There was a time when I was absolutely obsessed with Scott Joplin's music and in was through his music that I realized, after about 10 years of learning classical piano, that there are also other types of music that can be played on the piano, not just the "boring" etudes 😅 The Gladiolus Rag is lovely of course, and my other favourite piece has been Solace which just like Treemonisha intends to be a more serious piece of music.
I'm real good at what I do _(I swear degugging complex systems is _*_like doing Tarot!)_* but ... I guess I'm a dullard. The inventiveness in such as this just ... it exceeds my mental capacity. p.s. watched long doco on Da Vinci y'day. Temps me to write *_unearthly!_*
I enjoyed your comments and interpretation of Gladiolus Rag. The swing and variations in tempo are subtle and enhances the performance. I became enamored with the Maple Leaf Rag when I heard the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble’s recording in the early 1970’s. I found the sheet music in the middle of the book “They All Played Ragtime” and learned it in the summer of 1974 (imitating the ensemble slightly swing style). I went on to learn Elite Syncopations, Sunflower Slow Drag (written with Scott Hayden) and the always requested The Entertainer. They’re all a bit rusty now but I enjoy playing them now and again.
Thank you for viewing Joplin's works as not crazy saloon music - a very common misconception - but rather more classical. I love how you went beyond the Entertainer and instead used one of his less famous rags, especially Gladiolus. And especially the fact that you view Gladiolus as more of a lyrical piece, with a "tragic turn" (that's beautiful). Your introduction to syncopation and how ragtime came about is on point! However, I do not prefer Joplin swung, maybe with the exception of Maple Leaf, especially Gladiolus, a very graceful and calm piece that doesn't need the use of swing. Overall, I think you have the best introduction to ragtime on RUclips! Great job!
Ragtime does come out of a tradition of lower class popular dance music - if that means "crazy saloon music" to you, then so be it. Joplin's desire to be considered as above those roots does not obligate us to ignore them.
I was obsessed with Joplin as a kid. Gladiolus was always my favorite, and I think the D section is the best ragtime music ever written. I do prefer straight eighths, but maybe that's because of Rifkin. Your interpretation is lovely! And the fact that it even makes dogs dance shows why it was such a sensation at the time.
Phenomenal musician. Can't imagine how much muscial talent of afro-americans was lost in slave-holding America. After the emancipation, african-american music became mainstream music in America and literally changed the world.
In addition, I have read reports that American musicologists are beginning to believe that almost all "black" music owed far more to Anglo - Celtic music than it did to African music.
Your absolutely right in your performative approach to Joplin's music. After all, "it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing" as Ellington beautifully put it. and it made Loki dance!
Thank you so much for covering Joplin. Perhaps you might consider covering 'A Breeze from Alabama' as I think his modulations were very Schubertian, along with that straight major third jump from C to Aflat major (classic Beethoven). I think I read somewhere that Joplin continually grumbled about his music being played too fast and not as ritten. Oh, and don't forget the handful of lovely waltzes. Bethena is my favourite of these.
Thank you: another masterclass! Your placing of artistry always to the fore, along with the sheer joy of experiencing and knowing music, is very special.
Once you started adding the swing in your performance, I was immediately put in mind of William Bolcom's "Graceful Ghost", my favorite "modern" rag. Rightly or wrongly, I have always played it on the slow side, and at that tempo, swinging it seems to be just the right thing to do. So you'll get no "How Dare You!" comments from me on your swinging Joplin. Now I'm going to have to dig up that sheet music and play it again. Thanks!
Bolcom himself swung Graceful Ghost in his first recording of it but he preferred not to later on, and most serious pianists don't anymore. I think it trivializes it. Swinging Gladiolus on the other hand is not merely a matter of taste, one can do so and one might prefer it but it is historically anachronistic to do so. This type of swing would have been unknown to Joplin.
Oh mam! You're playing the same era that my uncle and mother had 33 1/3 records of. I'd love to wind up the old Victrola and dream of the late 19th and early 20th century. Would be a dream come true for all of Joplins works to be analyzed and played by you.
I love Scott Joplin and think Gladiolus is one of his most beautiful. The other ragtime composer I recall being most impressed with is Joseph Lamb. I haven't heard much of his music in years but I believe I enjoyed pieces like Nightingale Rag, American Beauty Rag, Patricia Rag and Cottontail Rag.
Your musical analysis is spot on as always. There are a few historical data points I have contention with here. It is very unlikely Joplin ever worked as a laborer on the railroad. This is often repeated but there’s no evidence of this. Little is known about Joplin's earlier life other than he toured with a vocal quartet, The Texas Medley Quartet, that he formed as a teenager with a few of his brothers. The group was quite successful and toured all over the midwest and northern states (as far as Boston). His earliest published songs (not rags) were ones he wrote for this group. Later when he moved from Texarkana to Sedalia, Missouri, he performed cornet with the River City Concert band. I also disagree with the oft repeated "Joplin was not a good pianist." This may be true but what is more likely is he was simply not a flashy one compared to his friends and contemporaries that worked in vaudeville and red light districts. As a ragtime pianist/composer Joplin was very much an anomaly, he played his music “more or less as written’ (according to his colleague, Joe Jordan) while nearly every other ragtime pianist improvised to various degrees. Another student from Joplin’s St. Louis period (1905ish) named Gus Haenschen was interviewed late in his life and said Joplin played very similar to “this young man named Joshua Rifkin.” There are recordings by Joplin’s contemporaries and students such as Arthur Marshall, Brun Campbell and Charles Thompson who have a very free improvisatory manner of playing. As for the “St. Louis swing,” this is a matter very misunderstood. Swing means something very different to us in the 21st century. The way we think of swing, i.e long-short triplets, is anachronistic to Joplin’s day. That is a product of the jazz age, the 1920s. The ragtime pianists who recorded and who were active in Joplin’s era played in a slightly more subtle uneven manner, not full long short triplets, or they didn’t “swing” at all. It was closer to how older American fiddlers played. To play a Joplin rag in a long short triplet “swung” manner, and especially as notated, would have been very foreign to Joplin and his contemporaries.
