Level: 4
Tuning: Standard

Joseph Lamb was one of the top three ragtime composers in the early 20th century, and the only one who was white. A New Jersey native, Lamb lived until 1960. He wrote Contentment Rag in 1915. The "contentment" in the title was an homage to the happy marriage of the piece's publisher, Abe Stark. The melodic and harmonic simplicity of the piece speaks to its origin in an era of hope and optimism (the Great War notwithstanding!).