"Revisiting America’s master musical miniaturist, Scott Joplin."
August 10, 2016 4:40 PM Subscribe
"The Rag Man," a review of Edward Berlin's King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era (2nd edition): "As such, to Mr. and Mrs. America circa 1908, ragtime was not “The Entertainer,” but peppy little songs with peppery little lyrics, that you could get up and dance to. Only through these could one make a living, and Joplin had other ideas...."
The Entertainer
Eugenia
Maple Leaf Rag
Searchlight Rag
"In 1975, Treemonisha received a full-scale production by the Houston Grand Opera, for which the piano score was orchestrated by the eminent American composer, conductor and jazz scholar Gunther Schuller."
Treemonisha Original Cast Recording (1975)
The Houston Grand Opera (1982):
Treemonisha (part 1)
Treemonisha (part 2)
Treemonisha (part 3)
Previously: The Historic American Sheet Music archive, which contains public domain sheet music of some of Joplin's work.
....For most of his life Joplin was a man whose day-to-day life was as a vocal ensemble performer and pianist for hire who published a few rags a year...Rags such as:
The Entertainer
Eugenia
Maple Leaf Rag
Searchlight Rag
...but whose ultimate career goal was crafting works for the theater.Joplin finished writing his opera Treemonisha in 1910 but it would never be mounted as a full production in his lifetime.
Joplin was hardly alone in this goal among black musicians. Violinist Will Marion Cook dreamed of bringing ragtime to Broadway in the 1890s, and as we have been reminded of late by Broadway’s Shuffle Along: Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle later had the same ambitions for the early jazz that ragtime had evolved into by the late teens.
"In 1975, Treemonisha received a full-scale production by the Houston Grand Opera, for which the piano score was orchestrated by the eminent American composer, conductor and jazz scholar Gunther Schuller."
Treemonisha Original Cast Recording (1975)
The Houston Grand Opera (1982):
Treemonisha (part 1)
Treemonisha (part 2)
Treemonisha (part 3)
Previously: The Historic American Sheet Music archive, which contains public domain sheet music of some of Joplin's work.
I've loved ragtime from the first time I heard it, at once both accessible and unique. Unfortunately it never seems to "fit" with other things I might put on a play list--definitely not pop or rock, not quite jazz, somewhat classical. It's like the five minute video short in the pre youtube days, something I can enjoy but it can be hard to fit into my consumption habits. I guess I agree with this downer of a sentence in the article:
even at its finest ragtime is an art of limited parameters, the musical equivalent of the miniature and the madeleine, incompatible with larger scale.
A modern composer,Reginald Robinson was on the blue some years ago and I'm glad I happened to be reading that day. One nice performance here.
posted by mark k at 11:27 PM on August 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
even at its finest ragtime is an art of limited parameters, the musical equivalent of the miniature and the madeleine, incompatible with larger scale.
A modern composer,Reginald Robinson was on the blue some years ago and I'm glad I happened to be reading that day. One nice performance here.
posted by mark k at 11:27 PM on August 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
Popular music from right around the ragtime period is really interesting, and I think the reviewer's description of ragtime compositions as "miniatures" is pretty apt. I'm having a hard time coming up with the words to describe it, but the music written before jazz and the tin pan alley era feels more formally composed, even popular pieces like Joplin's that would have been basically dance music.
I don't play piano, but I've been idly learning fingerstyle 5-string banjo from that late 1800s/early 1900s period (some rags, lots of marches and cakewalks - very different than modern banjo idioms) and there is just so much of it out there, languishing because it's lost its context; people (in general) consume their music so much more passively these days, versus learning and performing it themselves from the published sheet music, or socially in the form of dancing to live performances. This older banjo music in particular has the added hurdle of being in standard musical notation, which most modern 5-string players are not willing to learn; modern bluegress and old-time banjo music tends to be distributed as tablature.
