Conservative vs. real Rag-Time on records

Rag-Time is just Rag-Time to most people who hear it. But back when it was new, it was a questionable fad that the older folks just found morally wrong. When it came into fashion in 1896 and 1897, there were the conservative Rag-Time pianists, and then there were the real Rag performers who were rightfully called Rag-Timers. The conservative Rag performers were the classically trained east coast natives. They were taught all of those classic pieces that we know now in the music world just like those of Mozart and Beethoven. The true earliest Rag-Timers were the ones who came from anywhere in the Mid West and were already starting to play the earliest forms of Rag-Time in the late 1880's and even the early 1890's. One of the few who actually wrote this so called "Proto-Ragtime" intentionally for a few years was Monroe Rosenfeld:

Other than being too intelligent for his own good, Rosenfeld wrote a little over a handful of "Walk-Arounds" and "Comic Dances" which were basically two early names for a Cake-Walk. He began writing these "Ethiopian" themed slightly syncopated pieces around 1887, the year after the famous "Patrol Comique" was written by Thomas Hindley. Rosenfeld had come from a well-off family in Virginia, and he had seen all the minstrel performers he needed to imitate and almost mock what they were doing with these old raucous songs. This is where his "Virginia Skedaddle" comes from:

It can be heard here by the Columbia orchestra in 1901(with Fred Hylands on the piano):
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/5000/5225/cusb-cyl5225d.mp3
Before "The Virginia Skedaddle", there was the great old favourite "Darkie's Dream" written by G. L. Lansing in 1889:

This great early syncopated tune was recorded countless times on records from 1891 onward. Fred Van Eps is mostly known for recording this, but his old rival Vess Ossman recorded it for the horns years before Van Eps did, here's Ossman's(with Fred Hylands being as loud and fun as could be on that piano!) from 1898:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/5000/5286/cusb-cyl5286d.mp3
Now more onto the records themselves. The brown wax rarity above is an example of how early Rag-Time would have been played, other than looking through the written music of the early 1890's. This record of "The Darkie's Dream" by Vess Ossman and Fred Hylands represents how the pre-Ragtime of the late 1880's and early 1890's would actually have been played. As Hylands was also one of these early "Rag" performers, as he would have been called in 1894 to 1896. Hylands was one of the "Rag" performers in Chicago, starting the year of the 1893 world's fair. The wonderful and fun music that would become "Rag-Time" spread in the area, with the help of performers like Krell's Band(i.e. William H. Krell) and also Silas Leachman, this didn't take long to infect the somewhat shiftless 21-22 year old Fred Hylands. 

Most of the performers we heard playing Rag-Time in its heyday on these old records are what I would call "conservative" Rag performers, as they do not take too much syncopated liberty with the music, whether the way it's written was that way, or it was just their old nature. Here are some examples of more "Conservative" Rag-Time on records:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/6000/6793/cusb-cyl6793d.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/8000/8449/cusb-cyl8449d.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/11000/11728/cusb-cyl11728d.mp3
(the pianist on this one is actually George Schweinfest!)
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/4000/4879/cusb-cyl4879d.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/8000/8798/cusb-cyl8798d.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/9000/9158/cusb-cyl9158d.mp3
Yes, I know that last one was actually "Panama Rag" and it an authentic Rag-Time piece, but they don't really play it at the tempo and it's still a little bit stiff if you listen closely. The musicians in the Edison band were all local performers and in symphonies. As their tuba player Fred Geib was in a local symphony and was renown in the area around New Jersey. 
Now for the real Ragged pieces on early records:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/8000/8799/cusb-cyl8799d.mp3
(With Hylands on piano)
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/8000/8436/cusb-cyl8436d.mp3
(Also with Hylands on piano)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvNiWY1Cj3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6TvJab02mY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f44kaFHCPQI
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/5000/5275/cusb-cyl5275d.mp3
https://ia802503.us.archive.org/33/items/WillFDenny/WillFDenny-AintDataShame.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/2000/2649/cusb-cyl2649d.mp3


Rag-Time was heard much more on these early records than most would think, even to some records collectors it can be surprising, and it wouldn't have been so without those great and largely unknown pianists, it would not have been preserved on the records. They can sometime not be heard very well, due to the terribly penetrating singers. But they were there and worked far more than any of the well-known singers ever did in their whole recording careers.

I hope you enjoyed this!