Swing has a percentage, triplet swing is 66 percent, the ragtime era bounce was closer to 53 percent if not lower, the subdivisions are extremely subtle. Rifkin pulls this off in his recordings, especially of Maple Leaf Rag and Pineapple Rag (in the trio). Same mechanic, varying degrees of intensity.
@@PiotrBarcz I think I could have explained this part better. Yes, "swing" really should be thought of as a spectrum that doesn't lend itself to European notation. Jazz era swing is closer to exact long short triplets while earlier American styles are not necessarily. How much a ragtime musician "swung" would largely depend on what region they were from. This spectrum can be heard in many recordings of pre jazz era pop music. A lot of "classical" pianists, particularly non American ones are not familiar with these recordings so they don't grasp this concept. I know YOU know this but I'm writing this for others.
@@nickarteaga175 I mean even in the jazz era you heard close to stilted swing and then bebop stuff is very light almost straight but I get what you're getting at there.
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I've been playing this music since the day after the first TV Ad for the upcoming premier of The Sting, which I attended opening night. I never imagined someone would join Chopin. I'm currently completing my melodic rhythmic phrasing structure study. It's a database of my own coding design, in plain text, fed into a LLM. I'll be developing a Joplin Rag Agent, complete with customizable dashboards and analysis tools for the musician/pianist/scholar. By the way, very nice playing (Scott Carpenter is also good) until the "swing". Pure white boy. Keep playing along with the recordings. Also, you see that it's "oom pah", not "oom oom". Thank you. Joplin's bass lines are as good as anyone's. Nice job drawing out the ascending half steps. But hose alternating intervals and octaves have an underlying rhythmic context which, like a good African drummer, when properly modulated, give the poly rhythms their "speech" component. The issue here is, I believe, due to the playback limitations of piano rolls (tacks in the hammers, etc.) which flatten the poly-emphasis subtleties. And you're on to something about the "classical" and "lamenting" quality. There are, despite the virtual monopoly of one type, 2 distinct approaches to interpretation: Jelly Roll Morton (pre-rock/rap) and James Reese Europe, who spoke of "pretty" interpretations, hence the Gershwin/Ellington line. Also, a very important date, which allowed me to carry my sheet music in the Classical Piano Dept hallways without open scorn, was the publication of the "yellow" Schirmer edition, aptly enough, #2020, edited by Max Morath. Thank you, first "Classical" type not to destroy Joplin in a long time.
Anyone who has listened to Joplin since childhood, as I and others did with Rifkin's album and others, knows that its umame-like balance of melancholy and joyousness is unrivaled. (I'm surprised you didn't mention Solace, which truly reaches the stars.) And yes, when you listen to the late Schubert of D. 946 and even some late Beethoven this same quality is there, as well as the harmonies you point out.
I felt that both you and Loki were at your finest in this one! Excellent! Such warm music, it's a real tonic, but it stands up to and actually gains from closer inspection.
My favorite is "Solace". Slow ragtime in the right hand, but a Latin American habanera in the left. But the melody and harmonies are what stand out, somehow both heartbreaking and lovely.
Joshua Rifkin rescued Joplin's rags. Mid-century, the typical ragtime band wore striped shirts, suspenders, and boaters and played in a ricky ticky style too fast. Kitsch.
Thank you! And beautifully played - seems like a doodle for you while you explain right over your playing. You are always so enjoyable to watch, and I learn so much (plus Loki is adorable 😊) After some nasty accidents with my hands (broke both thumbs and both wrists, and damage to an ulnar nerve), my playing is severely curtailed. But I can still listen and learn, and be entertained in the process.
Well done, well played! Isn't it curious that the best renderings of Joplin's compositions are by classical players!? You could hardly have chosen a better piece to examine than the Gladiolus. I'd rank it perhaps the third best of Joplin's rags, surpassed only by the Magnetic (#2) and Scott Joplin's New Rag (the best of them all in my estimation). I wholeheartedly agree with “wistful” to describe the mood of most of Joplin's music. His nature was not given to eternal sunshine. I applaud your performance of the Gladioulus and the Maple Leaf. First, and most important, you take the music seriously. From that, the moderate tempo and fidelity to the score naturally emanate. Very Rifkinesque - which I mean in the most complimentary way. We who love Joplin owe so much to Rifkin, who drew aside the curtain of oblivion and showed us all how lovely this music was, if only it was performed with skill and sensitivity.
Bravo. That performance brought a tear to my eye - in a good way. One of my musical colleagues is quite an expert in this idiom - particularly the slightly later music of Jelly Roll Morton. He would certainly concur with the swinging approach, but not to the dotted semi - demi extent. More of a triplet feel. So once again you have that 3 over 4 thing which you already pointed out. A case has been made for writing jazz in 12/8 rather than 4/4... so what gets written as, say two quavers, is noted as a crotchet and quaver (with four dotted crotchets to the bar) If you write for "straight players" in this way, the result is MUCH closer to that jazz "swing" thanhaving them play just quavers, or dotted quaver-semi. You say how "pianistic" Joplin's writing is, and yes it does, for the most part, fall nicely under the fingers, but foe the dominant feature is his attempt to imitate the marching band. The left hand octaves are strongly reminiscent of tuba (or Sousaphone!) and trombone lines. The 'off-beat' chords are the back row cornets and peck horns, whilst the right reminds one of trumpets, clarinets and the high winds... He would have heard a lot of this style of band - and it is also no coincidence that traditional ragtime form is identical to march form! Great stuff.
Actually another thought. I realised that due to the supportive role of the left hand in ragtime I feel he would’ve been amazing at writing a waltz Rather than 2/4 he could’ve easily don’t a 3/4 triplet times syncopated waltz I wish he did that, I feel it would’ve taken the waltz form even further. He would’ve benefited from the swing rhythms of the Mazurka also. Even the Gigue would’ve fit his syncopated style in an amazing way
He did, he wrote various syncopated and non syncopated waltz's. Bethena and Pleasant Moment are syncopated. Binks' Waltz is a good example of a non syncopated waltz from him.
