Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 3¼ mins. Sounds best if the 1st tenor is doubled.
Cotton Time is a pleasing composition with contrasting melodies. Its form is AABBCCB with a 4-bar introduction and a 4-bar interlude between the A- and B-strains whereby the AB- and C-strains are written in the major keys of C and F respectively and the final B-strain is played an octave higher than with the first iterations. The A-strain is a sonorous affair in which bell-like affects are attempted, the B-strain is a jingling ragtime melody and the C-strain is a stop-time sand shuffle. The cover of the original sheet music shows a happy and grinning Negro pair in a cotton field no doubt about to be plucked. What they have to smile about is anybody's guess - it cannot be about the grind of cotton picking!
Cotton Time was published by
Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York & Detroit, USA.
A tempo of 80 crotchets/min. is suggested.