Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Humoresque Rag

One of my students entered class today whistling a tune.  I recognized it, so I asked if they liked Dvorak.  They seemed confused.  I told them they were whistling one of Dvorak's Humoresques and I asked where they had heard the tune.  They replied, "I dunno, probably TV."

Antonin Dvorak

As we had time, I did a quick search and pulled up the number on YouTube.


After they heard it, they remarked that it was nice, but that it sounded both happy and sad.  I agree, for such a playful tune, there is a little melancholy in the middle.  When I was searching for Dvorak's music, I noticed a version that also said, "ragtime piano version."  I was intrigued, so I saved the clip for after work and was delightfully surprised by Mark Chang's interpretation, so I thought I'd share it with you too.


What a happy way to end the day!


4 comments:

Virgil S. said...

I agree, a happy way to end the day. Thanks for posting these, Nate.
Now I wonder if there is a jug band version out there somewhere...
Question for Rob from Amersfoort: Is ragtime well known in Europe? A friend of mine from Scotland claimed to have never heard of it ...

Norman Owen said...

The first part of this "Humoresque" was customarily sung - at least in the circles of my youth - to the words:

"Passengers will please refrain
From flushing toilets while the train
Is standing in the station; I love you."

As always, YMMV.

Judi said...

I love piano music & Mark Chang's rendition is delightful. Thanks for the smile.

Anonymous said...

I'm familiar with it. I know more about ragtime than about Dvorak, so I'm downloading his music as we speak. There are a lot of (old school) jazz bands in Holland. I guess the Scots are more occupied with their bagpipes...