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

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

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

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

  1. 1 2 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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