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many minutes to work out from your description what you meant by it, but I made it in the end.. And this phenomenon is only a characteristic of the later, decadent ragtime writers. Examples : Temptation Rag — or the first phrase of 12th Street Rag. which of course isn't a rag at all. It's true that this effect is metrical rather than accentual syncopation ; but why do you infer that this is characteristically Af roAmerican ? I don't think this is true, on momentary consideration, but even if it is, it's certainly not selfevident, and needs a lot of explanatory justification. For is not jazz syncopation distinctly accentual, not metrical? Also, the syncopation of ragtime— and jazz — is not sufficiently developed to justify the word 'polyrhythm'.8 I think, really, the whole clause had better be scrapped. Here is my definition: Ragtime is an early stage of AfroAmerican music, current from 1900 till it njerged into jazz; originally piano rhusic, but later adapted to other instruments and whole orchestras. Its predominant feature is its rhythmical innovation, the systematic use of syncopation in the treble, above a regular bass, in march tempo. Its form, which incorporates three or four distinct thematic sections or 'strains', each of 16 bars, is taken directly from the march. Melodically and harmonically it is also mainly derived from the march, the chief innovation being an extensive use of diminished harmonies. Now we come to Blues. Your first two sentences are O. K., and I strongly agree with your last sentence; But in between there's a good deal of loose musical language. You can't say the blues is based on a variant of the diatonic scale ; there are two diatonic scales, major and minor. Blues are always firmly in the major key — as is !)9% of jazz also. It is wrong to say that the seventh is diminished ; it should be, simply, flattened. There is no use made of diminished chords in folk blues.0 And the sixth is as cornmusicians themselves and reliance on records alone cannot help but result in the most unexpected twists of meaning and interpretation. 8 Jazz syncopation as well as secondaryrag are based on the principle of rhythmic tension and resolution. The meter is stretched until the tension snaps and the rhythmic suspense is resolved. The rhythmic accents in jazz therefore have no autonomous function as in, say, SACRE DE PRINTEMPS ; they simply open and close a period of time. The press roll is typical in that it serves to measure out the length of the rhythmic tension rather than its accents. 9 No contradiction here. NOV E M B E R , 194 5 monly flattened as the seventh. Here is my variant: The Blues is an American Negro folk song in 4/4 time; twelve bars is the traditional and most frequent length of verse and chorus, but many eight and sixteen bar variants have appeared without loss of authenticity. Harmonically, the blues is based on the tonic, dominant and subdominant chords of the major scale, and rarelv makes use of any other chord. Melodically, however, there is very much use of 'blue notes'. Rhythmically the blues follows the African practice of delayed and anticipated accents ; in timbre it maintains the African use of controlled hoarseness of voice, controlled vibrato, and controlled breathing effects, used for rhythmi( Continued on [>a<je 2X.) mi inFORniRTion Presents OLD NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BUNK JOHNSON S JAZZ BAND WILLIE "BUNK" JOHNSON GEORGE LEWIS ALBERT WARNER WALTER DECOU LAWRENCE MARRERO CHESTER ZARDIS EDGAR MOSLEY trumpet clarinet trombone piano banjo bass drums 1 J. 1. 11— The Thriller Rag When I Leave the World Behind /. /. 12— Franklin Street Blues Weary Bluea /. /. 13— Big Chief Battle Axe Blue Bells Goodbye /. /. 14— Dusty Rag Sobbin' Blues /. I. 15 — Shine Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula /. /. 16— Sobbin' Blues No. 2 Sometimes My Burden Is So Hard to Bear Jazz Information recordings are priced at $1.00 each, excluding Federal, State, and Local Taxes, F.O.B., N.Y.C. COMMODORE MUSIC SHOP 136 EAST 42nd STREET Calf MUrray Hill 2-7967 NEW YORK CITY THE RECORD CHANGER