{{Short description|American composer (1874–1949)}} {{for|the American classicist and professor of history|George Willis Botsford}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = George Botsford | image = George Botsford, 1911.jpg | alt = Black and white profile portrait of a man facing to the right | caption = Botsford in 1911 | birth_date = {{nowrap|{{Birth date|1874|02|24}}}} | birth_place = [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota|Sioux Falls]], [[South Dakota]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1949|02|01|1874|02|24}} | death_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S. | occupation = Composer | genre = Ragtime | background = non_performing_personnel }}
'''George Botsford''' (February 24, 1874 – February 1, 1949) was an American composer of [[ragtime]] and other forms of music.
==Early life and education==
[[File:Tin Pan Alley buildings.jpg|thumb|upright|Buildings that housed sheet music publishers on Tin Pan Alley]]
Botsford was born in [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota|Sioux Falls]], [[Dakota Territory]]. He grew up mostly in [[Clermont, Iowa]]. Botsford married singer Della Mae Wilson, and, in 1900, they began touring with the Hoyle Stock Company troupe. An ad promoting Botsford and his wife as musicians appeared in the [[New York Clipper]] in 1901, which may indicate the first time that Botsford visited New York City.<ref name="bill">{{cite web |last1=Edwards |first1=Bill |title=George James Botsford |url=http://www.perfessorbill.com/comps/botsford.shtml |website=PerfessorBill.com |accessdate=December 20, 2019}}</ref>
==Career== Botsford's first copyrighted number was "The Katy Flyer", published in 1899 in [[Centerville, Iowa]]. Other early numbers followed themes of relaxation and wide open space, with "Dance of the Water Nymphs", which was sold as Hawaiian mood music, and Western-themed "In Dear Old Arizona" and "[[Pride of the Prairie]]".<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |title=George Botsford |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-botsford-mn0000202850/biography |website=AllMusic |accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref> This would change when Botsford moved to [[New York City]], where he joined an assortment of [[Tin Pan Alley]] composers and began writing ragtime almost exclusively.<ref name="blesh">{{cite book |last1=Blesh |first1=Rudi |last2=Janis |first2=Harriet |title=They All Played Ragtime - The True Story of an American Music |date=March 23, 2011 |publisher=Read Books Limited |isbn=9781446546901 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0V8CgAAQBAJ |accessdate=December 20, 2019}}</ref>
Botsford secured his first songwriting contract with New York's J. H. Remick & Co. after selling them "Pride of the Prairie". It was while on that contract that he published "[[Black and White Rag]]", which stands as perhaps the most known work of his career.<ref name="tpa">{{cite book |last1=Jasen |first1=David A. |title=Tin Pan Alley |date=June 2004 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781135949006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cd-SAgAAQBAJ |accessdate=December 20, 2019}}</ref> He was put in charge of vocal arrangements for Remick's "harmony & quartet" division in 1910.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jasen |first1=David A. |last2=Jones |first2=Gordon Gene |title=That American Rag |date=2000 |publisher=Schirmer Books |isbn=9780028647432 |page=[https://archive.org/details/thatamericanrags00davi/page/287 287] |url=https://archive.org/details/thatamericanrags00davi/page/287 |accessdate=December 20, 2019 }}</ref>
Botsford was a founding member of [[American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers|ASCAP]] in 1914.<ref>{{cite web |title=ASCAP Dictionary of authors, composers, song & music |url=http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/music-search/music-songs-composers%20-%200147.htm |website=Traditional Music |accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref> From 1914 to 1915, he experimented with miniature opera intended to be sung by three or four people, but the idea never gained momentum.<ref name="blesh"/>
==Later life and death== By the 1920s, Botsford had largely stopped composing, and mostly made his living through organizing [[vaudeville]] performances.<ref name="allmusic"/> He produced a handful of musical shows for stage and radio. His last known public performance was at the [[Algonquin Hotel]] in 1934. After a long career involving many kinds of music, Botsford died in New York on February 1, 1949, twenty-three days before his 75th birthday.<ref name="bill"/>
==Legacy== {{Listen |title="Black and White Rag" |filename="Black and White Rag" (1908), by George Botsford.flac |description=Botsford's "Black and White Rag", published in 1908. }} [[File:0224120014a5b12w.jpg|thumb|A 1912 political cartoon about the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] Presidential conflict between [[William Howard Taft]] and [[Theodore Roosevelt]] referencing the "Grizzly Bear" dance]]
