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I have an 1899 copy of the sheet music to Hello Ma Baby. The inside of the back page advertised "I've Lost Ma Baby" as "the only authorized & direct answer to Hello Ma Baby". I haven't been able to find the lyrics or anything about the song. Does anyone here have any knowledge of this song? I would love to hear it, or at least see the music.

Thanks,
George

I found it online, it doesn't seem to ever have been recorded but the sheet music is in the NYPL collection.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ite ... 5/mode/2up

Playing through it, it's a pretty basic rag with definite resemblance to the original (but quite a bit simpler, and with some harmonic and rhythmic errors, like it was forced out in a hurry!) and a cylinder-appropriate length, it seems like it would run about 1:40 at most, brought up to a respectable ragtime tempo.

bfinan11 wrote:I found it online, it doesn't seem to ever have been recorded but the sheet music is in the NYPL collection.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ite ... 5/mode/2up

Playing through it, it's a pretty basic rag with definite resemblance to the original (but quite a bit simpler, and with some harmonic and rhythmic errors, like it was forced out in a hurry!) and a cylinder-appropriate length, it seems like it would run about 1:40 at most, brought up to a respectable ragtime tempo.

Thanks for the information. Is there any chance that you could post an audio of you playing the tune? I have three original copies of the 1899 sheet music to Hello Ma Baby, but only one has this advertisement on the last page, (apparently a slightly more recent copy, but still dated 1899). I had never heard of the song and when I looked up Howard and Emerson's song credits, this song did not appear.

I'm not finding the harmonic and rhythmic errors. Where are they?

There are few, if any, features of this tune that would qualify it as any kind of ragtime. Aside from quite a bit of chromatic harmony (so-called "barber-shop" chords) typical of the period, it has practically no syncopation, which is a hallmark of the rag genre. Most of it consists of straightforward eighth-note motion on the beat, with no shift of rhythmic emphasis to the weak beat or weak part of the beat.

This title falls into the category of "reply songs," a marketing technique fairly widely employed in the late 19th-early 20th century songwriting industry. Among other examples are "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," reply song "Back Home Again in Indiana," and "Just Before the Battle, Mother," reply song "Just After the Battle."

Actually, I'll go back on it being full of mistakes. I was trying desperately to play syncopation that wasn't there...

No syncopation = no ragtime. Simple as that.