King's Scout

Recordings

This list could be expanded massively by an hour or two in my vinyl collection. When The Sting , with incomplete snatches of Joplin's good stuff led to the Joplin Revival of the 70's, several good recordings were released.

One was a Biograph Release of Rolls Played on a Bechstein upright, with a committee to agree on tempos, as these tended to vary on the rolls as well as between instruments. When listening to rolls there is the barely-perceptible sound of the tempo rising as the pin rolled to the bottom. In my neighborhood pizza parlor there was a well-maintained upright player and many Joplin rolls, some recorded by Joplin himself. I found it interesting how often he played lovely "grace notes" that were NOT included in his scores, and which he often reminded artists NOT to play.

Nonesuch released two LPs of Joshua Rifkin playing the best arrow-straight, (non-stylized), recordings of Joplin's piano I ever heard. I saw Rifkin in concert in La Jolla California, and he was as good or better at interpreting Joplin live as anyone ever recorded.

The release that brought me to appreciate Joplin was Gunter Schuler, and the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble recording of "The Red Back Book." These were orchestral arrangements by Joplin. KPBS in San Diego played, "Sugar Cane", and "The Easy Winners", and for the first time in my life I went directly to Tower Records and bought the LP. Schuler later released, "Palm Leaf Rag", an album of his own orchestral arrangements, (played by the NECRE), of Joplin Piano Music. User:W8IMP 0524, 05 January 2007 (UTC)

Why does this page get vandalized?

Seriously. Some articles I can understand, but what in the world makes this article such a target? Both obvious and sneaky...is it one person who keeps using multiple IPs, or is it linked from some places very well travled by vandals? ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ 15:26, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

• I mentioned this above ... I don't understand it myself. It's not like it's a particularly high-profile page or anything. Ben-w 18:22, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Ben/Melodia, Every time I see vandalism on this page, I ask myself the same question. How could anyone get a thrill out of such silly, destructive rubbish?. I can understand, but will never condone racial slurs, but how does saying, "...he was gay and cr*pp*d on the lawn...", amuse this poor, lost soul? How would one suppose this poor person's mother would feel if she ever found out?--W8IMP 00:32, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Again. I noticed a small syntax error and corrected that, but then realized the entire page had been vandalized. I'm a bit new to revisions, I hope I got it right. I think this page needs to be locked, as it appears we have ongoing attempts at pernicious vandalism. Dfrauzel 00:17, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Alright, I botched it the first time, though the revision number did seem correct the infobox was wrong. I tried again, it looks right now. Dfrauzel 00:25, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I, too, would like to see the page protected (or at least semiprotected) from vandalism. I'm not sure how to make this happen, however. Do I need admin help? Stepheng3 (talk) 01:22, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

You can request page protection at WP:RFPP. -- Avenue (talk) 06:24, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

I put in a request. Thanks for the pointer. Stepheng3 (talk) 17:49, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Time Traveling Ability/Interest in Tennis

Should it be mentioned that he alledgely could travel in time? Also, he was keenly interested in popular tennis. http://snltranscripts.jt.org/02/02fjoplin.phtml http://snltranscripts.jt.org/03/03ejoplin.phtml That is all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ThomasJCyrus (talk • contribs) 20:18, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Should it be mentioned? I'd vote no. Please don't fill discussion pages with junk. -- Infrogmation (talk) 20:52, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

His piano-roll recordings

Quote from article: ... he did record seven piano rolls in 1916; "Maple Leaf Rag" (for Connorized and Aeolian companies), "Something Doing," "Magnetic Rag," "Ole Miss Rag," "Weeping Willow Rag" and "Pleasant Moments - Ragtime Waltz" (all for Connorized). These are the only records of his playing we have ...

