JOPLIN: The Complete Rags of Scott Joplin performed by William Albright (LINER NOTES)

The Complete Rags of Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

William Albright, Piano

1. Maple Leaf Rag (1899)

2. Original Rags (1899)

3. The Favorite (A Ragtime Two-Step, 1904)

4. The Easy Winners (A Ragtime Two-step 1901)

5. Peacherine Rag (1901)

6. The Entertainer (A Ragtime Two-step 1902)

7. The Strenuous Life (A Ragtime Two-step, 1902)

8. Elite Syncopations (1902)

9. A Breeze from Alabama (March and Twostep, 1902)

10. Palm Leaf Rag (A Slow Drag, 1903)

11. Weeping Willow (A Ragtime Two-step, 1903)

12. The Cascades (A Rag, 1904)

13. The Sycamore (A Concert Rag, 1904)

14. The Chrysanthemum (An Afro-American Intermezzo, 1904)

15. Leola (Two-Step, 1905)

16. Eugenia (1905)

17. The Ragtime Dance (A Stop-Time Two-Step, 1906)

18. Nonpareil (None to Equal) (A Rag and Two-Step, 1907)

20. Reflection Rag (Syncopated Musings, 1917)

21. Gladiolus Rag (1907)

22. Searchlight Rag (A Syncopated March and TwoStep, 1907)

23. Rose Leaf Rag (A Ragtime Two-Step, 1907)

24. Pine Apple Rag ( 1908)

25. Fig Leaf Rag (A High Class Rag, 1908)

26. Sugar Cane (A Ragtime Two-Step, 1909)

27. Country Club (A Ragtime Two-Step, 1909)

28. Paragon Rag (1909)

29. Wall Street Rag (1909)

30. Euphonic Sounds (A Syncopated Novelty, 1909)

31. Solace (A Mexican Serenade, 1909)

32. Stoptime Rag (1910)

33. Scott Joplin's New Rag (1912)

34. Silver Swan Rag (1971)

35. Magnetic Rag (1914)

Note: The works are arranged in approximate order of composition. The years given are those of publication; deviations from this chronology are based on written and aural testimony as well as informed presumption and guesswork. Programming decisions also played a minor role. The remaining Joplin piano music, which includes six collaborative rags and two ragtime waltzes, are planned for future release.

The story of Scott Joplin and his ragtime is one of happiness and melancholy restlessness and rootedness, aspirations achieved and hopes dashed. It is the story of a black artist’s struggle to find acceptance and recognition paradoxically in both black and white societies It is about America's South Midwest and East it is about opportunities -- and the lack thereof -- for the recently emancipated black people The story is about European, African, and American music It is about the international success of one seminal rag piece, about commercial appropriation and personal obscurity, even about the long-overdue about revival of interest in his music and eventual canonization

As Over the fifteen or so years of creative activity represented on this album -the pieces have been arranged in their approximate chronologic order of writing – we can hear the development of a body of literature as important as any produced by an American composer, as important, say, as Stephen Foster songs, Gershwin theater works, Sousa marches, Copland ballet scores, or Ives sonatas There is not a weak piece in the lot, and the strongest compare well to the character piano miniatures of European masters, especially those in dance forms

Ragtime -- or ragged time -- is, simply put, a texture created by more or less continual syncopation against a regular beat Foremost a piano music, ragtime's right hand typically does the ragged rhythm, the left the oom-pah As such, needs to be understood as a style of playing which could be applied to music of all kinds Ragtime as written composition is primarily a synthesis of European dance form and harmony with the irregularly accented patterns of African rhythm. Ragtime combines the elegant predictability and symmetries of march, quadrille, and country dance with the excitement of plantation shout, church song, and slave chant It is this bicultural layering that gives ragtime its novelty and sexiness.

