If you are interested in the sheet music, feel free to message me at theragtimevirtuoso@gmail.com, and I will share the PDF with you free of charge. I've made some improvements to the score, so it will look considerably better than the version shown in the video :)
Those intervals are insane! I don't think my hand would ever recover from these stretches back to back. Anyways, Sweet and Tender is proably my favorite Bargy piece. This octave walk in the B strain is honey to my ears. Definetly have to *try* this one at some point. Good work!
Bargy reportedly had huge hands and could stretch something like a thirteenth (I don't know the exact actual interval). In his audio recordings (not just his rolls, you can hear him audibly playing 10ths and 11ths with the middle notes, straight on! He was influenced by (among others) two great Black pianists who came through Toledo and played in various local venues when he was growing up: Luckey Roberts (who was from PA but was later mostly based in NY, but traveled all over the country) and Johnny Waters (sometimes spelled Walters or Watters; I am not sure whether anyone has dug up definitive info on him including the correct spelling of his name). Both these artists were also noted for stretching wide intervals in each hand (particularly the right hand, which was fairly unusual then in popular piano music). Johnny Waters also influenced another great jazz pianist who would also become famous (more famous, eventually, than Bargy): Earl Hines!
It's always amazing to hear stories about musicians traveling across the country influencing younger versions of later virtuosos who in turn do the same. Something like Jelly Roll Morton plays in New York, influences James P. Johnson > who influences (and trains!) Fats > who influences Art Tatum > who pretty much defined Oscar Peteron. Wish I could hit a 13th lol.
Thank you so much! You got my subscription with this gem of a rag! Plus some music history that is crazy good! Thank you Barcz, RagTimeVirtuoso, and the composer Roy F. Bargy !!!! super duper great
Good heavens - another little masterpiece which I will listen to over and over! I’m not even going to ask for the pdf of this one though, because I can’t believe it is even playable by mortal hand!
Well, it actually is playable, but only by the massive hands of Roy Bargy! I've heard that his hands were so large that he was able to reach a 13th! (For anyone who doesn't know, that is from the C all the way to the A one octave further). It's indeed a very fun piece! I find it strange why there haven't been a lot of these Roy Bargy piano roll transcriptions yet. I've found a couple on UA-cam, but there are a lot more fun ones that have had almost no attention. I hope I can raise the popularity of these by uploading a couple on my UA-cam channel.
Life is so unfair, isn’t it! (Rachmaninoff was the same). But to be fair you also need phenomenal brain power to keep it all in your head and be able to rattle through all those fascinating harmonic events at such speed. Yes - please, please, please keep finding and uploading these amazing gems. It would be a tragedy if things this good disappear and are forgotten. You are doing great work.
They are playable if you're really good at breaking tenths xD You sure won't be flatting tenths like this if you can't at least reach a D major one because at that point a pianist should be able to quickly flat tenths on white keys.
Although I have not yet heard an audio recording of Bargy playing where he audibly plays that left-hand tenor fast chromatic run or 'rip' (here in measure 36 at the end of the bar), it is similar to similar devices heard in Max Kortlander QRS rolls of the period, and *IF* Mr. Bargy actually hand-played this device (not added by the roll arranger in post-production), then I would _GUESS_ he probably fingered it with slides, the way Luckey Roberts fingered his fast right hand chromatic 'rips'. It takes a lot of technique, though, to play a rip like that in the left hand which is so buried in the texture, and which goes 'against the flow' of what I would consider natural for the hand (the ones I can do more easily, start towards the thumb and go out to the pinky finger, on either hand, not the opposite). However given that he was a classically-trained virtuoso, I propose that if he played this, he may not have used slides at all, but rather fingered the tenor line very fast using standard chromatic scale fingerings.
Awesome job! One thing to note is that the Smithsonian recordings were done on a player piano, that recording you linked is this piano roll xD I think there is a recording of him playing the tune but I'm not sure.
