The Entertainer

Ragtime Two-Step
Double Bass Quartet
Composer: Scott Joplin

Product code:

RMD1194
Publisher:

£6.50

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Description

The Entertainer is one of Scott Joplin’s most popular ragtime works and is a fun, lively and energetic piece which would be ideal as an encore for the adventurous intermediate double bass quartet. There are effective musical and technical challenges for each player, but nothing too taxing, and it has been popular with players and audiences alike.

“The parts are well written and the main tunes are nicely distributed throughout the quartet. David Heyes has done an admirable job on this arrangement of a popular crowd pleaser, especially as the tune is not ideally suited to the double bass.” (Bass News)

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The Composer
About David Heyes
Description

The Entertainer is one of Scott Joplin’s most popular ragtime works and is a fun, lively and energetic piece which would be ideal as an encore for the adventurous intermediate double bass quartet. There are effective musical and technical challenges for each player, but nothing too taxing, and it has been popular with players and audiences alike.

“The parts are well written and the main tunes are nicely distributed throughout the quartet. David Heyes has done an admirable job on this arrangement of a popular crowd pleaser, especially as the tune is not ideally suited to the double bass.” (Bass News)

Read more

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More Info

ArrangerDavid Heyes
OrchestrationDouble Bass Quartet
Publishers numberRMD1194

Contents

About the Composer

The “King of Ragtime” music, was born near Linden, Texas on November 24, 1868 and moved with his family to Texarkana at the age of about seven. Even at this early age, Joplin demonstrated his extraordinary talent for music. Encouraged by his parents, he was already proficient on the banjo, and was beginning to play the piano and by the age of eleven, and taught by Julius Weiss, he was studying musical theory.

After several years as pianist, playing in saloons and brothels throughout the Midwest, he settled in St. Louis around 1890. There he studied and led in the development of ragtime – a blend of European classical styles combined with African American harmony and rhythm.

In the late 1890s, Joplin worked at the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, which provided the title for one of his best known compositions, the Maple Leaf Rag, published in 1899. This was followed a few years later by The Entertainer.

In 1911, Joplin moved to New York City, where he devoted his energies to the production of his opera Treemonisha, the first ragtime opera. He managed to organise a performance in 1915, but without scenery or orchestra, but this was not successful and affected his morale and health greatly. In 1916 he was admitted to the Manhattan State Hospital and died there on 1 April 1917.

More information at www.scottjoplin.org

About the Arranger

David Heyes (b.1960) studied double bass with Laurence Gray and Bronwen Naish, later at the Royal College of Music in London, and completed his post-graduate studies in Prague with František Pošta (Principal Bass, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra). He has given recitals and masterclasses in 20 countries over the past few years and has been a juror at a number of international competitions, three times as chairman. David’s collaborative work gained him a prestigious award from the David Walter Charitable Trust of New York for his pioneering activities as a soloist, teacher, publisher, and commissioner of new music for double bass and he works with composers throughout the world to expand the double bass repertoire by commissioning new music and by rediscovering forgotten ones. Since 1983 more than 700 works have been written for him, music from one to twenty basses and from beginner to virtuoso, and he has premiered ten contemporary concertos with orchestra. David began to compose in 2013 and has had music performed and recorded in 29 countries across five continents. He is a D’Addario Performing Artist and has recently commissioned a solo double bass from British master-luthier Martin Penning.

About the Editor