File name: Joseph F. Lamb - Top Liner Rag
File author: Gennarino
File uploaded: 31 Dec 2011
File category: Sheet Music
That demon Pianoexpert won't stop tormenting me!
I post greetings (for You, only for You, not Him!) for Christmas and HEEEEEE, instead of thanking me, in response calls me only to ask "And what are you posting for New Year's now?".
In short, while He polishes his piano and has fun playing with the great TheSimon, now it's my turn to toil!!!!
And oh well; let's just leave it alone!
Thank goodness You are here, otherwise I would have heard some very harsh things!
Guys, Happy New Year to All, with sincere sympathy for the efforts you make to learn to play and cultivate your passion, even putting up with me, but above all the much-too-criticized Alfred PianoHitler. And to spite him, I am posting something classical, but so classical that it makes him despair because it is too simple and popular!
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Joseph Francis Lamb is part of, along with Scott Joplin and James Scott, the so-called "Big Three" triad of classical ragtime composers.
Born in 1887 in New Jersey, Lamb taught himself to play the piano and loved the ragtime of Scott Joplin; he therefore decided to compose pieces similar to this style, which initially found no publisher.
Fortunately, one day the young Joseph thought it a good idea to go to the offices of John Stark (Joplin's publisher) in New York to buy Joplin's latest compositions, and there he had the opportunity to meet his great idol. Scott Joplin was pleasantly impressed by Lamb's compositions and advised Stark to publish some of them; thus began a collaboration with the publisher lasting more than a decade which, as had already happened with Joplin, brought significant economic results and popularity.
Lamb's Rags have two different styles - called "Heavy", with an intense use of chords and a classic Rag structure, and "Light", partly close to Joplin's style and characterized by various innovations in melody, harmony, and structure.
Unfortunately, around the 1920s, public interest in ragtime declined and shifted to jazz, determining the end of the genre. At this point Lamb stopped publishing his music and began to play and compose only as a hobby. He died in 1960 without having published any other ragtime composition.
The composition I present to You, "The Top Liner Rag", is from 1916 and belongs to the "Heavy" ragtime group.
I suggest it to you in the beautiful performance by Brian Holland at the Templeton Ragtime and Jazz Festival in 2008.
Bye and again
Happy New Year to All (well, even to Him!)
Click here to download the file