Simply wonderful - a worthy celebration of Joplin and the role of Julius Weiss. For me there is an interesting parallel with The Beatles! In very different ways they transcended their origins in a fairly restricted genre (rock and roll) and aspired in some senses to produce work that should be considered art music.
Yes. The convergence of popular style with 'high culture' is always a fruitful one, very difficult to achieve. You are absolutely right about the Beatles and their 'Julius Weiss' was George Martin.
Great to hear your thoughts on Scott Joplin; Macmillan's ballet 'Elite Syncopations' features music by Joplin, and others, including the achingly beautiful Bethena (a concert waltz...reading the liner notes in the DVD !) This was the first piece that Joplin wrote after his wife's death I believe. (Blame Radio 3 if that's wrong.) After the fun and games earlier in the ballet it gives the impression that things are winding down...for the evening, for ragtime ? Also: John James, The Welsh Wizard', made his name as a ragtime guitarist playing Joplin et al on the guitar in his own arrangements. 'Slow Drag', 'Silver Swan', 'Maple Leaf Rag' etc. worth a look on You Tube.
One nit. In a comment on an earlier post, I mentioned agreeing with your musical taste. Here I must disagree. Joplin often wrote such directions as "Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast." I concur. Of course this may be due to my two earliest introductions to rag being my own teacher, and then Joshua Rifkin.
I honestly think that makes sense because how else would the voicings be able to “voice” if it is too high in tempo 🫠 I never did understand the rapid performances. They say he was the “American Mozart” and part of why is his defining contribution to what would be classed as an “American” sound and the jazz and blues that rose more prominently later. With this in mind I find that playing it slower brings that feel out better
Ok, I maybe spoke too soon. Your Gladiolus was more to my taste as tempi. I find the swing element interesting, and I don't doubt you are correct as to contemporaneous performances. However, I still prefer the closer to notation take.
The swing is not how ragtime would have been played at all. Rifkin once stated he started out playing Joplin in such a manner before realising how it should be played straight. Swing was an idea that came later on with jazz and stride and such styles and wouldn’t have been applied to ragtime much at all and certainly not to Joplins rags. They should be played straight if one wants to play them as intended.
@@dylan-kerry 1930s "swing" is now only one use of the term. Jazz players also talk about the "swing" of earlier eras/styles. Some measure of swing is entirely appropriate for ragtime - it originates in an tradition of dance music (and dance is swing).
@@TheloniousCube I never said it had anything to do with Swing bands specifically. You hear it in every sort of jazz and from stride too. In ragtime though, it was hardly used asides a few passages in rags such as American Beauty and Joplin should never be swung
@@dylan-kerry How do you purport to know what the performance practices were in the environment where ragtime developed. Joplin may have had his opinions on his own music, but we needn't take those opinions as gospel.
Some of my fun observations on Joplin's rags. I classify strains by the first heard chord and the harmonic intent (tonic). As such, I call the first strain of Maple Leaf a "tonic" rag/strain, the second and third strains as "dominant" strains, and the fourth a "subdominant". The subdominant is the least common strain in Joplin's work and usually appears in his Maple Leaf clones (like Sugar Cane). He'll also occasionally use dominant strains as his opening first strains, like Palm Leaf Rag. Also, for more harmonic sophistication, check out his Magnetic Rag. The opening notes are so chromatic, it's hard to determine the total center. Then he spends the rest of the rag in a weird arch formation, where the middle of the arch is in the home key but is NOT a return to the first strain! The second and fourth are minor strains, where we have g minor and b flat minor, the two minor keys relating to the tonic. It's sophistication brought to the ragtime form!
There is a Chaplinesque hint of pathos amidst the roistering galloping. Ragtime transfers well to the Guitar too; just as it was gathering momentum as a popular instrument.
The relationship between African rhythms and ragtime (and blues and jazz) is complicated by the huge popularity of minstrelsy (whites imitating black culture followed by black performers imitating those white performers). We have very little information on what "authentic" black American music was like before the commercial impulses of minstrelsy transformed it. This commercialization (and homogenization) created a melting pot out of which American Popular Music of various styles (ragtime, blues, jazz, Tin Pan Alley pop and even country music) emerged. I absolutely agree on the swing aspect - even if Joplin had a notion of ragtime as akin to classical music, ragtime as a whole emerged from an improvisatory and rhythmically looser environment (not to skate over the larger role that improvisation played in the classical tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries)..
i think the double appogiatura sections in the gladiolus rag are more reminiscent of something more like a beethoven piano sonata rather than a sousa march, although i do hear the elements of a sousa march in other sections of this piece.
Gladiolus rag, bars 5-6 is very much reminiscent to Chopin piano concerto f minor, bars 5-6 (with auftakt). In both cases, we see a similar rythmic gesture around the tonic in the lower register, followed by slured eight notes step down a minor second in a very similar harmonic setup (same pitches, both in 4b, although the reference tonality is f minor in Chopin's case). And then the same thing repeats again a bit higher. The elaboration is quite similar, and I am just become curious whether Joplin made a direct reference here, and I think he did!
I am generally put off by renditions that employ swing, but I quite like your interpretation. It's not overdone. I would be distracted by more swingy eights, though.
It just inflects the harmony (D flat minor) before the return to A flat major. It's a lovely effect. There is a similar chromatic drop in the bass in the main theme (in bar 2).
Cheers. For a youngish channel we have established a growing and enthusiastic audience. The thumbnails don't seem to be hindering that but tell us how you think we might improve them.
Sorry, but please don't play ragtime with a jazz "swing" rhythm as if it was written in the 1920s. It destroys the whole period feel of ragtime, which to me is essential. Would you tamper with the rhythm of Strauss waltzes or Sousa marches? By "swinging" it, you lose the connection with classical music. I have played and loved ragtime since my 'teens, also the 1920s "novelty" and "stride" styles. Each is a world of its own representing a progression from ragtime through the various jazz styles.
