The copyright on "The Entertainer" was registered December 29, 1902, along with two other Joplin rags, "A Breeze from Alabama" and " Elite Syncopations", all three of which were published by Stark. Stark issued an arrangement of the piece for two mandolins and a guitar. Suggested by the rag's dedication to "James Brown and his 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". Joplin may have performed the piece at a fundraiser in Parsons, Kansas, on April 27, 1904. "It is a jingling work of a very original character, embracing various strains of a retentive character which set the foot in spontaneous action and leave an indelible imprint on the tympanum". Rosenfeld described "The Entertainer" as "the best and most euphonious" of Joplin's compositions to that point. Louis Globe-Democrat, contemporary composer Monroe H. The B section contains an indication that the melody is to be played an octave higher on the repeat. It is primarily set in the key of C major however, for the C section (commonly referred to as the "Trio"), it modulates to F major, then shifts back to C major for the D section. Its structure is: Intro–AA–BB–A–CC–Intro2–DD. "The Entertainer" is subtitled "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. The Recording Industry Association of America ranked it at No. The Sting was set in the 1930s, a full generation after the end of ragtime's mainstream popularity, thus giving the inaccurate impression that ragtime music was popular at that time. 3 on the Billboard pop chart and spent a week at No. Composer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch's adaptation reached No. Īs one of the classics of ragtime, it returned to 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. The first recording was by blues and ragtime musicians the Blue Boys in 1928, played on mandolin and guitar. Louis, Missouri, and in the 1910s as piano rolls that would play on player pianos. It was sold first as sheet music by John Stark & Son of St. " The Entertainer" is a 1902 classic piano rag written by Scott Joplin. In 1976 Joplin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize.Live performance of "The Entertainer" in 2007 Joplin's music returned to popularity in the early 1970s with the release of a million-selling album of Joplin's rags recorded by Joshua Rifkin followed by the Academy award-winning movie The Sting which featured several of his compositions, such as "The Entertainer". This was written, according to opera historian Elise Kirk, to be a "timeless story" about a young black "heroine of the spirit who leads her people from superstition and darkness to salvation and enlightenment." It was a failure in its first concert performance in 1915, but was rediscovered and premiered in 1972. Eventually, "the piano-playing public clamored for his music newspapers and magazines proclaimed his genius musicians examined his scores with open admiration." Ragtime historian Susan Curtis noted that "when Joplin syncopated his way into the hearts of millions of Americans at the turn of the century, he helped revolutionize American music and culture."īefore his early death at age 48, Joplin worked on his second opera Treemonisha. "He composed music unlike any ever before written," according to Joplin biographer Edward Berlin. As an adult, Joplin also studied at an all-black college in Sedalia, Missouri. He was taught music theory, keyboard technique, and an appreciation of various European music styles, such as folk and opera. After he studied music with several local teachers, his talent was noticed by a German immigrant music teacher, Julius Weiss, who chose to give the 11-year-old boy lessons free of charge. He was blessed with an amazing ability to improvise at the piano, and was able to enlarge his talents with the music he heard around him, which was rich with the sounds of gospel hymns and spirituals, dance music, plantation songs, syncopated rhythms, blues, and choruses. One of his first pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and remained so for a century. He achieved fame for his unique ragtime compositions, and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his brief career, he wrote forty-four original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. Scott Joplin (between July 1867 and January 1868 ? April 1, 1917) was an African-American composer and pianist, born near Texarkana, Texas, into the first post-slavery generation.
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