Rags of 1898: Hoffmann, Bernard, Harney, Fagan, and Hylands(and Green)

Max Hoffmann

Mike Bernard

Ben Harney

Barney Fagan(back in c.1876)

Fred Hylands

What did all these popular pianists have in common? Well, they were known in 1897 and 1898(some maybe even  as early as 1896) as "rag-time" pianists, and composers. They were known as "rag" pianists and composers by 1896, and all of them had that term attatched to their names in that year. Though Barney Fagan had been known for quite a long time before the era of the "Rag" came along, he had caught on quick. Fagan had been a well known minstrel dancer since the late-1860's, but he had caught on to the Ragged bug that came around in the mid 1890's, this is why we see his famous tune of 1896 "My Gal is a High Born Lady", as he became a close friend with Len Spencer around the time he wrote the tune, and it was because of Spencer's take on the song. Which can be heard in late-1897 Here. 

Max Hoffman had taken the title as "America's greatest 'rag' arranger" as early as 1895, as It can be found on a sheet music cover dated 1891. Here is that cover, seen below:

"America's greatest 'Rag' arranger"

Yep, that's about right, and this was 1895 when they said this. He had gone on to arrange the first recognized medley of syncopated Rags in 1897, called, not too creatively, "Rag Medley". It was labelled at the top of the cover as "The present day fad", which is pretty accurate, as Hylands' Chicago friend W. H. Krell had his 1896 arrangement "Mississippi Rag" published in January of 1897.

 There he is, W. H. Krell. Very Germanic ain't he? 

Yes indeed, his "Mississippi Rag" was the first tune published with "Rag" in the title. Though, according to many respected historians, it is just a Cake-walk really, rather than a full-on Rag. It is a great tune no matter. He really must have gotten the Ragged spirit when he played this in his band, or had some of his Chicago "rag time" friends play the music he wrote, such as Silas Leachman, and Fred Hylands. 

But then there was Mike Bernard, the youngest of the early Rag-Time crowd, at about 19 or 20 in 1896, Bernard had to prove himself, after getting back from Germany(studying music of course!) he had some authority over some of the untrained styles of his collegues, he must have found Hylands and Harney threatening to him, as they were harsh, rugged natural pianists who came from Indiana and Kentucky. Bernard was a very differing story, as he was just as poor as Hylands was growing up, and had a similar story to Hylands and his just as talented sister, but he had much more formal and respectable training than Hylands ever had. Harney had more smarts to beat them, as he was from Kentucky, but a rather classy and respected family. He was very well educated, and very bright in his education as a youth, more so than Bernard. Hylands just had his almost maddening intelligence. 

Bernard had been employed at the same theater that Harney worked at, back in 1896, and it was there that he first heard this "broken" time that Harney was cultivating. But before Bernard could get hired there at Pastor's, he had to go through their big redheaded musical director, Fred Hylands. How he was firey, Hylands must have been very impressed with Bernard's playing, as it was always something else, even if he had not really taken in the whole "Ragged Time" thing just yet. After getting through Hylands, Bernard began to work there and almost completely overtook the piano chair there. With this, it became like three men fighting over one pretty girl, and the pretty girl was the main piano chair. 
Luckily for Bernard and Harney, Hylands was out of Pastor's by the end of 1897, and someone else took his term there , but it was never the same without the will and might of Hylands. Bernard, Harney, and the rest of the crew of the early Rag-time community were still going around to all the stages, and performing widely in that time in 1898 and 1899, even if Hylands was not nearly was open to getting any new jobs, as Columbia was keeping him almost fully dedicated in that time. Hoffmann was still an unmarried man in this time, and he remained that way until he married the famous dancer Gertrude Hoffman in 1901, seen below:

Wow! What a lucky man! She was some lady!(and this was taken in 1908!)
But as I have explained before, Burt Green married his famous second wife, Irene Franklin around 1908, and she is seen below:

She was famous for her rag with Burtie called "Redhead" and this was her whole schtick for it. I have the feeling that he was madly in love with her, as he wrote all the songs they did together with her.  
Burt Green had been one of the early Rag-time crew, but he was all over the place, and this was especially so when he married Irene, because it was clear that he was done with his first wife by 1905, and since he had first accompanied Irene at Huber's, he refused to let her stay married to the man she was with at the time. The earliest community of east coast Rag-timers had disbanded by 1904, they were no longer all together at the same time, they still were acquaintances, but the sense of their friendship had completely gone away by that time, even when Hylands got back onto the stage again in 1904, and when he ended his term at Columbia. It's surely a history in Rag-Time that should not be forgotten, as they were practically the first group of Rag-Timers who weren't living in the area of Scott Joplin and Tom Turpin. 

I hope you enjoyed this!