Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 3 ½ mins. Sounds best if the 1st tenor is doubled.
That
The Frisco Rag is clearly a homage to San Francisco can be taken from the fact that Armstrong respectfully dedicated this rag to a certain Mr John Morrisey, manager of the Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco, California. The cover of the original sheet music is graced by a smiling southern beauty with long wavy tresses, decorated with a single rose, in profile against the backdrop of a setting sun over the Pacific. The rag itself is a bright and breezy affair which Armstrong enjoins us to play very slowly, a request made by so many ragtime composers of the day including the great
Scott Joplin. Its form is AABBACC, each section being concluded with pauses indicating slight changes in tempo.
A tempo of 70 crotchets/min. is suggested.
The Frisco Rag was published by
M. Witmark and Sons, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, USA.
