Monday 12 April 2010

A welcome addition to my 'happy list' - Scott Joplin

I really think this deserves to be on my 'List of Things that make me Happy' (to go along with - watching animals play, stroking my 'pussies', flowers, seeing other people laugh, saki/margaritas (in moderation), Woody Allen comedies etc.
I recently bought on eBay a book of the sheet music of the complete Ragtime piano solos of Scott Joplin (including some marches and waltzes). I'm working my way through them and they really are a delight to play. Of course they aren't exactly profound - they weren't meant to be - but they are skilfully composed, with some of them having very daring and unexpected key-change lurches. I suppose a parallel music type would be trad-jazz - undemanding stuff, yes, but positively cheerful. It's difficult to listen to (or play) one of these pieces without a smile creasing one's features.
I already knew two or three of them - including the ubiquitous, but still clever. 'The Entertainer' - among them the 'Maple Leaf Rag' in a finger-friendly G major but I see that that version had been transposed down a semitone from the trickier and far more challenging Ab original, so this is how I'll be playing it from now on. Lots more delights in store. Happy music!

4 comments:

  1. I like your "Happy List" Ray. It is amazing what simple finds can lift our spirits.

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  2. Thanks. Kyle I've added two more since you read it - and I'll doubtlessly be thinking of others to add. But I'd be very interested indeed to see written down what makes others happy too.

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  3. Ray, you are on my Happy List.

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  4. I can't top that one, Larry. Wish I'd thought of that idea before you. But thanks.

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