Levee Revels (1898)..William Christopher O'Hare

[Steve Harrison]

This is described as an Afro-American Cane-Hop and sounds like a real piece of old time music. I would guess that O'Hare used a few traditional old time tunes in his composition (one or two of the phrases sound familiar). It's an early composition and suits the banjo well.

It was recorded by the Sousa band in 1902, see the following link;

https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox.5668/

The score and midi are in the library..Steve.

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[Trapdoor2]

How odd! The A part sounds like it is in a minor mode like Dorian or some such. If I close my eyes and disregard the tune title (and cover art), I would have thought this might be yet another "Indian Intermezzo".

Pretty cool!

[Jody Stecher]

 I like it.

[Steve Harrison]

Thanks Marc and Jody, it is quite unusual, especially the syncopation and timing. I had a real job finding a key in which it would fit the banjo and eventually settled on D (B minor) and G (E minor), it does tend to vacillate between minor and major keys, as Marc says, very modal....Steve.
Trapdoor2 said:

How odd! The A part sounds like it is in a minor mode like Dorian or some such. If I close my eyes and disregard the tune title (and cover art), I would have thought this might be yet another "Indian Intermezzo".

Pretty cool!