Posted on 02/22/2013 6:01:29 PM PST by AZamericonnie
Was this your first time with the piece, or were you familiar with it before?
Good evening, Publius, and thanks for bringing Scott Joplin and his story to the troops. ((HUGS))
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Good evening, Drumbo, and thanks for spinning tunes for the troops. ((HUGS))
It was in the movie “The Sting”...which had other Joplin tunes. Liked the music even better than I liked the movie. :)
Good to see you too Mac! I’m saddle sore, but riding again, lol.
Agreed. I didn’t like the movie at all.
Good...you didn’t really need to be shoveling snow. Are you checking seed catalogs for spring? Do you save some for the next year?
Salsa and piano music. :-) My duty and honor to post music for the TROOPS!
In 1912, Joplin published only one rag, and it’s in his rondo format, ending with the opening “A” theme.
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There’s another composer whose work was programmed fairly often before the war, but whose music disappeared afterwards. Wagner hated him because he was Jewish.
One of my pastor’s sons wants to help me with my garden this year and he’s trying to purchase some heirlooms from catalogs, but I’ve only purchased corn so far. I may get some more exotic peppers from my friend in Denmark this year, but haven’t given it much thought. Until three weeks ago I wasn’t sure there would be a garden this year, and if I have to sell the homestead to pay legal bills I still may not plant - but, I’ve got a month nor so before I have to commit, and in this market, even if I try to sell it’s likely to be listed a very long time. It’s one day at a time right now, but there’s been some very good days lately!
He and Lottie moved from to Midtown to Harlem as that neighborhood became a center of black culture. While “Treemonisha” became his obsession and his financial condition worsened, Lottie turned their house into a boarding house and a “no-tell motel” with rooms rented by the hour.
From 1914 comes Joplin’s last rag, one of his greatest masterpieces. Unlike its predecessors, he bars it in 4/4, not the traditional 2/4. By now he has settled on a cyclical format where the “A” theme comes back twice at the end but not in the middle. But there is another surprise. Joplin rarely works in a minor key, but here the “B” theme is not only in the relative minor (G minor to B-flat Major), there is real bitterness in the melody. The “C” theme dispels the darkness. But then the “D” theme, in the corresponding minor (B-flat minor to B-flat Major), brings on the anguish. The return of the “A” theme dispels the darkness and brings Joplin’s last rag to a close where it began, quiet and contemplative in its last notes. This is Joshua Rifkin’s classic recording from 1971.
In 1915, Joplin rented a hall in Harlem and staged a rehearsal of “Treemonisha” with himself on piano. There was no lighting, no staging, no orchestra, and it flopped badly. Joplin was crushed.
He worked in fits and starts after that but couldn’t finish anything. His creative voice was stilled. His mental state became worse as syphilitic dementia set in. Lottie finally had him committed to the state mental hospital at Ward’s Island. He had occasional lucid moments when he could scribble notes on bits of paper, but eventually he went catatonic. He died in 1917 at age 49 on the very day the US entered World War I. His exit couldn’t have been better timed. The ragtime era was over. Following the war, the new musical form would be jazz.
There was a small scale revival of Joplin’s music in the Forties and Fifties, but it was Joshua Rifkin’s recording of 1971 that set off the Great Ragtime Revival and brought Joplin to a wider audience.
It would take 57 years for “Treemonisha” to be properly staged. The first production was done at Morehouse College in 1972, backed by the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Shaw. But the staging that attracted attention occurred in 1975 at the Houston Grand Opera, known for its cutting edge productions and the staging of obscure works. In this case, they brought in composer Gunther Schuller to finish the orchestration and conduct the opera. It was a huge hit.
Deutsche Grammophon issued the opera in 1976. In 1986, PBS broadcast the Houston Grand Opera production with Ruby Dee yakking all through the overture. This version has not been issued in any digital video format, and I’m not even sure about the old VHS format. This is a fine work and an outstanding production.
Scott Joplin: “Treemonisha” (Overture)
These videos are all pirated from PBS. Joplin was a brilliant composer for chorus.
Monisha, mother of Treemonisha, tells the story of her daughter in an aria steeped in the sentimental sounds of late 19th Century popular music.
Parson Alltalk checks in with a chorus that sounds like a mixture of minstrel show and gospel.
A chorus and barbershop quartet from the CD.
(“Aunt Dinah Has Blowed the Horn” & “We Will Rest Awhile”)
Pirated from PBS. Great ending!
Once staged in Houston, “Treemonisha” showed that Joplin’s work in a larger form was worthy of production. This opera may well stand the test of time and reside next to Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”.
Like Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin’s life ended tragically at an age far too young. But he paved the way for George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and Billy Joel. He stands today as a monument of American music.
Tomorrow night: The Classical Piano Pieces of Billy Joel
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