Squeek Steele

Ragtime is an African American–rooted piano style that flourished from the 1890s to the 1910s, characterized by lively syncopation in the right hand against a steady, march-like “oom‑pah” accompaniment in the left hand. Typically written in 2/4 or 4/4 time and notated with straight (unswung) eighth notes, classic rags unfold in multiple 16‑bar strains, often in the form AABBACCDD. The music draws on cakewalk rhythms, marching-band forms, and popular song, and it became a sensation through sheet music, piano rolls, and parlor performance. Scott Joplin, known as the “King of Ragtime,” helped codify the genre’s refined, compositional approach, calling for moderate tempos and a clear, singing melody. Beyond solo piano, ragtime was arranged for small ensembles and orchestras, found a home in vaudeville and dance halls, and laid essential groundwork for early jazz, stride piano, and much of 20th‑century American popular music.

Old West is a historical and revivalist music style that evokes the sound world of the 19th‑century American frontier: bunkhouse ballads, trail-drive songs, saloon piano, fife-and-drum and brass band marches, and fiddle tunes migrating west from the Appalachians. Its palette spans unaccompanied narrative ballads and call‑and‑response work songs, to jaunty ragtime‑tinged saloon numbers and cavalry or town‑band strains. Melodies tend to be straightforward and memorable, harmonies are diatonic and functional (I–IV–V with occasional modal color), and rhythms favor two‑step, polka, and march feels suitable for dancing or riding. Although rooted in Anglo‑Celtic balladry and parlor music, Old West absorbed African American folk‑blues, Mexican vaquero traditions, and Indigenous song contours—forming the vernacular bedrock from which “cowboy songs,” early country, and later Western film soundtracks drew their imagery and sound.