"[[Pride of the Prairie]]" is a prime example of Tin Pan Alley's response to the rising popularity of cowboy music. Many western-themed songs were being released by New York ragtime composers at the time, but ''Prairie'' would become a part of the era's folk music catalogue, eventually being recorded by numerous country and folk acts including Aaron Campbell's Mountaineers, [[Tex Owens]], and [[Patsy Montana]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Douglas B |title=Singing in the Saddle |journal=Vanderbilt Magazine |date=2002 |page=47 |url=https://news.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltmagazine/archives/singinginthesaddle.pdf |accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref>
"[[Black and White Rag]]" sold over 200,000 copies in 1908,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wickes |first1=E. M. |title=How the song writers arrived |journal=The Magazine Maker |date=1913 |volume=4 |page=11 |publisher=H. Croy}}</ref> and eventually topped one million copies sold.<ref name="tpa"/> The song was recorded by numerous artists, but most notably by [[Winifred Atwell]], whose 1953 recording became a gold record<ref>{{cite web |title=WINIFRED ATWELL |url=http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/winifred_atwell.htm |website=Rockabilly.nl |accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref> and was used as the theme of the long-running [[BBC2]] snooker tournament show, "Pot Black".<ref>{{cite web |title=My Mother's Sheet Music - Winifred Atwell |url=http://mymotherssheetmusic.com/collecting.html |website=My Mother's Sheet Music |accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref> The song was also used as theme music for the 1985 video game [[Repton (video game)|Repton]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Paterson |first1=Jim |title=Ragtime Music - its History, Composers and Influences |url=https://www.mfiles.co.uk/ragtime-music.htm |website=MFiles |accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref>
"Grizzly Bear Rag" initially saw moderate success, but jumped in popularity when [[Irving Berlin]] composed lyrics for it.<ref name="jasen">{{cite book |last1=Jasen |first1=David A. |last2=Tichenor |first2=Trebor Jay |title=Rags and Ragtime |date=1989 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=9780486259222 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ragsragtimemusic00jasen/page/139 139] |url=https://archive.org/details/ragsragtimemusic00jasen/page/139 |accessdate=December 20, 2019 }}</ref> The song was recorded under titles including ''Dance of the Grizzly Bear'' and ''Doin' the Grizzly Bear'', and helped spark a trend of naming dances after animals; the most notable example of this being the [[foxtrot]].<ref name="allmusic"/>
"Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay" became very popular in its time,<ref name="bill"/> and was recorded later by [[Bing Crosby]] for his 1975 album, ''[[A Southern Memoir]]''.
==Compositions==
[[File:George Botsford - In Dear Old Arizona. 1906. Duke A0092.jpg|thumb|The cover of Botsford's "In Dear Old Arizona", published in 1906.]]
{{div col|colwidth=28em}} * "The Katy Flyer" (1899) * "Dance of the Water Nymphs" (1906) * "In Dear Old Arizona" (1906) * "Pride of the Prairie" (1907) * "The Big Jubilee" (1908) * "Klondike Rag" (1908) * "[[Black and White Rag]]" (1908) * "Old Crow Rag" (1909) * "Wiggle Rag" (1909) * "Texas Steer Rag" (1909) * "Pianophiends Rag" (1909) * "Chatterbox Rag" (1910) * "Lovey-Dovey Rag" (1910) * "Grizzly Bear Rag" (1910) * "Honeysuckle Rag" (1911) * "Honey Girl" (1911) * "Hyacinth" (1911) * "Royal Flush" (1911) * "Eskimo Rag" (1912) * "Buck-Eye Rag" (1913) * "Incandescent Rag" (1913) * "Universal Rag" (1913) * "Rag, Baby Mine" (1913) * "Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay" (1913) * "Boomerang Rag" (1916) * "On the Old Dominion Line" (1916)<ref name="allmusic"/> {{div col end}}
==See also== *[[List of ragtime composers]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{IMSLP|id=Botsford, George}} * [https://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/2748 audio recording of "Eskimo Rag" at the Library of Congress jukebox]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Botsford, George}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1949 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American composers]] [[Category:19th-century American male composers]] [[Category:20th-century American composers]] [[Category:20th-century American male composers]] [[Category:Composers from New York City]] [[Category:Musicians from South Dakota]] [[Category:People from Sioux Falls, South Dakota]] [[Category:Ragtime composers]] [[Category:Composers from Iowa]]
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