Solace: A Song History
Scott Joplin, the ragtime composer who died in New York in 1917, published "Solace," subtitled "A Mexican Serenade," with Seminary Music Co. of New York in 1909.[1][2] Seminary was a new publisher for him, and Britannica dates the end of his contract with John Stark, who had issued his music for years, to that same year.[2][3] Its left-hand part carries a habanera or tango rhythm, which lends this unhurried rag its Latin color.[3]
Mariano Fortuny, Serenade, etching, c. 1863–65. Shown for its title; it has no connection to Joplin's piece.
Joplin's music came back into wide notice in the 1970s.[2] Joshua Rifkin's label, Nonesuch, credits his 1970 recording of Joplin piano rags with doing much to set that ragtime revival in motion.[4] The 1973 film The Sting, directed by George Roy Hill, carried a score that Marvin Hamlisch adapted from Joplin's music, and Britannica says it "ignited a vogue for ragtime music."[5] The MCA soundtrack album, catalogued by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich as a 1974 release, includes "Solace" in both an orchestral and a piano version.[6] Joplin himself was honored with a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.[2]
Dana Gruber arranges "Solace" as a duet, drawn from Parts 4 & 5 of the original, in Classical Melodies For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer, a book of classical melodies for chromatic mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[7]
Sources
- IMSLP: "Solace (Joplin, Scott)".
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Scott Joplin".
- All Classical Research: "Solace: A Mexican Serenade".
- Nonesuch Records: "Joshua Rifkin".
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: "The Sting".
- Zentralbibliothek Zürich (swisscollections): "The sting: original motion picture soundtrack: featuring the music of Scott Joplin".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Dana Gruber, Classical Melodies For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer".
- Image: Mariano Fortuny, Serenade, etching, c. 1863–65. The Cleveland Museum of Art.