The point that is being made in the video is that there clearly existed a swing style in Joplin's time, which was even employed by pianists who recorded Joplin's rags and there is even a recording, reputedly by Joplin himself, in which swing is detectable. It is never a good idea to be overly dogmatic about performance practice.
Interesting comment! A few thoughts: While this interpretation may lean slightly closer to the more common and recognized jazz swing feel, it’s worth noting that the concept of swing and time feel in jazz from the 1920s and earlier was incredibly varied. Authentic ragtime (1890s-1900s), however, was not entirely "straight" in its rhythm. Even though Scott Joplin viewed ragtime as a form of American classical music, its time feel and rhythmic elements were influenced by traditions outside the classical framework. Specifically, ragtime drew inspiration from marches as well as African-American folk traditions, including Black String Bands and banjo music (and even some which minstrelsy). These influences introduced a slightly uneven feel to the rhythm, one that doesn’t neatly fit into categories like swung or straight. Although we have few recordings from that era, we can gain insight into these rhythmic nuances through slightly later recordings by musicians who were alive during that time. For example, the Dallas String Band, W.C. Handy, and Jelly Roll Morton offer valuable glimpses into how this music may have sounded.
Point not said overtly that Joplin was not a great composer as he essentially wrote excellent music but of the same nature (template perhaps). I actually agree with that view but add parallel with Domenico Scarlatti. Except for a few private operatic bits and his Stabat Mater , Scarlatti famously wrote 555 'sonatas' but not of the classical form. Essentially his output was piano pieces . of the same length as Joplin's, in two sections and fixed format, playable mostly by the able amateur but importanly containing original and attractive harmonic and rhythmic genius.
People like you are envious pains in the a**. What the Hell have you ever written? There is a huge difference between Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainers, Solace, and A Real Slow Drag, not to mention all of Joplin's other compositions. Write a dozen things as striking and memorable as any twelve of Joplin's pieces and maybe I'll take you seriously.
What a terrible perspective. He's simply comparing a piece Joplin wrote in melancholy tribute to his most successful work. He's in no way saying that this is all that Joplin did. Joplin was a great composer, and it seems that point flew over your head.
Joplin was an exceptional composer who wrote many pieces in a very original style that stood out very much from what others of the time wrote. Although a lot of his pieces used a similar form, the melodies were always unique and each piece was very different overall from the others. Some would have more similarities such as Leola and the Gladiolus but there was still an awful lot of variety among his published rags. Don’t forget, of course, he wrote many waltzes and marches too and two operas. He was a genius
I can't say that scott Joplin really fired me up in any way. Just thought it was all a bit mediocre. Maybe after listening (and attempting to play) Billy Mayerl, joplin was a bit of an anti climax. Now, a video on Mayerl would be great.
@themusicprofessor Yes, maybe you're right. I'd be the first to say that just because you don't like something, doesn't make it bad, but it just doesn't have any emotional value for me. I can take it or leave it kind of thing.
Bily Mayerl is exceptional and one of my very favourite composers but one can’t really say his music is any better than Joplins. It’s like comparing Joplin to Mozart. Two very different styles that although sharing similarities are very different overall and shouldn’t be compared. A lot of Mayerls music focuses more on riffs or flashy lines as a pose to the slow melodies of Joplins pieces. Both were capable of writing beautiful music though. Overall it really is wrong to compare two composers who are so different to each other and just state that one is better. I personally prefer to think of all composers as equal but have my own preferences
Fascinating! - perhaps a follow-up film about the music of Billy Mayerl?
Loved Loki’s dance…
You're the 2nd person to mention Mayerl. Yes, some time I'd be delighted to. Loki enjoyed his dance.
What a fantastic video, thank you for covering Joplin!
Love Scott Joplin's music. He was the Chopin of Ragtime. My favorite performer of his piano music is Joshua Rifkin. Absolutely beautiful playing.
There was a time when I was absolutely obsessed with Scott Joplin's music and in was through his music that I realized, after about 10 years of learning classical piano, that there are also other types of music that can be played on the piano, not just the "boring" etudes 😅
The Gladiolus Rag is lovely of course, and my other favourite piece has been Solace which just like Treemonisha intends to be a more serious piece of music.
A true artist. Someone who develops their own style and adds to the artistic world.
I'm real good at what I do _(I swear degugging complex systems is _*_like doing Tarot!)_* but ... I guess I'm a dullard.
The inventiveness in such as this just ... it exceeds my mental capacity.
p.s. watched long doco on Da Vinci y'day. Temps me to write *_unearthly!_*
Superb!... Thanks for the vid.
I'm a pianist and a Joplin fan, but only just learnt he shares my birthday 101 years apart.
I enjoyed your comments and interpretation of Gladiolus Rag. The swing and variations in tempo are subtle and enhances the performance.
I became enamored with the Maple Leaf Rag when I heard the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble’s recording in the early 1970’s. I found the sheet music in the middle of the book “They All Played Ragtime” and learned it in the summer of 1974 (imitating the ensemble slightly swing style).
I went on to learn Elite Syncopations, Sunflower Slow Drag (written with Scott Hayden) and the always requested The Entertainer.
They’re all a bit rusty now but I enjoy playing them now and again.
Thank you for viewing Joplin's works as not crazy saloon music - a very common misconception - but rather more classical. I love how you went beyond the Entertainer and instead used one of his less famous rags, especially Gladiolus. And especially the fact that you view Gladiolus as more of a lyrical piece, with a "tragic turn" (that's beautiful). Your introduction to syncopation and how ragtime came about is on point! However, I do not prefer Joplin swung, maybe with the exception of Maple Leaf, especially Gladiolus, a very graceful and calm piece that doesn't need the use of swing. Overall, I think you have the best introduction to ragtime on RUclips! Great job!
Ragtime does come out of a tradition of lower class popular dance music - if that means "crazy saloon music" to you, then so be it. Joplin's desire to be considered as above those roots does not obligate us to ignore them.
Cheers.
