Parade of the Pied Piper has a playback tempo of 70 half note (minim) beats to the minute but it can be played faster. The notated music needs to be played in a swing style that is the rhythmic shapes need to be played with a triplet feel. Novelty style features figuration, much repetition whilst the full range of the keyboard is explored. There is generally not too much score detail in novelty piano scores though the music unfolds with plenty of figuration and twists and turns. The novelty pianist/composers had an excellent knowledge of chords, harmony and all the musical colouring that could be achieved with adjustments to chord voicing. The chromatic el;ement is often quite strong. Raie Da Costa (1905 – 1934) is very much identified with the novelty piano era in England alongside with other contemporary greats including Billy Mayerl (1902 – 1959) Like Mayerl she was versaltile both as a working musician and in her composing approach although as a young pianist her focus was very much on performing. performing She was born in Cape Town, South Africa of Portugese heritage arriving in England when she was 19. As a classically trained pianist she aspired to be a concert pianist but proved adaptable adopting to the stylistic popular music idioms of the day. It would be interesting to know what prevented her from becoming a concert pianist in her day – because it was certainly not talent. She was a versatile artist and also worked in variety. A brilliant talent and pianist equally at home playing or composing whether in the classical or popular idiom. She also worked with orchestras. Sadly because as a young performing pianist and artist her focus was on playing the piano where an income could be enjoyed so sadly composing was not a priority. Thankfully she recorded much music from 1928 with HMV and Parlophone that provides evidence of her exceptional talents and gifts especially with regard to her left hand technique Parade of the Pied Piper, a novelty piano piece, was published by Keith Prowse & Co. Ltd, in 1929. The 1920’s were a great time for piano players with both jazz and novelty piano emerging as popular styles after the ragtime era. Novelty piano is characterised by (some would say impossibly) fast tempos, a use of American march form and tripletised rhythmic shapes and patterns. Commentators of the time suggest that Raie Da Costa was versatile, charming, a great embellisher of the melodic line and at the same time in possession a great left hand piano technique who also was known to sing! Obviously so much that is written about her is conjecture but there is the sheet music and recordings to evidence her great gifts.
