Description
Stuttgart: Ragtime for the Bashful Soul
This is the fifty-ninth destination in the collection of the series "Ragtime at the Red Light District." This piece is set at Stuttgart's Leonhardsviertel.
The main character in this piece is a 31-year old landscaping business owner. Despite having a successful business, this person had often lived a sheltered life and, in doing so, fails to interact with people and relies solely on numbers. The individual usually has flippant attitudes when it comes to interacting with people in general. As a result, a loyal attorney suggested that the main character take a sojourn to get out the business life. Attempting to fit in socially was nerve-racking as the main character visited many landmarks, notably Stuttgart TV Tower, Blaubeuren Abbey, and Cannstatter Wasen for the Stuttgart Beer Festival.
Yet, the main character struggled to fit in and decided to try another place: Gottlieb Daimler Stadium, where a "date night" promotion took place during a Bundesliga match. There, the women outnumbered the men by nearly four to one. Still, where several men had at least one woman (one man alleged to have 16 girlfriends), the main character got zero interests, Dejected and depressed, the individual left the stadium to take a power walk.
That walk landed the main character at Leonhardsviertel, where the street life was at its busiest. Many people were interacting, and all the residents and visitors expressed the elations and satisfactions, while the main character, still unable to shake off that sheltered stigma, struggled again. Therefore, the main character attempted to be desperate by throwing caution into the wind with enhancement pills and other explicit materials to win attention. Before the main character even laid a fingertip on a pill bottle, a working woman with radiant blonde hair stopped the main character from grabbing the bottle. She had noticed the individual from afar and commented to the main character that what she liked about the main character was the class, the integrity, and the confidence to get out of the comfort zone. Honored by this comment, the main character felt obligated to spend more time with this working woman. The two spend the evening and the next day talking and reminiscing about life.
This piece has a format of 4AABBACCDD8EEFF. William Henry Krell's "Mississippi Rag" was the basis for this piece. Please note that the A-section uses the A-flat major pentatonic scale. Two sections of this piece have eight-bar measures: section C using the C minor pentatonic scale and section D using the C hexatonic scale.