About this event
Pianist extraordinaire William McNally will perform a concert of Ragtime, Old Time and Novelty Piano pieces from the early 1900s in a Woods Hole living room on Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00 PM. (This is a re-schedule from last November 29.)
Ticket holders will learn the Woods Hole address of the concert, and other critical information, by email about 24h before the show.
Dr. McNally, DMA, earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York in 2015. His thesis was entitled, "Ragtime, Then and Now." He's a two-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and the first three–time winner of its New Rag Contest.
A couple of years ago, he cold-called me. He'd heard I had a good piano, and he was vacationing on Cape Cod, so he asked if he could come play it. I thought for 25 milliseconds, and replied, "Abso[infix-deleted]lutely." He came. He played. This feller didn't need any fancy letters after his name to show he was some kinda monster musician. By the end of the day, we were friends.
Fast forward several months: I flew down to New Braunfels, Texas to hear Bill play a concert with the Choro das 3 sisters. Choro piano seemed natural for a ragtime player. He also brought the sisters to the San Antonio Ragtime Society, where the commonalities of choro and ragtime were appreciatively celebrated.
Bill's most recent recording is a kickstarter project called "Piano Puzzles and Magic Trix." Bill's album notes explain that in the heyday of the player piano, they could "edit" player piano rolls to make music that was, "unplayable by human hands." The specimens on Bill's record of "novelty piano style" sound like they go with silent-movie cartoons - eyes that pop out of the head on springs, a dazed character with its head encircled by cuckoo clocks and church bells, cats squeezing through keyholes . . . In other words, it sounds like ragtime that's deliberately misbehaving.
Dr. McNally explains it like this: "In the novelty style, 'swing' meant that duple eighth notes were meant to be played as a triplet quarter-eighth for the entirety of a piece. An alternate notation was dotted-eighth-sixteenth, also meant to be played as a triplet quarter-eighth." Got that? Me neither . . . so just close your eyes and listen to him play "Magic Trix." https://youtu.be/4NGyfBB24zg?list=RD4NGyfBB24zg
There's a lot more like that stored up in Doctor William McNally/s fingers. It's gonna be a very special show!
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Woods Hole Music, Inc. hosts musicians from New Orleans, New York City, Nashville, Brazil, Europe, and wherever it can find mind-blowingly amazing players. The best way to find out about these concerts is to join the mailing list by sending a request to isen@isen.com. Woods Hole Music, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a registered Massachusetts charity that welcomes (but does not require) appreciative donations.
