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Irene Cozad

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Irene Cozad
A white woman wearing a fur collar and a sparkly gown.
Irene Cozad Sherer, from sheet music published in 1920.
Born
Irene Bazelle Cozad

July 4, 1888
Lineville, Iowa
DiedAugust 2, 1970
Kansas City, Missouri
NationalityAmerican
Other namesIrene Cozad-Sherer, I. C. Sherer
Occupationcomposer

Irene Cozad (July 4, 1888 – August 2, 1970), later known as Irene Cozad-Sherer, was an American pianist, piano teacher, and composer of ragtime music.

Early life

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Irene Bazelle Cozad was born in Lineville, Iowa, one of the nine children of Joseph Addison Cozad and Olive Jane Vanderbeck Cozad. Her father was a school teacher and worked at a newspaper.[1]

Career

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Affinity Rag (1910), sheet music cover.

Cozad played and taught piano in Kansas City, Missouri.[1] Compositions by Cozad included "Affinity Rag" (1910), "Eatin' Time Rag" (1913), "That Sunday Wedding Day" (1914, words by Gwen Meredith),[2] "The Minute Circle Whirl" (1916),[3] "Because", and "Kansas City Town" (1920).[4] The last, "Kansas City Town", was written for a contest marking the year that the city's population reached one million.[5] Her compositions are considered an example of the Kansas City Folk Rag genre.[6][7]

Personal life

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Irene Cozad married Joseph Whitman Sherer, a medical doctor, in 1912. They had a daughter, Jeanne, and a son, Joseph Jr.[8] Her husband died in a car accident in 1940; she died in Kansas City in 1970, aged 82 years.[9]

Her compositions are sometimes featured in recordings and performances of ragtime works by women, including the collections Pickles and Peppers (1987) and Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Women in Ragtime (1999), both by Virginia Eskin.[10][11]

References

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  1. ^ a b Edwards, Bill. "Irene Bazelle Cozad Sherer". RagPiano.com. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  2. ^ Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1914). Musical Compositions: Part 3. Library of Congress. p. 860.
  3. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries. 1916. p. 911.
  4. ^ Tjaden, Ted, Women Composers of Ragtime.
  5. ^ "Kansas City Town (1920), sheet music". UMKC Digital Special Collections. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  6. ^ Jasen, David A.; Tichenor, Trebor Jay (2013-02-13). Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. Courier Corporation. p. 40. ISBN 9780486144573.
  7. ^ "C.L. Johnson, Joplin and Harlem dominate May '03 OCRS". Orange County Ragtime Society. May 2003. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  8. ^ Who's who in the Central States. Mayflower Publishing Company. 1929. p. 885.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Irene C. Sherer". The Kansas City Times. August 3, 1970. p. 33. Retrieved July 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Pickles and peppers: and other rags by women., Northeastern Records, 1987, OCLC 16439394, retrieved 2019-07-19
  11. ^ Eskin, Virginia. Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Women in Ragtime (Koch International Classics 1999).
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