Saturday 18 January 2025
A Spicy Rag by Henry Lodge
Published in 1910, “Red Pepper” is indeed a spicy rag well in keeping with the jolly cakewalking red peppers as illustrated on the front cover of the original sheet music.
Its composer was Thomas Henry Lodge (now better known as Henry Lodge), an American piano performer and composer of popular music. With the hits “Temptation Rag”, “Sure Fire Rag” and “Red Pepper” he established himself selling music in stores and on the vaudeville circuit. He worked in bars and cabarets before eventually becoming the pianist of the well-known dancers, Irene and Vernon Castle. In all his work, Lodge was fascinated with the minor tonality, and made more creative use of it than any other ragtime composer.
Friday 17 January 2025
Traditional Irish jig
This jig appears to be unique to Chicago Police captain Francis O'Neill's early-20th-century collections Music of Ireland (1903) and The Dance Music of Ireland (1907). It is however related to an 18th-century tune known as “The Girl I Love”, which is attributed to the Irish gentleman piper Larry Grogan.
Thursday 16 January 2025
from “20 Petites Etudes”
Today's piece is étude No. 19 from Italian flutist and composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Twenty Studies, Op. 132.
Wednesday 15 January 2025
from “The Tales of Hoffmann” by Jacques Offenbach
This barcarolle, titled “Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour”, is taken from Act II of the 1851 opera The Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann) by German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach.
Despite being the famous number in the opera, the duet was not written by Offenbach with Les contes d'Hoffmann in mind. He wrote it as the “Elves' Song” in the opera Die Rheinnixen (aka Les fées du Rhin, i.e. The Rhine Nixies), which premiered in 1864. Offenbach died in 1880 with Les contes d'Hoffmann unfinished, and it was Ernest Guiraud who completed the scoring and incorporated this excerpt from one of Offenbach's earlier, long-forgotten operas into the new opera.
The Barcarolle has been incorporated into many films, including Life Is Beautiful and Titanic. It also provided the tune for Elvis Presley's rendition of the song “Tonight is so Right for Love” in the 1960 film G.I. Blues.
Tuesday 14 January 2025
from Flute Sonata in G major
This Largo is the fourth and final movement of the last of the six Op. 7 flute sonatas with bass accompaniment by French flutist and composer Jean-Daniel Braun, published in Paris in 1736.
Monday 13 January 2025
Traditional Irish jig
This jig, first found in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1903), is an Irish version of the traditional Scottish tune “Blue Bonnets Over the Border”.
Sunday 12 January 2025
from “20 Easy and Melodic Studies”
Here is another relatively easy étude, in F major this time, from the first book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by flutist and composer Ernesto Köhler.
