Magnetic Rag

Description

The last rag Joplin published in his lifetime, issued in 1914 by the Scott Joplin Music Publishing Company he had founded himself, its cover carrying the half-French subtitle "Syncopations Classiques." Syphilis was destroying his health and he died three years later, his final years spent on the unrewarded effort to stage his opera Treemonisha.

Unlike the usual rag, which lines its strains up in order, this B-flat major piece in common time is closer to a rondo, with the theme returning and a strain in the minor set among them. Moving between major and minor is nothing the early rags do, and it marks where he had arrived by the end.

Advanced — the only Joplin piece in this catalogue rated so. The writing changes with each strain, so the transitions need preparing. Find a different colour for the minor strain, and do not let the returning theme sound like mere repetition. With a form this involved, how the whole is paced becomes the substance of the performance.

Ragtime pieces centered on Scott Joplin's syncopated rhythms — a lively American genre that helped pave the way for jazz.