James Scott’s Honey Moon Rag—published in 1916 by Stark Music Company—is a rarely-played Classic Ragtime gem. It possesses many of the characteristics of Scott’s trademark style: thick right hand chords, scintillating sixteenth note melodic runs, passing chromatic notes with harmonic function, and an ABACB formal structure.
The tempo mark—“Do not play this piece fast.”—is curiously Joplinesque. Portions of Honey Moon Rag are reminiscent of Evergreen Rag, also in the key of G major, and published the year before. Recommend recordings of this obscure yet delightful piece are by Guido Nielsen and Sue Keller. The score for Honey Moon Rag is in the public domain and can be downloaded freely—along with most of Scott’s other works—at imslp.org.
