Syncopated Musings
Rags, Concert Waltzes and Novelties for the Pianoforte by Scott Joplin and his Collaborators.
Since the rediscovery of Scott Joplin’s ragtime genius in the 1970s his music has been an important part of the popular/light classical repertoire. Yet though he called himself with some justification “The King of Ragtime Writers” he was not a brilliant pianist; he was actually a trained violinist and cornet player and was lead singer of the Texas Medley Quartette. This wide experience helped to make his piano rags full of interest. All the same, most recordings concentrate on the most familiar works and ignore the many other superb pieces in Joplin’s substantial output. This new album from New York pianist Marilyn Nonken (Professor of Music at New York University’s Steinhardt School) includes some well-known works and some rarities. Rags, concert waltzes and other novelty pieces show brilliance and a well-honed craft.
Joplin is perhaps the best known of the ragtime piano circle, but he was part of a community of composers. many of whom had short and tragic lives of poverty and ill health. While composing few works that have survived, the four represented here all collaborated with Joplin as joint composers: Louis Chauvin (1882-1908); Scott Hayden (1882-1915), Arthur Marshall (1881-1968) and the odd man out, the white composer Joseph Lamb (1887-1960) of whose work Joplin said ‘That sounds like a good colored rag!’
Track Listing
- Heliotrope Bouquet (Louis Chauvin / Scott Joplin) (4:29)
- Sensation (Joseph Lamb) (2:35)
- Eugenia (Scott Joplin) (4:49)
- Stoptime Rag (Scott Joplin) (2:39)
- Magnetic Rag (Scott Joplin) (4:51)
- Sun Flower Slow Drag (Scott Hayden / Scott Joplin) (3:49)
- Somthing Doing (Scott Hayden / Scott Joplin) (3:39)
- Felicity Rag (Scott Hayden / Scott Joplin (3:58)
- Kismet Rag (Scott Hayden / Scott Joplin) (3:13)
- Swipesy (Arthur Marshall / Scott Joplin) (4:04)
- Lily Queen (Arthur Marshall / Scott Joplin) (3:41)
- Binks' Waltz (Scott Joplin) (3:59)
- Bethena (Scott Joplin) (5:11)
- Pleasant Moments (Scott Joplin) (3:20)
- Antoinette - March and Two-Step (Scott Joplin) (3:04)
- Solace (Scott Joplin) (5:59)
- Reflection Rag - Syncopated Musings (Scott Joplin) 4:30)
Reviews
“With an abundance of lesser-known pieces and the absence of the best-known Joplin rags, this is a perfect complement to whatever you might already have. Nonken’s scholarship matches her stylistically perfect playing. You will hear adventurous harmonies and turns of melody. You will also be tapping your foot to this program.
” —James Harrington
“Marilyn Nonken charts a decade’s worth of compositions in a search to extract a greater expressive weight than has perhaps been heard before. Nonken is a far saner interpreter [than Joshua Rifkin). A reflective, somewhat serious look at Scott Joplin and his collaborators.
” —Jonathan Woolf
“Nonken leans towards the classical, though it’s pretty jaunty throughout and she sounds like she had fun. This is a very easy album to listen to, somewhere between jazz and classical, and a lot of fun. Warmly recommended.
” —Jeremy Condliffe
“Nonken joins the group of classicists who understand the character of ragtime and have the skill and temperament to enhance it in performance. Her playing is always ultra clean, precise, and well considered. I expect that Joplin would have been thrilled to hear Nonken play his music; I know that I am.
” —Ed Berlin
“The proto-jazz form of ragtime is fascinatingly explored by pianist Marilyn Nonken. Other composers working on similar music sometimes collaborated with Joplin or sometimes had their works arranged by him, and Nonken’s disc provides an unusual opportunity to hear some of those collaborations and arrangements. What Nonken does so well in her performances is to differentiate the individual pieces, giving each its own character and distinctiveness.
” —Mark J. Estren
“Fine playing and sound make this unhackneyed tuneful 17-track selection a worthy addition to the Joplin discography.
” —Peter Burt
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