Patricia: A Ragtime Composition
by Joseph Lamb
Brass Quintet - Digital Sheet Music

Brass Quintet Horn,Trombone,Trumpet,Tuba - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1401614

Composed by Joseph Lamb. Arranged by F. Leslie Smith. 20th Century,Classical,Historic,Ragtime. 32 pages. Sweetwater Brass Press #984793. Published by Sweetwater Brass Press (A0.1401614).

Ragtime was originally and primarily piano music.  The Library of Congress traces the origin and wellspring of ragtime to St. Louis, Missouri.  The Britannica website explains, “Ragtime evolved in the playing of honky-tonk pianists along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the last decades of the 19th century. It was influenced by minstrel-show songs, African American banjo styles, and syncopated (off-beat) dance rhythms of the cakewalk, and also elements of European music.”
     But it wasn’t until the mid-1890s, when music publishers started printing ragtime scores, making the music available to the public at large, that ragtime’s popularity began to soar.  By 1900 ragtime was the popular music.  It stayed that way until about 1917 when the rise of jazz began to overtake it.  By 1920, ragtime was nearly forgotten.
     Thirty years later, a ragtime revival began.  And one Patricia Lamb-Conn found out that her father, Joseph F. Lamb, was a well-known composer of ragtime.  In fact, the “Big Three” composers of classical ragtime are considered to be Scott Joplin, James Scott and the only non-African American, Joseph Lamb.
     Lamb was born in 1887 in New Jersey, taught himself to play piano and was very much influenced by Joplin’s early ragtime publications.  From there, Lamb went on to develop into a master of classic ragtime.
     One of Lamb’s most popular works was a 1916 composition he titled “Patricia Rag.” (The title apparently had nothing to do with his daughter, who was born in 1924.)  It consists of four themes in five sections, with the first theme repeated after sections 1 and 2.  Lamb pitched the opening in E-flat Major, changing to A-flat Major at the Trio.  
     This brass quintet arrangement, completed in 2024, consists of 150 measures, approximately five minutes, ten seconds in length.  It retains the basic structure of the original piano score but modifies the pitches to B-flat Major and E-flat Major, respectively, to accommodate the normal playing range of the brass instruments.  Possible exceptions for some players include:  (1) Trumpet 1 plays its A-above-the-staff a number of times and its B above-the-staff once; (2) Trombone plays several E above-the-staff notes; (3) Tuba plays several way-below-the-staff F notes and one high G note. Throughout the arrangement, the original melody is maintained and featured, but in some sections the background and harmony are altered to feature one or more of the five instruments.  In the Trio, the sections designated by rehearsal marks F and G are slowed and treated as a serenade; the original tempo is restored at H.  In performing this arrangement, players should pay particular attention to dynamics.  Additionally, because of the nature of ragtime, this piece may require more-than-usual practice and rehearsal.
     The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge.  He would like to receive your suggestions, comments, corrections and criticisms.  Contact him at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.  For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the Sheet Music Plus or Sheet Music Direct search box.