Cynthia Cathcart wrote:
My old piano professor made his specialty the music of the American Ragtime era...Scott Joplin and all those cats. We have recordings of Joplin playing (actually, I think they might be some sort of piano-rolls that were made by him) and they're really awful. If that's what Ragtime is supposed to sound like, I've had enough of it... Of course, it's the terrible recording, and not Mr. Joplin's talent! But does that mean we give up on studying those piano rolls? Do we abandon that music? Certainly not, we'd only be robbing ourselves.I've been reprimanded for playing ragtime (not that I play much) too fast - even on the guitar. Scott Joplin's original pace and phrasing was pointed out to me... really clunky and slow! Seems like ragtime has been smoothed out and speeded up. Was that what you have heard in the piano roll recordings?
David
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