Rags
George Hamilton Green
George Hamilton Green wrote several pieces for solo ragtime xylophone with accompaniment, as well as a xylophone method book which continues to be used by percussion pedagogues across the country. His pieces for solo xylophone with accompaniement on piano or marimba ensemble include:
Alabama Moon
An Indian Story
Arabian Minute Dance
Caprice Valsant
Charleston Capers
Chromatic Fox-Trot
Cross-Corners
Dotty Dimples
Fluffy Ruffles
Frivolity
Gavotte en Baninant
Girlfriend’s Medley
Jovial Jasper
Keep Movin’
Log Cabin Blues
Rain
Rainbow Ripples
Rajah
Spanish Waltz
Stop-Time
Tambourine Chinois
The Humming Bird
The Ragtime Robin
The Whistler
Triplets
Valse Briliante
The titles and music are influenced by different styles of music that were common in the 1920’s Vaudeville scene. They range from classical French, Spanish, Chinese and Native American music styles to the ragtime style of the father of “ragged time” music Scott Joplin.
George Hamilton Green, Jr. (May 23, 1893–1970) was a xylophonist, composer, and cartoonist born in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born into a musical family, both his grandfather and his father being composers, arrangers, and conductors for bands in Omaha. From age four G.H. Green showed a prodigious talent as a pianist; he then took up the xylophone and by the age of eleven was being promoted as the “world’s greatest xylophonist” and was playing for crowds of 7,000-10,000. In 1915, when Green was 22 years old, a review in the United States Musician stated: “He has begun where every other xylophone player left off. His touch, his attack, his technique, and his powers of interpretation in the rendition of his solos being far different than other performers. To say his work is marvelous and wonderful would not fully express it.”
Annotated by Laurent Warnier