Frog Legs Rag

"Frog Legs Rag" is a classic rag composed by James Scott and published by John Stillwell Stark in December 1906. It was James Scott's first commercial success.cite book |accessdate=2008-09-26|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=akWdAVXFmAsC&pg=PA146&dq=James+Scott+Frog+Legs+Rag&ei=4UrdSPjXBIGCywSpi-HrDg&sig=ACfU3U3z2rslcVeU2WVllLBk1GCOkvTvxg#PPA146,M1|author= Berlin, Edward A.|title=King of ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era|publisher=Oxford University Press US|date=1995| pages=146] Prior to this composition Scott had published marches.cite book |title=Jazz|accessdate=2008-09-26|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WeHRWNo7p7oC&pg=PA54&dq=James+Scott+Frog+Legs+Rag&ei=4UrdSPjXBIGCywSpi-HrDg&sig=ACfU3U2QDnvvnlC2OUNFJngUavCLoWxZiw|author=By Nat Hentoff, Albert J. McCarthy|publisher=Da Capo Press|date=1974| pages=54-56] With "Frog Legs Rag", Scott embarked upon a career as a successful and important ragtime songwriter.

Background

In 1909, Scott Joplin orchestrated for "Frog Legs Rag" to be published by John Stillwell Stark, Joplin's publisher,cite book |accessdate=2008-09-26|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=m4twdLJLGa4C&pg=PA23&dq=James+Scott+Frog+Legs+Rag&ei=4UrdSPjXBIGCywSpi-HrDg&sig=ACfU3U0c6oXgkZlbu5SyBv3vgi_qfzi8vg|author=David A. Jasen, Gordon Gene Jones, Gene Jones|title=Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz|publisher=Routledge|date=2002| pages=99] and his company, Stark Music Company. [cite book|title=Hoecakes, Hambone, and All that Jazz|last=Nolan|first=Rose M.|year=2003|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=0826215017|pages=80|accessdate=2008-09-26|url=http://books.google.com.au/books?id=PnhOEVCjgrEC&dq=Frog+Legs+Rag+James+Scott&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0] Edward A. Berlin, author of the Joplin biography "King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era" asserts that there was no direct evidence that James Scott and Scott Joplin were personally acquainted. "They certainly knew each other's music," Berlin affirms while describing the Joplin orchestration, and they "had similar temperaments, both being mild-mannered, quiet, and thoroughly engrossed in their music". However, he considers assertions of personal acquaintance between the two men to be speculation.

Other music historians take a different view. The authors of "Black Bottom Stump" credit Joplin for discovering and mentoring the young artist "even while his [Joplin's] own career was faltering" and assert that "Frog Legs Rag" was published "at Joplin's insistence".cite book |accessdate=2008-09-26|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=m4twdLJLGa4C&pg=PA23&dq=James+Scott+Frog+Legs+Rag&ei=4UrdSPjXBIGCywSpi-HrDg&sig=ACfU3U0c6oXgkZlbu5SyBv3vgi_qfzi8vg|author=David A. Jasen, Gordon Gene Jones, Gene Jones|title=Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz|publisher=Routledge|date=2002| pages=99]

Structure

Ragtime encyclopedist David A. Jasen identifies a number of characteristic James Scott compositional devices in this early work.cite book |accessdate=2008-09-26|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WNuwiKJPtnwC&pg=PA77&dq=James+Scott+Frog+Legs+Rag&ei=4UrdSPjXBIGCywSpi-HrDg&sig=ACfU3U2gmCHC1KfiMUN3vIiB7M_SOkOKzA|author= Jasen, David A.|title=Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography|publisher=CRC Press|date=2007| pages=77]

Jasen's appraisal of "Frog Legs Rag" is not unreserved: he also places "Frog Legs Rag" within the early period when James Scott compositions were "flag-waving" and lacking in the restraint the songwriter developed after 1906. Unlike Joplin, who lengthened traditional ragtime phrasing, Scott explored the genre's dynamic qualities with shortened phrasings.

Reception

Among songs published by Stark, "Frog Legs Rag" was second in sales after Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag". "Frog Legs Rag" has been described as "brash" and "exuberant". It was also considered to be a landmark in ragtime sheet music, composed with "vigor" and "brilliance", and to be "one of the great hits of the ragtime years". [cite book|title=Scott Joplin: A Guide to Research|last=Ping-Robbins|first=Nancy R.|year=1998|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0824083997|pages=225|url=http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0FeXfmHEXfIC&dq=Frog+Legs+Rag+James+Scott+vigor&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0|accessdate=2008-09-27]

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