Reflection Rag

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piece for piano in B-flat major, lasting about four minutes.
• Who and whenby Scott Joplin, published in 1917, the year of his death.
• What to listen forthe steady step of the left hand, the right hand slipping just off the beat, and the moments when a new section begins.

Listen for

• The left hand's stepin a classic rag the left hand usually alternates a low note and a chord, walking evenly in two. That steady walk holds up the whole piece from below.
• Right-hand syncopationsyncopation shifts a strong beat a little early or a little late, which gives the rhythm its spring. Follow the right hand as it drifts away from the left and then lands with it again.
• Where sections changerags are usually built from several short sections joined one after another. Listen for how the height of the melody and the mood shift when a new section comes in.
• An unhurried tempoJoplin urged players not to play ragtime fast. Listen for whether the off-beats come through more clearly at a relaxed pace.

When it was written

Ragtime is piano music that grew up among African American musicians in the late nineteenth century. Joplin made his name in 1899 with the Maple Leaf Rag and published The Entertainer in 1902. In 1908 he also brought out School of Ragtime, a set of exercises on how to play rags.

Around 1907 Joplin moved to New York and put much of his energy into his opera Treemonisha. He published the score at his own expense in 1911, but never saw a proper performance of it in his lifetime. Meanwhile, listeners were turning toward a newer sound, jazz. Reflection Rag came out at the very end of that period.

A name heard again

For a long time after his death, Joplin's music was seldom heard by the wider public. Then the 1973 film The Sting used his pieces, and his music reached a large new audience. Treemonisha reached the stage in the 1970s, and in 1976 Joplin was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize.