An Introduction to America’s Music

248 PART 2 | FROM THE CIVIL WAR THROUGH WORLD WAR I

date: 1911

performers: Billy Murray, vocal, with

studio orchestra

genre: ragtime song

meter: duple

form: verse and 32-bar abac chorus

Listening Guide 10.2 “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” IRVING BERLIN

timing section text comments

0:00 introduction 4-bar instrumental introduction based on the

opening phrase of the verse.

0:07 vamp A 2-bar phrase, played twice.

0:14 verse 1 Oh, ma honey... Mild syncopation on “honey.”

0:41 chorus

a

Come on and hear... Modulation to the subdominant resembles the

similar modulation in a typical march.

0:55 b b They can play a bugle

call...

Melody resembles a bugle call in bars 3–4.

1:08 a a Come on along... Music is identical to the fi rst a, with different lyrics.

1:22 c c And if you care to

hear...

Quotation of “Old Folks at Home.”

1:37 introduction and

vamp

Return to beginning.

1:51 verse 2 Oh, ma honey... The music of verse 1 repeats, with new lyrics.

2:18 chorus Come on and hear... As before.

3:13 chorus

They can play a bugle

call...

Instrumental version of the chorus’s a section, using

Sousa-style countermelodies and woodwind trills.

The vocalist sings only b and the second half of c

(not indicated in the sheet music).

note Edison cylinder, 1911.

Listen & Refl ect

1. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” uses only the mildest syncopations—the same ones used, in
   fact, in Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” As recorded here, the song gains even further
   ties to Sousa in its use of a military-style band. Yet the song was widely received by listen-
   ers at the time as a ragtime song. Why?


2. And what does that reception suggest about the attitudes of the musical public in 1911?

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• instrumental accompaniment that resembles
  a military band


• key change at chorus, similar to that at the
  trio of a march or rag


• lyrics in stage Negro dialect

CD 2.3

172028_10_231-253_r2_mr.indd 248 23/01/13 10:26 AM