Obscure Music Monday: Losey's Jolly Jingles

Frank Hoyt Losey was a prolific composer of music for bands, with a penchant for marches. His Gloria March remains a standard in the band repertoire today. While Losey wrote often for bands and orchestras in a march style, he occasionally experimented with ragtime.

While Losey published over 400 works, much of his life was a mystery, from his date of birth (variously reported as 1870, 1872, and 1875) to a secretive marriage in 1892. Losey finally settled in as a composer with Carl Fischer in the early 1900s with band and orchestra arrangements, while publishing piano works on the side with Vandersloot. Finally, Losey moved full time to Vandersloot and we have numerous light, Tin Pan Alley style works thanks to this relationship.

The Jolly Jingles Rag first appeared in 1913. While the work is not as complex as many of the more known Scott Joplin rags, the light-heartedness of this "jolly" work can be infectious. At times, the sounds feel like they could be straight out of a silent movie. While written as a rag, one can clearly see the march influences of Losey's other works, providing a clear bridge between the rag and its predecessor, the march.

The recordings of this work we were able to find are all computer generated. We hope you will enjoy the work and create recordings of your own!