Successfully removed.
Sorry, an error occurred.
|
whatsurgenre favorited a video
(3 months ago)
|
|
| |
|
|
whatsurgenre favorited a video
(3 months ago)
RAGTIME!
Scott Joplin playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
This is one of Joplin's most beautiful compositions. You can hear many vastl...
more
RAGTIME!
Scott Joplin playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
This is one of Joplin's most beautiful compositions. You can hear many vastly different tempos if you listen to all the available recordings on YouTube, including the extremely slow to fast. I prefer a middle tempo because the music seems to speak only when it is not too fast and not too slow. Please enjoy my interpretation! (See discussion of tempo below!)
****************************************
There has been much attention given recently to Joplin's "slow" and "not fast" indications, which are often misleading if taken literally. Never has there been a composer in the history of music who wrote only slow music, but rather all the great composers included a wide gamut of speeds and emotions from slow to moderate to fast. Joplin certainly was no exception, meaning that it would be too one-sided and simplistic to take his "slow" and "not fast" indications literally and never play any of his rags in a lively fashion. Joplin probably became obsessed with "slow" and "not fast" indications to guard against outrageously fast tempos exceeding 120 bpm that saloon virtuosos often took, such as Alan Thompson's version of Maple Leaf Rag (here on YouTube).
Most of Joplin's rags are marches or in a march-like style. Considering that a normal march (like by Sousa) has a tempo of about 120 bpm, when Joplin says "slow" or "slow march tempo", he didn't necessarily mean a truly slow tempo, but rather a tempo slower than 120 bpm. In other words, "slow" was a relative term to Joplin rather than a purely specific or quantitative term most people associate with the word "slow". For example, Joplin gave "Sugar Cane" a metronome mark of 100 bpm accompanied with the indication "slow march tempo". To our ears Sugar Cane at 100 bpm is actually "fast", although compared to a normal march tempo of about 120 bpm it is indeed "slow".
Our duty as performers is to decide through analysis and logic which rags should be slower and more introverted, which should be faster and more extroverted, and which should be something in between. Often times one needs to look no further than the title and title page! For example, the title page of "The Easy Winners" shows football, baseball, and horse racing, in which "winners" and "athletes" clearly suggest an energetic and exuberant kind of performance rather than a calm and stately one. On the other hand, a title like "Weeping Willow" suggests the complete opposite--a calm, melancholy, and reflective mood that is best captured with a truly slow tempo.
One of the most misunderstood of Joplin's rags is "Gladiolus Rag", whose title indicates an energetic and masculine performance rather than a calm and serious one, as is often done. (See discussion of Gladiolus Rag for more details.) Of course, titles do not tell us everything; however, recognizing the implications of the titles along with study of the musical character and important musical motives at least bring us closer to capturing the true essence of the music as Joplin intended.
For my bio, please see: http://www.bachscholar.com/who_is.html
less
|
|
| |
|
|
whatsurgenre subscribed to sin2486
(6 months ago)
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
