Download the Ragtime Compendium:
This free database contains listings of ragtime compositions, their composers (and lyricists if pertinent), their publishers and the year of publication. It also cites sources for MIDI renditions of about 45% of the tunes.
I had not expected that there would be an 18th version, but two enthusiasts came forward and offered help, that in past years had been provided to a very significant extent by Tom Brier (sadly we all know the story there) and the late David Beattie. So Version 18 has been created with their help and there are now 12,665 pre-1971 tunes and 5,922 post-1970 tunes listed.
Latest Changes:
- There is no longer any highlighting of change
- The status column in earlier versions has been omitted
- The (x) preceding renditions under Others has been deleted
- renditions are separated by semicolons rather than commas
- The Notes have been revised and extensively expanded with added sources
I have always sought to identify scans of the original sheet music (rather than transcriptions) that may be available in the hope that this may encourage pianists to get hold of these scarce sheets and record these tunes for posterity.
I offer profuse thanks to those ragtime enthusiasts from around the world that have helped us get this far, even though I know it will always remain incomplete. I remain hopeful that some other enthusiast will take up the reins and there will be future revisions as ragtime is still alive and kicking.
There is always more that could be done - for example one could search YouTube for downloadable renditions of tunes for which no rendition is cited (and there are many of these as many tunes were only ever recorded or presented to the public as piano rolls or recordings without published sheet music).
File Information
The 1st page:
This the explanatory notes that detail the meaning of what the columns in the data spread sheet, the sources of the data and the sources for the MIDIs. You need to go through this to get best value out of the spread sheet.
Pages 2 & 3:
The title data in these lists remains split into pre-1971 and post-1970 tunes. I'd like to think the pre 1971 data was comprehensive, but as rarities keep emerging I know it isn't. And the post-1970 data is more deficient as printed and published sheets have become far less prevalent and tracking down new compositions has become more complex.
Page 4:
This is a list of music folios provided to me by Sakae Watanabe. These are noted against each relevant title in the data spread sheet.
I hope this site helps you in some way - by broadening your knowledge, by letting you "chase" a particular composer, by looking for title options that don't clash with existing ones, etc.
If the MIDIs you seek can no longer be downloaded, contact me at 37mmathew@gmail dot com and I will endeavour to help you out from my collection.
Download the Ragtime Compendium Version 18:
View or download in Adobe PDF Format
Download the Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet
Michael Mathew
As at 31 December, 2025