Even within his lifetime it was acknowledged that no one composed ragtime with as much finesse and craft as Scott Joplin. He was rightly regarded as the King of Ragtime Writers " But it is also true that much of the quality of his music derives from the depth and range of expression he was able to achieve, a depth and range escaped notice by all but a small handful of fans. And, probably off-putting to most but which we now appreciate as a further sign of Joplin's artistry was his continual experimentation with the conventions of form and content of ragtime

Born in 1868 in northeast Texas -- in what was to soon become the town of Texarkana -- Joplin was the second of six children born to freed slaves Not only did his parents provide a musical environment in the home, but young Scott exposed early on to the music of the black church and social functions that most certainly used African-derived rhythm Attracting attention as a pianist by the age of seven, he soon began playing with various itinerant musicians in "lowlife'" establishments From age l4 (when he left home) to age 27, Joplin himself plied his way as one of these itinerants, traveling the Midwest's steamboats, honky-tonks, and sporting districts, singing and playing piano and guitar, probably much of the time in the syncopated styles that were in the air A climax of sorts was his summer playing on the fringes of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; not only did ragtime capture the public's fancy at this gaudy event, but a participant could sense for the first time the possibility of blacks sharing in the rewards

By 1895 Joplin, forever traveling, was notating his music and getting it published; two songs and three piano works, not notated in ragtime rhythm, but quite possibly meant to be performed that way, appeared Publication was, at this time, the necessary path for a composer to gain recognition and financial reward. Mechanical reproduction of music -- records, piano rolls -- was in its infancy, but sheet music and piano sales were booming

Sedalia, Missouri, a satellite town of Kansas City and St. Louis created by railroads, became Joplin's residence in 1896 While continuing to work on the notation of his solos (notation of this music with its difficult, novel rhythms was probably giving problems to many), he made a living working both sides of the street: polite society dance bands on one day, and bawdy-houses on another Joplin himself became a magnet for other talented musicians By 1897 he had completed a written version of his famous Maple Leaf Rag. Although initially turned down by two publishers, this piece--probably named for a newly formed club in Sedalia -- attracted the attention of the John Stark publishing firm in the same town. John Stark's visionary publication of this piece in 1899 began a remarkable period in ragtime's history

The original cover, borrowed from a tobacco ad and showing two black couples in fancy clothes, probably demonstrates a desire to capitalize on the thencurrent cakewalk dance fad That it is Joplin's "first rag" is attested to by the white ragtimer Brun Campbell in describing his tutelage with Joplin in 1899. That a composer's first piece in a particular style should have been a commercial success almost immediately and an eventual artistic one says something about its vitality.

Maple Leaf is a classic The formal structure is that commonly used in marches: A A B B A (Trio) C C D D (letters identify the strains or choruses, each 16 bars long) The trio, as in the case of most marches, is in the subdominant key In fact, "The March King," John Philip Sousa, with his 50 published compositions between 1879 to 1895, almost certainly had an impact on the younger composer's formal and harmonic sensibilities As in the march, one expects the boom-chick bass to be the rhythm keeper, but one is surprised at the frequent departures and variations in the left-hand part. The right hand of Maple Leaf is a dictionary of syncopated patterns; the second chorus is strongly suggestive of the banjo's role in predicting ragtime's textures Unity is achieved by the use of similar small motives between strains, and a return to the original key -- if indeed designed and not accidental -- could indicate a desire for a more "rounded" form than the blunt formal plan above would indicate Rounding the form of ragtime would eventually become a frequent goal of Joplin's.

Joplin further proves his skills in sophisticated voice-leading, particularly of a chromatic kind. The latter appears strikingly in three places: the soprano (B strain), the inner part (the very end of D), and the harmonic inflections so identifiable in the opening section Top, bottom, or middle, the strong directionality that this type of motion contributes is a hallmark of nearly all Joplin rags

Chromatic voice-leading is thus a strong trait of Original Rags, a piece contemporary with Maple Leaf but in fact published slightly ahead of it by a different publisher (stupidly passing up the superior work) Contracted in 1897

by Sedalia, Missouri, a satellite town of Kansas City and St. Louis created by a Kansas City firm and appearing two years later, the piece claims that the "rags" were "picked by Scott Joplin" (no doubt a reference to the comic figure of the ragpicker) and "arranged by Chas. N. Daniels." Whether Daniels actually had a hand in the music -- for example, assisting in the notation -- or simply arranged for its publication is not known Much like a medley of tunes (it has five, each with big finale-like cadences, plus an introduction and interlude), the piece exhibits a robustness like Maple Leaf’s but with a more folk character Very marchlike are the trombone "interjections" in strain B and the trio; halfstep inflections and almost incantatory repetitions in the last section help to “drive it home" for a fine finish