@ I was referring to the misconception that ragtime was an unhinged Honky-Tonk style, like Winnie Atwell or Jo Ann Castle.
I was obsessed with Joplin as a kid. Gladiolus was always my favorite, and I think the D section is the best ragtime music ever written. I do prefer straight eighths, but maybe that's because of Rifkin. Your interpretation is lovely! And the fact that it even makes dogs dance shows why it was such a sensation at the time.
The Pineapple Rag and The Wallstreet Rag are my favorites. Incredible music.
I love the pineapple rag too.
Cascades and Original Rags are sweet,
That's a favorite of mine, too. On the original sheet music, it was spelled "The Pine Apple Rag."
Excellent choices!
GREAT VIDEO !!! Happy birthday Scott Joplin . LOVED your interpretational rendition at the end . Bravo
Phenomenal musician. Can't imagine how much muscial talent of afro-americans was lost in slave-holding America. After the emancipation, african-american music became mainstream music in America and literally changed the world.
Read Richard Sudhalter's Lost Chords.
In addition, I have read reports that American musicologists are beginning to believe that almost all "black" music owed far more to Anglo - Celtic music than it did to African music.
Truly inspiring lecture Professor! Thanks.
Your absolutely right in your performative approach to Joplin's music. After all, "it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing" as Ellington beautifully put it. and it made Loki dance!
21:40 "it's quite entertaining" "I am 'The Entertainer'"
LOL
Thank you so much for covering Joplin. Perhaps you might consider covering 'A Breeze from Alabama' as I think his modulations were very Schubertian, along with that straight major third jump from C to Aflat major (classic Beethoven).
I think I read somewhere that Joplin continually grumbled about his music being played too fast and not as ritten.
Oh, and don't forget the handful of lovely waltzes. Bethena is my favourite of these.
Thank you: another masterclass! Your placing of artistry always to the fore, along with the sheer joy of experiencing and knowing music, is very special.
Thank you!
Once you started adding the swing in your performance, I was immediately put in mind of William Bolcom's "Graceful Ghost", my favorite "modern" rag. Rightly or wrongly, I have always played it on the slow side, and at that tempo, swinging it seems to be just the right thing to do. So you'll get no "How Dare You!" comments from me on your swinging Joplin.
Now I'm going to have to dig up that sheet music and play it again. Thanks!
Bolcom himself swung Graceful Ghost in his first recording of it but he preferred not to later on, and most serious pianists don't anymore. I think it trivializes it. Swinging Gladiolus on the other hand is not merely a matter of taste, one can do so and one might prefer it but it is historically anachronistic to do so. This type of swing would have been unknown to Joplin.
Oh mam! You're playing the same era that my uncle and mother had 33 1/3 records of. I'd love to wind up the old Victrola and dream of the late 19th and early 20th century. Would be a dream come true for all of Joplins works to be analyzed and played by you.
I love Scott Joplin and think Gladiolus is one of his most beautiful. The other ragtime composer I recall being most impressed with is Joseph Lamb. I haven't heard much of his music in years but I believe I enjoyed pieces like Nightingale Rag, American Beauty Rag, Patricia Rag and Cottontail Rag.
Great video, thanks for that❤And subscribed
Your musical analysis is spot on as always. There are a few historical data points I have contention with here. It is very unlikely Joplin ever worked as a laborer on the railroad. This is often repeated but there’s no evidence of this. Little is known about Joplin's earlier life other than he toured with a vocal quartet, The Texas Medley Quartet, that he formed as a teenager with a few of his brothers. The group was quite successful and toured all over the midwest and northern states (as far as Boston). His earliest published songs (not rags) were ones he wrote for this group. Later when he moved from Texarkana to Sedalia, Missouri, he performed cornet with the River City Concert band.
I also disagree with the oft repeated "Joplin was not a good pianist." This may be true but what is more likely is he was simply not a flashy one compared to his friends and contemporaries that worked in vaudeville and red light districts. As a ragtime pianist/composer Joplin was very much an anomaly, he played his music “more or less as written’ (according to his colleague, Joe Jordan) while nearly every other ragtime pianist improvised to various degrees. Another student from Joplin’s St. Louis period (1905ish) named Gus Haenschen was interviewed late in his life and said Joplin played very similar to “this young man named Joshua Rifkin.” There are recordings by Joplin’s contemporaries and students such as Arthur Marshall, Brun Campbell and Charles Thompson who have a very free improvisatory manner of playing.
As for the “St. Louis swing,” this is a matter very misunderstood. Swing means something very different to us in the 21st century. The way we think of swing, i.e long-short triplets, is anachronistic to Joplin’s day. That is a product of the jazz age, the 1920s. The ragtime pianists who recorded and who were active in Joplin’s era played in a slightly more subtle uneven manner, not full long short triplets, or they didn’t “swing” at all. It was closer to how older American fiddlers played. To play a Joplin rag in a long short triplet “swung” manner, and especially as notated, would have been very foreign to Joplin and his contemporaries.
I was going to make some similar points but you said it better.
Swing has a percentage, triplet swing is 66 percent, the ragtime era bounce was closer to 53 percent if not lower, the subdivisions are extremely subtle. Rifkin pulls this off in his recordings, especially of Maple Leaf Rag and Pineapple Rag (in the trio). Same mechanic, varying degrees of intensity.
@@PiotrBarcz I think I could have explained this part better. Yes, "swing" really should be thought of as a spectrum that doesn't lend itself to European notation. Jazz era swing is closer to exact long short triplets while earlier American styles are not necessarily. How much a ragtime musician "swung" would largely depend on what region they were from. This spectrum can be heard in many recordings of pre jazz era pop music. A lot of "classical" pianists, particularly non American ones are not familiar with these recordings so they don't grasp this concept. I know YOU know this but I'm writing this for others.
@@nickarteaga175 I mean even in the jazz era you heard close to stilted swing and then bebop stuff is very light almost straight but I get what you're getting at there.
