Ragtime
Ragtime by Rod Anderson

THIS RAGTIME SITE STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- LOTS OF BROKEN LINKS AT PRESENT (BUT SOME STUFF IS HERE)

Location (parent | this page): RodMer Arts Home Page | Rod's Rags

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Hi. I'm Rod Anderson, a late beginner at musical composition. This page covers some ragtime pieces I composed mainly as a sort of comic relief from a high-pressure professional job back in the 1970s. From 1994 on I have become a late beginner at composing 'contemporary classical' (for lack of better terminology) but those compositions are covered in the "Rod's Other Music" part of this website. But I've continued to have a fondness for ragtime and a couple of ragtime works have crept in to my post-1994 compositions (including A Ragtime Round and the rag movement of Little Piano Suite -- both referenced from this present page).

If you've already read the info immediately below on site organization and music formats, you can click --> to be taken immediately to the listing of my ragtime compositions.


Organization of this site

What you will find below is a list of most of my ragtime compositions showing their year(s) of composition and their length. Clicking on any composition name will take you to a page with MP3 and MIDI files (explained below) to which you can listen -- together with explanatory program notes and, in many cases, downloadable scores.

About the scores: Foolishly, with two exceptions I had not formally written down the 1970s rags (one assumes one will never forget) though fortunately there were parts of many of them on scraps of manuscript paper lying around my shelves. Fortunately I had some old 1970s cassettes that I'd recorded of my playing of these rags (some of the sound files from which you can hear on this site). With the help of these two sources (and with a neat piece of software -- Melodyne -- which permits one to play a sound file more slowly but without dropping the pitch) I was able to piece together many of the scores. Those that I had to date are downloadable from this site. A few more I am still working on. But for all of these there are sound files available on this site.

Further explanations can be found in the navigation line links at the very top and very bottom of this page as follows:

About -- gives more info about this website
What's New -- tells you what's been added recently
Links -- lists a few interesting musical links on the Internet
Help -- click here if you have problems playing the music files etc.

And finally, there are other parts of this 'RodMer' website as well -- dealing with writing by my wife Merike and by me and with painting and sculpture by Merike.

RodMer Home -- will take you to the top level of the whole 'RodMer' website
Rod's Rags -- will always bring you back to this ragtime page

Music Formats

All of the 1970s rags are live recordings (but unfortunately with some bad surface noise inherited from those old cassettes I used for recording). So, in addition, there are 'computer performances' of MIDI files (the computer playing the score). These come in two flavours:

Yes, it's true that both of these are based ultimately on MIDI files (that is, the notes on the score rather than the interpretation of a live performer). Why is one better than another? Because with the MP3 files I have prepared them from carefully selected and carefully balanced music patches from three synthesizer modules. The MP3 file will sound the same as if you listened here in SwallowHill to my computer drawing on these three synthesizers to produce the sound. The embedded MIDI files, in contrast, are performed by necessarily simplified software on your computer. Here I am at the mercy of what particular software you use. Sometimes people have told me: 'Your flute sounded a little tinny'. Well I'm sorry, but it wasn't my flute; it was their flute -- their software's rendition of a flute sound. So be prepared for the embedded 'MIDI files' to sound not nearly as good as the slower-to-download 'MP3 files'.

While I have protested perhaps too much about the limitations of the embedded MIDI files, they will at least give you a quick idea of a given composition. They are better for solo pieces (such as the piano solos) than for ensemble pieces -- such as the brass quintet (where the balancing of parts that worked on my software may not work as well on yours).

The 23 Compositions (in reverse chronological order -- most recent first)

# Year Title
... Instrumentation		 Computer
min:sec		 Live
min:sec		 Live Date
23 2007 Marionette Rag
... piano with violin descant
      (there's a piano solo version in 1976)		 na 2:36 2007
22 2007 Beaver Rag
... piano with violin descant
      (there's a piano solo version in 1972; a brass quintet version in 1998; a piano & flute version in 2005)		 na 4:29 2007
21 2005 Beaver Rag
... piano with flute descant
      (there's a piano solo version in 1972; a brass quintet version in 1998; a piano & violin version in 2007)		 4:57 4:44 2005
20 2003 3rd Mvt of Little Piano Suite
... piano solo		 1:13 1:11 2003
19 1997-2002 A Ragtime Round
... for unaccompanied SATB choir		 3:24 2:42
bad
sound		 2006
18 1997-1998 Beaver Rag
... brass quintet (2 trumpets, French horn, trombone, tuba)
      (there's a piano solo version in 1972; a piano & flute version in 2005; a piano & violin version in 2007)		5:49
17 1989 France-Canada Love-in Rag
... piano solo		 na 8:08 late 1970s
16 1981 Anniversary Rag
... piano solo		 na 4:15 late 1970s
15 1979 Rideau Rag
... piano and saxophone duet
       (there's a piano solo version in 1977		 na yet 4:29 1979
14 1978 Buffle Head Rag
... piano solo		 4:25
13 1978 Amalia Rag
... piano solo		 7:13 7:23 late 1970s
12 1978 Sillery Rag
... piano solo		 na yet 3:41 late 1970s
11 1978 Niagara Rag
... piano solo		 na yet 5:39 late 1970s
10 1978 Muskoka Rag
... piano solo		 na yet 4:28 late 1970s
9 1978 Marching Rag
... piano solo		 na yet 4:06 late 1970s
8 1978 Gray Skies Rag
... piano solo		 0:46
(start)		 5:02 late 1970s
7 1978 Painting Rag
... piano solo		 na yet 5:38 late 1970s
6 1977 Rideau Rag
... piano solo
       (there's a piano & saxophone version in 1979		 na yet 4:21 late 1970s
5 1977 Lipizzaner Rag
... piano solo		 4:28 4:27
4:09		 late 1970s
2007
4 1976 Marionette Rag
... piano solo
       (there's a piano & violin version in 2007		 1:51 1:44 late 1970s
3 1974 Black Poodle Rag
... piano solo		 6:29 6:18
3:31		 late 1970s
2007(pt)
2 1973 Red Setter Rag
... piano solo		 4:21 4:05 late 1970s
1 1972 Beaver Rag
... piano solo
       (there's a brass quintet version in 1997; a piano & flute version in 2005; a piano & violin version in 2007)		 5:08 4:12 late 1970s
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http://www.rodmer.com/RodRags/RodRags.html -- Revised Apr 15, 2007
Copyright © 2007 Rod Anderson
rod@rodmer.com
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