Living a Ragtime Life

The fire that destroyed the retail headquarters of John Stark and Son Music Co on October 9, 1899  set in motion a series of important events.  The fire destroyed not only the Stark store and all its stock, but the Stark family’s living quarters, as well, as they had been living over the store.   It may well be the case that Stark had already been considering a move to St Louis, prior to the fire.  Whether or not this is the case, John Stark seems not to have remained in Sedalia afterwards.

By 1900, John Stark had moved to St. Louis, while his son Etilmon (Till) remained behind in Sedalia, reopening the store around the corner on Ohio Street.  By 1901 Till had closed the store in Sedalia  and joined his father in St. Louis.

Scott Joplin, however,was still very active in Sedalia, staging his “Rag Time Musicale” with Henry Jackson in Forest Park, accepting commissions and actively collaborating with both Arthur Marshall and Scott Hayden.  

It was the result of one of these collaborations, the Sunflower Slow Drag, that took Joplin to St Louis in 1901, to introduce the piece to John Stark and see about publication. 

During Joplin’s visit to St Louis, he met Alfred Ernst, director of the St Louis Choral Symphony Society, and my personal candidate for Joplin’s fabled “German Music Teacher” In essence, it looks as if the 1899 fire precipitated Stark’s move to St Louis.....which necessitated Joplin’s going there to submit new pieces for publication....which led to his introduction to Ernst.

Descendents of Robert Higdon, the laywer who drew up the historic royalty contract between Scott Joplin and John Stark, for the publication of Maple Leaf Rag, relate that Higdon encountered Joplin at a dance in the club rooms above the St Louis Clothing Store, The club in question was the Royal Tribe of Joseph, a relatively short-lived fraternal organization based in Sedalia.. The top photo is the building that both the store and the lodge were housed in, referred to as the Dempsey Building.

The Friends of Scott Joplin, of which I am president, is St Louis’ de facto ragtime society.  A product of the 1970s ragtime revival, it had been around for decades by the time I came to St Louis in 2004.

That said, St. Louis isn’t the city it was in 2004, let alone the city it was during the heyday of the ragtime revival.  The world is not a static place, and we’ve seen sands shifting around us for some time.

Our fan base is aging.  Folks who fell in love with ragtime as adults in the 1970s are now in their seventies and eighties, if not older. Kids who grew up with it in those years are in their forties and fifties.  Ragtime fans in their twenties or thirties are few and far between.  Teenage fans?  pfft. That said, there’s lots and lots of young performers....a small army, in fact.  The future of ragtime performance is pretty well set.....but who are they going to be performing for in another thirty years?  Each other?  Perhaps we need to invest more in audience-building among a younger demographic....but how??

Right now in St Louis one can, if so inclined, hear live ragtime or ragtime related music (ragtime, early blues, traditional jazz, old-time folk music and so on) three or four nights a week, pretty much year-round  The number of ragtime players with regular or semi regular gigs locally is higher than its been in recent memory.   Perhaps this is part of why our own, long running open-piano ragtime  event, the Ragtime Rendezvous, has seen a slow but steady decline in attendance.  Of course this isn’t only reason but I suspect it is part of it, at least. What’s more, we’ve seen fewer and fewer  “for-the-fun-of-it” amateur players attending the Rendezvous.  Perhaps we need to find more ways to encourage these “for the fun of it” players, beyond hosting an open-piano performance opportunity.  With all this in mind, the Ragtime Rendezvous is on hiatus right now, as much needed repairs are made to the building where its held....perhaps we should use this as an opportunity  to revisit what, exactly, we want the Rendezvous to be.

One interesting change has been an uptick in our paid membership by an interesting demographic group: folks who live far outside the St Louis area and are unable to attend our concerts and events.  While some of this uptick is from local members who’ve moved away yet wish to maintain ties to the St Louis community and some from visitors to St Louis who encountered us in some way, I think most of our out-of-town members are a result of our internet presence: our website and particularly our presence on Facebook.  Since they’re too far away to attend out concerts and events, making sure they get the most “bang for the buck” as members is critical. How best to do this?

