Leola (1905) - Scott Joplin (With Score / Sheet Music)

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Description

Out of the 5 works published in 1905, Leola would turn out to be the only rag out of the bunch. However, it was the very first of Joplin compositions to carry his famously unambiguous admonition: "Notice! Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play "rag-time" fast. Author." And it most certainly would not become the last work to feature the note, with nearly every future rag of Joplin's to be marked with the same, indicating his desires to legitimize Ragtime as a serious musical form.

In Leola, Joplin had went back to his Maple Leaf Rag formula with only some minor variations. The harmonic content within itself is definitely more sophisticated, but the basic structure remains the same, including a return to the original key after the lush trio. In the score, pedaling is marked for the B and D sections, but strangely enough not for the rest of the piece with even the choice of cover art (likely commissioned for the piece) also appearing to be somewhat odd. While sheet music cover art depicting people dancing was becoming more common as the years progressed, the European garb and hairstyles shown here become a radical departure for a ragtime cover, especially when considering the social shift from classical to "popular" music of the day.

As if those combinations alone did not seem strange on it's own, Leola was oddly first registered in London rather than at the U.S. Library of Congress, a move than may have contributed to the the institute being left with no known original copies of the piece to this very day. To make matters any worse, Leola had also saw poor distribution across the Midwest through its St. Louis Publisher, American Music Syndicate, making it among the most rare of Joplin rags if not piano rags in general. (However, recently in early 2017, an original copy of Leola had surfaced online via Weiss Auctions & had sold for a whooping total of $1,050.00 on May 25th of that year! Now try to make that price comparison to it's original 50¢ listing back in 1905!)
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"Leola (Two Step)" - Classic Piano Rag - Pattern: A A B B A Trio Trio D D
Music by Scott Joplin, Published by American Music Syndicate in 1905
Cover Artist: Bert Ball

Music description provided & written by Bill Edwards, learn more about it here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220308214107/http://ragpiano.com/pbmusic_joplin1.shtml

Music performed by Guido Nielsen with his album "Scott Joplin: The Complete Works (Rags, Marches, Waltzes & Songs)"

℗ 2000 Basta Audio-Visuals
Producer: Piet Schreuders
Music Publisher: Basta Music
Performer: Guido Nielsen