Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 2¼ mins. Sounds best if the 1st tenor and 2nd bass are doubled.
The Melrose Rag was dedicated to Miss Elfie Keith of Hillsboro, Illinois - whoever she was is lost in ragtime history. This rag, like Bauersachs's other rag Deuces Wild Rag published in the same year fairly bowls along and is just as breathtaking. Its form is ABACA form with a 4-bar introduction form whereby the A- and BC-strains are written in the keys of G and D respectively. This adaptation for recorder sextet is shares the same difficulties as
Deuces Wild Rag but is also equally rewarding to master. Still recorded today, it was in its time immortalised on piano rolls.
The Melrose Rag was published by
H.T. Bauersachs & Co., St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
A tempo of 80 crotchets/min. is suggested.