I question this statement. I have in my collection an LP of Joplin's piano rolls, and as well as 4 of the pieces mentioned above it includes: Original Rags, Sunflower Slow Drag, The Entertainer, Fig Leaf Rag, Pineapple Rag, Euphonic Sounds, Stoptime Rag, and Scott Joplin's New Rag. It doesn't have Ole Miss Rag or Pleasant Moments. The only performer credited is "Scott Joplin - piano roll solo". On this basis, assuming the info on the LP is correct, that makes at least 15 pieces he recorded on piano rolls. -- JackofOz (talk) 13:12, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I believe the apparent discrepancy is due to that a number of the period piano rolls of Joplin rags published (and reissued decades later on LP and CD) were not actually recorded by Joplin himself, but rather by the house pianists at the piano roll companies. -- Infrogmation (talk) 16:01, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for that enlightenment. I guess that means I won't be holding my LP in such high regard anymore. Maybe we should say something about this in the article, to let people know that some recordings claiming to be of Joplin playing his own music are not genuine. -- JackofOz (talk) 12:20, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

As a collector, I can clarify things further here. Back in the 1950-1970 period, when player rolls were really first 'rediscovered' as historical documents and copied/distributed, there was a collective lack of knowledge that has since been expanded by research/period literature resurfacing/etc. There were two main methods of creating rolls - by having an artist play a recording piano, or by manually punching notes in the paper with reference to piano or orchestral scores (or any combination of the two!). Whilst 90% of the 'handplayed' rolls contained an artist credit on the label - "played by xxx xxx", 90% of the manually created ('arranged') rolls had no credit for the arranger on the label, with rare exceptions. However, both types of roll always credited the composer. So when someone back in the 1960s discovered a musty old 'arranged' roll in their collection with 'Pineapple Rag - Scott Joplin' on the label, they assumed that meant Joplin was the pianist, and if new copies were punched of the roll, the new label often contained incorrect attributions of the sort.

Since original catalogs produced by every roll company of the time have been found, it's safe to say that the six Connorized rolls and the one Aeolian Uni-Record roll are the sole piano rolls ever recorded by Joplin. BTW, I'm a relatively serious collector and researcher, and for various reasons it's my considered opinion that the Uni-Record roll is far, far more truthful to Joplin's playing than the Connorized rolls - I won't bore you with the details, but in a nutshell the Aeolian roll was recorded at a far greater fidelity, and the Connorized rolls have also been quantized and edited to create a mathematically perfect performance. The bass runs and grace notes in the Joplin Connorized rolls are almost certainly the work of another Connorized 'house' artist - they are very characteristic, one of his musical signatures if you will.

Unfortunately, the Uni-Record version of Maple Leaf Rag is heard far less often than the Connorized one. I have scanned a copy of it to MIDI, and you can listen to it on my website by using the search engine at the site. I won't give the name of the site lest I be accused of trolling, but you can find it by googling 'pianola midi' and it's the first hit result.

Sorry for the lengthy and rather dry post! PlayerRoll (talk)

Not at all. That's very interesting information to have. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:28, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

split out List of compositions by Scott Joplin

I'm up for doing this split. Any discussion? Stepheng3 (talk) 15:41, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

There being none, I've gone ahead and boldly split the list into a new article. Stepheng3 (talk) 23:38, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Can Freddie be explained?

The article mentions two marriages of Scott Joplin: one to Belle in 1900 or earlier, and one to Lottie Stokes in 1909.

So the following sentence is inexplicable:

Perhaps his dearest love, Freddie Alexander, died on September 10, 1904, of complications resulting from a cold, two months after their wedding.

"Their" wedding? Whose wedding is this? Freddie and Freddie's wife? Freddie and Scott Joplin's wedding? A wedding between Scott Joplin and an unnamed woman? Even assuming that Freddie Alexander is female, grammatically there is no antecedent for "their". — Lawrence King ^(talk) 04:51, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

I believe that Freddie Alexander was Scott's daughter, though I'm not certain. - Stepheng3 (talk) 19:12, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

After doing some research, I realize I was wrong in my belief. [1] explains that Freddie Alexander was Scott's second wife, whom he married in June 1904. I'll see if I can clarify this section. - Stepheng3 (talk) 19:21, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Treemonisha & music

It is described in the text as "award-winning", but there is no reference for that either in the Joplin article, or in the Treemonisha one. Joplin certainly was award winning, even if that was posthumous, but his opera? I'll remove the phrase until we have further information.

On another note, I've realised this article lacks any analysis of the music itself. I'll take a first look at expanding that section with what sources I have.Major Bloodnok (talk) 11:57, 12 October 2008 (UTC)