Cecil Duane Crabb

Cecil Duane Crabb (May 23, 1890 – April 27, 1953) was an American composer of ragtime music and a member of Indianapolis group of ragtime composers.

He was born in Centerville, Indiana to James and Sarah E. Crabb. He moved to Indianapolis in 1908. Crabb composed only four albeit significant ragtime pieces including his best known Fluffly Ruffles from 1907. He had a job at a small publishing firm J.H. Aufderheide & Company that published ragtime by Indianapolis composers. Originally a sign painter, he had also designed cover art for ragtimes of Aufderheide composers, such as May Aufderheide (Dusty Rag) and Will B. Morrison. His primary career was in the sign business as co-owner for many years of the Indianapolis firm Staley and Crabb, now known as Staley Signs. He died in Wisconsin at the age of 62 and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. He had at least three children, one of whom became Brig. General Cecil D. Crabb.

List of compositions

Crabb designed the cover for May Aufderheide's Dusty Rag

• Fluffly Ruffles - Two Step (1907)
• Orinoco (1909)
• Trouble (1909, with Will B. Morrison)
• The Klassicle Rag (1911)

References

• Biography at ragpiano.com

Further reading

• White, H. Loring (2005). Ragging it: getting ragtime into history (and some history into ragtime). iUniverse. pp. 313–314. Retrieved 2010-10-26.

External links

• Free scores by Cecil Duane Crabb at the International Music Score Library Project
• Cecil Duane Crabb at Find a Grave