Pasquinade

Music historians often cite Gottschalk's Pasquinade as one of the earliest pieces that establish the ragtime style - an "on beat" bass line and "off beat" accompanying rhythm beneath a syncopated melody. It certainly has elements that show up later in the Cakewalk and Ragtime, which are precursors of Jazz. Whether early Ragtime composers copied Gottschalk's style or whether the two styles developed independently from common root sources is not clear. What is certain is that it was played everywhere and it would have impossible not to have heard it. Pasquinade was a musical mega-hit in both Europe and the Americas. It was often played in salons, homes, public concerts and by orchestras and bands (the Sousa band played it often and even recorded it).