Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Themed recital -- Joplin?

I just the Grieg recital got posted and plan to start listening to it when I get back to my land line Internet.

Though I realize folks are probably too wrung out to even think about another recital, I'm looking to gauge interest for a Scott Joplin themed recital.

If so, I'll start putting together a ranked list of pieces and solicit help from those with experience on recital logistics. Joplin is not easy, but after hearing the recent recital #31, I think we've got lots of folks who can perform him well. Pieces run around 4:00-5:00 minutes in length.

If you think you might possibly want to work on a piece, to be performed in the spring sometime, reply to this thread. If there is enough interest, I'll bother the relevant experts

I think that would be fun. I wouldn't mind revisiting Bethena, or learning Binks Waltz.

Thanks for thinking of it.

Will Einaudi be next?

Cathy

I'd like there to be included pieces that some of our more beginning ABFers could tackle for a themed recital.

It was floated somewhere that the next recital just be a "contribute one piece, no duplicates" for whatever theme we pick, without trying to be exhaustive or cover all the possible pieces in the theme.

It feels too early to be talking about the next themed recital. I'm still putting together the posts for my three opled opuses in this recital, plus trying to recover my pianistic equilibrium after really stretching for my pieces in this recital. But here I am, talking about it.

As for too early - Whizbang suggested spring some time. Lots of us didn't participate in the last two themed recitals, because they just weren't our particular cup of tea, much as I think they were great to have happening. So it's definitely not "too early" for some of us.

I don't see any reason to not have *themed* recitals happen whenever there's a quorum for one. I suspect the talk of whatever the next themed recital might be was among the folks who were involved in this one, or the last one. But not everyone's part of that, for probably a wide variety of reasons.

Again, if there's a themed recital, it seems to me it should happen if there's a quorum and folks want to participate. If it's "too early" for some folks, they can skip that one, and wait till the next one.

ABF is a bigger place than just the folks who do any particular recital/piano bar/topic, no?

Cathy

Also, if we want to cut down on some of the administrative stuff, we could ask for sign ups (or not) and just open a thread and ask that for the first - 2 days? - only submissions to the recital be posted, and then after that people could comment in the thread. It might get around having someone "collect" the submissions.

Just a thought -

Cathy

It's no secret I love ragtime, and especially Joplin. If no one minds a piece recorded on a crappy keyboard, I'd be happy to contribute. If people will mind, I can try to find an acoustic piano in the Philly area by spring to record it on. Let me know what piece(s) you want/need to fill gaps..

We'll just pretend it's in a bar out west and there weren't many piano tuners around Oh wait, it'll probably be in tune!

But it doesn't bother me - ragtime is way too much fun.

Cathy

hahaha yeah it'll be in tune, but that's about it!

I think the idea of a Joplin recital would be very cool - I don't think I can play anything of his - but I'll enjoy listening.

It would be a total change of direction; not necessarily a bad thing on one occasion. My thoughts are "NO!!!" but there could be technical benefits here . . . very interesting!

- Count me in.

How many did he write?

(just checked, google says 44, - I hadn't realised. That's plenty of choice...)

Wow, good question. I've played 15 of them. I can think of 22. But I think, after that, it depends on if you'd classify the piece as a "rag" or not. Either way, I'm still going to guess much more than 22..

- those LH leaps - definitely worth working on.

I see what you mean, some of them must be fairly obscure...could be interesting!

I love Joplin! I'd be thrilled to have an excuse to learn more of his waltzes - I've had Binks' Waltz on my to play list for awhile.

I think Joplin would make a refreshing change - I only know a couple of his pieces 'The Entertainer' and 'Maple leaf rag' for e.g, and they seemed a bit difficult. But if I liked one enough I'd play one for sure - thanks for the idea!

I agree with PianoStudent88 - with both the Mendelssohn and Grieg recitals, a number of people said they wanted to join in, but the pieces were too difficult for them. So I really hope that whatever is chosen for next time, there is a reasonable number of easier pieces amongst the selection. After all, this is adult BEGINNERS forum and if beginners can't participate in a recital here, where can they? Personally, I don't know of anywhere else on PW where they could join in with such a great project - but I'm fairly new to PW so I could be wrong.

But I'm still focussed on the current recital (putting op 62 together, for eg) and can't really think too much about the next one just yet. I feel sure that once the Grieg is out of the way, more attention will rest on 'what's next' - so maybe it'd be an idea to wait a few days to give those currently focussed on the grieg a chance to get their views across before making any final decisions. That way, it will have wider support and the greatest chance of success. And the more people who feel they've had input in decision making, the better - and the contributions made will reflect that.

