November 24 - Scott Joplin; Alfred Schnittke (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for November 25th are here: Scott Joplin (2019), Teddy Wilson (2020), and Charles Theodore Pachelbel (2021)

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Scott Joplin (24 November 1868 – 1 April 1917) was a great American ragtime composer and pianist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Switching Places

In November 1970, Rifkin released a recording called Scott Joplin: Piano Rags on the classical label Nonesuch. It sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch's first million-selling record. Record stores found themselves for the first time putting ragtime in the classical music section. – adapted from Wikipedia

 

 

Those Rifkin recordings were stellar,

And Joplin became a bestseller.

Stores sold his selections

In their classical sections,

Where he’s still an uncomfortable dweller.

 

 

 

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ 

 

Alfred Schnittke (24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian compose who is among the most performed and recorded composers of late 20th-century classical music. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change

As his health deteriorated from the late 1980s, Schnittke started to abandon much of the extroversion of his earlier polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style. Some Schnittke scholars have argued that it is the late works that will ultimately be the most influential parts of Schnittke's output. – adapted from Wikipedia

A raucous referential sort of style

Was used by Alfred Schnittke for a while,

But scholars now aver these works are weaker

Than later compositions which are bleaker.

 

 

 

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