The Cactus Rag
Lucian Porter Gibson
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Browse piano sheets by Lucian Porter Gibson on Zen Virtual Piano. Ragpiano.com says that while Gibson was growing up in St. Louis in 1904 an exposition was in town, and he probably wandered off to the non-admission Amusement Pike, as so many St. Louis youths did, where he was able to hear the strains of ragtime. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1890 to William Henry Gibson Jr. and Nellie Porter, who were both teachers in the St. Louis school system. Parents who both taught in the St. Louis schools, and a city that hosted an exposition in his teens, can be read as framing a young man whose surroundings combined public learning with the sound of public music. In late 1911 Gibson penned Jinx Rag, which Ragpiano.com calls very creative and somewhat eclectic, a fan tribute to the St. Louis comic strip Penny Ante, also known as Eddieâs Friends, which had a character named Jinx, drawn by Jean Knott. In 1912 he completed and self-published a follow-up song with lyrics, Beware, Beware, Jinx Will Get You if You Donât Take Care, which was likely printed and distributed by a St. Louis house, Buck and Lowney. A hometown exposition in his teens and, later, a rag for a St. Louis comic strip can be read as a writer whose subjects stayed close to home. Ragpiano.com says the success of Jinx Rag was followed in 1916 by the Matthews-arranged Cactus Rag, which featured an unusual 24-bar opening strain. Syncopated Times reports that only three works by Lucian P. Gibson are known, one of them The Cactus Rag, which Stark Music Company published in 1916. It calls the piece noticeably derivative of Artie Matthewsâ Pastime Rags, especially No. 3, the habanera, but also unique and inventive. An unusual 24-bar opening strain, in a rag that Syncopated Times calls both derivative and inventive, is one place where the piece may depart from its models. Syncopated Times points to the prickly right-hand chord clusters and, like Robert Hamptonâs 1914 Cataract Rag, also published by Stark Music Company, calls The Cactus Rag a virtuoso study in octaves. Ragpiano.com adds that it may never be known whether Gibson was influenced by Matthewsâ rags or whether Matthewsâ arrangements made it sound that way, but that the collaboration was a worthy and challenging effort. A tune cited as a study in octaves, beside Ragpiano.comâs remark that it may never be known whether Gibson or the arranger shaped its sound, leaves an open question about where the pieceâs character came from.
Browse piano sheets by Lucian Porter Gibson on Zen Virtual Piano.
Ragpiano.com says that while Gibson was growing up in St. Louis in 1904 an exposition was in town, and he probably wandered off to the non-admission Amusement Pike, as so many St. Louis youths did, where he was able to hear the strains of ragtime. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1890 to William Henry Gibson Jr. and Nellie Porter, who were both teachers in the St. Louis school system. Parents who both taught in the St. Louis schools, and a city that hosted an exposition in his teens, can be read as framing a young man whose surroundings combined public learning with the sound of public music.
In late 1911 Gibson penned Jinx Rag, which Ragpiano.com calls very creative and somewhat eclectic, a fan tribute to the St. Louis comic strip Penny Ante, also known as Eddieâs Friends, which had a character named Jinx, drawn by Jean Knott. In 1912 he completed and self-published a follow-up song with lyrics, Beware, Beware, Jinx Will Get You if You Donât Take Care, which was likely printed and distributed by a St. Louis house, Buck and Lowney. A hometown exposition in his teens and, later, a rag for a St. Louis comic strip can be read as a writer whose subjects stayed close to home.
Ragpiano.com says the success of Jinx Rag was followed in 1916 by the Matthews-arranged Cactus Rag, which featured an unusual 24-bar opening strain. Syncopated Times reports that only three works by Lucian P. Gibson are known, one of them The Cactus Rag, which Stark Music Company published in 1916. It calls the piece noticeably derivative of Artie Matthewsâ Pastime Rags, especially No. 3, the habanera, but also unique and inventive. An unusual 24-bar opening strain, in a rag that Syncopated Times calls both derivative and inventive, is one place where the piece may depart from its models.
Syncopated Times points to the prickly right-hand chord clusters and, like Robert Hamptonâs 1914 Cataract Rag, also published by Stark Music Company, calls The Cactus Rag a virtuoso study in octaves. Ragpiano.com adds that it may never be known whether Gibson was influenced by Matthewsâ rags or whether Matthewsâ arrangements made it sound that way, but that the collaboration was a worthy and challenging effort. A tune cited as a study in octaves, beside Ragpiano.comâs remark that it may never be known whether Gibson or the arranger shaped its sound, leaves an open question about where the pieceâs character came from.
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Lucian Porter Gibson
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Lucian P. Gibson was a St. Louis ragtime composer, born in St. Louis in 1890, whom Syncopated Times describes as only known to have composed three works.
It is a rag published by Stark Music Company in 1916 and Matthews-arranged, with an unusual 24-bar opening strain.
It is a rag Gibson wrote in late 1911 as a fan tribute to the St. Louis comic strip Penny Ante, which had a character named Jinx.
Ragpiano.com calls it Matthews-arranged.