![[October 1st, 1926] Max Morath, entertainer, musician, and leading figure of the 1970s ragtime revival, is born in Colorado Springs](https://preview.redd.it/wpls0ujtkysh1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=ff457c85199fbd88c5a56f2358d4c5aa79b2ea34)
I loved listening to the Max Morath Quartet back when I was a kid. I was really hoping he’d reach 100 years old, but he died on June 19, 2023.
Harry Spencer recorded this primitive recitation of The Raven sometime around 1896 to 1900.
I thought that I would shed some light on two of my favorite semi-obscure composers, Scott Joplin and Zez Confrey. Scott Joplin is known for making ‘ice cream truck music’ and ragtime, and those pieces are really good by themselves, but Joplin’s extended catalog reveals a lot of heartfelt melancholic works, that merge syncopated elements and his classical training. Joplin’s emotional music-crafting is enhanced by his tragic life. He put his sorrows, such as the death of his beloved wife, Freddie, his struggle to gain serious acceptance, his passion project, the opera Treemonisha, being underfunded and never being formally staged, and his slow death from syphilis that ultimately ended his life, into his art. It pains me that he died at the age of 48, just as he was getting into more ambitious endeavors and getting into more experimental territory. He was working on a symphony and a piano concerto that we can never see because he died too soon.
Zez Confrey is known for a different type of ragtime, novelty piano. He made jaunty and complex piano arrangements that were notoriously hard to play. Unless you are a highly-skilled pianist, a piano roll is usually the only way to do these pieces justice. But Confrey didn’t just make music like this, he also got experimental, especially in his later years. His later works from the 1930s-1950s have a distinctly ‘modernistic’ feel to them, like he is trying to emulate what cosmopolitan music might sound like in the future. Some of that music is tinged with forlorn sadness and nostalgia.
Unfortunately, both of these composers’ mood pieces are largely obscure compared to their more popular songs. But perhaps that elevates their appeal as hidden gems.
Puer Natus est Nobis (A Child is Born for Us) is a traditional Gregorian chant to be sung at entry to mass on Christmas Day. The Sistine-Vatican Choir recorded it beautifully on October 19, 1925 for Parlophone Records, conducted by Monsignore Casimiri.
They may not be the best Lego Star Wars sets, but they are cheap, collectible, have cool minifigures, are pocket-sized, and have an interesting design philosophy.
Monkeys might be my favorite animal, so this dollar coin caught my eye. Seller asked $75 USD ($105 AUD) for it, and I originally passed, but I came back and bought it the next day after learning that that was 30% off of what Numista priced it at. I love the ornate reverse proof details.
Hey wait a minute, he’d fit right in.
Sterling silver. Featuring King William III, 7 years before the Acts of Union. Bought for $80 USD (£59).