Broadway Rag

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piece for solo piano.
• Who and whenpublished in 1922 by James Scott, a composer from Missouri.
• What to listen forthe right hand playing across the beat above a left hand that never wavers.

Listen for

• The left hand laying the floor: a low note, then a chord, alternate to keep the step. Follow the left hand alone for a while and the beat of the whole piece becomes clear.
• The right hand slipping past: listen for syncopation, where the weight falls off the strong beats. The same tune sounds far bouncier when it is played across the beat.
• Repeat and changea classic rag usually presents a few sections of around sixteen bars, one after another, each repeated. Try to find the moment a section has been heard twice and the music moves on to a new tune.

When it was written

Ragtime is piano music that arose among African American musicians in the late nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century rag sheet music sold widely, but in the 1920s its popularity gave way to jazz.

James Scott was born in Missouri around 1885. As a young man he worked at a music store in Carthage, Missouri, and began publishing his own rags. Today he is counted, with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb, among the big three of classic ragtime.

Scott moved to Kansas City, where he taught music and accompanied silent films in theaters. When this piece appeared in 1922, he was living there. Scott died in Kansas City in 1938.