People that do get exposed to these ragtime era pieces tend to like them, at least as a historical curiosity or occasional sound bite... but as mark k said, it's not a style of music many people get excited enough about to really be "into" as a genre or style.
posted by usonian at 7:04 AM on August 11, 2016 [6 favorites]
I don't play piano, but I've been idly learning fingerstyle 5-string banjo from that late 1800s/early 1900s period (some rags, lots of marches and cakewalks - very different than modern banjo idioms) and there is just so much of it out there, languishing because it's lost its context; people (in general) consume their music so much more passively these days, versus learning and performing it themselves from the published sheet music, or socially in the form of dancing to live performances. This older banjo music in particular has the added hurdle of being in standard musical notation, which most modern 5-string players are not willing to learn; modern bluegress and old-time banjo music tends to be distributed as tablature.
People that do get exposed to these ragtime era pieces tend to like them, at least as a historical curiosity or occasional sound bite... but as mark k said, it's not a style of music many people get excited enough about to really be "into" as a genre or style.
posted by usonian at 7:04 AM on August 11, 2016 [6 favorites]
When I was a kid my mother didn't have many albums, maybe a dozen, so The Sting(1973) soundtrack solidly imprinted Joplin. He's controversial to some, but Amiri Baraka's Blues People touches on him. "We don't really claim him," a friend who's black once said to me (and avid music lover, always something playing), not that her opinion is fact.
Sheet music sales introduced the number one million to music and it's fascinating to read about. Joplin straddles the traditions of measure and the ascendency of rhythm in so far as what music was put to paper. Which is a significant factor in terms of what's become "classical"-- what was put to paper.
Maybe someone actually educated on the topic can explain why that's specious, and I'd be grateful.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 7:28 AM on August 11, 2016
Sheet music sales introduced the number one million to music and it's fascinating to read about. Joplin straddles the traditions of measure and the ascendency of rhythm in so far as what music was put to paper. Which is a significant factor in terms of what's become "classical"-- what was put to paper.
Maybe someone actually educated on the topic can explain why that's specious, and I'd be grateful.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 7:28 AM on August 11, 2016
(Also, I missed the Reginald Robinson thread the first time around. Plenty of positive comments but what a goddamned depressing attitude from a lot of commenters.)
posted by usonian at 7:42 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by usonian at 7:42 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
> Plenty of positive comments but what a goddamned depressing attitude from a lot of commenters.
To be fair, mainly from one extremely determined commenter.
posted by languagehat at 7:57 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
To be fair, mainly from one extremely determined commenter.
posted by languagehat at 7:57 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
When I was a kid I was told I couldn't play Scott Joplin at the piano recital because he was trashy. I quit piano lessons. Things sure have changed.
posted by lagomorphius at 9:56 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by lagomorphius at 9:56 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
Trashy? Are you a time-traveller? Whoa.
I used to play ragtime on harpsichord, when I had a harpsichord. (Don Angle did it first.) The sharp attack and quick decay of the harpsichord means you can do all the rhythmic subtlety while perfectly in tune (rag piano is sometimes a littttle out of tune to get the same effect).
posted by clew at 10:59 AM on August 11, 2016
I used to play ragtime on harpsichord, when I had a harpsichord. (Don Angle did it first.) The sharp attack and quick decay of the harpsichord means you can do all the rhythmic subtlety while perfectly in tune (rag piano is sometimes a littttle out of tune to get the same effect).
posted by clew at 10:59 AM on August 11, 2016
Also, ragtime is probably the easiest music to do partner dance to. The one-step is walking. You get to do animal variations.
(Edited to add: Sprightly polka often totally appropriate.)
posted by clew at 11:05 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
(Edited to add: Sprightly polka often totally appropriate.)
posted by clew at 11:05 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
"In 1975, Treemonisha received a full-scale production by the Houston Grand Opera, for which the piano score was orchestrated by the eminent American composer, conductor and jazz scholar Gunther Schuller."
Oh, say. I've got that record. I'll have to go down the vault and give it another listen.
Yeah, it's not a "ragtime opera" at all.
