Scott Joplin's "Silver Swan Rag," a Lost Roll?
By Don Shenbarger
The tune is in the Dick Hyman comprehensive collection of Scott Joplin
music. In the liner notes written by Rudi Blesh, it says the tune was
discovered in 1970 on a piano roll and transcribed to sheet music for
examination by ragtime experts. The piano roll credits Scott Joplin as
the composer. No mention is made in the notes of Scott Joplin having
made the roll. The nearly universal conclusion was the tune is a Scott
Joplin original composition that could date back to 1909 or 1910. Why
it was not published or copyrighted is a mystery.
The Dick Hyman collection is apparently out of stock, although there is
one used LP copy at Amazon. I don't know whether it was ever released
on CD. The LP set I have dates from 1975. It is RCA Red Seal CRL5-
1106 Stereo, "Scott Joplin The Complete Works for Piano," 5 LP boxed
set.
Don Shenbarger
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(Message sent Mon 11 Oct 2010, 04:32:55 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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