Note:
As if I didn't have enough problems - NONE of my computer keyboards are working. I'm presently using an online "virtual" keyboard, which is absolute hell.
Have to get a new keyboard. Don't know when I'll be back. Hope everyone had a very pleasant Thanksgiving.
Here is a rerun post from last year. Jon
I wanted to post some music associated with turkeys, in honor of Thanksgiving - but turkey music seems to be nearly non-existent.
The once-popular Turkey Trot dance (over 100 years ago) isn't foremost in my piano repertoire.
And I've always disliked Turkey in the Straw.
So I searched through my music files and extracted an old recording I made of the Rooster Rag.
Heck, roosters are sort of similar to turkeys - - and if you're drunk enough you can't even tell the difference.
I finally made a video to accompany the music. I threw it together in less than half an hour - which explains the shabby quality.
I'll readily confess that it isn't easy to do anything creative with a rooster theme.
The Rooster Rag was composed by Muriel Pollack (1895-1971) and published in 1917.
Pollack was a composer/lyricist who started out as a piano player for silent movies. She studied at the New York Institute of Musical Art (which later became Julliard) and eventually had a fairly successful musical career.
Her full name was Mary Muriel Pollock Groll Donaldson (she was married twice). Born in New York, died in Hollywood, California.
I heard that Muriel initially wrote The Rooster Rag when she was about seventeen, but it wasn't published until several years later.
It's a brilliant piece and fun to play.
If you listen to this recording carefully, you'll probably hear the music manuscript fall off the piano (around 1:12) while I was in the middle of the performance.
Fortunately I kept valiantly playing without missing much of a beat......
Jon (2021)
Video best viewed full screen
