Scott Joplin: Various Works

Scott Joplin's Solace is a 1909 ragtime piece with a tango rhythm. Its complete title is Solace: A Mexican Serenade, and it was used in the soundtrack of the famous 1973 movie The Sting.

The Gladiolus Rag is Joplin's adaptation of his famous Maple Leaf Rag, showcasing Joplin's increasing musical sophistication. It is usually played at a somewhat slower tempo than Maple Leaf Rag. Interestingly, the beginnings of both Joplin's The Cascades and Sugar Cane are also similar to the beginnings of Maple Leaf Rag.

Joplin's Magnetic Rag is a 1914 ragtime piano work, the last rag that he ever published. It is unique in form and in some of the musical techniques employed. While many of Joplin's piano rags fit the classic rag scheme, Magnetic Rag is unique in its form of AABBCCDDAA. It has been suggested that Joplin was trying to merge ragtime elements with the classical sonata form. Magnetic Rag expresses a melancholy almost entirely unheard in Joplin's earlier works.

Original Rags was the first of Scott Joplin's rags to appear in print, in early 1899, preceding his Maple Leaf Rag by half a year.

The Easy Winners is a 1901 Scott Joplin ragtime-composition. According to musicologist and Joplin biographer Edward Berlin, "Easy Winners must be judged one of Joplin's great works."

The Swipesy Cakewalk is a ragtime piece by Scott Joplin (who composed the trio) and the young composer Arthur Marshall (who composed the rest of the piece.) It was written in the late 1890s when Joplin was living with the Marshall family, and was teaching composition to Arthur (1881 - 1968).

The Cascades is a rag composed by Joplin in 1904. It was inspired by the so-called Cascades Garden, an attraction at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair consisting of a series of artificial waterfalls, rapids, lagoons, and fountains.

Scott Joplin (1867/1868 - 1917) was an African American composer and pianist, who belonged to the first post-slavery generation. He achieved fame for his wonderful ragtime pieces ("rags"), and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime". His work had a profound influence on subsequent writers of ragtime.

During his brief career, Joplin wrote forty-four rags, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. His Maple Leaf Rag, became ragtime's first hit.

The popularity of his music diminished after his death. But there was a huge Joplin revival in the early 1970s, spurred by pianist Joshua Rifkin's recordings of Joplin rags, and the Academy Award winning movie The Sting, which featured several Joplin compositions.