Program Notes by Lucinda Mosher, Th.D.

The Entertainer

A Rag Time Two Step by Scott Joplin (1868–1917), arr. Richard W. Sargeant Jr

In 2001, a project of the Recording Industry Association of America, in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, created a list of 365 “Songs of the [20th] Century,” based on input from hundreds of Americans. The Entertainer is #10. This catchy example of ragtime was composed for piano in 1902 by Scott Joplin, the king of this distinctive sort of early 20th century dance music. In a piano rag, the left hand maintains a steady cadence. Against this, the right hand plays angular, syncopated melodies. The Entertainer has four. The first one returns in the middle of the piece. Listen for it!

Joplin’s piano solo has been transformed into a piece for orchestra by arranger Richard W. Sargeant Jr, who is also a composer, a conductor, and a bassoonist! Notice how Sargeant gives every instrument a moment to shine, injecting humor into the piece as he does. For example, this rag’s first theme is a “call and response.” Sargeant gives the first “calls” to the violins and the “responses” to the high woodwinds. Later on, a trumpet issues the call and strings provide the response. Where there would be little fluctuation between soft and loud when this piece is performed as a piano solo, Sargeant asks for many dynamic contrasts.

Ragtime enjoyed quite a comeback in the 1970s. The Entertainer’s boost came in 1977, when it was featured in the soundtrack of The Sting. That movie was set in the thirties—a period during which ragtime was out of fashion. That mattered little to The Sting’s audiences. They loved Scott Joplin’s two-step! So, we hope, will you!