Flower City Society Orchestra
elegant entertainment from the rag time era

 

We hope you enjoy these samples of music performed by the Flower City Society Orchestra!

Smiles and Chuckles, a rag time one-step composed by Henri F. Klickman in 1918. This rollicking dance, a favorite with rag time ensembles, was recorded live from a performance at the Rochester Institute of Technology on May 1, 1999, as were the following two samples -- it was quite a concert!

A Garden Matinee, a lovely, leisurely entr'acte composed by Rudolph Friml shortly after his arrival in America and arranged by J. Bodewalt Lampe, who did many arrangements for orchestras like ours. This one was published in 1903.

The Bull Frog Patrol, from the musical comedy She's a Jolly Good Fellow by Jerome Kern, 1919. A "patrol" was a musical form meant to imitate a band marching by, first heard softly at a distance, then loud and even raucous, before receding again into the polite horizon. The name harks back to when many military units had their own bands, part of whose job was to enliven long marches. Whether this particular piece conjures images of a patrol of bull frogs is perhaps a matter of personal taste, but the period when it was written had a vogue for animal titles. Others in our repertory include The Lobster's Promenade, The Lady Bug Review, and (of course!) The Teddy Bear's Picnic.

Fluffy Ruffles, another rag time one step, this one by George Hamilton Green, published in 1919. We often use this rag to close our concerts, since it is in the style known as the "exit march," used by theater orchestras to hurry the audience out in time for the next show. We recorded this piece with the help of Dave Dusman, who has recorded several scores for silent films with the orchestra -- we are the size of the ensembles employed by many small theaters during the silent film era.

Contact Alice Carli at (585) 729-3873 or at
symphony@philipcarli.com

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