Reflections
Scott Joplin died April 1, 1917. Some say it was of a broken heart because of the difficulties he had encountered with the presentation of his Ragtime Opera Treemonisha. The official report cited "dementia" as the cause. The actual cause had to do with the lifestyle led by many of the pianist/composers of the era, "The sportin' life", which gave Joplin syphilis, the eventual cause of his dementia and death.
His widow, Lottie Stokes Joplin, long regretted that she did not fulfill one of his final requests; that the Maple Leaf Rag be played at his funeral.
Shortly after his death, publisher John Stark dug into his archives to pull out one final Joplin rag for publication. It is not entirely certain if this is a complete rag as originally written, or perhaps a fusion of themes from two or more pieces. Still, it is generally believed that the major content of Reflection was written about 1907 to 1908, and Joplin submitted no more pieces to Stark after 1909. It is unusual in that there are five repeated sections played in order, and no reiteration of any of them. This adds to the speculation of Reflection having been "assembled" rather than composed as a single rag.
Even more cryptic is the promise of two more Joplin rags to be released in the future, a promise which never materialized. The manuscripts for these were likely destroyed or lost at some point after Stark's death.
The cover picture had been previously used by Stark on Joseph Lamb's Cleopatra Rag and James Scott's Sunburst Rag. --Bill Edmunds
Scott Joplin died April 1, 1917. Some say it was of a broken heart because of the difficulties he had encountered with the presentation of his Ragtime Opera Treemonisha. The official report cited "dementia" as the cause. The actual cause had to do with the lifestyle led by many of the pianist/composers of the era, "The sportin' life", which gave Joplin syphilis, the eventual cause of his dementia and death.
His widow, Lottie Stokes Joplin, long regretted that she did not fulfill one of his final requests; that the Maple Leaf Rag be played at his funeral.
Shortly after his death, publisher John Stark dug into his archives to pull out one final Joplin rag for publication. It is not entirely certain if this is a complete rag as originally written, or perhaps a fusion of themes from two or more pieces. Still, it is generally believed that the major content of Reflection was written about 1907 to 1908, and Joplin submitted no more pieces to Stark after 1909. It is unusual in that there are five repeated sections played in order, and no reiteration of any of them. This adds to the speculation of Reflection having been "assembled" rather than composed as a single rag.
Even more cryptic is the promise of two more Joplin rags to be released in the future, a promise which never materialized. The manuscripts for these were likely destroyed or lost at some point after Stark's death.
The cover picture had been previously used by Stark on Joseph Lamb's Cleopatra Rag and James Scott's Sunburst Rag. --Bill Edmunds
