David Thomas Roberts plays "Leola" by Scott Joplin

For more information about David Thomas Roberts, visit his website at:
http://www.davidthomasroberts.com/

Leola -- Two Step (1905). Leola is the earliest of three pieces drawing from formal aspects of Maple Leaf Rag (the others are Gladiolus Rag and Sugar Cane). More significantly, it directly forecasts Gladiolus and therefore stands as a crucial component of Joplin's extraordinary middle period.
The first strain is the most telling of Leola's link to both Gladiolus and Maple Leaf, while the second section stands alone in its successive melodic thirds reminiscent of Mediterranean and Latin American styles and may be taken as evidence of the influence of such music upon classic ragtime. The trio and finale represent the composer at his lyrical and bittersweet best. As in Maple Leaf, he returns to the original tonic (A flat) for the final strain, accentuating the sense of resolve and grand purpose, which, in the language of Scott Joplin, is almost invariably mingled with melancholy.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classic
• ragtime
• classical
• piano
• Joplin
• midwest
• Americana

[sutterchip]

One of the most delightful rags by Scott Joplin, performed with impeccable taste by one of the finest pianist/composers today.

[MooPotPie]

@sutterchip Except that he's playing in 4/4 when the music is notated in 2/4… i.e., two-beat. This odd choice has become irritatingly commonplace among contemporary performers of the classic ragtime literature. The Chopinesque mordents and rubato are also stylistically foreign to this style. Weird.

[beakt]

@MooPotPie I'm with you on this. At the same time, Scott's lovely syncopations, haunting melodies, and delicious harmonies shine through no matter how it's played. I liked this performance, even though I play Scott's rags like the dances they're supposed to be, 2/4 time in a slow march tempo.

[PolkRidgeAesthete]

@Moo--The 2/4 sense is clear and intact; there is no call for it to to be *dramatized*, nor is there any reason to assume that slight Romantic embellishments *on repeats* are foreign to the world of Scott Joplin---unless one's notion of Classic ragtime's stylisitc domain is dominated by an aesthetic of eschewing all embellishment (a mantle I gently reject, but never mind another pianist's assuming). There's no rubato in this performance, only barely non-metronomic, appropriate fluctuations.

[PolkRidgeAesthete]

Thank you, Chip!