Wall Street Rag
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"Wall Street Rag" is a
ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
composition by
Scott Joplin Scott Joplin ( 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, he was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his career, he wrote over 40 original ragtime pieces, one ra ...
, first published in 1909. As indicated by the title, the theme is based on
Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
following the events surrounding the
Panic of 1907 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from ...
. This is represented in the musical structure along with its corresponding annotations.


History

In 1909, the "Wall Street Rag" by
Scott Joplin Scott Joplin ( 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, he was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his career, he wrote over 40 original ragtime pieces, one ra ...
was published. The copyright was registered February 23, 1909 to Seminary Music Co. of New York.


Musical structure

:Intro A A B B C C D D Unlike most of his rags during this time, this composition is based on a major historical event and features footnotes unique to the theme of this piece. Moreover, this arrangement uses a “Very Slow March Time” rather than the “Slow March Time” used in his other compositions. The rag’s opening section begins with notes of ''Panic in Wall Street, Brokers feeling melancholy'', representing the first phase of the recession. The next section of the rag moves from a Chopinesque chromatic style to the right-hand chords and bass octaves of ''Good times have come'', providing an atmosphere of hope within the crisis. The rag finally closes with financial worries chased away during economic revitalization while folks ''Listening to the strains of genuine negro ragtime, brokers forget their cares''.


Legacy

Ragtime scholar John E. Roache praised "Wall Street Rag", calling it "ragtime taken to a higher level."


See also

*
List of compositions by Scott Joplin The following is a complete list of musical compositions by Scott Joplin ( 1867 – April 1, 1917). Scott Joplin was born in Arkansas in around 1867, just outside Texarkana, and was a street performer before settling in Sedalia, Missouri, St. ...


References


External links


Wall Street taps along to the deregulation beat

Wall Street Rag , Library of Congress
1909 compositions Rags by Scott Joplin Compositions for solo piano Compositions in C major Songs about New York City {{1900s-song-stub