Terminology and Meanings
William H. Krell (1868-1933)
Many scholars have suggested that the term "ragtime"-piano-based ragtime-was derived from the music's distinctive "raggedy rhythms" as the syncopated melodies of the right hand pulsed against the strict duple beat in the left-hand accompaniment. On the other hand, Samuel Floyd (1995, 70) locates the source of the term in the nineteenth-century African American practice of "flaunting" handkerchiefs or rags as a signal for dancing. Jeffrey Magee (1998, 389) maintains that the terms "rag" and "ragtime" did not appear in print as musical terms until 1896. According to him, White Chicago bandleader W.H. Krell's "Mississippi Rag" (1897) became the first published piano composition whose title called attention to its syncopated quality through this designation.
Take note of the steady rhythm in the left hand and the syncopated rhythm in the right hand. Also, note that the fine print of the cover sheet indicates that this composition is subtitled "The First Rag-Time Two-Step Ever Written and First Played by Krell's Orchestra." Ingeborg Harer states that this work "was actually not a rag but a cakewalk… (simple syncopation) rather than those of ragtime (more complicated intricate syncopation" (Harer 2015, 102).
Listen and watch the YouTube score to Krell's "Mississippi Rag."
Mississippi Rag by William Henry Krell
