Fall 1998 Volume XXVIII, No. 1

Rethinking the Rhapsody by Richard Crawford New Music Notes by Carol J. Oja Time to Remember Zez Confrey by Artis Wodehouse Behind the Beat with Mark Tucker Widening the Lens II by Daniel Kingman Porgy and Bess–The Film The Maple Leaf Rag at 100 Reviews A Centenary Moment? by Stephen Banfield Gershwin on Disc by Edward A. Berlin Country and Gospel Notes by Charles Wolfe ISAM Home

The Maple Leaf Rag at 100 The town of Sedalia, MO took little note in 1899 when music store owner John Stark published Scott Joplin’s masterpiece. Things have changed. The town, now the home of the annual Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, is preparing for a week-long celebration beginning on 31 May to commemorate that signal event. Featuring such headliners as Max Morath, Butch Thompson, John Arpin, and Morten Gunnar Larsen, the festival will have some 100 performers in nine formal concerts, innumerable free outdoor events, a ragtime ball, cabarets, silent movies with live piano accompaniments, and, as always, nightly “afterhours” music making until dawn. A special feature will be a full performance of Joplin’s ballet The Ragtime Dance (also celebrating its centennial), with dancers, singer, and orchestra. Symposium topics will focus on the two centennial pieces, but will include also newly discovered music of Joseph Lamb, interactions between ragtime and Native American music, a history of musical washboard playing, the tango in the ragtime era, European syncopated music, and the like. For further information, see www.scottjoplin.org or call 660-826-2271.