![]() ![]() My own fascination with Heliotrope Bouquet has at times bordered on obsession. Other Joplin compositions, though, reveal their tease only gradually. ![]() Hearing Joplin's signature composition " The Entertainer" today is like the warm glow of a comedian's dependable catchphrase it's always nice to hear it nice. "Rag" as in "tease", so ragtime is literally "tease time". By rushing his tempos, he said in his School of Ragtime primer, "very often good players lose the effect entirely." But the high-energy hokum of The Sting recast ragtime as Keystone Kops crazy-chase music by default, an unhappy paradox given that George Roy Hall was introduced to rags via Rifkin's recordings – interpretations rooted in his insistence on treating Joplin with the same faithful respect afforded to a Chopin Mazurka or a Brahms Waltz. ![]() Joplin's mantra would never waver: appreciation of his sleights-of-hand – notes never quite falling into the patterns you expect – relied on savouring each moment. Here was ragtime dressed in fancy instrumentations, dolled up to the orchestral nines by film composer Marvin Hamlisch rags no longer smiling innocently, but lent an insincere Hollywood grin. ![]() With visionary prescience in 1915, Joplin proclaimed "50 years after I'm dead my music will be appreciated." He was only out by a few years, but ragtime's complete identification in the popular imagination with The Sting became difficult. But if Rifkin brought ragtime to hundreds of thousands of people, the Oscar-wining The Sting catapulted the music into the mainstream. Pre-Spotify – and pre-Simon Cowell – wildcard albums had leeway to punch above their market weight Scott Joplin could and did chart alongside The Beatles. Reading on mobile? Click here to listen to The Sting soundtrack Film director George Roy Hall underscored his wisecracking card-hustler movie The Sting with Joplin rags. EL Doctorow called his latest novel Ragtime. Woody Allen gave his 1973 film Sleeper a ragtime soundtrack. That's the force with which ragtime percolated deep inside American culture. In terms of time and historical distance, if not exactly musical content, an equivalent discovery today would see the mainstream media suddenly fixate on bebop The One Show's Gyles Brandreth recalled from catching up with authentic jam-making in Dorset to discuss the intricacies of period Charlie Parker records. But neither pianist nor record label could have foreseen the itchy enthusiasm for this once popular but long-since forgotten music that would mushroom across the United States and beyond. Rifkin persuaded the New York-based Nonesuch label to act on his hunch that the trickster melodies and brain-worm syncopations characteristic of ragtime pieces – decked out with such whimsical titles as The Entertainer, Heliotrope Bouquet and Swipesy – would appeal directly to the hearts and minds of classical piano buffs. Joshua Rifkin, an up-and-coming pianist in 1970, had ragtime brought to his attention by the composer William Bolcom and the evangelising jazz writer Rudi Blesh. Please inform me if you intend to quote any of these articles in part or in full, and make sure there is proper attribution out of respect for my time and financial investment in the research on these individuals.Pianist Joshua Rifkin. More complete reference sources for any particular point are available by request. I am not trying to duplicate the efforts of anybody else, just enhance some of what is already available in a concise and easy to access format. For further information I may suggest certain reference sources, and for an overall view of good references currently available or tucked away in your local library, please check out my Bibliography and Sources page. Some of these represent the only current resource available on certain composers. The dates listed are either known dates of composition, copyright or publication, except where noted. In the case of songs or collaborations, other people are noted in brackets or through numbers with a key listed at the end. They are meant to provide more insight for the ragtime novice, or perhaps a quick reference or new point of view for those well versed in the genre. Some of the larger biographies are not always complete, as there are many outstanding detailed books on some composers collectively and individually. Each biography here was written from scratch by myself, Bill Edwards, based on original research, and each includes that composer's known repertoire of both published and unpublished tunes. This guide is designed to provide anything from condensed biographies of well known ragtime composers to fairly comprehensive ones with as much known data as possible on lesser known composers, some of who have never had much of anything written on them in the past. ![]()
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