| 释义 |
ragtime orig. U.S.|ˈrægtaɪm|
Also rag-time.
[Prob. f. rag n.5 + time n.]
1. a. A musical rhythm characterized by a syncopated melodic line and regularly-accented accompaniment, evolved among American Negro musicians in the 1890s; hence, music (esp. for the banjo and piano) of this character, the immediate precursor of jazz.
1897W. H. Krell Mississippi Rag (title-page of sheet-music), The first rag-time two-step ever written. 1898Étude Oct. 285/3 ‘Rag time’ is a term applied to the peculiar, broken, rhythmic features of the popular ‘coon song’... Unfortunately, the words to which it is allied are usually decidedly vulgar, so that its present great favor is somewhat to be deplored. 1899Musical Rec. (Boston) 158/1, I feel safe in predicting that rag-time has come to stay. 1900Musical Courier 23 May 20/2 ‘Rag-time’ is a rhythm which is the most characteristic feature of what may be called American negro music. 1906‘O. Henry’ Four Million 238 They sing ‘Home Sweet Home’ in rag⁓time. 1916A. Huxley Let. 7 Aug. (1969) 109, I have been sleeping out on the roof..spending most of the night in conversation or in singing folk-songs and rag-time to the stars. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 206 Jazz, or to be pedantically accurate, ‘ragtime’,..has suddenly achieved the status of a ‘school’. 1938Sun (Baltimore) 6 Sept. 8/7 Under their ministrations, the simplest ragtime becomes jazz. 1956B. Edwards in S. Traill Play that Music 59 Rag⁓time, to give it its contemporary title [in 1920], was absolute anathema to both my parents. 1957G. Lascelles in S. Traill Concerning Jazz 76 In the late nineteenth century there started a music which was a rather modern development of the old dance rhythms such as the schottische and polka... This development was later to be known as ‘rag⁓time’, and was essentially piano music. 1968Blues Unlimited Nov. 23 Ragtime one probably loves or loathes. 1976New Yorker 8 Mar. 32/3 He started to play, and before long he was lost in some wildly effervescent ragtime.
†b. A piece of music in rag-time; = rag n.5 2. Obs.
1914G. B. Shaw Misalliance p. cviii, If they [sc. our young people] had learnt what can be done with syncopation from Beethoven's third Leonora overture, they would enjoy the ragtimes all the more. 1916Oxford Song Bk. p. iii, An authority has just informed me that ‘rag-times are ‘back numbers’ now’.
2. a. attrib. and Comb., as ragtime accompaniment, ragtime band, ragtime melody, ragtime music, ragtime party, ragtime rage, ragtime record, ragtime saloon, ragtime singer, ragtime song, ragtime sound, ragtime tune, ragtime wedding.
1901Sage Leaf Apr.6 The coon song, with its rag-time accompaniment. 1911I. Berlin (song-title) Alexander's Ragtime Band. 1949R. Blesh Shining Trumpets vii. 156 Buddy Bolden's Ragtime Band of 1893, generally considered the first jazz band.
1906Westm. Gaz. 23 Apr. 7/2 He is amusing the crowd with rag⁓time melodies. 1921R. D. Paine Comrades of Rolling Ocean v. 75 Through an open hatch rose the rag-time melodies of a piano.
1897Ade Pink Marsh 159 He told of his belief that the angels in heaven played ‘rag-time’ music. 1977Monitor (McAllen, Texas) 9 Jan. 5c/3 Tichenor..says ragtime music peaked in the 1920s and died in the Depression.
1960Times 29 Sept. 16/6 She pushes him downstairs during a ragtime-party.
1900Musical Courier 23 May 20/1 (heading) The rag-time rage. 1906Taylor & Gibson Extra Dry 71 Putting a ragtime record in the graphophone he pulls the throttle wide open.
1903Outing Aug. 552/1 He has as many eyes for the ragtime saloon. 1917E. Wallace Kate plus Ten (1930) v. 74 A peer of the realm and a ragtime singer.
1914Ragtime song [see high kick s.v. high a. 21]. 1927Jrnl. Abnormal & Social Psychol. XXII. 19 The earliest ragtime songs, like Topsy, ‘jes' grew’. 1974Times 27 Apr. 9/8 We've ended up with a ragtime sound you might even have heard from the piano accompanying the silent movies.
1913Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 282 The boys and girls at the piano played the rag-time tunes of their own land. 1922F. Scott Fitzgerald Beautiful & Damned ii. i. 131 Kept telling me she wished this was a ragtime wedding.
b. attrib., passing into adj. Ragged; irregular, inferior, disorderly; disreputable, mean. slang.
1919H. Crane Let. 17 June (1965) 20 Your remarks ‘about the ladies’ really hurt me with a kind of ragtime vulgarity. 1926F. M. Ford Man could stand Up ii. 119 A Hun up against a Tommie looked like a Holbein lansknecht fighting a music-hall turn. It made you feel that you were indeed a rag-time army. c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 47 Note the constant drop in wages..Endorsed by every rag-time press That the master-class command. 1929Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 317/2 Ragtime Army, the Australasian forces. 1940Graves & Hodge Long Week-End ii. 26 The topic of ‘this rag-time f―g peace’ succeeded that of ‘this bloody f―g war’. Ibid. iii. 38 The more extravagant ‘rag-time’ dances had not been socially approved. ‘Rag-time’ was an adjective of reproach; a rag-time regiment was a disorderly and untrustworthy one. 1948V. Palmer Golconda ii. 14 But what if some really big concern swallowed up the three ragtime companies and planned to open up the whole mountain? 1974P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry xiv. 142 Hated shifts in that [electrical engineering] industry are the rag-time or spare-shift, one necessary to make up the required number of hours for the week.
Hence ˈragtimer, one who plays ragtime; ˈragtim(e)y a., suggestive of ragtime; ˈragtiming a.
1912G. Frankau One of Us x. 92 Where the Rat Mort's rag-timing Ethiope Dins in one's ears. 1915D. O. Barnett Let. 7 Jan. 37 Been making out forms of times. Feel rather ragtimy. 1927Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 9/3 Most nimble of rag⁓timers at the piano. 1950Blesh & Janis They all played Ragtime (1958) i. 26 Under Joplin he quickly became an adept ragtimer and was soon playing at dances in and around Sedalia. 1952B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. (1958) xxii. 306 They played their ragtimey work..with a finish and polish. 1974Country Life 7 Nov. 1360/1 The ragtime music chosen..was the least..heard of Scott Joplin, supplemented by less well-known ragtimers such as..Joseph Lamb. |
