SCOTT JOPLIN

Scott has the tendency to turn melodic lines into delicate and but simple notes.

“Magnetic Rag” was the last piece that Scott completed. This can be compared to his other famous

pieces of work “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer” which all exercise the

reappearing theme that shows a tendency to round out by always returning to the home

key.

In Scott’s piece the “Magnetic Rag”. 1868, Scott became facinated with the piano

at an early age and was mentored by a old german teacher that took him in as a pupil. Generally

all of his pieces share the customary ragtime layout and composition of a pair of

contrasting lines, each repeated and followed by the return to the first line, then a new

section consisting of two or three repeated lines emerge and is usually subdominant. The reappearance of the orginal theme at the

close of the piece, shares a shocking likeness to Beethoven’s famous reoccuring “I am

Death Theme”.

Scott’s style of piano playing stress his smooth singing tone and subtle sense of rhythm. It was subtitled :

syncopation classiques because of his wonderful blend of syncopation on every up-beat

and mad-cow improvisations tailored to sound like European dance music that influenced

early ragtime. In the “Magnetic Rag”, the return of the opening theme at the end of the

piece creates a rondo-like structure with a scheme ABCDA, with the outer A section and

the central C section stands in tonal harmony.