Maple Leaf Rag

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piano piece, a march-shaped dance in which four different strains appear in turn.
• Who, when, whyScott Joplin wrote it, and John Stark, a publisher in Sedalia, Missouri, brought it out in 1899. The title is said to come from the town's Maple Leaf Club.
• What to listen forthe left hand's oom-pah walk against the right hand's off-beat rhythms, and the moments the strains change.

Listen for

• The first strainsyncopation, the right hand popping up between the beats. This is the face of the piece.
• The second strainthe right hand sparkles even higher as it runs.
• The third and fourth strains: after the first strain returns once, two new strains follow, and the last closes the piece boldly.

When it was written

In late nineteenth-century America, ragtime, developed by Black musicians, became a craze: piano music placing the rhythmic sense of African American music on the frame of a march. With no radio yet, people bought sheet music and played new tunes on their home pianos.

Joplin, born in Texas, was a musician who played piano in town after town, and in Sedalia he studied music further. After publication, the Maple Leaf Rag sold steadily for years and made his name. Joplin regarded ragtime as serious composition and even left a warning not to play it fast.