Description
One of Joplin's four joint pieces with Scott Hayden, written less as teacher and pupil than as equal partners, and published in 1903. Joplin was living in St. Louis by then, and the failure to stage his opera A Guest of Honor was closing in on him financially, but the rags kept coming.
Spare in its writing, this F major rag has one of the lowest note counts of anything Joplin wrote. The melody is built on repetition and the joins between strains are clearly marked, so the form is easy to follow for a first encounter with ragtime.
By sheer note count it is the most approachable Joplin in this catalogue, though still rated intermediate. The left-hand leaps are comparatively short too, so the arm travels less. This is a good rag on which to first find the feeling of holding the left hand steady while the right pulls away from the beat.
Ragtime pieces centered on Scott Joplin's syncopated rhythms — a lively American genre that helped pave the way for jazz.
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About the Composer
Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
Scott Joplin was an African American composer born in Texas, known as the "King of Ragtime." Blending syncopated, buoyant rhythms with sophisticated harmony, he brought the genre to national prominence with the enormous success of "Maple Leaf Rag." This site includes 18 of his works, such as "The Entertainer" and "Elite Syncopations."
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