Throughout history; few musical crazes have hit with such impact; had such a heyday and lingered so hauntingly as ragtime. Ragtime arrived on the upswing of Tin Pan Alley; when the popularity of pianos in the home was reaching its peak and an endless stream of sheet music flowed out to meet the demand. In the early 1900s; no name was more prominent on those sheet-music covers and no one wrote ragtime music more brilliantly than Scott Joplin. This wonderful book brings together in one superbly produced playing edition all thirty-eight of Scott Joplins piano rags; including his six collaborations; plus Joplins own primer on how to play ragtime; the "School of Ragtime." Each rag has been reprinted; along with its sheet-music cover; from the original publishers edition. At the Williams Brothers saloon in Sedalia; Missouri; Scott Joplin was known as "The Entertainer;" and in 1897; in the upstairs room called the Maple Leaf Club; he wrote the rag that would one day be the first to sell over a million copies in sheet-music form. In time the "Maple Leaf Rag" also became the most recorded composition on piano roll; with forty known versions. Most of Joplins other rags were hits as well. Many bear the playful names that were given most rags; names like "The Strenuous Life;" "Heliotrope Bouquet;" and his last published piece; the "Silver Swan Rag." One of them; "The Entertainer;" triggered a major revival of interest in his work when it was incorporated into the score of the popular film The Sting. All of them are here; each bearing the mark of Joplins supreme originality. As ragtime authority David A. Jasen observes in his Introduction: "For pianists everywhere; this folio contains ragtime masterpieces which; when learned; will provide unlimited joy."
#579121 in eBooks 2012-12-06 2012-11-08File Name: B00A44R1GS
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Three StarsBy Stav TheodorThe information here is good but it is difficult to read.