But if you're 'raring to go' and want to do this without the wider consultation - you're obviously free to do this too - and I'm sure the results would be fine too.

The ABF quarterly recitals have always encouraged and welcomed pianists of all abilities and experiences. There are 50 or 60 participants in each recital. Recently a thread called "Ecco Fatto" was started specifically for people who might be a little shy of posting their first recordings. The piano bars have been going on for years, and those, too, are open to all abilities.

I don't remember a "wider consultation" about the other themed recitals - my impression is that they originated in the Rostowsky thread, which is a subset of the ABF.

So there are in fact recitals and specific threads for posting recordings from any one at any level.

Some people in the ABF mostly hang out in the piano bars. Some people mostly hang out in the Afred's threads, or the jazz threads. Some mostly hang out in the Rostowsky thread, or the AOTW, or several other subsets of the ABF.

But the ABF is greater than the sum of its parts, to me.

So I'll reiterate that I think if there's a quorum for any particular idea, go for it. Whether you want to help novices at jazz, or discuss advanced jazz, or get help with Blow the Man Down from folks with the same experience, or only MOYD, or post first in Ecco Fatto to get your feet wet, or whatever works for you, there seems to be a place here on the ABF.

I've missed only 2 quarterly recitals here since I started participating. I have no interest in playing classical, so while I think the Mendolsohn and Grieg recitals were great, and listened to some of the folks I know, I'd rather play Joplin

Many of the people who played in the themed recitals haven't participated in the piano bars or the quarterly recitals.

Different strokes for different folks, I think.

But I love having beginners in the quarterly recitals, and it's a friendly place to play.

I think there's room for all of them, if there's folks who want to play in them.

Cathy

My thoughts on the themed recitals:

- I agree with Cathy (Jotur) - there is room for all playing abilities somewhere in the ABF if people seek it out.

- I think it would be great if we had something other than classical for a themed recital. (I might even participate!). If you go way back in history, some of the early ABF quarterly recitals were themed recitals, but of a different type. For instance, #4 was "Holiday", #5 was "Love", #6 was "Spring".

- allow duplicates. It's great that the Grieg and Mendellsohn recitals covered all of a particular composers type of pieces, but you would probably get better participation if you let people play the same piece. My ego won't be damaged (much) if someone performs a better rendition of my piece.

- use the recital software. I can help with this. It automates the submission process and removes most of the work in putting on a recital. Yes, things are presented in the order they are submitted - so what?

- possible future themed recitals:

-- Joplin as mentioned in this thread.
-- Schumann - lots of pieces for all skill levels.
-- Bartok - under appreciated here at ABF, but the Mikrokosmos has something for every skill level.
-- New Age - Einaudi (oh no!)
-- All Bach!

Just my thoughts,
Sam

I don't think it's too soon to broach the issue of the next themed recital and I agree that there're plenty of opportunities already for people to get involved in recitation but the joint venture aspect of these themed recitals and the challenge of a restricted set of pieces offers an unparalleled experience that I haven't had from the ABF quarterly affairs and wouldn't want to deprive anyone of.

Joplin is not going encourage beginners but if we widen the net to anything ragtime where we can add Euday Bowman's Twelfth Street Rag and contributions from Joseph Lamb and Tom Turpin as well as encompassing Alan Haughton's Rhythm and Rag pieces for beginners I think I would see that as a win-win situation.

There's also an easy version of the Entertainer in the Alfred's books for the lucky first timer who gets in quick!

There really is something special about working more closely with people on the forum whose names you may know but perhaps have never met with 'in conversation'. It's our nature to be sociable and this really bonds us well.

It also adds to a knowledge of each other beyond the piano. It's extraordinary and rare. I treasure it.

I'm happy to see that this thread is showing up already. I missed the Grieg recital (i.e. the easy pieces were already gone) but will definitely try to join the next one, whatever the theme will be.

The only condition is that there are some beginner-friendly pieces to choose from.

The idea to cover all Lyric Pieces of Grieg was a good one in my opinion. It really gives a sense of completedness to have them all included in one single AFB collection. It's like buying a boxed set of recordings.

That being said, for the next recital we could still aim to cover all songs of a composer/opus but allow double-booking once all the slots have been filled with at least 1 performer.