Several rag compositions by other composers had been published prior to 1899, but nothing equaled the success of Joplin's Sales of Maple Leaf averaged 50,000 a year over the next ten years; and, while the royalties were not a king’s ransom, they did supply the composer with the means to devote himself more and more to writing A sign of this early opportunity is the appearance of Joplin’s first “workin-progress," the folk-ballet The Ragtime Dance An early version of this ambitious work was even staged in Sedalia; it attempted to Join “Negro” dance steps with ragtime music

Meanwhile, Joplin wrote rags. A sweet solo, The Favorite, is apparently an effort from 1899 or earlier, contracted in 1900 by a different Sedalia publisher The reason for the delay of its publication until 1904 is a matter of conjecture; perhaps a rumored five-year contract between Joplin and Stark caused the competing A W Perry to back off The excursion to a minor key in the second strain is handled far more deftly than in Joplin's earlier compositions, but the rag's reversion to square, non-syncopated rhythms toward the end reminds us that the wide acceptance of these "charged" accents had yet to take place

Also dating from and published during Joplin's Sedalia period are two rags written in collaboration with his students, Arthur Marshall (Swipesy Cakewalk) and Scott Hayden (Sunflower Slow-Drag) Peacherine Rag --by Scott Joplin alone but much in the spirit of the other two pieces -- also appeared in early 1901 It was the first publication to trumpet itself as "by the King of Ragtime Writers, Scott Joplin"; country fiddle pedal points and quick upbeat figures give the third strain a jaunty, even sassy appeal.

In 1900 Scott Joplin married the sister-in-law of his protege, Scott Hayden Soon thereafter he followed the publisher John Stark to St. Louis, a more cosmopolitan venue that they both hoped would benefit them Nurtured by many, especially the saloon-owning Turpin brothers, he concentrated on his composing. His failure to interest publisher Stark in The Ragtime Dance may only have strengthened his resolve He worked furiously on an opera, The Guest of Honor, copyrighted in 1903 but now lost But rags poured out, and this was the year of the soon-to-bepopular Easy Winners. Originally published by Joplin himself in 1901, Stark eventually may have picked it up for publication It is one of the great early ragtime solos; it has the sway of Maple Leaf but is more expansive in mood. One nice touch is the use of the same melodic material to close both C and D choruses

The Ragtime Dance was published completely -- and probably reluctantly -- by Stark in 1902 A nine-page commercial disaster, it probably hastened the disintegration of the Joplin-Stark relationship There were, however, several excellent Joplin rags published by Stark in the same year:

The Entertainer (number one on the Top 40 in 1974!) is a tune that has stood the test of time The opening stanza has rightly been identified as plantation calland-response, one of the most important black musical devices While the use of "repeat 8va" in the second strain implies a degree of performer license, the admonition "not fast" is a contrary call to sobriety A mandolin and guitar arrangement issued by Stark, as well as the work's dedication ("to James Brown and his Mandolin Club"), leaves little doubt as to its connection to string-band music of the period

The Strenuous Life, with its puzzling and ambiguous title, seems in substance little different except for two elements: the variety of the bass line in the C chorus, and more provocatively the rich chords of the finale This propensity for rich chording continued to develop in Joplin's music; it may have climaxed in the dense third section of Fig Leaf

With Elite Syncopations, the wonderful title and a new interdiction, "Not Fast," both initiate a campaign to ambush a new "fast-and-reckless" playing style As music, the piece is vintage Joplin: the opening sections have the "signature" chromaticism; the B and C sections are notable for their long, "elite" melodic lines; and the finale turns to a punchy, high-steppin' dance, an homage to, or perhaps an emulation of, the second strain of Maple Leaf

A Breeze from Alabama, identified as a "march and two-step" and dedicated to a bandmaster, might be expected to follow a certain tradition But its bold key relations are a different story. Whereas the opening key is C, the first strain of the trio is in A-flat with an abrupt internal modulation to E This is the kind of keyrelation experimentation found in mid- to late Beethoven, and it may have been this composer's music that Joplin studied in St. Louis under German music teacher Alfred Ernst

