"Mashed Potatoes" ragtime piano duet; V. Tichenor & T. Brier

Just before she hopped on a plane to play at another ragtime festival happening the same weekend, Virginia Tichenor said she just had to play a duet with Tom Brier.

So she called him up to the second piano, and they mulled for a bit to decide on a tune to play together. They chose this one by Calvin Lee Woolsey (C.L. Woolsey) from 1911.

Virginia said that she thinks of this rag as the sort of thing that Tom would have composed if he lived during the ragtime era. Tom mused that it must be because of the all the bass chords it has.

This was at the 2008 Ragtime Corner in Sacramento, California.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• ragtime
• piano
• duet
• tichenor
• brier
• woolsey
• 1911
• rag

[babyruth181]

I'd like to express my gratitude of this video post, and Virginia Tichenor and Tom Brier sharing their talent. If it weren't for this video, I wouldn't have had any idea of the tempo to play this piece. Thank you both, as you inspired me to learn this piece! I enjoy all parts A, B, C, and D equally. It's my new favorite rag/march composition to play!!

[Keeper1st]

The default tempo to give to a rag is 100 beats per minute. Some rags will want to be a bit slower and some will want to be a bit faster, and you'll feel in them which way to go.

They're stretching out the glissando in the interlude (you know: those small notes doing the downward chromatic), playing it more like a cadenza. Virginia told Tom ahead of time that she wanted to do that. Normally it would be just a rapid hands-down-the-keyboard glissando.

[luigiranalli]

Ditto: I also like the second strain very much! It has an infectious rhythm!! What leave me cold is the 2nd part of the piece, which is just an non-syncopated march (starting at time 1:41 of the video). Virginia and Tom made a great arrangement of that march part as well, I must say, but I greatly prefer the first half (1st, 2nd and 3rd strains=pure ragtime).

[Keeper1st]

Yeah, I know what part you meant. I happen to like the contrast when rags have a Trio that is unsyncopated like that. This one has some interesting appoggiature in that section which can create a bit of syncopation, but they aren't played in this performance (or are played as grace notes before the beat). Maybe they were meant to be grace notes, but I'm pretty sure they're not notated as such (i.e., no stroke through the stem) in the score.

[idasynco]

WOW, this is wetting my appetite for the West Coast Ragtime festival for sure!! 5*

[Keeper1st]

While you all were off enjoying the Midwest ragtime festival "season", I was posting a few videos from here on the west coast shot Memorial Day weekend. You might have missed a few that I posted before this one. I didn't shoot many though. Next up for me is the 10th annual Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival in August.

[theragtimefan]

I love mashed potatoes! They taste so good with home made gravy...I like the song too. *****

[babyruth181]

Thank you, for your reply and your insight. It's interesting that they agreed to slow the interlude. I personally am not aware of how you would play a glissando including ivory and black notes.

[jc1341]

i want mashed potatoes now

[Keeper1st]

I like the second part; it's very catchy, and I like the grace notes in it, when they're more pronounced (longer duration) than they are here. I also like similar "one-step" style trio strains like in "Eatin' Time Rag" and the like. I even wrote such a strain in the Infernally Unnamable Rag.