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First edition cover of "Maple Leaf Rag".
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The "Maple Leaf Rag" (copyright registered September 18, 1899)[1] is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers.[2] The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life, and as a result he was called the "King of Ragtime".

Despite ragtime's decline after the death of Joplin in 1917 and the end of World War One, the Maple Leaf Rag continued to be recorded by well-known artists. The Ragtime revival of the 1970s brought it back to mainstream public notice.

Maple Leaf Rag
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Background

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Main article: Scott Joplin

In 1894 Scott Joplin arrived in Sedalia, Missouri At first, Joplin stayed with the family of Arthur Marshall, at the time a 13-year old boy but later one of Joplin's students and a rag-time composer in his own right.[3]. There is no record of Joplin having a permanent residence in the town at until 1904 as Joplin was making a living as a touring musician. Joplin is likely to have first lived in Sedalia as a teenager before moving to St. Louis, so he would have known the town which in the 1890s had a population of approximately 14,000 and was the centre of commerce and transport for the region.[4][5] The town's saloons and brothels of the red-light district on Main St, nicknamed "Battle Row", provided employment for musicians, and it is likely that Joplin worked in this area. The town was attractive for other reasons; race-relations between Whites and Blacks in Sedalia were relatively good, especially when compared to other similar communities in Missouri in this period, there is no record of public lynchings in the area 1890s, there were several prominent black citizens who held minor positions in the Republican party, and the George R. Smith College, a college for the education of blacks, opened in 1894.[5][6]. In addition, Sedalia was described by a black resident of the town at the time as the "musical town of the West", because music was a major leisure-time activity. There were musical events mentioned in newspapers throughout the town almost every day with a wide variety of acts including military and minstrel bands, dances and balls, orchestral or solo piano performance, comic opera or operetta.

There is little precise evidence known about Joplin's activities at this time, although he performed as a solo musician at dances and at the major black clubs in Sedalia, the "Black 400" club, and the "Maple Leaf Club". Also, he performed in the Queen City Cornet Band, and his own six-piece dance orchestra. A tour with his own singing group, the Texas Medley Quartet, gave him his first opportunity to publish his own compositions and it is known that he went to Syracuse, New York and Texas. Two businessmen from New York published Joplin's first two works, the songs "Please Say You Will", and "A Picture of her Face" in 1895.[7] Joplin's visit to Temple, Texas enabled him to have three pieces published there in 1896, including the "Crush Collision March" which commemorated a planned train crash on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad on 15th September. While in Sedalia he was teaching piano to students who included Arthur Marshall, composer and pianist Brun Campbell, and Scott Hayden, all of whom became ragtime composers in their own right. In turn, Joplin enrolled at the George R. Smith College where he apparently studied "advanced harmony and composition". The College records were destroyed in a fire in 1925 [8], and biographer Edward A. Berlin notes that it was unlikely that a small college for African-Americans would be able to provide such a course.[9]

Although there were hundreds of rags in print by the time of the "Maple Leaf Rag's" publication, Joplin was not far behind. His first published rag was "Original Rags" (March 1899) which had been completed in 1897, the same year as the first ragtime work in print, the "Mississippi Rag" by William Krell. The "Maple Leaf Rag" was likely to have been known in Sedalia before its publication in 1899; Brun Campbell claimed to have seen the manuscript of the work in around 1898.[10] The exact circumstances which lead to the Maple Leaf Rag's publication are unknown, and there are various different versions of the event which contradict eachother. After several unsuccessful aproaches to publishers, Joplin signed a contract with John Stillwell Stark a retailer of musical instruments who later became his most important publisher, on 10th August 1899 for a 1% royalty on all sales of the rag, with a minimum sales price of 25c. The "Maple Leaf Rag" was published between 10th August and 20th September when the Copyright Office received two copies of the score.[11] It is possible that the rag was named after the Maple Leaf Club, although there is no direct evidence to prove the link, and there were many other possible sources for the name in and around Sedalia at the time. [12]

Even prior to publication, Joplin was anticipating success with the piece - he told Arthur Marshall "Arthur , the Maple Leaf will make me the King of Ragtime Composers".[13][14] The Rag was reissued in 1900 or 1901 with a new cover showing a green maple leaf and a photograph of Joplin [15]. In 1903 Stark issued a "Maple Leaf Rag Song", an arrangement of Joplin's music with words by Sydney Brown.[16]

Structure

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AA BB A CC DD

"Maple Leaf Rag" 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 copious seventh chords. The piece may be considered the 'archetypal rag' due to its influence on the genre; its structure was the basis for many other famous rags, including 'Sensation' by Joseph Lamb.

"Maple Leaf Rag" seventh chord resolution[17] Playⓘ. Note that the seventh resolves down by half step.

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

Generally, the piece is not considered difficult, however; one must have very good coordination in the left hand to perform the piece successfully, particularly for the Trio, which involves leaps of two octaves. The piece was featured on the Trinity Guildhall Grade 8 syllabus. 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.

The "Gladiolus Rag", a later composition by Joplin, is a developed variant of the Maple Leaf Rag, showcasing Joplin's increasing musical sophistication, and is usually played at a somewhat slower tempo. In addition, the first part of Joplin's "The Cascades" is very close to "Maple Leaf Rag"'s first theme.

