Accidental rag

In a previous posting, I suggested to start one's music-composing career with ragtimes: It helps to restrict oneself regarding

• harmonies (I-IV-V and a few V-of-Vs, i.e. II dominants),
• accompaniments (stride),
• forms (A-A', A-B-A)
• and rhythm ("standard ragtime syncopations").

Concerning the voices, there should be some attempt at a bass melody; and interruptions in the melody (e.g. because of longer notes) should be covered with small counter melody pieces. I assembled an initial piece of a ragtime in that last posting ...

... but then I felt I'd like to write more of it! Next melodic idea? Instead of the diatonic scale, I could use a chromatic one! Again, it got a standard ragtime syncopation:

Then I sat down at the piano and wanted to try out what could evolve from it. What I wanted was a standard stride using f-c as the bass line —but I was somewhat clumsy, and my little finger fell on the e near the f—which "inspired" me to the following bass and melodic lines:

That "accident" with the e gave the ragtime its name: Accidental Rag. Only later I realized that the chromatic scale requires quite a lot of accidentals, so that the name is quite fitting also in this respect!

A simple modulation leads to the second theme in A major:

The second theme moves in the opposite way to the first one: Not up and down, but downwards and then upward (this happens in the bass). Because of A major, this even leads to a f double sharp ... which could, using some naturals, be written as g, but the double sharp is formally correct:

In the repetition, the second theme is slightly varied. When the ragtime is played, one must play this part somewhat softly. After the repetition, the first theme returns, but this time it leads quickly into a coda that uses that old trick of a triple repetition to draw out the end—and then it's over.

Here are downloads of the score;

• PDF
• MIDI
• ... and now there is a YouTube video, where I play the ragtime on a church organ. (The recording is sort of a "demo," i.e., the quality is, well, substandard):