Gap as in "rest" is not syncopation. What makes you think the left hand should be syncopated? (I bet you can't find single youtube performance by any well known pianist who does this)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Lvv6dthds

Here's an example of where Rag got it's name.
Taking the classics and put in the rag style and rythm.

This is a wonderful example of just that.

I think you're right about that rest in Maple Leaf. But LH syncopation is one of the hallmarks of the East-Coast ragtime style. aka Stride. Which is what makes it so difficult to play. Or listen to if you don't understand it. When I first listened to rolls of JPJ playing Carolina Shout, it started sounding like a jumble of notes at times when he began syncopating both hands simultaneously. It took Fats Waller's musicality to help me make sense of it. Or adding a little swing or boogie into the mix as JPJ did in later years. If you want to hear Maple Leaf with some of that special LH, listen to Eubie Blake or any of his protegees like Terry Waldo. Or Jim Hession who did some YouTube lectures where he discussed this calling it an interrupted bass line giving Eubie's Maple Leaf interpretation as an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfJDfBP-A84

Howard

I've played several pieces by Johnson and Waller including Carolina Shout, but I just think of them as stride pieces as opposed to some special form of ragtime. I would agree that the Blake version has syncopation but would say it's really Blake's stride composition based on the MLR.

I don't think if one is playing ragtime(Joplin)just as written or even with swing eighths in the RH, that the LH wouldn't have syncopation.

Because it's a flawless gem of composition.

Well, musically what makes this piece interesting is the shifts between a flat major and e major. That's an interesting chord progression because they share the enharmonic g sharp/a flat between those chords.

The form is also interesting since the first strain has a very dramatic sweep up the keyboard and strong material in terms of theme. Joplin develops this rhythmic and melodic theme throughout the rest of the rag, the syncopation being
- 2 3 4 1 2 - 4 1 2 3 4 - - - - . The last theme is particularly interesting as it starts strongly in d flat major, but ends in a flat major in a convincing cadence. This device, which I still havn't completely worked out, allows Joplin to modulate to d flat major in the trio, stay in d flat major in the final strain, but still end the rag in a flat major, without any awkward transition, or sounding like he was ending in the dominant of the d flat key.

And that's just a quick glance at this composition. There's probably a lot more that I completely missed.

Ragtime isn't for everybody. I've written 37 rags (not all of which are good) and probably only one or two of them are on the level of Maple Leaf Rag. If you don't think that's a good rag or don't get it, then classic ragtime just isn't for you.