Product Description
Two
Views of Scott Joplin
is an exploration of a personal and artistic crisis that Scott Joplin, the
"King of Ragtime," went through between 1904 and 1906. This crisis was
precipitated by the untimely death of Freddie Alexander in September 1904, to
whom Joplin had been married only ten weeks. Knowledge of this marriage was
lost to history for almost a century until the Joplin scholar Edward A. Berlin
discovered the newspaper obituary, which is quoted in the bass solo in Part II,
"The Obituary of Freddie Alexander."
Apparently,
Scott Joplin, already inspired by the progressive ideals of Booker T. Washington,
saw a path to social and artistic betterment through his love of Freddie, a
daughter of a refined family. During this period, Joplin used the title "rag"
less often in his piano-solo works, and nurtured an interest in opera (he had
long been active in vaudeville as well as ragtime piano). He seems to have lost
his sense of direction in 1905 and 1906, until led by his publisher John Stark
to move to New York City in 1907. Once there, apparently growing out of his
grief, Joplin studied with an Italian opera singer and composer, composed his
folk opera Treemonisha, and composed Wall Street Rag and his other late
masterpieces for piano. Joplin died in April 1917 following two years of
debilitating illness.
Joplin
left almost no personal writings, such as letters or diaries. To create an
impression of autobiography, Two Views of
Scott Joplin consists mostly of words and music written by Scott Joplin,
and piano music composed by two close associates, the composer-pianists Louis
Chauvin and Scott Hayden. These words come from Treemonisha, from Joplins little-remembered vaudeville and parlor
songs, and also from text in his sheet-music---copyright notices, publishers
addresses, titles and subtitles of rags, performance directions. In most cases,
selected lyrics are extracted from songs and paired with piano-solo themes. These
ingredients are combined in creative ways to express the biographical
narrative. Instrumental themes are re-cast as necessary to express their newly-attached
lyrics. But in no place can any of the music in Two Views of Scott Joplin be considered an arrangement of a given,
intact composition, nor a medley of tunes, nor a theatrical revue. The
character development and dialogue found in "Scott Joplins Struggle with
Destiny" (Part II, No. 3) is my own biographical interpretation of Joplin,
based on known evidence and on his music.
The score contains extensive Performance Notes for performing this 16-minute work as a choral work or as a short opera scene.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.