Back in the early 70's, I had Ann Charters "Rags for Flowers and Trees by Scott Joplin". She also played most of them moderately, and this one was slower than this roll, but not by too much; I recall this was the fastest on the album. It's a great little album, if you can find it on CD, I don't know, but I'm sure its around.
from what i heard, Scott Joplin hated when people would play his songs really fast. my teacher always thought me to slow down, and play his music properly. I never got around to this song, i don't think i knew it existed back when i was playing the piano. but anywhoi love it. love all his songs
@skulldudes besides this being dancing music, this song is in 2/4 time. now to our ear, this song sounds pretty fast. however, this is only chugging along at 80 bpm... not so fast after all is it? :)
@scottjop656 Thank you! I've been trying to preach this all over the website to the Ragtime Police who love to log on to YouTube and declare every performance of Joplin's rags played at a dancable rhythm to be "too fast". A slow march tempo is 100 bpm, and Scott Joplin marked that on a few of his rags, even.
Where do you get all these piano roll recordings? These are not Joplin playing, but many think they are. Even if it were Joplin playing, I would still say this and many of the other roll recordings are not very good musically. It's bad piano playing and makes me want to destroy the piano and the roll. But thanks for posting anyway, at least for historical reasons.
Well I found them on a website, and I wanted to share them because some of these rags are almost unknown because of the Entertainer etc.
Yes, the playing is very bad ; the fact that it was not played by a human being destroyed all musicality, and the record in itself is of quite bad quality.
Thus, as you say, it is mainly for "historical" reasons that I posted them, because if I remember well, these piano rolls were recorded in the late 1920's (not sure but it is probably that) ; which gives them a certain value. Of course your interpretations are much more enjoyable than these piano rolls :)
I can see couples dancing "the cake walk" to this song- which I love, by the way!
grandmamcginty 3 months ago
whoever, whatever, however.whenever..or why...i love it let the good times roll.. sweet.
cosmicjohn09 5 months ago
totally kickass 4th strain!!
scottjop656 1 year ago
Too fast.
dipalma07 1 year ago
yeah this about a half second too fast. it makes the notes seem to run together instead of them each ringing their wonderful quality of tone
WKUK2059 1 year ago
Back in the early 70's, I had Ann Charters "Rags for Flowers and Trees by Scott Joplin". She also played most of them moderately, and this one was slower than this roll, but not by too much; I recall this was the fastest on the album. It's a great little album, if you can find it on CD, I don't know, but I'm sure its around.
MrJnobianchi 1 year ago
from what i heard, Scott Joplin hated when people would play his songs really fast. my teacher always thought me to slow down, and play his music properly. I never got around to this song, i don't think i knew it existed back when i was playing the piano. but anywhoi love it. love all his songs
skulldudes 2 years ago 3
"thought me" oops haha, i meant "taught"
skulldudes 2 years ago
@skulldudes Keep in mind this was music for dancing - thus the tempo.
BardCoennius 1 year ago
@skulldudes besides this being dancing music, this song is in 2/4 time. now to our ear, this song sounds pretty fast. however, this is only chugging along at 80 bpm... not so fast after all is it? :)
scottjop656 1 year ago
@scottjop656 Thank you! I've been trying to preach this all over the website to the Ragtime Police who love to log on to YouTube and declare every performance of Joplin's rags played at a dancable rhythm to be "too fast". A slow march tempo is 100 bpm, and Scott Joplin marked that on a few of his rags, even.
beakt 1 year ago 4
Where do you get all these piano roll recordings? These are not Joplin playing, but many think they are. Even if it were Joplin playing, I would still say this and many of the other roll recordings are not very good musically. It's bad piano playing and makes me want to destroy the piano and the roll. But thanks for posting anyway, at least for historical reasons.
BachScholar 2 years ago
Well I found them on a website, and I wanted to share them because some of these rags are almost unknown because of the Entertainer etc.
Yes, the playing is very bad ; the fact that it was not played by a human being destroyed all musicality, and the record in itself is of quite bad quality.
(Comment's gonna be too long, see the next post)
FreeTheJambon 2 years ago
Thus, as you say, it is mainly for "historical" reasons that I posted them, because if I remember well, these piano rolls were recorded in the late 1920's (not sure but it is probably that) ; which gives them a certain value. Of course your interpretations are much more enjoyable than these piano rolls :)
FreeTheJambon 2 years ago
What website?
MercuryWinds 2 years ago
@BachScholar Yep. They sound warped and too mechanical.
chemtrailstacoma2011 1 week ago
This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this. I am currently playing this on the piano.
curiousworry 2 years ago
"It is never right to play Ragtime fast."
-Scott Joplin
Commentator732 2 years ago 2
C-732 is correct. Joplin is correct.
This is a tad too fast.
AaronXOK 2 years ago
Well, tell Joplin himself. This is a piano roll, mind you.
FreeTheJambon 2 years ago
People are always criticising the way others play ragtime - even now they are criticising Scott Joplin himself!
AurignyATR72 2 years ago
Perhaps the player piano was set to too fast of a tempo. But, who am I to say?....
HerrGobel 2 years ago
I agree, it is pretty fast, especially for a piece like this
MrHBailey 2 years ago
Hear, hear. Like playing a 33-and-a-1/3 rpm record at 78 rpm speed and blaming the recorded artist for the excessive tempo.
Lennythewinner 2 years ago