Weiss helped Joplin to discover and appreciate music as an “art” and not simply as an entertainment, and helped his mother acquire a used piano for practice.īefore long, Joplin was on the road to a career in music, although in young adulthood he too was briefly a railroad labourer, while also teaching mandolin and guitar and travelling the American South as an itinerate musician. Most of Joplin’s musical education came from a local tutor Eric Tauber, who recognised the boy’s talent, realised the family’s poverty, and gave him free lessons. The young Joplin was able to play piano while his mother cleaned, and showed an early interest in music. His father was an ex-slave turned railroad worker who played the violin, while his mother Florence worked as a cleaner, and was a singer and banjo player. While Scott Joplin’s ragtime piano solos The Entertainer and Maple Leaf Rag and known and enjoyed by music-lovers the world over, few perhaps are acquainted with the details of his relatively short life. In this review I will be looking at the recently published volume, Ragtime by Scott Joplin, by Jean Kleeb, appearing as part of Bärenreiter’s Ready to Play series.īut first, a few words about the importance of Joplin himself… In addition to this year marking the Debussy centenary, November 24th 2018 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Scott Joplin, composer of some of the most popular piano pieces ever written. From the infectious melody to the challenges it poses for performers, this archetypal rag will keep putting smiles on faces for years to come.Products featured on Pianodao are selected for review by ANDREW EALES. Maple Leaf Rag is still one of Scott Joplin’s most popular works. As the main melody is repeated near the end as the music moves back into the home key of Ab major, the hands unite for the final chords to create a bold conclusion. The frivolity of the work masks the serious concentration and dexterity required from the performer. The suspended melody line trickles down the scale as Joplin’s chromatic writing grows into fruition. This athletic rag requires focused coordination for both hands to make sure each off-beat inflection and bass line motif meet and part at the right time. Joplin’s persistent use of seventh chords also creates that archetypal sound for a ragtime piece. The four sections of this rag create diversity in the melody and show the development of the bassline. With Maple Leaf Rag Joplin writes bounding leaps for the bass line and off-beat melodies on the other hand. The march-like style paired with the cakewalk-inspired melody creates the archetypal ragtime composition. The quick tempo and huge leaps for both hands makes this a difficult rag for any pianist. This quintessential rag brings together many aspects of a rag into one neatly packed piano work. It is often known as the most famous ragtime piece that has gone on to inspire a number of composers. Maple Leaf Rag was one of Joplin’s earliest rags for the piano. A number of his piano rags and his opera Treemonisha have become some of the most recognisable music of the genre. It wasn’t until some ground-breaking recordings done in the 1970s that Joplin’s music found a new lease of life. Joplin’s music went out of fashion, with only a small number of ragtime aficionados keeping his music alive. After Joplin’s death in 1917, ragtime music came out of the ‘mainstream’ line and started to form into the likes of jazz, big band swing and the blues. Scott Joplin is remembered for being one of the most memorable ragtime composers of the turn-of-the-century during his lifetime (1868-1917).
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