memphis jug baimi - Planungsbüro Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Wirz

☆
living blue/
On-the-scene coverage of contemporary
blues - plus articles,
interviews, reviews & lots of
photos, on the whole spectrum
of blues, from the 1920’ s thru
This man 7s hop- today, from Robert Johnson to
py. He reads Am* T-Bone Walker. One issue 60$,
moCazinlS,- bUV- f° Ur iSSUeS $2JXJ’ from LIVING
ING BLU ES. Do BLUES, P.O. Box 11303, Chi~
y°u? cago, Illinois 60611.
Foreign ra te s: 75# per copy,
$1.30 per copy by a ir m ail.
5 \ , o g f o x t f c in the British Museum
Roger Millington
Suppose you want to become a ragtime pianist. How do you go about it? You can
always copy records, note by note. But it’ s a weary way to learn a tune, especially a
particularly complex rag. And you may well be copying a performance which varies
considerably from the original composition. If you’ re going to play variations, they may
as well be your own.
The obvious answer is to find sheet music. If you can. Apart from the mammoth
Scott Joplin collection recently published by the New York Public Library, there isn’ t
much about.
However, one source is — of all places — the British Museum. Just go in the main
entrance, through the souvenir shop, and ask for a Temporary Reader’ s Ticket. Then
into the reading room and look for the music catalogue.
The Museum is supposed to receive copies of all music published in Britain;
publishers are required by law to supply them. There is also a large selection of overseas
material, chosen by the Museum on some mysterious basis of musical merit.
Once you see a likely item in the catalogue, you order it, then wait up to several
hours for it to be delivered to your desk. If you like what you get, you can have it
photocopied at a modest cost.
You’ ll be surprised at just what you can get. Even more surprised at what you can’ t.
My most joyful moment was holding for the first time the Museum’ s copy of W. H.
Krell’ s ‘ ‘ Mississippi Rag’ ’ . The first rag to be published — in Chicago in January, 1897.
Krell was a white composer. Later that year the first rag by a Negro was to appear; Tom
Turpin’s “ Harlem Rag’ ’ . The Museum has this — but not the original version. Only an
1899 print, with an arrangement by the West Indian, W H Tyers. The Museum has one
other of the five magnificent rags written by Turpin:“ The Bowery Buck” .
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