Piano Scores Unlimited

PIANO SCORES UNLIMITED : ON ONE DVD-ROM
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OF FREQUENTLY PLAYED PIANO SCORES
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Piano Scores Unlimited DVD-Rom

Scott Joplin Piano Scores

Scott Joplin's compositions included in Piano Scores Unlimited:

  • A Breeze from Alabama March and Two Step,
  • Country Club Ragtime Two Step,
  • Elite Syncopations,
  • Eugenia,
  • Maple Leaf Rag,
  • Palm Leaf Rag,
  • Peacherine Rag,
  • SWIPESY Cake Walk,
  • Something Doing Ragtime Two Step,
  • Sugar Cane Ragtime Two Step,
  • Sun Flower Slow Drag Ragtime two step,
  • The Cascades,
  • The Chrysanthemum,
  • The Easy Winners Ragtime Two Step,
  • The Entertainer Ragtime Two Step,
  • The Favorite Ragtime Two Step,
  • The Nonpareil A Rag & Two Step,
  • The Ragtime Dance A Stop,
  • The Sycamore A Concert Rag,
  • Wall Street Rag,
  • Weeping Willow Ragtime Two Step.

About Scott Joplin :

Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an African American composer and pianist, born near Texarkana, Texas, into the first post-slavery generation - his father an ex-slave and his mother a freeborn woman. He would achieve fame for his unique ragtime compositions, and would later be dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his brief career, he wrote forty-four original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas, with one of his first pieces, the Maple Leaf Rag, becoming ragtime's first and most influential hit, and remaining so for a century.

Joplin 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. After studying 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. Joplin was taught music theory, keyboard technique, and an appreciation of various European music styles, such as folk and opera. As an adult Joplin also studied at an all-black college in Sedalia, Missouri.

"He composed music unlike any ever before written," according to Joplin biographer Edward Berlin. 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."

Joplin spent his final years, before his early death at age 48, working on his second opera, Treemonisha. 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. Joplin's music returned to popularity in the 1970s with the Academy award-winning movie The Sting, which featured several of his compositions, such as The Entertainer. Joplin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

Although he was penniless and disappointed at the end of his life, Joplin set the standard for ragtime compositions and played a key role in the development of ragtime music. And as a pioneer composer and performer, he helped pave the way for young black artists to reach American audiences of both races.

Piano Scores from the following composers are included in Piano Scores Unlimited :