Unfortunately Mr. Bargy is not known to have made an audio recording of this particular piece, nor of "A Blue Streak" nor of the unpublished "Ditto", "Omeomy" and "Trouble in Thirds". The others he recorded either as piano solos or with orchestra (for example "Get Lucky" and "Feedin' the Kitty"). He DID make solo recordings of "Slipova" and "Behave Yourself" for Victor, over multiple takes (multiple sessions), but for some reason, neither were commercially issued on a record- a major oversight/mistake on Victor's part. I have no idea if the unissued masters for those two rags are among those that survived the big Victor purge / bulldozing in the 1960s when they demolished one of their record pressing plants and tens of thousands of master records. I have never found, seen, or heard even a test-pressing of either title, although we all fervently hope that one will turn up.
@@KawhackitaRag Darn. Omeomy is my favorite novelty that Bargy wrote too :( I hope transfers of those unissued recordings you mentioned come up at some point.
@@theragtimevirtuoso8534 I wouldn't say they're based on this one, but this is definitely in the same spirit as some of his novelties, such as "Frisky Fingers", "One Too Many," etc.
Haha, I can understand the confusion! It's interesting why Bargy named his piece that way. It's a pretty good tune, although it doesn't sound sweet and tender at all.
@@theragtimevirtuoso8534 I am not sure about that... it's a pretty melody. But yes the texture is heavy, so one needs great skill and/or huge hands to play it lightly.
If you are interested in the sheet music, feel free to message me at theragtimevirtuoso@gmail.com, and I will share the PDF with you free of charge. I've made some improvements to the score, so it will look considerably better than the version shown in the video :)
Those intervals are insane! I don't think my hand would ever recover from these stretches back to back.
Anyways, Sweet and Tender is proably my favorite Bargy piece. This octave walk in the B strain is honey to my ears. Definetly have to *try* this one at some point. Good work!
Bargy reportedly had huge hands and could stretch something like a thirteenth (I don't know the exact actual interval).
In his audio recordings (not just his rolls, you can hear him audibly playing 10ths and 11ths with the middle notes, straight on!
He was influenced by (among others) two great Black pianists who came through Toledo and played in various local venues when he was growing up: Luckey Roberts (who was from PA but was later mostly based in NY, but traveled all over the country) and Johnny Waters (sometimes spelled Walters or Watters; I am not sure whether anyone has dug up definitive info on him including the correct spelling of his name). Both these artists were also noted for stretching wide intervals in each hand (particularly the right hand, which was fairly unusual then in popular piano music).
Johnny Waters also influenced another great jazz pianist who would also become famous
(more famous, eventually, than Bargy): Earl Hines!
It's always amazing to hear stories about musicians traveling across the country influencing younger versions of later virtuosos who in turn do the same. Something like Jelly Roll Morton plays in New York, influences James P. Johnson > who influences (and trains!) Fats > who influences Art Tatum > who pretty much defined Oscar Peteron.
Wish I could hit a 13th lol.
Thank you so much! You got my subscription with this gem of a rag! Plus some music history that is crazy good! Thank you Barcz, RagTimeVirtuoso, and the composer Roy F. Bargy !!!! super duper great
Thank you for the kind words!
This is superb!! It looks very challenging, but the music is indeed sweet and tender!
Challenging for not-gargantuan-sized hands for sure!
Very interesting! Thank you, also for providing the biography!
You're welcome! Thank you for commenting!
Good heavens - another little masterpiece which I will listen to over and over!
I’m not even going to ask for the pdf of this one though, because I can’t believe it is even playable by mortal hand!
Well, it actually is playable, but only by the massive hands of Roy Bargy! I've heard that his hands were so large that he was able to reach a 13th! (For anyone who doesn't know, that is from the C all the way to the A one octave further).
It's indeed a very fun piece! I find it strange why there haven't been a lot of these Roy Bargy piano roll transcriptions yet. I've found a couple on UA-cam, but there are a lot more fun ones that have had almost no attention. I hope I can raise the popularity of these by uploading a couple on my UA-cam channel.
Life is so unfair, isn’t it! (Rachmaninoff was the same). But to be fair you also need phenomenal brain power to keep it all in your head and be able to rattle through all those fascinating harmonic events at such speed.
Yes - please, please, please keep finding and uploading these amazing gems. It would be a tragedy if things this good disappear and are forgotten. You are doing great work.
