Have Joplin's Pretty Pansy Rag and Recitative Rag been discovered?

[Papakura Council]

Have they?
I heard they have actually been seen and photocopied.

R.B. Perry

[eab]

In article <32A64F...@ihug.co.nz>, Papakura Council <papa...@ihug.co.nz> says:
>
>I heard they have actually been seen and photocopied.
>

Martin Niederhofer had studied with Joplin in 1915-16, had a
manuscript copy of "Pretty Pansy," and had played it for many years.
When the Joplin renaissance hit in the early 1970s, he & his wife
Bertha looked for the music, but could no longer find it.
Dan Padgett, teaching at John Jay College in New York, had a
colleague who was the Niederhofer's son. Through the son, he got
together with the Niederhofers & talked about Joplin. Martin could
no longer play the piano, but Bertha could & tried to remember how
"Pretty Pansy" went. I've heard a portion of the tape. She may have
a measure or two of Joplin, but on every attempt the music became
something more like "At a Georgia Campmeeting." When I last spoke to
Padgett, he said he was continuing to study the tape in an effort
to get something out of it. If he has succeeded, I have not heard
about it.
I first learned about the Niederhofers in 1989 through Paul Bohn,
who attends the Sedalia fest every year. I'm not sure how Paul learned
of them, but he put me in touch with their granddaughter, who gave
me her Bertha's phone number. Martin had died by then.
I spoke to Bertha for about 2 hours one night. (I tell the essence
of what I learned in my Joplin bio.) She was in her early
90s, but still had it all & remembered Joplin's music quite well.
She was able to sing to me the opening strain of "Magnetic Rag," but
could no longer remember anything about "Pretty Pansy."
If anyone has some more recent information, I would like to know
what it is.

Ed Berlin

[fred...@gmail.com]

Ed,

This last post was from 1996.

Has anything turned up since then? Also, has anything new turned up concerning Freddie and Bethena since your book was published?

Regards,
Fred M. Cain