Klarinet Archive - Posting 000079.txt from 2007/11

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Original Ragtime Piano Pieces Arranged for Band
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:11:12 -0500

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:44:57 -0800, "Daniel Leeson"
<dnleeson@-----.net> wrote:
> The arrangements are impressive. And one can be made to understand how this
> kind of music must have knocked the socks off of musical America at that
> time, so head and shoulders were they above the pap of waltzes, polkas, and
> schottisches that were played as incidental music at band concerts of the
> era.

Yes, I agree. What I find so very impressive about rags is that,
despite the very strict construction formula that rags follow, one finds
such an incredible variety of combinations and expressions of emotion.
I have the collected works of Joplin sitting on piano at all times. As
I play through them, it's clear that these are all the same genre of
music, but it's also clear that each piece has a unique personality.

Indeed, I would go out on a limb to assert that there is more variety in
the 70 or so rags of Scott Joplin then there is in the billion or so
concerti of Vivaldi.

--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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