Canon
Where to start with Joplin
Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles-
KeyboardMagnetic Rag
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StageTreemonisha — Opera
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KeyboardMaple Leaf Rag
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KeyboardThe Entertainer
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KeyboardA Breeze from Alabama
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KeyboardAntoinette
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KeyboardBethena
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KeyboardBinks's Waltz
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KeyboardCleopha
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KeyboardCombination March
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KeyboardCountry Club
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KeyboardEasy Winners
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KeyboardElite Syncopations
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KeyboardEugenia
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KeyboardEuphonic Sounds
Listening guide
Hand-curated paths into Joplin's catalogueMost Popular
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Maple Leaf Rag
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The Entertainer
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Elite Syncopations
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Weeping Willow
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Cascades
Most Acclaimed
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Treemonisha (opera)
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Maple Leaf Rag
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Original Rags
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Magnetic Raghis last published work — the most complex ragtime he wrote
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Bethena (concert waltz)
Most Weird
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Treemonishafolk opera set in rural Arkansas 1884; about education as liberation; Joplin staged it once himself — from memory, no costumes or orchestra, in a Harlem hall; audience was confused; he died three years later
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Magnetic Ragtechnically the most demanding; written while his health was failing
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The Cascadeswritten for the St. Louis World’s Fair cascades fountain
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Euphonic Soundsunusual harmonic palette for 1909
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Reflection Rag (Syncopated Musings)published posthumously — his most introspective piece
Similar composers
Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinityWorks 56
- Keyboard
- ● Magnetic Rag
- ● Maple Leaf Rag
- ● The Entertainer
- A Breeze from Alabama
- Antoinette
- Bethena
- Binks's Waltz
- Cleopha
- Combination March
- Country Club
- Easy Winners
- Elite Syncopations
- Eugenia
- Euphonic Sounds
- Felicity Rag
- Fig Leaf Rag
- Gladiolus Rag
- Harmony Club Waltz
- Heliotrope Bouquet
- Kismet Rag
- Leola
- Lily Queen
- March Majestic
- Nonpareil
- Original Rags
- Palm Leaf
- Paragon Rag
- Peacherine Rag
- Pine Apple Rag
- Pleasant Moments Ragtime Waltz
- Reflection Rag
- Rose Leaf Rag
- Scott Joplin’s New Rag
- Searchlight Rag
- Silver Swan Rag
- Solace: A Mexican Serenade
- Something Doing
- Stoptime Rag
- Sugar Cane
- Sunflower Slow Drag
- Swipesy Cake Walk
- The Augustan Club Waltzes
- The Cascades
- The Chrysanthemum, an Afro-American Intermezzo
- The Crush Collision March
- The Easy Winners
- The Favorite
- The Ragtime Dance
- The Rosebud March
- The Strenuous Life
- The Sycamore
- Wall Street Rag
- Weeping Willow
- Stage
- Treemonisha — Opera
- Vocal
- The Maple Leaf Rag Song, song for voice and piano
- When Your Hair Is Like the Snow, song for voice and piano