I've been playing this music since the day after the first TV Ad for the upcoming premier of The Sting, which I attended opening night. I never imagined someone would join Chopin. I'm currently completing my melodic rhythmic phrasing structure study. It's a database of my own coding design, in plain text, fed into a LLM. I'll be developing a Joplin Rag Agent, complete with customizable dashboards and analysis tools for the musician/pianist/scholar. By the way, very nice playing (Scott Carpenter is also good) until the "swing". Pure white boy. Keep playing along with the recordings. Also, you see that it's "oom pah", not "oom oom". Thank you. Joplin's bass lines are as good as anyone's. Nice job drawing out the ascending half steps. But hose alternating intervals and octaves have an underlying rhythmic context which, like a good African drummer, when properly modulated, give the poly rhythms their "speech" component. The issue here is, I believe, due to the playback limitations of piano rolls (tacks in the hammers, etc.) which flatten the poly-emphasis subtleties. And you're on to something about the "classical" and "lamenting" quality. There are, despite the virtual monopoly of one type, 2 distinct approaches to interpretation: Jelly Roll Morton (pre-rock/rap) and James Reese Europe, who spoke of "pretty" interpretations, hence the Gershwin/Ellington line. Also, a very important date, which allowed me to carry my sheet music in the Classical Piano Dept hallways without open scorn, was the publication of the "yellow" Schirmer edition, aptly enough, #2020, edited by Max Morath. Thank you, first "Classical" type not to destroy Joplin in a long time.
24:48 For a moment, I am reminded of Chopin´s 2nd piano concerto.
Yes - well spotted. I wonder if Joplin knew it.
Lovely piece! Lovely playing too.
Anyone who has listened to Joplin since childhood, as I and others did with Rifkin's album and others, knows that its umame-like balance of melancholy and joyousness is unrivaled. (I'm surprised you didn't mention Solace, which truly reaches the stars.) And yes, when you listen to the late Schubert of D. 946 and even some late Beethoven this same quality is there, as well as the harmonies you point out.
Solace is marvellous. I'll look at it some time.
I am a proud Owner of Tresmonisha on „Deutsche Grammophon“.
I love it.
Wonderful!
I felt that both you and Loki were at your finest in this one! Excellent! Such warm music, it's a real tonic, but it stands up to and actually gains from closer inspection.
Thank you!
My favorite is "Solace". Slow ragtime in the right hand, but a Latin American habanera in the left. But the melody and harmonies are what stand out, somehow both heartbreaking and lovely.
Oh yes - I agree. Wonderful piece.
When I think of wistful, somber Joplin I think of Solace. Very nice to hear Gladiolus, I didn’t know that one!
Joshua Rifkin rescued Joplin's rags. Mid-century, the typical ragtime band wore striped shirts, suspenders, and boaters and played in a ricky ticky style too fast. Kitsch.
The melancholy aspect - the pathos - has always seemed to me the signature of Joplin
What a brilliant performance! You nailed the tempo. And the slight St. Louis swing was delightful.
Thank you!
Well played, sir.
(A comment for the algorithm.)
Scott Joplin is really a genius
Thank you! And beautifully played - seems like a doodle for you while you explain right over your playing. You are always so enjoyable to watch, and I learn so much (plus Loki is adorable 😊) After some nasty accidents with my hands (broke both thumbs and both wrists, and damage to an ulnar nerve), my playing is severely curtailed. But I can still listen and learn, and be entertained in the process.
Love James Scott & Joseph Lamb also!
Awfully nice of you. 😉
My favorite is the "Stop Time Rag"
I came for the ragtime, but stayed for Loki’s dancing! 😂🐾
Loki doesn't really know what ragtime is but he does like dancing.
I think Lowkey loves wagtime. 16:38 😉
Doggy Tail Metronome @16:15
Well done, well played! Isn't it curious that the best renderings of Joplin's compositions are by classical players!?
You could hardly have chosen a better piece to examine than the Gladiolus. I'd rank it perhaps the third best of Joplin's rags, surpassed only by the Magnetic (#2) and Scott Joplin's New Rag (the best of them all in my estimation).
I wholeheartedly agree with “wistful” to describe the mood of most of Joplin's music. His nature was not given to eternal sunshine.
I applaud your performance of the Gladioulus and the Maple Leaf. First, and most important, you take the music seriously. From that, the moderate tempo and fidelity to the score naturally emanate. Very Rifkinesque - which I mean in the most complimentary way. We who love Joplin owe so much to Rifkin, who drew aside the curtain of oblivion and showed us all how lovely this music was, if only it was performed with skill and sensitivity.
Thank you so much!
Its a shame Joplin's first opera and piano concertos were lost
That is sad. There's also a lost symphony of 1917.
Bravo. That performance brought a tear to my eye - in a good way. One of my musical colleagues is quite an expert in this idiom - particularly the slightly later music of Jelly Roll Morton. He would certainly concur with the swinging approach, but not to the dotted semi - demi extent. More of a triplet feel. So once again you have that 3 over 4 thing which you already pointed out. A case has been made for writing jazz in 12/8 rather than 4/4... so what gets written as, say two quavers, is noted as a crotchet and quaver (with four dotted crotchets to the bar) If you write for "straight players" in this way, the result is MUCH closer to that jazz "swing" thanhaving them play just quavers, or dotted quaver-semi.
You say how "pianistic" Joplin's writing is, and yes it does, for the most part, fall nicely under the fingers, but foe the dominant feature is his attempt to imitate the marching band. The left hand octaves are strongly reminiscent of tuba (or Sousaphone!) and trombone lines. The 'off-beat' chords are the back row cornets and peck horns, whilst the right reminds one of trumpets, clarinets and the high winds... He would have heard a lot of this style of band - and it is also no coincidence that traditional ragtime form is identical to march form!
Great stuff.
I am trying to perform the Treemonisha overture with my orchestra. The rental costs are an issue.
Actually another thought.
I realised that due to the supportive role of the left hand in ragtime
I feel he would’ve been amazing at writing a waltz
Rather than 2/4 he could’ve easily don’t a 3/4 triplet times syncopated waltz
I wish he did that, I feel it would’ve taken the waltz form even further.
