Red Onion Rag (Kidwell/Steventon) - Andrew Barrett

This is a rare rag co-written by Lloyd Kidwell (c.1888-1954), a songwriter and pianist who played in a hot dance band and made piano rolls for Vocalstyle, and Roy Steventon, about whom I don't know very much right now.

It was originally titled "Powder Rag" and self-published in 1906 by the composers, but then for some reason (probably the huge success of Charles L. Johnson's "Powder Rag" in 1908), they retitled it "Red Onion Rag" and published it again in 1911 with Associated Music Publishers of Cincinnati, Ohio (right across the river from Covington, Kentucky, which was Lloyd's hometown). Unfortunately, Abe Olman had a decent hit with his own "Red Onion Rag" in 1912, so I guess they just couldn't win!

This is a very intersting rag. The structure is AA B C DD (no intro), and each strain is the normal 16 bars long. But that is not what is interesting... the interesting part is the variety of different melodic and rhythmic materials. (for example, short phrases based on repetition are contrasted with longer, more flowing ones).

A dotted schottische rhythm is found in bars 1, 5, and 9 of the A theme, but nowhere else in the rag(!).

The move to the major III chord at the beginning of the B section (with a prominent flat 9 melody note, as found in the harmonic minor scale) sets up the listener's ear for the usual relative minor (A minor), but it never appears! Instead, a circle-of-fifths works the harmony back to the tonic again. This makes for interesting development, instead of the usual blah carelessly-written B theme found in many rags. Also notable is how this E7 makes the key change from C (A theme)to G (B theme) so smooth that one doesn't even notice the key has changed!

Thus although the Trio theme moves back into C (the original key), it sounds like yet another key change into a third key.

Also notable in the trio is the recurrence of a motif (bars 14-15) found in the A theme (bars 15-16) which helps lend unity to the rag.

Even though it is not written in the score, I repeat the trio because I think it sounds good.

Finally the D theme starts out unexpectedly with a two-handed break in the treble, then a nice unexpected syncopation on a rest, and then unexpected fast octaves in the treble, where the rest of the rag has mostly been quieter single notes and chords. This is all within the first 4 bars of the D theme! Finally, the little motif found in the A theme and Trio is brought back again at bars 15 and 16 to give a rag a solid finish.

You can download the sheet music here:

http://digital.library.msstate.edu/cdm-SheetMusic/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/S...

This video was taken at the June 2008 meeting of the Rose Leaf Ragtime Club. See

http://www.roseleafragtimeclub.com/home.php

for more info. Much thanks to Randy Johnson for taking the video and letting me post it here.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ragtime
• piano
• Andrew
• Barrett
• Lloyd
• Kidwell
• Roy
• Steventon
• Powder
• Rag
• 1906
• 1911
• Covington
• Kentucky
• Rose
• Leaf
• Club

[HarborGuy]

5 stars your very good at Ragtime - Good tone to that Piano also......

[KawhackitaRag]

Thank you! :) It's a Yamaha console piano owned by the ragtime club and is their main piano (they also have a smaller Gulbransen for duets). Funnily enough, this Yamaha is very similar to our Baldwin "Monarch" console here at home, so I'm comfortable switching between the two. I do like uprights... and rare rags.

[cv5600]

Hi Andrew--Are you still looking for Spangler's record of Cannon BAll? I have it, along with a third record cqalled Medley of Berlin-Snyder hits, which is really great. Let me know if you want me to record them for you...CRaig

[cmv9959]

Thank you for this!  Lloyd Kidwell is my great grandfather.

[Yaledmot]

Very nice indeed. You would do very well with the piano-rama at Dixieland Monterey each first weekend in March.

A friend of mine here just got exactly the same model Yamaha at a closeout. Darn good piano.

[blackwingy]

Wow--terrific!

[dustybunnygang4of6]

Nice job!! :-)

[thomandy]

Very nice =)) 5st

Thomas

[iplayragtimepiano]

if you want free sheet music for rare rags,

go to google and type "rare rags".

your welcome...