The Easy Winners, Scott Joplin (1901) #scottjoplin #ragtime #theeasywinners #piano
438 views · Published 13 August 2017 · 3:39 · Indexed 17 October 2026
Channel: Herbinator_88 · 2017 · Music
E-cital submission Aug 13, 2017 -------------------------------------------------------- Information provided by: http://www.perfessorbill.com/pbmusic_joplin1.shtml The issuance of this rag marked the beginning of what would become a continually strained relationship between Joplin and his biggest advocate in most respects, publisher John Stark. Possibly due to a dispute concerning Joplin's desire to publish his extended stage dance piece, The Ragtime Dance, Joplin took his next rag to Shattinger Music in St. Louis to help him publish The Easy Winners under his own name. This may have been a ploy by Joplin to leverage Stark by demonstrating that he could be independent if need be. Soon after the first vanity press, the copyright was sold to Shattinger, who issued it in two editions with color variances on the original cover image. Stark eventually purchased the plates and distributed the piece using yet another variation on the original cover, followed by two more simpler covers, one with the composer's picture on it, but the footer still credited Joplin as the publisher. The A section follows a well-known folk pattern that was used in many black-composed pieces throughout the era. It is followed by his most intricate syncopated melodic line to date in the B section. The trio (C section) consists of a simple pattern that is carried through to the end, and the last four measures of it also end the D section, which is largely a call and response type of phrase. This piece was quite appropriately used (look at the horse racing depicted in the lower left image on the original Carrie Russell cover) and adapted by composer Marvin Hamlisch in the movie 1974 film The Sting.
