Turpentine Rag by Jessie Murphy (1905)

"A Blistering Two-Step". Interesting how ragtime marketing could go back in 1905. This piece is not really a true rag but was sold as one, and a blistering one at that. It would qualify as an intermezzo, which was an artistic ragtime style that often lacked syncopation. But some syncopated rags in that same era were marketed as intermezzos or even "semi-intermezzos". It all depends which audience you were trying to reach. This is an interesting composition that was self-published by Jessie Murphy in Greenville, Texas in 1905. According to research by Mitchy, Jessie was a female composer. Thus far we haven't found any other published works by Jessie. Musescore researcher Erlingi found more: This score is remarkable as in 1905 it was composed by Jessie Murphy a 13 year old girl, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Murphy of Greenville, Texas. In 1910 she went to Dallas to take lessons in voice culture and in 1911 she gave some piano concerts. After that is difficult to trace, appears to be alive in 1933 and might have died in 1939 but no definite proof. Thank you to Mitchy for finding and sharing this rare rag from Texas, and to Ragtime Dorian Henry for making the original score available. Dorian's upload of "Turpentine Rag" is at this link:    • Turpentine Rag by Jessie Murphy (1905, Rag...   I have posted the copy of the original score here: https://mega.nz/file/aRwUBBbS#IqkZ_kg... This is a reproduction of the original score. Mitchy also helped out with proofreading this score. Original listing and sheet music are here: https://musescore.com/user/36482158/s... #ragtime #ragtimepiano #intermezzo