Peter Batten recalls the magic of …

Ragtime. Does that word mean anything to you? Have you heard Alexander’s Ragtime Band? I mean the song, not the mythical band.

That was just a joke, but my serious point is to ask “What do you know about the music called Ragtime?”. Probably very little if you were born in the last 50 years. That is a great pity because you have missed hearing some beautiful music.

Let me take you back more than 100 years. Cinema was about to begin, radio was yet to come, television was not even conceived. The chief provider of home entertainment was the piano in the parlour, played by members of the family. Sheet music was very important for these players and music publishers became very wealthy. Suddenly, in the 1890s, a new form of music became available for the parlour pianists; the publishers began to print ‘Rags’.
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