William Bolcom "Graceful Ghost" Rag - Paul Jacobs, piano

[Zedwoman]

It's a little quick, but I Iove Jacobs' playing.

[pianiplunker]

I've heard Bolcom himself play this and he plays it at a similar tempo. Maybe slightly slower but not much.

[adam28xx]

It's true that the violin-and-piano version is marked "Slow March" and given a 5-minute duration. However, Paul Jacobs is playing from the original solo piano score (illustrated in the video) and this has a printed metronome marking of quaver = 120 with the words "Don't drag" added. Jacobs is in fact almost exactly on the tempo marking and he doesn't "drag" either!

[karinamccullough]

Bolcom wrote this should take about 5 minutes. Jacobs is playing it too fast. Bolcom said a SLOW march! Scott Joplin had the same problem...people tended to play his rags at too fast a tempo.I speak with some authority here since I'm friends with & have heard this played by one of Luca's favorite students to whom Prof. Luca gave the original score. Bolcom rewrote this as a duet for violin and piano in honor of Sergiu Luca's wedding. Professor Luca was my friend's violin teacher.