The Entertainer (rag)

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"The Entertainer" A rag time two step
1902 sheet music cover
Music by	Scott Joplin
Published	1902
Form	Sheet music

"The Entertainer" is a 1902 piano rag written by Scott Joplin and published by John Stark & Son.

It was also published in orchestration as part of "the Red Back Book" of "Standard High Class Rags" popular with ragtime bands.

One of the classics of ragtime, it returned to top international prominence as part of the ragtime revival in the 1970s when it was used as the theme music for the 1973 Oscar-winning film The Sting. Marvin Hamlisch's adaptation reached number 3 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 music chart in 1974. (Curiously, the film "The Sting" was set in the 1930s, a full generation after the end of ragtime's mainstream popularity.)

1 Music
- 1.1 Audio samples
2 Notes
3 External links

[edit] Music

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"The Entertainer" is sub-titled "A rag time two step", which was a form of dance popular until about 1911, and a style which was common among rags written at the time. It is written primarily in the key of C, although from bar 55 there is a section in F. It structurally follows the form A-B-A-C-D, with the melody indicated to be played an octave higher in the repeats.

Suggested by the rag's dedication to a Mandolin club, author Rudi Blesh wrote that "some of the melodies recall the pluckings and the fast tremolos of the little steel-stringed plectrum instruments..."^[1].

Is also the song typically played by ice cream trucks in the United States.