Composer:	M. Franklin	Suppliers:
Editor:	Geoff Grainger	Quintet	T/T/T+B/B/GB(B)
Publisher:	Ditty Box Enterprises	Publication:	DBE 520

Add to cart:

Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 2¼ mins.
Society's Pet is an intriguing piece absolutely untypical of the ragtime period. Perhaps an experiment or study, its form is ABAC using the minor keys of a, d and c with a time signature of, wait for it, 5/4, predating Paul Desmond's Take Five by several decades. The subtitle Half and Half seems to suggest that the composer intended 5/4 to be interpreted as 3/4 + 2/4, particularly as the bars in the original piano score are thus sub-divided with vertical dotted lines. Educationally this may be not a bad way to get a grip on the complexities of the 5/4 world but this editor holds that that 5/4 should be played straight avoiding the beginner's tendency to stretch a 2/4 into a 3/4 and thus possibly making a jig out of it! The melodies are sonorous, pleasing, reflective and elegant in their simplicity. All in all an excellent entry piece into the rhythmic delights of 5/4.
Society's Pet was published by The Knickerbocker Music Co., New York, USA.
A tempo of 120 crotchets/min. is suggested.