He would’ve benefited from the swing rhythms of the Mazurka also.
Even the Gigue would’ve fit his syncopated style in an amazing way
All true. He DID write a beautiful waltz called Bethena. It's one of his best pieces.
He did, he wrote various syncopated and non syncopated waltz's. Bethena and Pleasant Moment are syncopated. Binks' Waltz is a good example of a non syncopated waltz from him.
@@themusicprofessor wow 😆
I’ve not listened to much so I didn’t know, I’ll have to listen to it.
Perfect
@@Euplers I’ll have listen as soon as possible !
Simply wonderful - a worthy celebration of Joplin and the role of Julius Weiss.
For me there is an interesting parallel with The Beatles! In very different ways they transcended their origins in a fairly restricted genre (rock and roll) and aspired in some senses to produce work that should be considered art music.
Yes. The convergence of popular style with 'high culture' is always a fruitful one, very difficult to achieve. You are absolutely right about the Beatles and their 'Julius Weiss' was George Martin.
Great to hear your thoughts on Scott Joplin; Macmillan's ballet 'Elite Syncopations' features music by Joplin, and others, including the achingly beautiful Bethena (a concert waltz...reading the liner notes in the DVD !) This was the first piece that Joplin wrote after his wife's death I believe. (Blame Radio 3 if that's wrong.) After the fun and games earlier in the ballet it gives the impression that things are winding down...for the evening, for ragtime ?
Also: John James, The Welsh Wizard', made his name as a ragtime guitarist playing Joplin et al on the guitar in his own arrangements. 'Slow Drag', 'Silver Swan', 'Maple Leaf Rag' etc. worth a look on You Tube.
One nit. In a comment on an earlier post, I mentioned agreeing with your musical taste. Here I must disagree. Joplin often wrote such directions as "Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast." I concur. Of course this may be due to my two earliest introductions to rag being my own teacher, and then Joshua Rifkin.
I honestly think that makes sense because how else would the voicings be able to “voice” if it is too high in tempo 🫠
I never did understand the rapid performances.
They say he was the “American Mozart” and part of why is his defining contribution to what would be classed as an “American” sound and the jazz and blues that rose more prominently later.
With this in mind I find that playing it slower brings that feel out better
Ok, I maybe spoke too soon. Your Gladiolus was more to my taste as tempi. I find the swing element interesting, and I don't doubt you are correct as to contemporaneous performances. However, I still prefer the closer to notation take.
It appears that Loki has taken up conducting?😀
Anything but The Entertainer.
Wonderful performance. I liked the swing.
Great video. I was brought up on Rifkin, but the swing makes real sense. The coda section here is I think the most beautiful in all Joplin
The swing is not how ragtime would have been played at all. Rifkin once stated he started out playing Joplin in such a manner before realising how it should be played straight. Swing was an idea that came later on with jazz and stride and such styles and wouldn’t have been applied to ragtime much at all and certainly not to Joplins rags. They should be played straight if one wants to play them as intended.
@@dylan-kerry 1930s "swing" is now only one use of the term. Jazz players also talk about the "swing" of earlier eras/styles. Some measure of swing is entirely appropriate for ragtime - it originates in an tradition of dance music (and dance is swing).
@@TheloniousCube I never said it had anything to do with Swing bands specifically. You hear it in every sort of jazz and from stride too. In ragtime though, it was hardly used asides a few passages in rags such as American Beauty and Joplin should never be swung
@@dylan-kerry How do you purport to know what the performance practices were in the environment where ragtime developed. Joplin may have had his opinions on his own music, but we needn't take those opinions as gospel.
@TheloniousCube absolutely right!
Affectionate!
Loki is so cute! He’s very happy to hear some Ragtime!
He is cute.
12:55 jumped in just to see ... be back *_real soon!_*
Some of my fun observations on Joplin's rags. I classify strains by the first heard chord and the harmonic intent (tonic). As such, I call the first strain of Maple Leaf a "tonic" rag/strain, the second and third strains as "dominant" strains, and the fourth a "subdominant". The subdominant is the least common strain in Joplin's work and usually appears in his Maple Leaf clones (like Sugar Cane). He'll also occasionally use dominant strains as his opening first strains, like Palm Leaf Rag.
Also, for more harmonic sophistication, check out his Magnetic Rag. The opening notes are so chromatic, it's hard to determine the total center. Then he spends the rest of the rag in a weird arch formation, where the middle of the arch is in the home key but is NOT a return to the first strain! The second and fourth are minor strains, where we have g minor and b flat minor, the two minor keys relating to the tonic. It's sophistication brought to the ragtime form!
Yes, I'm a big fan of Magnetic Rag
Very interesting video.
Merci beaucoup, et bonjour au chien.
There is a Chaplinesque hint of pathos amidst the roistering galloping.
Ragtime transfers well to the Guitar too; just as it was gathering momentum as a popular instrument.
Joplin and Chaplin share a preference for melancholy.
Is that a voodoo doll on the floor?
It’s Gromit from Wallace & Gromit!!
The relationship between African rhythms and ragtime (and blues and jazz) is complicated by the huge popularity of minstrelsy (whites imitating black culture followed by black performers imitating those white performers). We have very little information on what "authentic" black American music was like before the commercial impulses of minstrelsy transformed it. This commercialization (and homogenization) created a melting pot out of which American Popular Music of various styles (ragtime, blues, jazz, Tin Pan Alley pop and even country music) emerged.
I absolutely agree on the swing aspect - even if Joplin had a notion of ragtime as akin to classical music, ragtime as a whole emerged from an improvisatory and rhythmically looser environment (not to skate over the larger role that improvisation played in the classical tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries)..
Sousa march forms employed eight-, 16-, and 32-bar sections, and sometimes a four-bar intro. I am going by memory, so correct me at will.
i think the double appogiatura sections in the gladiolus rag are more reminiscent of something more like a beethoven piano sonata rather than a sousa march, although i do hear the elements of a sousa march in other sections of this piece.
I think there's an influence from both.
