Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Why is Scott Joplin original sheet music (Expensive)??

Hello:

Not sure where to post this, but I saw some Scott Joplin sheet music extremely expensive on eBay and I am really curious to know why?

Just not sure why it would be so expensive, unless it's signed etc....

Thanks,
David

Go to imslp.org. It is public domain and free. I just got through downloading some. As to your question, I really do not know but would guess it is called greed.

1. There's dwindling pool of it around
2. There were different print runs. Earlier print runs are rarer and often have misprints and quirks that identify them as such
3. Folks who like ragtime REALLY like ragtime. There's a lot of historical interest around the music as well

If it's the music you care about, that's pretty much all available for free online.

"Scott Joplin Collected Piano Works," 327 pp., published by New York Public Library and Belwin Mills, lists for a modest US $24.95. The 1981 edition contains all of Joplin's published piano works, including three titles which are under copyright owned by people who (I'm guessing) wanted the big payday that john_f spoke of, and so could not be included in the initial edition, ten years previous. Joplin's 'ragtime opera,' "Treemonisha." is published in a separate volume, by the publishers of the collected piano works, and the publisher's notes mention that there are said to be other works for voice, as well as another lost opera, "A Guest of Honor."

Used book stores, garage sales, estate sales, stock sales from music stores which are closing, and possibly library sales, are good places to look for the kind of original sheet music izlho mentioned--- ebay has not cornered the market. Besides the printed piano scores, there are collectables such as his popular music published for bandstand and dance bands, piano rolls, and phonograph records. I don't know much about those last categories, and I can't say if Joplin himself made any of the piano rolls or records. But, we have PW members who actually have player pianos that work, and they know a lot about them.

If you are willing to accept black-and-white reproductions of the original cover pages, those are included in this edition. Color scans can be found by trolling the web, or you could take your chances and color them yourself, if you are looking for something to put up in your music room.

The opera "A Guest of Honor" is almost certainly lost to the ages, but, who knows, there might be a forgotten trunk in an attic somewhere in the Midwest that contains the score.

There are no audio recordings of Joplin.

Joplin recorded 7 piano rolls: 6 for Connorized and 1 for Aeolian Uni-Record. Due to the difference between Connorized production and Aeolian production, the Aeolian roll is probably the only actual view we get to Joplin's ability as a pianist. Joplin was not renowned as a performer, but, even then, the Uni-Record roll very likely reflects Joplin's deteriorating condition in the year before his death.

Goodwill has loads of old records, old sheet music and also, used book stores have a lot of both as well.

I just would think that millions of his scores were printed/produced back in the day and not worth much even now.....

Good information, thanks.

Arrangements could be under copyright, but the actual work of Joplin can't because he died before 1923.

I couldn't find anything related to Scott Joplin on eBay that seemed way out of line. I looked under books and then memorabilia. How much was the item that started this conversation?

1902 original 'Cleopha' in excellent condition-- starting bid $500
'The King of Ragtime'(edition not listed) $666 starting bid

Search Scott Joplin sheet music. People can ask any amount for anything, but I look at sold auctions.

If you look at sold auctions, here are a few:

RAG RAGTIME SHEET MUSIC: Lily Queen by SCOTT JOPLIN ARTHUR MARSHALL
$800.00

RAG RAGTIME SHEET MUSIC: The Ragtime Dance by SCOTT JOPLIN
$500.00

SCOTT JOPLIN FIG LEAF RAG SHEET MUSIC 1908
$200.00

It costs a lot because it is rare and popular.

"...the Aeolian roll is probably the only actual view we get to Joplin's ability as a pianist. Joplin was not renowned as a performer, but, even then, the Uni-Record roll very likely reflects Joplin's deteriorating condition in the year before his death..."

"Dementia paralytica-cerebral, contributing cause: syphillis. April 1, 1917" From Rudi Blesh's introduction to the 1971 edition of the "Collected Works."

In Edwin A. Berlin's 1994 book, "King of Ragtime," published by Oxford Press, he ventures a guess that "A Guest of Honor" commemorated the reception of Booker T. Washington at the Theodore Roosevelt White House.

As usual, this book turned up at a used book store, and not so usually it was in mint condition, with its original cover; apparently never read. If you are familiar with Rudi Blesh's book, "They All Played Ragtime," this more traditionally-researched work, to the more exacting standards of Oxford Press, definitely takes published works on the subject up a good notch.

Overpriced at $500? It's the same sheet music that sold, over-the-counter in 1903, for twelve cents. A very nice mark-up, if you can get it. If you could find an original copy that was also signed, you would be talking about some very nice money, indeed. I've never even heard of one like this.

Even so, I think that the real signature, as recorded in the ink spots on the staff, communicates more of his personality and the true inner feeling of his life. And that is just one more good reason the art of scoring music has not [yet] fallen away from the world.

There was an interesting review of a new book about Scott Jopin that I'm not sure was ever posted here.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/08/05/the-rag-man/

I highly recommend this book as well as Blesh's "They All Played Ragtime". The latter, written in the '40s, is almost a love poem to ragtime but less accurate. Blesh's book was the first long form academic treatment of ragtime, the first glimmering that something unique had happened in popular music 40 years earlier.

Note that Berlin has a 2nd edition of his book available now, which he states contains lots of new information.



If you found a signed one and it could be authenticated, it would probably be extremely valuable. I'm not sure autographing one's sheet music was a thing.

I believe only the fifth known copy of a "Maple Leaf" 1st edition printing was recently discovered--that in itself is probably worth somewhere around five figures.

Joplin seems to have been a very reticent person. It's hard to get a direct picture of Joplin from history--there's not much in the way of direct quotes committed to paper or any lengthy writings by him. Furthermore, his handwriting and signature is recorded only a couple times in surviving documents--like applications for copyright.

(His archives were lost in a legal dispute during the '60s, grr.)

Thanks for linking this. I hadn't read it before. The Joplin depicted therein comports with my impression of him, though whether this is due to the characterizations of Joplin in the Berlin book or just the conclusion that one would draw from looking at the historical record, who can know?