Silver Swan Rag

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piece for piano in B-flat major.
• Who and whena piece by Scott Joplin that appeared on piano roll in 1914, during his last years, when he was living in New York.
• What to listen forthe steady walk of the left hand, the right hand slipping off the beat above it, and the moments when one section gives way to the next.

Listen for

• The left hand's walkin a rag the left hand usually alternates a low note and a chord, stepping evenly in two. Follow this unshakable base first.
• The right hand's off-beats: the right hand gets its lilt from syncopation, notes that arrive just ahead of the beat. Like a swan that looks calm on the water while its feet paddle hard below, listen for the two hands pulling apart.
• When a section changesclassic rags are usually made of several short sections that follow one another and repeat. Listen for how the height and brightness of the melody shift when a new one comes in.

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 around 1907 he moved to New York.

By the time this piece appeared, his heart was set on opera. In 1911 he published the score of his opera Treemonisha at his own expense, but he never saw a proper performance of it in his lifetime. He died in New York in 1917, by which time popular taste was already moving toward jazz.

A piece saved on a piano roll

This piece came down to us on a piano roll: a long scroll of paper with holes punched where the notes go. Put it in a player piano and the keys go down by themselves, following the holes. Before radio broadcasting spread, it was one of the ways people could play music back at home.

The roll lay forgotten for decades and became known again in the early 1970s. That was a time when Joplin's music was drawing fresh attention, and the 1973 film The Sting, which used his pieces, sent many more listeners looking for his sound.