Joplin, S :: Scott Joplin: Portrait

Musicians Publications presents Scott Joplin Portrait arranged for flute quartet by Bill Holcombe Jr. This collection of hit songs originally by Scott Joplin includes the tracks The Ragtime Dance', 'The Entertainer , 'The Easy Winners , Pineapple Rag', Solace , Cascades', Maple Leaf Rag , 'Original Rag , and Chrysanthemum . Scored for 4 C flutes, this arrangement also includes an optional alto flute part to substitute for the 4th flute when available for performance.

Maple Leaf Rag' remained a constant in popular music throughout the Jazz Age, but the better part of Joplin's work remained unknown until the ragtime revival of the early '70s, during which Scott Joplin' became a household name and Treemonishia was finally staged by the Houston Grand Opera. Although primary sources on Joplin's music were still extant as late as the late '40s, today not a single manuscript page in Joplin's hand still exists and only three photographs of him have survived, along with precious few first-hand quotations. Joplin died in a mental facility convinced that he had failed in his mission to achieve success as an African-American composer of serious music. Were he alive today, Joplin would be astounded to learn that, a century after his work was first printed, he is the most successful African-American composer of serious music that ever lived -- by far. Some of his works have been recorded hundreds of times and arranged for practically every conceivable instrumental combination, played by everything from symphony orchestras to ice cream trucks. For a couple of generations of Americans who have even never heard of Stephen Foster, the music of Scott Joplin represents the old, traditional order of all things American. - Uncle Dave Lewis