Magnetic Rag

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piece for solo piano.
• Who and whenpublished by Scott Joplin in 1914, three years before he died.
• What to listen forthe steady walk of the left hand, the right hand slipping off the beat, and the moments when a new section arrives and the mood shifts.

Listen for

• The left hand's walkin a classic rag the left hand usually alternates a low note and a chord, stepping along evenly. That walk is the floor the whole piece stands on.
• Right-hand syncopationsyncopation is rhythm that deliberately pushes ahead of a strong beat or steps around it. Listen for the gentle tension when the left hand holds its place and the right hand drifts just off it.
• When a section changesrags are usually built from several sections that follow one another and repeat. Notice how the brightness and the height of the melody change when a new section begins, and whether that change pulls your ear back in.

When it was written

Ragtime grew up among African American musicians in the late nineteenth century, and much of it was played on the piano. Joplin made his name in 1899 with the Maple Leaf Rag, and in 1902 he published The Entertainer. In 1908 he also put out School of Ragtime, a set of exercises on how to play the style properly.

After moving to New York around 1907, Joplin poured his energy into his opera Treemonisha. In 1911 he published the score at his own expense, but he never saw a proper staging of it in his lifetime. Magnetic Rag came out during these years.

Joplin died in New York in 1917. By then public taste was already moving from ragtime toward jazz. His music found a wide audience again when it was used in the 1973 film The Sting, and in 1976 he was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize.