Hen Cackle Rag (1912)
A Barnyard Disturbance
Last updated: 26.01.21
format is A4 and printed with high quality.
Composer: C.L. Johnson Suppliers: dbe15.gifpdf15.gif 
Editor: Geoff Grainger Quintet T/T/B+T/B/GB(B)
Publisher: Ditty Box Enterprises Publication: DBE 253
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Length: approx. 3¼ mins. Sounds best with the 2nd tenor doubled.
Hen Cackle Rag, subtitled A Barnyard Disturbance, is despite its title not so much of a rag (there is little syncopation) but more like an Irish disturbance of fiddle music with a random repetition of 8-bar themes. Here 4 strains are used A, B, C and D whereby the AB- and C- and D strains are in the major keys of G, G + C and C respectively. The whistling A-strain is used no less than 5 times in the composition's complicated sort of extended sonata form. An amusing piece of fun which is concluded with a dap di-di dap dap - - dap dap break and guaranteed to bring the house down. The cover of original sheet music shows predictably a barnyard scene with a rampant rooster announcing his amorous intentions to his bevy of avian beauties at the same time seeing off a black-feathered rival.
Hen Cackle Rag was published by J.W. Jenkins' Sons Music Co., Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
A tempo of 150 crotchets/min. is suggested.