"Blue Hydrangeas" - Ragtime Two-Step for Piano (2020)

"Blue Hydrangeas" - Ragtime Two-Step for Piano

- Composed:   August 6 – 9, 2020 at Austin.

- Style: American Ragtime, ca. 1905.

- Form:  Through-Composed (A B (A) C D).

- Duration:  04:10

- Recording:  MP3 of an electronic rendering generated by Finale 26 music notation software’s "Human Playback" with NotePerformer 3 artificial intelligence assisted interpretation.

After sprucing up my earlier piano rag "Peony Posies," which I posted here last week, it seemed my every thought was in ragtime; I just have imagined every syncopated turn of phrase mathematically possible in the space of a couple of days, so there was nothing for it - I had little choice but to appease and compose a new piano rag, which I completed yesterday (Sunday) morning, calling it "The Blue Hydrangeas Rag."

Overall, I'm even more pleased with the way this one turned out than its predecessor.  Harmonies are a bit richer here, and chord progressions more bold and surprising; each of the four themes presented is distinct from the others in character and content; and I was able to get a bit more creative with the accompaniment, giving the left hand a bit more to do this time than just generic stride bass throughout.  I think I can safely say I have the hang of ragtime now, and I believe I'll be able to put this obsession to bed at last and turn my mind to other things.  

I hope you find it enjoyable, and I welcome your comments as always.  I'm attaching an MP3 sound file as well as a PDF score for your perusal.  Should you decide you'd prefer to experience the piece via a scrolling score video, here's a YouTube link to it:  

Nice. m. 14 is really the only thing that stands out to me as something strange. You've been pretty consistent with the 2+2 harmonic rhythm but it seems to break here. I hear it this way because what seems like a passing chord of D seems to be the intentional note (V/ii) but ends up sounding like bVII - ii in the end with a longer dissonant primary note (E˚). That could just be me, though.

Ah... I think I see what you're getting at, and I appreciate it!  But I'm self taught, so your analysis is difficult for me to follow.  Let me make sure I understand you.   

I think you probably realize that he chord I've written in the right hand, on the second half of beat 3 of that measure, I intended to function as a "push" syncopation (as they're called in popular music nowadays) anticipating beat 4.  If it actually occurred on beat 4 instead of being anticipated, it would sound like a passing dissonance on its way to a D7 resolution on the second half of beat 4.  This kind of "push" anticipation is extremely common in this style, and they very often create a moment of dissonance before they are resolved.

However, I'm now wondering if what you're telling me is that the E-natural in that right hand chord on beat 3-1/2 would sound better as an E-flat, in consonance with the E-flat that is still speaking in the bass, which would then become momentarily dissonant when the bass note changes to D on beat 4 before being resolved.  Is that what you meant to say?  If so, I might be inclined to agree with you, except that while E natural to F-sharp is acceptable voice leading, as I understand it, E-flat to F-sharp would feel wrong to me; I'm not even certain if it's officially considered poor voice leading, all I know is that my usual models in the Classical period usually avoided it, so I do too.  Maybe the solution might be to omit the E-natural on that first right hand chord altogether, having only the remaining G and B-flat sounding, followed by the chord on beat 4-1/2 as written... might have to consider that.

Let me know your thoughts about that, as well as your thoughts on what I said about E-flat to F-sharp voice leading... if I'm way off base about that by more modern standards, then I'd like to know it.  I do know that because Ragtime was often composed by people with little or no education in music theory, they tended to break traditional rules here and there, which is why in my "Peony Posies Rag" I allowed myself to commit parallel 5ths near the end, and the resulting progression sounded not only perfectly natural to the style, but very effective - so it's very possible I'm being needlessly pedantic about voice leading.  😉

Oh, I'm definitely not telling you anything is wrong. I'm aware of the voice leading conventions of the style (although I may not like them sonically sometimes), and I'm not gonna harp on you on that. 
It's a combination of the harmonic rhythm and the idea behind the harmonic sequence that you start and don't finish (sequences, as I'm sure you know, are still a thing in this style). For most (big emphasis) of the music up until this point, a bar has been split into 2 and 2 harmonically, or left as 4 beats for the harmony (i.e. half cadences), so when you get to m. 14, the second measure of a fifths sequence and also the harmonic rhythm shifts to 3 and 1, it makes the V/ii (D in the bass) sound like an afterthought resulting in a bVII to ii progression which is not as common. Far be it from me to tell you it's wrong, but I can help by explaining why it sounded off to me. 

Ohhhhh, now I get it.  Yeah, I didn't quite continue the pattern exactly.  Hmmm.  I'm inclined to like it just as it, but now I'll be mulling it for a while to make sure that's really what I want to do.  I appreciate you pointing it out.  Like a lot of composers, I'm often too close to the forest for the trees, as it were, to notice some of the finer details in my own work.