A lot of it sounded like Beethoven to me, though Wiccuhpeedia says "Wagner". There are parts that are raggy; there's also barbershop quartet harmonies, tango, some programmatic modernism that wouldn't be out of place alongside Carl Stallings and . . . It all sounds very American.
Yeah, Revisit . . .
When I was a kid I was told I couldn't play Scott Joplin at the piano recital because he was trashy. I quit piano lessons. Things sure have changed.
I attended a BFA voice recital in 1980 or so that featured the well-know aria, "(There's A Light) Over At The Frankenstein Place".
posted by Herodios at 11:11 AM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
fingerstyle 5-string banjo from that late 1800s/early 1900s period
There are a lot of great banjo recordings from that era at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive (4 times previously). Apparently banjo was more conducive to that era's recording technology than piano. Through these recordings I learned of Vess Ossman - sample recording: playing Eli Green's Cakewalk.
posted by larrybob at 11:49 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
There are a lot of great banjo recordings from that era at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive (4 times previously). Apparently banjo was more conducive to that era's recording technology than piano. Through these recordings I learned of Vess Ossman - sample recording: playing Eli Green's Cakewalk.
posted by larrybob at 11:49 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
Besides Tremonisha, Joplin had composed an earlier opera, A Guest of Honor, which is completely lost. It was based on the 1901 Booker T. Washington dinner at the White House hosted by President Teddy Roosevelt.
posted by larrybob at 11:54 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by larrybob at 11:54 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
clew, E. Power Biggs recorded Joplin on harpsichord in 1974: "E. Power Biggs Plays Scott Joplin on the Pedal Harpsichord", Columbia Masterworks M32495. I do not believe the recording, released to capitalize on the Ragtime Revival of the early '70s, was ever re-released on CD.
AFAIK, Biggs was the first to record Joplin on the Mother Plucker. Most unfortunately, the recording itself is, in my estimation, all but unlistenable because of the hugely irritating noise of the mechanical parts of the harpsichord. Moreover, it was recorded late in Biggs's long and distinguished career (he died in 1977), and it is hard not to feel that he did not bring his "A game" to the project.
The recent Don Angle performance of "The Charleston Rag" to which you linked is sprightly and entertaining by comparison.
posted by rdone at 11:55 AM on August 11, 2016
AFAIK, Biggs was the first to record Joplin on the Mother Plucker. Most unfortunately, the recording itself is, in my estimation, all but unlistenable because of the hugely irritating noise of the mechanical parts of the harpsichord. Moreover, it was recorded late in Biggs's long and distinguished career (he died in 1977), and it is hard not to feel that he did not bring his "A game" to the project.
The recent Don Angle performance of "The Charleston Rag" to which you linked is sprightly and entertaining by comparison.
posted by rdone at 11:55 AM on August 11, 2016
RE: Fingerstyle banjo recordings, there is also Classic Banjo Radio streaming 24/7.
posted by usonian at 12:02 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by usonian at 12:02 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
William Bolcom is mentioned in the section of the FPP article as a composer of the 1970s ragtime revival. Here is his beautiful Graceful Ghost Rag.
posted by larrybob at 12:13 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by larrybob at 12:13 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
I remember not getting the Biggs record, when records were the thing (and expensive!) in favor of a second Angle record.
posted by clew at 12:23 PM on August 11, 2016
posted by clew at 12:23 PM on August 11, 2016
I'm a big fan of Joshua Rifkin's playing of Joplin.
He really believes the 'not too fast' part.
Even in the Pine Apple Rag, which is a pretty fast one, it's stately.
posted by MtDewd at 1:39 PM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
He really believes the 'not too fast' part.
Even in the Pine Apple Rag, which is a pretty fast one, it's stately.
posted by MtDewd at 1:39 PM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
A mandolin orchestra version of Maple Leaf Rag.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:25 PM on August 11, 2016
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:25 PM on August 11, 2016
Seconding mtdewd.