In 1903, Stark and Joplin were on the outs, and all Joplin publications of that year appeared elsewhere Of these four works, there were two non-collaborative rags: Palm Leaf and Weeping Willow Palm Leaf is in the now-favored key of B-flat (more than half the remaining Joplin rags are in that key). It is characterized by a solid, structural roundness: instead of the usual D strain, it repeats the opening chorus Though it is marked "a slow drag," it achieves a good measure of bounce and swagger through such deft touches as the anticipatory syncopations in the third section As its name might imply, Weeping Willow is full of descending chromatic passages That, combined with powerful melodic suspensions, reinforces a melancholy that hovers just below its nominally happy surface. As in all Joplin rags, the sections are beautifully balanced in texture and tone

Compounding the difficulties of his dealings with Stark in 1903, Joplin suffered two personal losses: the death of his infant child and a separation from his wife Belle The fall of that year saw a failed tour with a pickup group of his opera A Guest of Honor. Joplin moved back to Sedalia for a short while, but he managed to return to St Louis in time for the Fair of 1904 Inspired by the Cascade Gardens, a huge watercourse and symbol of the fair, Joplin wrote his excellent The Cascades. It is a virtuoso work and one of Joplin's best. (Having played it off and on since I was eleven or twelve, I can testify that it doesn't get easier with age!) Its "cascades" of arpeggios are obviously programmatic; the trio's many octave passages make a sound as full as a Sousa band. John Stark, back again publishing Joplin, describes it on the cover as "The Masterpiece of Scott Joplin," and it is one of them

Stark also brought out The Chrysanthemum, an unassuming piece that doesn't call itself a "rag" but an "Afro-American Intermezzo." The opening choruses are pleasantly syncopated, but the trio's main theme is not, a fact that makes the subtitle all the more puzzling Within the trio is a melodramatic (but syncopated) interlude that may be related to his stage music. Certainly parts of the surviving opera Treemonisha sound like this section

The Sycamore was published in 1904 by a Chicago firm that Joplin may have visited during his ill-fated tour with The Guest of Honor Its ambitious designation, "A Concert Rag," hardly seems appropriate to its relatively naïve mode. One suspects that Joplin pulled it "out of the barrel," but there is no way of verifying that Part of its interest lies in a subsequent publication in 1910 by a prominent New Yorker, Leo Feist This later version, transposed down a step and “arranged by Wm. H. Tyers,” has its second and third strains “modernized” with added syncopations (on the recording, these additions are reflected in the repeats)

In 1905, six pieces by Joplin appeared in print, but only one with the Stark firm Several are named for women; the two rag pieces in the group are charming transitions to the composer's mature style. If rumor is to be believed, Leola may be named for a lover of Joplin's at this time; its dedication to a "Miss Minnie Wade" could either discount or confirm this The music is in many ways a cousin to Maple Leaf Rag: same key, similar material, but in a more demure and bashful setting than its bracing relative Eugenia is a bit more original Its slithery first theme has a memorable Joplinesque sensuality that contrasts successfully with the nobility of the other sections. Just as in Chrysanthemum, there is a dramatic interlude in the trio that evokes both opera and Sousa marches

The next three pieces are among the last to be published by Stark. The extended nine-page ballet The Ragtime Dance was condemned to four pages for issue in 1906 in an apparent attempt to recoup some of its initial losses A joyous work with cakewalk overtones, it maintains a famed vaudeville dance effect in the trio: "To get the desired effect of 'Stop Time' the pianist will please Stamp the heel of one foot heavily upon the floor at the word 'Stamp ” The music style remains that of the Sedalia period, but it seems timeless.

