Lily Queen (1907)..Arthur Marshall (Not Scott Joplin!)

[Steve Harrison]

This is a tune to which the music publishers added Joplin's name as one of the composers when in fact Marshall was the sole composer and Joplin's name was used just as a sales ploy.

It was tricky to arrange for banjo as the melody on the piano is shared between the right and left hands and I had to compromise and be a bit inventive to get the whole thing into one line of music. The final arrangement is pretty close to the original though not an exact facsimile. It's a nice piece to play, in particular the final section, which has a real blues feel to it.

I've added the composer's comments regarding the speed at which ragtime should be played. The midi speed is, I think, just about right. I've heard some pretty dire recordings of this tune where, like some blue grass banjo players, the pianist playing at speed seems to be more important than the music (ouch!).

This is the final arrangement of Marshall's published tunes, the score and midis are in the library...Steve.