Wall Street Rag

Composer: Scott Joplin

Arrangement: John Roache

Performer: John Roache

(comments and copyright by John Roache)

Here is Scott Joplin's "Wall Street Rag" published in 1909 by Seminary Music Co of New York. Six Joplin numbers were published this year, all by Seminary. Joplin had just moved to New York from St. Louis and married his 3rd wife Lottie. His compositions during this time were all excellent and "Wall Street" is one of my favorites. During this time Joplin was writing his opera "Treemonisha". I think "Wall Street" reflects Joplin's operatic mood. Unlike any of his other ragtime compositions, the four strains of Wall Street have descriptive headings which accurately convey the moods of the music. They are: Strain 1 - "Panic in Wall Street, Brokers feeling melancholy". Strain 2 - "Good times coming" Strain 3 - "Good times have come" Strain 4 - "Listening to the strains of genuine negro ragtime, brokers forget their cares". This is ragtime taken to a higher level. ========================================================================= ABOUT THE MIDI FILES: There are 2 MIDI files in this archive: wallst.MID is a stereo midi which uses pan controller instructions to place each note in a stereo spectrum. Lowest note at the far left and the highest note far right. All the rest somewhere in between depending on their pitch. It sounds just like you were sitting in front of a player piano.

wallst_m.MID is the same performance with all the pan controller in- structions removed. I discovered that some FM synthesis sound cards cannot handle pan controller calls correctly. Most of the notes play in the center of the two channels with an occasional high note playing far right and a few low notes playing far left. This is very unnatural sounding and if your sound card is this type, use this file which will play OK.

This MIDI was sequenced with Cakewalk Pro on a SoundBlaster AWE 32 sound card. Your sound card may not reproduce bass notes with the same intensity as the AWE. If this is the case, the balance between the Right Hand part (Track 1) and the Left Hand part (track 2) will need to be adjusted. Load the file into a sequencer and edit the track volumes according to your taste and sound card.

========================================================================= ABOUT THE PERFORMER: My name is John Roache. I am an amateur ragtime enthusiast living in Torrance California. I have been playing piano and keyboards for almost 50 years. I began creating ragtime computer music in the mid- '80s on the Commodore-64 using the SIDPLAYER music composition program. In 1994, I discovered the power of MIDI and have been sequencing ragtime, stride and swing music since then.

I would be pleased to hear any of your comments about this midi. Address e-mail to JohnRoache@aol.com.

Also visit my WWW home page to download more of my MIDI sequences: http://members.aol.com/ragtimers