I especially liked parts C and D.
Chopin almost discovered ragtime before in his ecossaises the coda of his first ballade and the butterfly etude
Chopin also has elements of proto jazz if you look at his Mazurka in A minor op 17 no 4 specifically
A great Ragtime player said that Rgtime is almost the same as Chopin.
Weiss met Chopin
Look at "ma lady lu" 1999 for sophisticated harmonies of the era.
Gladiolus rag, bars 5-6 is very much reminiscent to Chopin piano concerto f minor, bars 5-6 (with auftakt). In both cases, we see a similar rythmic gesture around the tonic in the lower register, followed by slured eight notes step down a minor second in a very similar harmonic setup (same pitches, both in 4b, although the reference tonality is f minor in Chopin's case). And then the same thing repeats again a bit higher.
The elaboration is quite similar, and I am just become curious whether Joplin made a direct reference here, and I think he did!
I think it makes sense! It must have been a piece he knew. It's even in the same key.
Happy doggy music.
I am generally put off by renditions that employ swing, but I quite like your interpretation. It's not overdone. I would be distracted by more swingy eights, though.
Check out my own rags, "Amazing Grace" and "Lisa".
I like this music but it sounds hard to play.
It is quite tricky with all the double octaves.
the f flat in measure 27 of the base line is really strange
It just inflects the harmony (D flat minor) before the return to A flat major. It's a lovely effect. There is a similar chromatic drop in the bass in the main theme (in bar 2).
Professor I love your videos, but if you want to reach a larger audience, you need to create better thumbnails
Cheers. For a youngish channel we have established a growing and enthusiastic audience. The thumbnails don't seem to be hindering that but tell us how you think we might improve them.
Sorry, but please don't play ragtime with a jazz "swing" rhythm as if it was written in the 1920s. It destroys the whole period feel of ragtime, which to me is essential. Would you tamper with the rhythm of Strauss waltzes or Sousa marches? By "swinging" it, you lose the connection with classical music. I have played and loved ragtime since my 'teens, also the 1920s "novelty" and "stride" styles. Each is a world of its own representing a progression from ragtime through the various jazz styles.
The point that is being made in the video is that there clearly existed a swing style in Joplin's time, which was even employed by pianists who recorded Joplin's rags and there is even a recording, reputedly by Joplin himself, in which swing is detectable. It is never a good idea to be overly dogmatic about performance practice.
Interesting comment! A few thoughts: While this interpretation may lean slightly closer to the more common and recognized jazz swing feel, it’s worth noting that the concept of swing and time feel in jazz from the 1920s and earlier was incredibly varied.
Authentic ragtime (1890s-1900s), however, was not entirely "straight" in its rhythm. Even though Scott Joplin viewed ragtime as a form of American classical music, its time feel and rhythmic elements were influenced by traditions outside the classical framework. Specifically, ragtime drew inspiration from marches as well as African-American folk traditions, including Black String Bands and banjo music (and even some which minstrelsy). These influences introduced a slightly uneven feel to the rhythm, one that doesn’t neatly fit into categories like swung or straight.
Although we have few recordings from that era, we can gain insight into these rhythmic nuances through slightly later recordings by musicians who were alive during that time. For example, the Dallas String Band, W.C. Handy, and Jelly Roll Morton offer valuable glimpses into how this music may have sounded.
Well said!
Point not said overtly that Joplin was not a great composer as he essentially wrote excellent music but of the same nature (template perhaps). I actually agree with that view but add parallel with Domenico Scarlatti. Except for a few private operatic bits and his Stabat Mater , Scarlatti famously wrote 555 'sonatas' but not of the classical form. Essentially his output was piano pieces . of the same length as Joplin's, in two sections and fixed format, playable mostly by the able amateur but importanly containing original and attractive harmonic and rhythmic genius.
People like you are envious pains in the a**. What the Hell have you ever written? There is a huge difference between Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainers, Solace, and A Real Slow Drag, not to mention all of Joplin's other compositions.
Write a dozen things as striking and memorable as any twelve of Joplin's pieces and maybe I'll take you seriously.
What a terrible perspective. He's simply comparing a piece Joplin wrote in melancholy tribute to his most successful work. He's in no way saying that this is all that Joplin did.
Joplin was a great composer, and it seems that point flew over your head.
Scarlatti is incredibly imaginative within those very tight formal constraints.
Joplin was an exceptional composer who wrote many pieces in a very original style that stood out very much from what others of the time wrote. Although a lot of his pieces used a similar form, the melodies were always unique and each piece was very different overall from the others. Some would have more similarities such as Leola and the Gladiolus but there was still an awful lot of variety among his published rags. Don’t forget, of course, he wrote many waltzes and marches too and two operas. He was a genius
Ahhh ragtime. The only genre named after menstruation … that I’m aware of.
Why does he bleach his beard white?
It just grows that way.
I can't say that scott Joplin really fired me up in any way. Just thought it was all a bit mediocre. Maybe after listening (and attempting to play) Billy Mayerl, joplin was a bit of an anti climax. Now, a video on Mayerl would be great.
I don't think Joplin is at all mediocre (as I think this piece demonstrates). Billy Mayerl was indeed talented.
@themusicprofessor Yes, maybe you're right. I'd be the first to say that just because you don't like something, doesn't make it bad, but it just doesn't have any emotional value for me. I can take it or leave it kind of thing.
Bily Mayerl is exceptional and one of my very favourite composers but one can’t really say his music is any better than Joplins. It’s like comparing Joplin to Mozart. Two very different styles that although sharing similarities are very different overall and shouldn’t be compared. A lot of Mayerls music focuses more on riffs or flashy lines as a pose to the slow melodies of Joplins pieces. Both were capable of writing beautiful music though. Overall it really is wrong to compare two composers who are so different to each other and just state that one is better. I personally prefer to think of all composers as equal but have my own preferences
Just ducking play. Your commentary is repetitive.
Rude
Agree!!@@themusicprofessor
Then why you watching a video essay about Joplin you mug, just go click on all the RUclips covers of his music😭