Marvin Hamlisch's arrangements for The Sting were my introduction to Joplin and ragtime, and I still enjoy them, but Joshua Rifkin's records are what really captivated me. They are still my favorite ragtime recordings 40-some-odd years later.
(Rifkin recorded three albums of them. I believe the CD reissue contains albums one and two, plus a few tracks from the third ... But as far as I know, the remaining tracks from the third were never reissued. Whoever owns them, I will gladly repurchase them if you give me a way. Heck, reissue them all as a Very Special Deluxe Anniversary Edition or whatever and I'll rebuy them all.)
posted by pmurray63 at 5:30 PM on August 11, 2016
Marvin Hamlisch's arrangements for The Sting were my introduction to Joplin and ragtime, and I still enjoy them, but Joshua Rifkin's records are what really captivated me. They are still my favorite ragtime recordings 40-some-odd years later.
(Rifkin recorded three albums of them. I believe the CD reissue contains albums one and two, plus a few tracks from the third ... But as far as I know, the remaining tracks from the third were never reissued. Whoever owns them, I will gladly repurchase them if you give me a way. Heck, reissue them all as a Very Special Deluxe Anniversary Edition or whatever and I'll rebuy them all.)
posted by pmurray63 at 5:30 PM on August 11, 2016
Eubie Blake, recalled meeting Joplin late in Joplin's life. Blake reports that Joplin spoke so slowly and quietly, he could barely understand him. And then when the crowd called for Joplin to play "Maple Leaf", he stumbled to thespian, and played it wretchedly (Blake would act out Joplin's clumsy playing). Clearly, he was suffering then from the ravages of the disease that killed him. But it certainly brought Joplin closer to know that someone who was ubiquitous on talk shows when I was a kid, actually met this strange genius, about whom we know only slightly more than we know about Shakespeare.
"We don't really claim him"
Really?
posted by Modest House at 6:37 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
"We don't really claim him"
Really?
posted by Modest House at 6:37 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
Nonesuch was a classical label when Rifkin made his Joplin LPs, but they went in a different direction and don't seem to care much about the old back catalog. Hell, ECM is way more classical than Nonesuch, and has been for years.
Anyway, John McWhorter's review certainly makes me want to read the book.
posted by in278s at 11:47 PM on August 11, 2016
Anyway, John McWhorter's review certainly makes me want to read the book.
posted by in278s at 11:47 PM on August 11, 2016
This thread sent me looking for banjo arrangements of Joplin's work, and there are a number of contemporary ones - typically arranged as duets because the right and left hand parts are both essential to that beguiling ragtime sound. The Ragtime Dance is now officially on my "to learn" pile, although who knows when I'll get to it or whether I'll be able to do it justice. I've been listening to it repeatedly and am really struck by how ragtime straddles the gap between older, reserved Victorian sensibilities and the fallout from everything that's about to hit the fan thanks to World War I.
Particularly in The Ragtime Dance: That stop time stomping in the fourth strain, written right in the score! It's sadly omitted in the Joshua Rifkin recording above but various other YouTube performances feature it to varying degrees. The stomping seems rather raucous for 1906, but compared to jazz pieces that come later it has such an old-fashioned grace and reserve to it. To my modern ears, anyway; It's hard to react to the music as the phenomenon it was at the time.
posted by usonian at 8:51 AM on August 12, 2016
Particularly in The Ragtime Dance: That stop time stomping in the fourth strain, written right in the score! It's sadly omitted in the Joshua Rifkin recording above but various other YouTube performances feature it to varying degrees. The stomping seems rather raucous for 1906, but compared to jazz pieces that come later it has such an old-fashioned grace and reserve to it. To my modern ears, anyway; It's hard to react to the music as the phenomenon it was at the time.
posted by usonian at 8:51 AM on August 12, 2016
I can't find the source, but I remember reading an article about how the Joshua Rifkin Joplin recordings single-handedly made Nonesuch into a financially viable label.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:36 AM on August 12, 2016
posted by lagomorphius at 10:36 AM on August 12, 2016
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