Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 3 mins. Sounds best if the 2nd tenor and bass are doubled.
Judging by the front cover of the original sheet music,
Black Diamond Rag appears to refer to an Eastern train line of the ragtime era. The rag itself is highly reminiscent of Lodge's greatest hit
Temptation Rag (1909) but does not quite equal it. This recorder adaptation is one of those pieces where the 2nd and 3rd voices are characterised by a lot of counting and making the most of their few bars of glory. The 1st tenor on the other hand has a very "black" part comprising unbroken semiquaver runs practically over the entire piece with just a few brief respites.
Black Diamond Rag was published by
M. Witmark and Sons, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, USA.
A tempo of 90 crotchets/min. is suggested.