Scott Joplin Quotations

It is never right to play ragtime fast.

Panic in Wall Street, brokers feeling melancholy.

Because it has such a ragged movement. It suggests something like that.

Let me see you do the 'rag time dance'... Turn left and do the 'Cake walk prance'... Turn the other way and do the 'Slow drag'... Now take your lady to the world's fair (...) And do the 'rag time dance.'

One day the 'Maple Leaf' will make me King of Ragtime Composers.

What is scurrilously called ragtime is an invention that is here to stay. That is now conceded by all classes of musicians... All publication s masquerading under the name of ragtime are not the genuine article... That real ragtime of the higher class is rather difficult to play is a painful truth which most pianists have discovered. Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music... Joplin ragtime is destroyed by careless or imperfect rendering, and very often players lost the effect entirely by playing too fast.

Marching onward, marching onward Marching to that lovely tune Marching onward, marching onward Happy as a bird in June Sliding onward, sliding onward Listen to that rag Hop and skip now do that slow, oh Do that slow drag Dance slowly, prance slowly Now you hear that pretty rag Dance slowly, prance slowly Now you do the real slow drag Waltz slowly, waltz slowly Listen to the ragtime Hop and skip Now do the slow, oh, do the slow drag

Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at 'hateful ragtime' no longer passes for musical culture.

When I'm dead twenty-five years, people are going to begin to recognize me.

Don t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast.