A Guest of Honor (ISJ 54) [1] is the first opera created by celebrated ragtime composer Scott Joplin. The opera had two acts, followed the model of grand opera, [2] and followed the events surrounding the 1901 White House dinner hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt for the civil rights leader and educator Booker T. Washington. [3]
Joplin is believed to have begun writing A Guest of Honor shortly after Washington’s visit to Roosevelt’s White House. A copyright application was filed on February 16, 1903, with the Library of Congress, [2] but Joplin did not include a copy of the score with the application, but did list Stark Publishing on the application. It is theorized that he intended to have the score published prior to the copyright submission, but this never happened despite the application. [3]
In April of 1903, a informal public presentation of the opera was reviewed by Monroe Rosenfeld of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. [4] The performance had taken place "In a large hall where they often gave dances," Rosenfeld noting the company's daily rehearsals at the Crawford's Theatre in Louisiana (now Gayety Theatre). [5] He also noted the opera's financial backing, and noted the opera's premiere date as August 30th of 1903. [2]
Joplin later created an opera company called the "Scott Joplin's Ragtime Opera Company" [2] [Note 1] of about 30-32 people to take A Guest of Honor for a national tour. It is not certain how many productions were actually staged, or even if this was an all-black show or a racially mixed presentation (which would have been very unusual for 1903). He later took the company on tour in August of 1903, continuing into October. The tour was ostensibly scheduled for 15 stops, although how many were fulfilled is unknown. [2]
During the tour, either in Springfield, Illinois, or Pittsburg, Kansas, someone associated with the company stole the box office receipts. Joplin could not meet the company’s payroll or pay for the company’s lodgings at a theatrical boarding house. It is believed the score for A Guest of Honor was confiscated with Joplin’s belongings, due to non-payment of his bills. [6] Joplin later traveled to New York in 1907 in order to find financial support and a publisher for the opera, but did not manage to find support. [6] Overall, it is reported that the tour was a financial failure for Joplin, although from 1907 onward, Joplin was again busy working on his second opera, Treemonisha . [2] Scholar Edward Berlin's research noted Joplin's readiness to leave his first opera behind:
I have not discovered a single reference to the opera after 1903. Whereas from 1907 on, Joplin rarely missed an opportunity to mention he was working on an opera (which was to be Treemonisha), or, from 1911, that he had completed it, he never cites it as his second opera. It is as if he wanted to pretend A Guest of Honor had never existed.
Edward Berlin,Chapter 10: "A Guest of Honor, 1903," from King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era (2016, 2nd Edn.)
To date, no copy of the score to A Guest of Honor has ever surfaced, and it is considered lost. However, a card dating from March 27th of 1906 noted that two copies due to be received by the Copyright Office did not come. Later confirmation from William P. Stark, son of John Stillwell Stark, noted the overall weakness of the opera, "While A Guest of Honor had some pretty good music, the story and lyrics were weak, and it was never published." [2]
Joplin had dedicated his first opera to Pharoah T. Bowles, a resident of Missouri. [7] [1]
The title of the opera, "A Guest of Honor," was used verbatim in an editorial dating to September 12th, 1901 from the Indianapolis Freeman. It is known that Joplin was an avid reader of the journal. [2]
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott Joplin, James Scott and Joseph Lamb. Ragtime pieces are typically composed for and performed on piano, though the genre has been adapted for a variety of instruments and styles.
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music meant to be played in concert halls and largely disdained the performance of ragtime as honky tonk music most common in saloons.
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a Tin Pan Alley song by American composer Irving Berlin released in 1911; it is often inaccurately cited as his first global hit. Despite its title, the song is a march as opposed to a rag and contains little syncopation. The song is a narrative sequel to Berlin's earlier 1910 composition "Alexander and His Clarinet". This earlier composition recounts the reconciliation between an African-American musician named Alexander Adams and his flame Eliza Johnson as well as highlights Alexander's innovative musical style. Berlin's friend Jack Alexander, a cornet-playing African-American bandleader, inspired the title character.
