Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Would you pedal the 'Maple Leaf Rag'?

I've just finished learning this piece. I'm not sure whether to use pedal or not.

No!!! Definetely not. Using the pedal destroys the march, sycompated, ragtimy style.

No. Most people dont realize there's supposed to be a little 'gap' of syncopation between the LH ocatves, and elsewhere. Pedaling fills those in superflously.

Using the pedal will muddy this piece to an unacceptable degree.

No pedal - nada - zed - zip. metronome, yes!


[ed.: didn't we just go through this MPR pedaling issue?]

No pedal. No space = no syncopation.

I think it depends on the Piano. On my cheap Piano, it sounds a lot better pedaled.

Here you have the piece played by the composer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc&fmt=18

It is recorded on a piano roll which is not completely accurate, although one gets an idea of how it was played. Of course, the composer is not always the best "interpreter". Let your own ear and your own taste guide you. Record it (perhaps several versions) if you have to.

May I be so bold as to ask why people like this song? What's the continued fascination with this tivial ditty that 1000 years after it was written, people are still playing it?

It was written in 1898, first published in 1906, and became the first work of music to sell over 1 million copies on score?

It is regarded by many to be the best Rag ever written, and it is also one of the easiest to learn thanks to the amount of repetition used in the piece.

I think you maybe meant 100 years, but then why do people still play Chopin, Mozart, or any other classical composer?

No, I meant 1000! It seems like I've been hearing 6 year olds play that song at recitals for the last 1000 years anyway!

Chopin, Mozart, and most of the other clasical composer's music has content. Some, more than others. Many of their compositions are aesthetically superb as well. Male Leaf Rag, on the other hand... I just don't get it.

Then again, rap artists sell gazillions of CDs, and consider each other "geniuses" if they can sample a rudimentary drum track. I imagine that compared to some of that, Maple Leaf Rag is the work of a super-genius. Maybe Wiley Coyote wrote it;

http://steynian.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/wile_e_coyote_super_genius.jpg

Dear Bhav,
May I gently correct you re Maple Leaf Rag.

It was written about 1897 and then published by John Stark in Sedalia Mo. September 1899. It still remains the perfect model of classic ragtime.
All the very best to you.
John Gill
Australian Pianoman.

Hi ya, John. THE John Gill? My favorite down-under stride playing Bosendorfer artist? Playing Sidewalk Blues in this thread???...

Sedalia 2006 highlights

Welcome to PianoWorld!

Howard

Ah, Howard - I always make sure I check out what you've written because I know you're on the ball with ragtime, and I have the Sedalia highlights bookmarked, as well as Sue's site, on my computer. Loved the Sidewalk Blues!

Cathy

Ooops, I were a few years off doh.

Some pedal. Do it the way it sounds good to you. Kind of depends on the piano, the room, the speed, your personal style.

"Maple Leaf" is Joplin's best-known work, but not my personal favorite, by a long way. The "Collected Works" offers a lot that is less-known, but in my opinion, better--- anyway, for my taste.

Yeah, definitely.

I certainly don't think it's one of the easier Joplin rags. The trio sections proves a stumbling block for many. Virtually all the Joplin rags use repeated phrases a lot.

Interesting that he swings it.

There was a thread a while back asking about that.

There's a very limited few places I might use the pedal on that song... for example on the measure where you're playing the Ab-minor broken chord 4 times going up an octave each time, i think a few measures into the song if I remember correctly. Also I might consider its use sometimes in the second section of the song, where it like transitions into a Db key or something like that. Actually, though, that'd be one of those cases where I actually would like to sustain the treble and the low bass, but not the syncopated chord on beats 2 and 4 of each measure.