Maple Leaf Rag

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Second edition cover of "Maple Leaf Rag", perhaps the most famous rag of all

The "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) is an early ragtime composition for piano by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces.

[edit] Structure

It is a multi-strain ragtime march with athletic bass lines and upbeat melodies. Each of the four parts features a recurring theme and a striding bass line with a lot of seventh chords.

It is more carefully constructed than almost all previous ragtime tunes, and the syncopations, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were arrestingly novel at the time.

While not an extremely difficult piece rhythmically or musically, a pianist must have a well developed command of his or her left arm in order to perform the piece successfully—especially the third section. When it was first published, it was considered significantly more difficult than the average Tin Pan Alley and early ragtime sheet music common at the time.

[edit] Popularity and legacy

Shortly after its completion, Joplin told fellow ragtime composer Arthur Marshall that "the Maple Leaf will make me King of ragtime composers."^[1] It was published in September 1899 on sheet music by John Stark & Son and in its first six months sold 75,000 copies, becoming "the first great instrumental sheet music hit in America."^[2]

Over 1 million copies of the sheet music were eventually sold, making Scott Joplin the first musician to sell 1 million copies of any type of music. In addition to sales of sheet music, it was also popular in orchestrations for dance bands and brass bands for years.

The tune continued to be in the repertoire of jazz bands decades later, with artists such as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the 1920s, and Sidney Bechet in the 1940s giving it up-to-date adaptations, maintaining a timeless quality to it.

The "Maple Leaf Rag" is still a favorite of ragtime pianists, and has been described as an "American institution... still in print and still popular."^[2]

As the copyright has expired, the composition is in the public domain. It appears in the soundtracks of hundreds of films, cartoons, commercials, and Bally Midway's 1983 arcade videogame, Domino Man. Long before the Scott Joplin revival that began with the feature film The Sting, the tune can be heard in the film The Public Enemy from 1931, as in one scene a piano player can be heard slowly working through the piece.

[edit] External links

• Maple Leaf Rag - from the Mutopia Project (musical score transcription and MIDI file)
• Maple Leaf Rag - unique version by the late John Roache, with elements of stride piano (MIDI format)
• "Maple Leaf Rag" A 1906 recording by the U. S. Marine Band (MP3 format)
• Robert Ringwald plays the "Maple Leaf Rag" - recording by Robert Ringwald (RealPlayer format)
• People of New Orleans - video interview with Tom McDermott playing the "Maple Leaf Rag" at the end (Quicktime and Windows Media formats)
• Maple Leaf Rag - dedicated to 100 years of the "Maple Leaf Rag".

[edit] References

1. ^ Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, "They All Played Ragtime", New York: Oak Publications, 1971.
2. ^ ^{a b} Rudi Blesh, "Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist", Introduction to Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works, New York Public Library, 1981.