What did they call their music-group? “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” What else would they choose?ĭakota Datebook written by Professor Steve Hoffbeck, MSUM History Department. Songsters sang it everywhere, piano-players plunked it out all over.Īnd music-lovers loved it when a small town in McKenzie County, just west of Watford City - the village of Alexander - formed a “new musical organization.” Local musicians bought new instruments and were “practicing twice each week.” It may have been the “theme song of a generation,” reviving the “ragtime craze” of a decade earlier. If you have heard the words: C’mon and hear C’mon and hear, Alexander’s Ragtime band,” you find it unforgettable. In 1911, composer Irving Berlin wrote one of America’s greatest popular songs, entitling it “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” you may choose Ragtime something classical,” or another “selection,”yet the Victor machine could play them all. A 1906 record-player advertisement admitted that “musical tastes differ, but. Still, critics said ragtime put the “sin” in “syncopation.”ĭespite qualms, ragtime gained traction in N.D.-more people bought pianos and Victor talking-machine record-players, and ragtime sheet-music. Yet, if music was a medicine, ragtime might bring downcast souls out from melancholy moods. If classical music served as a tonic to soothe the soul, would off-beat ragtime tunes bring too much excitement? On this day in 1905, the newspaper in the little town of Hope published a short article questioning ragtime’s worthiness in comparison with classical music. A troupe of Black musicians from Chicago brought ragtime melodies to Williston Opera House in April and Wahpeton’s opera house hosted a group playing the “hottest rag-time song hits of the day” in October, 1900.Īlthough ragtime was the extremely-popular fad, not everyone loved it. as early as 1900, when a traveling music-company played a repertoire of songs at Dickinson’s Opera House in February. Joplin had studied classical music and he masterfully mixed elements of classical harmonies with African-American rhythms and melodies. Modern-day music aficionados know that Scott Joplin’s ragtime tunes included “Maple Leaf Rag,” (1899) and “The Entertainer” (1902). Ragtime gets its name from being in “ragged time,” with syncopated off-beats, and it was about the most-popular type of music in America by the early 1900s. Ragtime is a distinctively-American kind of music, originating in African-American culture. It has energy, it has off-beat notes, and a solid bottom-bass-line. If you have ears to hear lively music, you know the almost-magnetic attraction of ragtime.

Ragtime songs