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Monday, March 30, 2015

MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2015



QUOTE:
"No artist is pleased...there is no satisfaction whatever at any time.
  There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that
  keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
AUTHOR: Martha Graham
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"An artist is never satisfied with his/her art. The
  pleasure the artists gets is in the act   of striving
  for the perfection that will never be realized."



COMPOSER
JOPLIN
http://marvinhamlisch.us/news/scott-joplin/
Stark advertising copy:
"All that we have ever said of 'Maple Leaf Rag' is
true of 'The Entertainer' and more may be said of
that subtle, soulful quantity not seen in the notes
and never found in the marble heart. Hear 'The
Entertainer' well played and if the harp of your
affections doesn't sound an aeolian chord,
then we don't want to know you..."
THE ENTERTAINER
(From a Piano Roll)
Those paper rolls were some kind
of forerunners for juke-boxes.
They were often used in the
penny-in-the-slot player pianos.
"The Entertainer" (1902) is a classic melodic and
rhythmic piano rag written in the jazz idiom of
ragtime, a style to which Scott Joplin is perhaps
the man most responsible and best known for.
It 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) with a musical structure:
Intro AA BB A CC Intro 2 DD.
While ragtime began as
a piano style, it was soon
arranged for numerous
musical ensembles and
became very popular
for the American music
of its day.

Joplin's rag,
"The Entertainer,"
THE ENTERTAINER
Instrumental Version
from "The Sting"
Marvin Hamlisch, Arranger
(and consequently a revival of his
other compositions) was made
popular in our time by its use in the 1973
Oscar-winning motion picture "The Sting,"

with a score adapted from the music
of Joplin by Marvin Hamlisch.


The tune became so popular it even
hit on the pop music charts. This new
interest in Joplin's music won so much belated
recognition that a special award was bestowed
posthumously, in Joplin's Bicentennial Year,
for his contributions to American music.
THE ENTERTAINER
Piano Music
THE ENTERTAINER
HARMONIC AND
RHYTHMIC ANALYSIS
The front cover of The Entertainer sheet music. It has a green background and in the centre is a red ink drawing of a stereotyped African-American performer on stage in top hat and tails
THE ENTERTAINER
How to Play Version
THE ENTERTAINER
Violin Version
Itzhak Perlman, Violin
André Previn, Piano

A SHORT HISTORY
OF RAGTIME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk-3owM_MpU