Scott Joplin - Pine Apple Rag - "3 Pianos on Fire" (HQ audio)

The opening performance of an hour-long piano-trio set is just getting warmed up with Scott Joplin's "Pine Apple Rag" from 1908. Pianists from left to right are Patrick Aranda, Frederick Hodges and Tom Brier.

I thought this was a suitable beginning to the set, as it is not a fast rag and the embellishments are tasteful (but Frederick was surprised to hear me say that).

(If you do think that this is "fast" then please just admit that you know very little about ragtime and don't make a fool of yourself by complaining. There will be fast numbers from this set coming up later.)

They're playing to a capacity room -- there were people watching from the hallway outside, unable to enter the room because it was at the maximum number of people allowed by law. This was Saturday evening, 15 August 2009, during the 11th annual Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival in California.

http://www.suttercreekragtime.com is where you will find details about the festival (which happens in mid-August every year).

The audio in this video was recorded from in front of the pianos by Rob Thomas. Some fidelity is lost in the conversion to a WMV, but it's still much better than my cheap camera with its auto-gain control (great for voice; terrible for music) and low-bitrate monophonic audio recording.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• piano
• trio
• ragtime
• rag
• scott joplin
• joplin
• aranda
• hodges
• brier
• sutter creek

[AlaskanGlitch]

Keeper1st is absolutely correct, the Pine Apple Rag is not a fast rag, it is played at around 120 beats per minute, or "Allegro" in musical tempo terms. In fact, they are playing it slightly faster than they should in this recording.

For those who may not be aware, Ragtime predates Swing by about 20 years. Swing did not appear until Stride around 1918-1920. Jelly Roll Morton wrote a Stride arrangement of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf rag, if you are interested in hearing the difference.

[Keeper1st]

@AlaskanGlitch Actually it sounds like they're only going about 100 bpm here or just a touch quicker. Honestly, anything called "3 Pianos on Fire" can't possibly have a tempo that is too fast, can it? It's kind of the point! But really this isn't fast at all. This is the normal tempo that practically everybody plays it at (well, everybody who knows anything about ragtime).

[AlaskanGlitch]

@Keeper1st I thought it sounded slightly faster than the Pine Apple rag that I have sequenced, with a tempo of 120 bpm. However, it very well could have been their marvelous embellishments that gave me the wrong impression. Their arrangement was truly outstanding, and their timing impeccable. It was a true joy to listen too, thank you for providing the video.

[Keeper1st]

@AlaskanGlitch You got me curious, so I compared this to a metronome beat. They're starting at about 100 bpm and end at about 108.

[AlaskanGlitch]

@Keeper1st Thanks for setting me straight. Your audio is also very well done for each piano. All three pianos can be heard distinctly (which also says a lot about the timing of all three pianists). Even though I have heard this piece hundreds of times, I keep coming back to your video just to listen to their embellishments. Fantastic! Thanks again!

[Keeper1st]

@AlaskanGlitch Yeah, Rob had a really good, professional-grade recording system placed right in the middle of the three pianos. He sent me his recording of this set so that I could match his audio to my otherwise low-quality videos.

[isambo400]

0:37 I see what you did there.

[giuliocarnevale]

Wowww

[ShokaLion]

The stereo recording is a genius idea.