The condensation of length that Stark insisted upon must have seemed like a humiliation to the increasingly high-minded Joplin. At any rate, no new contracts were signed between Stark and Joplin after about 1907-08 Nonpareil, though issued in 1907 after Stark moved his office to New York, may even have been signed up a couple of years earlier, for it sounds at best like a transition between the St Louis rags and the darker, denser rags of Joplin's next period Distinctive traits of Nonpareil include strain B's unusual running bass figure in place of the expected oom-pah, and section C's similarly placed octave sixteenths. Rounded form is achieved by using the same music to close both B and D strains

Reflection Rag was issued by Stark shortly after Joplin's death in 1917, more or less as a posthumous tribute Obviously contracted for before their complete split in 1908, it was apparently one of three held by Stark; the other two have been lost. Reflection, true to its name, sounds like several other Joplin rags: Chrysanthemum in strains B and D; Nonpareil in strain C; and Original Rags in its use of five choruses In spite of the rag's sketchiness, a final chorus of tender appoggiaturas reminds us how poignant a good Joplin rag can be.

Joplin's move

The publisher had moved there the previous year; Joplin needed new stimulation and opportunities. The stimulation was there, at least initially, for Joplin's creative life took an upturn There were three rags in the set of eight works he published that year, and they are milestones Gladiolus Rag is as nearly perfect in balance and poetry as one could imagine for ragtime. Each section is distinct in texture, and the well-executed chromatic harmonies of section C represent a sophisticated advance for the composer Searchlight Rag is even a bit grander in scope than Gladiolus. The fourth strain, just as in Gladiolus, is based on riffs (repeated fragments), a device common to all Joplin's 1907-08 rags The result in each case is a stable and inescapable conclusion to the piece Rose Leaf Rag, the third from 1907, shows its strengths primarily in the second strain with its chromatic melody, and in its variation on the riff-oriented close

In spite of all his writing, Joplin still had time to tour the East as "King of Ragtime Composers " The year 1908 brought more activity: he married Lottie Stokes; he published a ragtime instruction book; and he plunged into the task of composing his second opera, Treemonisha. The opera would be Joplin's obsession for the next seven years Initially, he continued writing rags, and his efforts included the exciting and beautiful Pine Apple Rag The kicking dance rhythms of the opening section of this piece are replaced in the trio with an introspective, blues-inflected music The final chorus combines elements of both styles Fig Leaf from the same year sports a whimsical cover: an apparently nude waif is dwarfed behind a gigantic leaf. The heavily chorded texture of the third strain is one of Joplin's great moments Fig Leaf is one of many rags of this period to post the dire warning "Do not play this piece fast It is never right to play 'Ragtime' fast " But the impossibly high metronome mark that this and other pieces of this period receive (quarter=l00) greatly fuels the controversy surrounding the correct speed for Joplin's rags I believe there is simply no prescription to be made Sugar Cane reminds one of several previous rags; but it has a distinct character of its own, especially in the last segment, not surprisingly a riff-oriented, struttin' cakewalk

The year 1909 was no less productive, though Joplin probably was railing against the appropriation of his elite ragtime idiom for Tin Pan Alley trash Country Club- a somewhat bizarre title coming from a Midwestern black-returns to an older march style of punched rhythms and brassy fanfares. Paragon Rag, somewhat similar in style, features in strain B the kind of piano "break" that would become familiar in later "novelty" styles and player piano arrangements Joplin displays banjo-type strumming to good effect in the third strain, and the final section has a successful combination of giddy chromatic lines and triumphal chords

Wall Street Rag states a charming program for its four strains: "1. Panic in Wall Street, Brokers feeling melancholy 2 Good times coming 3 Good times have come 4 Listening to the strains of genuine negro ragtime, brokers forget cares " Each section is remarkable, though none as much as the last: nominally in the familiar/close tradition , it proposes sweet tone clusters in the upper part, the sound of a distant harmonica at night

If Wall Street seems experimental, the next two rags are even more so Euphonic Sounds is more than a “syncopated novelty ” The great stride pianist James P Johnson declared thatin this piece Joplin was “fifty years ahead of his time.” The first section comes back twice, creating a rondo form that is unusual in Joplin’s rags But it is the tonal content of the B strain that is most astounding: within sixteen bars Joplin traverses five clear key centers! Solace, one of Joplin’s most beautiful essays, is ragtime syncopation with a Spanish habanera bass This is simply another attempt by Joplin to free ragtime from its confines Joplin's work

here is alternately languorous part and agitated The complicated cross-rhythms of the highly ornamented second part are expertly achieved, and no Latin could fail to recognize the mix of riffs and Mexican trumpets in the last section

