Scott Joplin

Maple Leaf Rag La B Majeur

The ANACROUSE collection offers novice and experienced pianists alike a wide choice of classical works, from the Renaissance to the modern era.

We have set ourselves the goal of offering both "must-haves" from the classical repertoire and pieces by sometimes forgotten composers, all of undeniable pedagogical value. Each piece, sold individually, has been the subject of careful editorial work, both in terms of the musical text and its engraving, in order to guarantee musicians the conditions essential to the pleasures derived from frequent trade in these works.

The scores are offered in traditional book form (paper sheets), and also available by download.



In 1899, publisher John Stark published Scott Joplin's Maple leaf rag score The latter named it after the Maple Leaf Club in Sedelia, the nightclub where he worked. John Stark made Joplin one of the leading figures in this new musical movement. Maple leaf rag sold over a million copies, enabling Stark to buy a printing press and produce a new color edition with the famous maple leaf cover, featuring Scott Joplin's first known photo.

Maple Leaf Rag reached the charts in 1907, thanks to versions by banjoist Vess L. Ossman and the US Marine Band, the first orchestra to record the song, apparently in October 1906. Scott Joplin engraved it as a piano roll in 1916, while the first recording by jazzmen was by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings on March 13, 1923, for the Gennett label.
He composed Maple Leaf Rag in a 2/4 binary rhythm for piano. Unlike most rags, it contains four themes of 16 bars each. The first, second and fourth are in A-flat major, while the third is in D-flat major.
A benchmark in ragtime, Maple Leaf Rag represented an elementary source of inspiration for many composers who borrowed its melodic and rhythmic turns, and even its harmonic framework, such as the famous James Scott in Great Scott Rag, Ophelia Rag and Quality Rag
Thanks to this famous success, Scott Joplin's name became synonymous with Ragtime, and he was dubbed "King of Ragtime" during his lifetime. This piece is considered to be Scott Joplin's major work, the one that codified the structure of classic ragtime for an entire decade, and which would give birth to jazz a few years later.
This piece arouses particular enthusiasm among musicians. Even today, it attracts many more or less established performers.