Play the Maple Leaf Rag for Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin died on 1 April 1917 and his request to have the Maple Leaf Rag played at his funeral was not honored.

In 1950 the widow [Lottie Joplin] still regretted that she had refused the request her husband had so often made for the Maple Leaf Rag to be played at his funeral. — from Rudi Blesh’s introduction to Scott Joplin: Complete Piano Works (“Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist,” 27 July 1971)

So time has come to make amends and honor Scott’s request in a manner appropriate to the internet age.

Here’s the plan: on April 1, play the Maple Leaf Rag on your instrument(s) of choice. Band performances are fine, too. If you don’t play any instrument, fire up your favorite Maple Leaf Rag mp3. Crank it.

Musicians: You are strongly encouraged to share your performance with the world, so record yourself (or a friend or your band), upload your recording to your favorite video or audio sharing website, and post a link to it in the comments below. You can also tweet it to @King_Of_Ragtime or share it on the King Of Ragtime’s Facebook wall. Or keep your performance private, if you prefer, but feel free to share your thoughts.

Videos posted on YouTube will be collected on the KingOfRagtime’s channel.

Start practicing your Maple Leaf, get it down and be ready to jam on 1 April. Play it straight as-written, or add your own interpretation. It’s a challenging piece, so don’t worry about playing it perfectly — this isn’t a contest; energy and spirit are much more important than perfection (but don’t play it too fast ;)).

Remember, it’s important to perform the piece live on 1 April. Play as if Scott Joplin had personally invited you to perform it at his funeral. Let’s all give him the funeral he wanted!

April 1, 2012 will mark the 95th anniversary of Scott Joplin’s passing and this will be the first year of his belated funeral Maple Leaf Rag performance. If there’s interest, maybe we’ll do something special for the 100th year anniversary in 2017.