Heliotrope Bouquet

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piece for piano. The sheet music gives it the subtitle 'A Slow Drag Two-Step'.
• Who and whenpublished in 1907 under the names of Scott Joplin and Louis Chauvin.
• What to listen forthe easy, dragging step, the right hand slipping just off the beat above it, and the bright sound of G major.

Listen for

• A slow stepa 'slow drag' is a dance done slowly, the feet almost sliding along the floor. Compared with a bouncy, quick rag, listen for how the melody breathes inside this more relaxed step.
• Left hand and right hand: in a rag the left hand usually alternates a low note and a chord, walking evenly. The right hand creates its lilt with syncopation, pushing ahead of the beat or holding back from it. Listen for how gently those off-beats land here.
• When a section changesclassic rags are usually built from several sections that follow one another and repeat. Listen for how the mood shifts each time a new section comes in.

When it was written

Ragtime is piano music that grew up among African American musicians in the late nineteenth century. It laid syncopated rhythm over the frame of the march and sold widely as sheet music. There was no radio yet, so people bought the sheet music and tried out new rags on the piano at home.

In the 1890s Joplin worked in Sedalia, and afterward he moved to St. Louis. Around 1907, about the time this piece appeared, he moved on to New York. The following year, 1908, he published School of Ragtime, a short guide to playing rags.

Louis Chauvin, the other name

Chauvin was a young pianist who worked in St. Louis and was known for his playing. He left very few pieces in written form, though, and Heliotrope Bouquet is one of that handful. He died in 1908, the year after it was published, before reaching thirty.

Joplin died in New York in 1917. His music was largely forgotten for a time, then won a wide audience again when his pieces were used in the 1973 film The Sting.