They are playable if you're really good at breaking tenths xD You sure won't be flatting tenths like this if you can't at least reach a D major one because at that point a pianist should be able to quickly flat tenths on white keys.
I love yr explanation 😅re Chopin and Joplin had a baby! Made me rock with laughter Thanx for that. I needed a good belly roll
More Roy Bargy transcriptions!
No worries, there will be more of these coming soon! If time allows me, I can get the next one out in 2-3 days!
Jehosaphat! I am going to be having hand surgery soon and when I get my left hand back, I think I'd like to try this one on my 3/29 pipe organ.
This is amazing! The second theme sounds really familiar for some reason, but I can't place my finger on it. Thanks for sharing!
No problem, I enjoy making these videos! Let me know when you have found out which piece reminds you of the second theme. I am curious to know!
You may be thinking of Pianoflage, also composed by Bargy, or James Scott’s Troubadour Rag.
Although I have not yet heard an audio recording of Bargy playing where he audibly plays that left-hand tenor fast chromatic run or 'rip' (here in measure 36 at the end of the bar), it is similar to similar devices heard in Max Kortlander QRS rolls of the period, and *IF* Mr. Bargy actually hand-played this device (not added by the roll arranger in post-production), then I would _GUESS_ he probably fingered it with slides, the way Luckey Roberts fingered his fast right hand chromatic 'rips'.
It takes a lot of technique, though, to play a rip like that in the left hand which is so buried in the texture, and which goes 'against the flow' of what I would consider natural for the hand (the ones I can do more easily, start towards the thumb and go out to the pinky finger, on either hand, not the opposite).
However given that he was a classically-trained virtuoso, I propose that if he played this, he may not have used slides at all, but rather fingered the tenor line very fast using standard chromatic scale fingerings.
can i have the midi file? :]
Sure, send me a message at theragtimevirtuoso[at]gmail.com, and I'll send you the MIDI.
Awesome job! One thing to note is that the Smithsonian recordings were done on a player piano, that recording you linked is this piano roll xD I think there is a recording of him playing the tune but I'm not sure.
Oh lol, I thought that recording was him actually playing xD. Thanks for clearing that up :)
@@theragtimevirtuoso8534 Yeah they did the same thing with Zez Confrey piano rolls and I was very confused xD
Unfortunately Mr. Bargy is not known to have made an audio recording of this particular piece, nor of "A Blue Streak" nor of the unpublished "Ditto", "Omeomy" and "Trouble in Thirds". The others he recorded either as piano solos or with orchestra (for example "Get Lucky" and "Feedin' the Kitty").
He DID make solo recordings of "Slipova" and "Behave Yourself" for Victor, over multiple takes (multiple sessions), but for some reason, neither were commercially issued on a record- a major oversight/mistake on Victor's part.
I have no idea if the unissued masters for those two rags are among those that survived the big Victor purge / bulldozing in the 1960s when they demolished one of their record pressing plants and tens of thousands of master records. I have never found, seen, or heard even a test-pressing of either title, although we all fervently hope that one will turn up.
@@KawhackitaRag Darn. Omeomy is my favorite novelty that Bargy wrote too :(
I hope transfers of those unissued recordings you mentioned come up at some point.
This is definitely a precursor to some Tom Brier pieces.
Really? Could you name any of these pieces you think are based on this one? Thanks!
@@theragtimevirtuoso8534 I wouldn't say they're based on this one, but this is definitely in the same spirit as some of his novelties, such as "Frisky Fingers", "One Too Many," etc.
@@theragtimevirtuoso8534 Tom took a lot of influence from Charley Straight's piano rolls which are quite similar in a lot of respects to Bargy's work.
Tom definitely knows and was majorly influenced by Bargy's rags and probably some of his pop song performances/arrangements as well.
If Chopin and Joplin had a baby...
...it would be a very interesting match-up :)
Hahah that is not at all what I was expecting it to sound like based on the title
Haha, I can understand the confusion! It's interesting why Bargy named his piece that way. It's a pretty good tune, although it doesn't sound sweet and tender at all.
@@theragtimevirtuoso8534 I am not sure about that... it's a pretty melody. But yes the texture is heavy, so one needs great skill and/or huge hands to play it lightly.