Popularity and legacy

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A 1906 recording of the Maple Leaf Rag by the United States Marine Band. This is one of the earliest known recordings of the Maple Leaf Rag
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Although there have been many claims about the sales of the "Maple Leaf Rag", fore example than 1 million copies of the sheet music were sold in the composer's lifetime, making Scott Joplin the first musician to sell 1 million copies of a piece of instrumental music.[2][18], Joplin's first biographer, Rudi Blesh wrote that during its first six months the piece sold 75,000 copies, and became "the first great instrumental sheet music hit in America".[18] However, research by Joplin's later biographer Edward A. Berlin demonstrated that this was not the case; the initial print-run of 400 took one year to sell, and under the terms of Joplin's contract with a 1% royalty would have given Joplin an income of $4, or approximately $146  in current value). Later sales were steady and would have given Joplin an income which would have covered his expenses; in 1909 estimated sales would have given him an income of $600 annually (approximately $20,347  in current prices).[11]

In addition to sales of sheet music, it was also popular in orchestrations for dance bands and brass bands for years. Joplin failed to relive the success of Maple Leaf Rag, with none of his other famous rags (such as The Entertainer) garnering as much popularity as the Maple Leaf Rag did. The royalties earned by the sheet music sales did provide Joplin with a steady income for the rest of his life, however. Soon after the "Maple Leaf Rag's" publication the earliest recordings of the rag took place; Banjo player Parke Hunter recorded it in 1902,[19][20] and band leader Wilbur Sweatman recorded it onto Phonograph cylinder a year later, but there are no known copies which have survived.[16][21][22]. The United States Military Band recorded it in 1906 and this is one of the earliest surviving recordings of the rag.

The tune continued to be in the repertoire of jazz musical bands decades later, with artists such as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings during the 1920s, and Sidney Bechet during the 1930s giving it up-to-date adaptations, maintaining a timeless quality to it. As an indication of its persistent popularity and recognition, it was performed on phonograph records six times in each of the three decades after its first publication.[23] During 1930, it was featured in the gangster movie classic, The Public Enemy. "Maple Leaf Rag" was the Joplin piece found most often on 78 rpmrecords.[24]

In November 1970, Joshua Rifkin released a recording called Scott Joplin: Piano Rags[25] on the classical label Nonesuch, which featured as its first track the "Maple Leaf Rag". It sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch's first million-selling record.[26] The Billboard "Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for 28th September 1974 has the record at #5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at #4, and a combined set of both volumes at #3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks.[27] The album was nominated in 1971 for two Grammy Award categories: Best Album Notes and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra), but at the ceremony on March 14, 1972, Rifkin did not win in any category.[28]

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".[18] As the copyright has expired, the composition is in the public domain. It appears in the soundtracks of hundreds of films, cartoons, commercials, and video games. During 2004 Canadian radio listeners voted it the 39th greatest song of all time.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jasen & Tichenor 1978, p. 87.
  2. ^ a b Edwards 2008.
  3. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 24 & 25.
  4. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 8 & 9.
  5. ^ a b Berlin 1994, p. 14.
  6. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 18.
  7. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 25-27.
  8. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 19.
  9. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 31-34.
  10. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 47 & 52.
  11. ^ a b Berlin 1994, p. 56 & 58.
  12. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 62.
  13. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 52.
  14. ^ Blesh & Janis 1971, p. 33.
  15. ^ Berlin 1994, p. 59.
  16. ^ a b Berlin 1994, p. 131 & 132.
  17. ^ Benward & Saker 2003, p. 203.
  18. ^ a b c Blesh 1981, p. xxiii.
  19. ^ King's College, London.
  20. ^ Jasen 1981, p. 320.
  21. ^ Edwards 2010.
  22. ^ RedHotJazz.
  23. ^ Berlin 1994.
  24. ^ Jasen 1981, p. 319 - 320.
  25. ^ "Scott Joplin Piano Rags Nonesuch Records CD (w/bonus tracks)". Retrieved 2009-03-19.
  26. ^ "Nonesuch Records". Retrieved 2009-03-19.
  27. ^ Billboard magazine 1974, p. 61.
  28. ^ LA Times.

Sources

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  • Berlin, Edward A. (1994). King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 0195101081.
  • Blesh, Rudi; Janis, Harriet (1971). They All Played Ragtime. New York: Oak Publications. ISBN 9780825600913.
  • Blesh, Rudi (1981). "Scott Jopin: Black-American Classicist". In Lawrence, Vera Brodsky (ed.). Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works. New York Public Library. ISBN 087104272X.
  • Benward, Bruce; Saker, Marilyn (2003). Music: In Theory and Practice. Vol. I (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill College. p. 203. ISBN ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  • Jasen, David A.; Tichenor, Trebor Jay (1978). Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. p. 88. ISBN 0-486-25922-6.
  • Jasen, David A. (1981). "Discography of 78 rpm Records of Joplin Works". In Lawrence, Vera Brodsky (ed.). Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works. New York Public Library. ISBN 087104272X.
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[[Category:Solo piano pieces]] [[Category:1897 compositions]] [[Category:Rags]] [[Category:Compositions by Scott Joplin]] [[ca:Maple Leaf Rag]] [[de:Maple Leaf Rag]] [[fr:Maple Leaf Rag]] [[it:Maple Leaf Rag]] [[ja:メイプルリーフ・ラグ]] [[pl:Maple Leaf Rag]] [[sh:Maple Leaf Rag]]

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