Further innovation characterizes Stoptime, the only work Joplin published in 1910 It is based entirely on the heel-stamping technique pioneered in The Ragtime Dance; and, whereas Euphonic Sounds could be described as an experiment in harmony, Stoptime could be thought of as an experiment in rhythm Since the pianist’s foot supplies the beat, the left hand is freed from any but an occasional boom-chick As with its predecessor's trio, this piece is entirely constructed out of eight-bar segments strung together in an artful way But why Joplin felt it necessary to write the word Stamp on every beat of every measure remains a mystery

Almost totally occupied with the performance and publication of Treemonisha in the next years, Joplin had the time (or the ambition) to write only two or three more rags Scott Joplin's New Rag from 1912 breaks none of the new ground of his recent compositions, but a fine piece nonetheless Joplin's passion comes through especially in the trio: the minor key interlude is the best of its type Silver Swan Rag, a curiosity not published until after its discovery in 1970, was twice released on piano rolls around 1914-15 Since Joplin is known in to have cut other rolls at about the same time, it seems likely that the Joplin attribution is not bogus On its own merits, it has enough Joplin "signatures" to lend it some credence; but the piece also shows enough imperfections to make one think that Joplin purposely withheld it from publication The third chorus, for example, is a fascinating but flawed mongrel of modality and patchwork construction

If Silver Swan is a Joplin rag in a somewhat crude state, Magnetic Rag, his ultimate work, is in every way a finished and ambitious piece The two strains in minor keys (one in the parallel, the other in the relative) give a pensive quality to what is otherwise a lively, vigorous, even optimistic expression The visual appearance of the score is something of a shock, the notation being in cut time for the first time in Joplin's ragtime In spite of its being quite out of step with the era's commercial music, or maybe because of it, Magnetic Rag presents a noble affirmation of Joplin's artistic dream It is a "grand finale" to his career

The postscript to Joplin's life cannot be a happy one, however After the tremendous financial and mental drain it caused him, the flop of the private performance of Treemonisha in 1915 probably did more than anything else to hasten his decline Depression and illness prevented him from completing new projects; and in 1917, at the age of 49, he died

Though ragtime at the time of Joplin's demise was considered old hat, it lived on in jazz, show tunes, stride and novelty piano, and many other forms of American music And, now that Joplin's classic ragtime is again enjoyed and respected, his soul can rest easy with the words he himself penned in 1908: "ragtime is an invention that is here to stay "

William Albright

William Albright, born in 1944 in Gary, Indiana, has concertized widely in Europe, Canada, and the United States, specializing in concerts of new music for organ and piano Although he has premiered more than thirty new works written by American and European composers, he is also widely known as an interpreter of classic ragtime and early jazz styles, such as Harlem stride and boogie-woogie

As a composer, he is probably best known for his keyboard works, though he has produced pieces for almost every medium, several of which involve electronic, visual, and theatrical elements. He has been the recipient of many commissions and awards, among them The Queen Marie-Jose Prize for Organbook I, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two Fulbright and two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Symphonic Composition Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, two Koussevitzky Composition Awards, and a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission In 1979 he held the post composer-inresidence at the American Academy in Rome; in the same year, his composition Stipendium peccati was selected as a United States entry for the International Society of Contemporary Music The Five Chromatic Dances was likewise the U.S. entry for the International Rostrum of Broadcasters held in Paris in 1981 His teachers have included Ross Lee Finney, Olivier Messiaen, and George Hochberg in composition, while he cites Marilyn Mason as his principal organ teacher.

Albright is presently Professor of Music Composition at the University of Michigan, where he is also Associate Director of the Electronic Music Studio. In 1973, he was honored with a Distinguished Service Award from that institution He is currently completing an opera, The Magic City, a commission from the university's School of Music. Albright has pursued research in live electronic music; and his organ commissioning series, started in 1975, has already made substantial contributions to the literature for that instrument

Albright's contract with Musicmasters has already produced Sweet Sixteenths: A Ragtime Concert (5004-2-C) His compositions are published principally by C.F. Peters, Elkan-Vogel, Jobert (Presser), and E.G. Marks.