One thing has NOT changed, and isn’t likely to change.  For ragtime musicians, the opportunity to play in St Louis has special meaning.  The chance to play in the city that was the home to Tom Turpin, Scott Joplin, John Stark, Louis Chauvin and a long long list of others is something that quickens the heart of more than a few performers.     From our beginning, we’ve brought to St Louis some of the finest ragtime musicians from around the world.  Attendance at our concerts has never been large, but our audience’s engagement and connection to these performances has consistently been intense, and frequently deeply moving.  Continuing and even expanding this longstanding concert tradition is fundamental to our existence and critical to our success.

Saint Louis can lay claim to having had one of, if not THE first stand-alone music conservatories in the United States opened by and for African-American pupils.

Founded in 1888 Headquartered at All Saints Episcopal Church, then located at 23rd and Washington,, the school was run by the following officers and instructors:

James W Grant, president Josiah W Ferguson, vice president William Roderich, secretary Wiley Brown, treasurer J Arthur Freeman, Music Director Anna Dietz Ferguson, pianist

Hale G Parker, Edward S Williams,Wiley Brown, Hutchins Inge and James H Harris served on the board of directors

At its founding, its purpose was stated as follows:

"Our purpose in forming this conservatory is to build up and maintain a chorus of mixed voices which can be used for the rendition of cantatas, oratorios and operas.

We recognize that there is exceptional talent among the young people of Saint Louis, which through this means will be brought forward and in their near future some of them may be filling lucrative positions in our church choirs a long felt wish"

The school was organized into two departments, vocal and instrumental and classes were made available to both children and adults

The Music Director, J Arthur Freeman, was a well-known and highly regarded musician. Born in Maryland and educated in Boston, Freeman performed at the 1893 Chicago fair, and around 1900 was the tenor in an important production of "Hiawatha" under the direction of composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor. In St. Louis he served as organist at St. Peter's Chapel AME Church, but is best remembered as an educator, serving for many years as the principal of Phyllis Wheatly School. His influence over music and culture was long-lived, in 1923 the "Arthur Freeman Music Club" brought Marion Anderson to perform in St Louis at Poro College, her first appearance here.

The school seems to have had close ties to All Saints Episcopal, as well as St Peter's Chapel AME. In addition to using All Saints Episcopal as a meeting spacethe conservatory's president, James W Grant, and board member Edward S Williams served on the church's vestry, or lay governing board, in 1902.

Hutchins Inge, who served on the board of directors, was a prominent real estate lawyer, notary and community leader. He also served on the board of Provident (later People's) Hospital, early on, as well as with the YMCA and other organizations, and was an advocate for cultural enrichment of all types..

The need for such a school in St Louis was real. James H Harris, a talented violinist, was denied admission to a music conservatory (possibly Kunkel's) upon his arrival in St Louis in 1870 due to his race,and forced to find instruction and opportunity elsewhere. Doubtless many of the others involved in the founding and operation of Luca Conservatory suffered similar denials.

Not surprisingly, the school faced major issues, an article about a concert given by the conservatory in a St Paul Minnesota newspaper in 1890 comments that "we are glad to see the Luca out again, we thought she was doomed.

Another article in the same newspaper just weeks later reported that the Luca Conservatory had been reorganized under new management, as follows

James Grant, president James H Harris, vice president James H Harrison, recording secretary William Roderick, financial secretary Wiley Brown, treasurer

The board of directors were messrs .W. Wilkinson, Skykes, Roderick, Ricks and N. Wright. Pianist was Mrs. A. E. Ferguson and director was Mr Henry Williams.

One interesting article discussed a program presented by the school, their "third annual open air concert" Sept 12, 1891 at St Peter's Chapel AME as follows:

Overture: "Silver Bells" R. Schlepegrell ...........Luca Conservatory Orchestra Bass Solo "Only to Love" Stanley .............................................Wm Lyas Nocturne, with Clarinet obbligatto, ...........................................J. L Scott Soprano Solo "Do I Love Thee" ..................................Miss Minnie Little

This, at least, gives some insight into the school's musical programming, and is the only listing I've found indicating the names of specific students.