The Durango Herald
Arts & Entertainment
June 30, 2000
Joplin festival selects Hoyle Osborne’s tune
by Stephanie Spear
A winning composition in the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival contest won Hoyle Osborne a chance to play his top tune in the Cradle of Ragtime.
The May 31-June 4 festival in Sedalia, Mo., awarded second place to the Strater Hotel veteran piano player’s “Enchantment: A New Mexican Serenade.” Osborne, of Aztec, performed the piece in the birthplace of ragtime music June 3 in a festival concert called “Ragtime Revelations” spotlighting new and longtime ragtime performers.
“Enchantment” was the third Joplinesque piece Osborne has submitted to the 30-year-old festival – his “Morning Glory” received an honorable mention in 1997. Osborne was inspired by Joplin’s “Solace: A Mexican Serenade” which he calls the first “ragtime-Latin music fusion composition.”
“There is a link in mood and rhythmic flow” between the two pieces, Osborne said. “There’s a tinge of melancholy.”
Osborne played the lovely and introspective composition by request on a recent Friday evening in the Strater Hotel’s Diamond Belle Saloon, where he has played for 10 years. The sound of the 1902 Fischer upright piano had to compete with the din of the bar.
“Enchantment” was easier to convey at the festival in Sedalia. New composers shared the stage with veteran ragtimers, including Butch Thompson and Reginald Robinson, a progressive young composer-performer from Chicago who, as was Scott Joplin, is black.
Osborne was immersed in the ragtime genre there. Festival sessions included seminars on topics such as “Joplin’s Classical Roots,” “Joplin’s Neglected Marches and Waltzes,” “Ragtime Myths” and “Xylophone Ragtime.”
There was also the perennial debate of interpreting ragtime music, Osborne noted. “There was an opportunity to get a consensus: Is it or isn’t it (ragtime),” Osborne said.
“Many of us writing new ragtime are sort of pushing the envelope. I heard it said that, as beautifully as Scott Joplin’s music is notated, it shouldn’t stop you from letting your own aesthetic take over,” he said.
Osborne is knowledgeable about the genre. He entertains audiences with “The Ragtime Century,” a show developed by him and longtime partner Jane Voss. Osborne sometimes offers that historical perspective to listeners in the bar, said Diamond Belle waitress and bartender Sally Florence. “He has a nice rapport with the audience,” she said.
Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” published in 1899 changed popular music for all time, Osborne said. “It was the single most important moment in American musical history; it introduced African-American syncopation into the mainstream,” he said.
Playing ragtime is challenging with each hand doing different things, Osborne said. But mostly, it’s fun for him. “It makes me feel playful,” Osborne said.