Joseph Francis Lamb was an American composer of ragtime music. Lamb, of Irish descent, was the only non-African American of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime, the other two being Scott Joplin and James Scott. The ragtime of Joseph Lamb ranges from standard popular fare to complex and highly engaging. His use of long phrases was influenced by classical works he had learned from his sister and others while growing up, but his sense of structure was potentially derived from his study of Joplin's piano rags. By the time he added some polish to his later works in the 1950s, Lamb had mastered the classic rag genre in a way that almost no other composer was able to approach at that time, and continued to play it passably as well, as evidenced by at least two separate recordings done in his home, as well as a few recorded interviews.
James Sylvester Scott was an American ragtime composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb.
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, becoming the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces. Its success led to Joplin being dubbed the "King of Ragtime" by his contemporaries. The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life.
John Stillwell Stark was an American publisher of ragtime music, best known for publishing and promoting the music of Scott Joplin.
Arthur Owen Marshall was an American composer and performer of ragtime music from Missouri. He was a protege of famed ragtime composer Scott Joplin.
Etilmon Justus Stark was an American ragtime composer and arranger, the eldest son of ragtime publisher John Stark. His best-known works include the pieces "Trombone Johnsen" (1902), "Billiken Rag" (1913), and "Gum Shoe" (1917), and the arrangements for the collection "Fifteen Standard High Class Rags" (1912), popularly known as "The Red Back Book".
Rick Benjamin is the founder and conductor of the world-renowned Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. Benjamin has an active career as a pianist and tubist as well as an arranger.
Treemonisha (1911) is an opera by American ragtime composer Scott Joplin. It is sometimes referred to as a "ragtime opera", though Joplin did not refer to it as such and it encompasses a wide range of musical styles. The music of Treemonisha includes an overture and prelude, along with various recitatives, choruses, small ensemble pieces, a ballet, and a few arias.
"The Entertainer" is a 1902 classic piano rag written by Scott Joplin.
The "Swipesy Cakewalk" is a ragtime composition published in 1900 by a musical duo consisting of Scott Joplin, who likely composed the trio, and the young composer Arthur Marshall, who most probably composed the rest of the piece with oversight from Joplin. "Swipesy" uses the simple syncopations of a cakewalk - the first beat being a sixteenth, eighth, sixteenth note division, and the second beat an even eighth note division. The style follows the AA BB A CC DD musical form common for both cakewalks and rags, particularly after the earlier publication of Joplin's hit "Maple Leaf Rag". Although called a cakewalk, it departs from the cakewalk form in favor of the more standard ragtime idiom at various points, most notably throughout the C (Trio) section. "Swipesy" was most likely written in the late 1890s when Joplin was living with the Marshall family and teaching Arthur composition.
"Weeping Willow" is a 1903 classic piano ragtime composition by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's simpler and less famous ragtime scores, written during a transitional period in his life, and one of the few pieces that Joplin cut as a piano roll in a 1916 session.
"Bethena, A Concert Waltz" is a composition by Scott Joplin. It was the first Joplin work since his wife Freddie's death on September 10, 1904, of pneumonia, ten weeks after their wedding. At the time the composer had significant financial problems; the work did not sell successfully at the time of publication and was soon neglected and forgotten. It was rediscovered as a result of the Joplin revival in the 1970s and has received acclaim from Joplin's biographers and other critics. The piece combines two different styles of music, the classical waltz and the rag, and has been seen as demonstrating Joplin's excellence as a classical composer. The work has been described as "an enchantingly beautiful piece that is among the greatest of Ragtime Waltzes", a "masterpiece", and "Joplin's finest waltz".
"Sunflower Slow Drag" is a ragtime composition by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden. It is about four minutes long and has been described as "full of gaiety and sunshine".
"The Ragtime Dance" is a piece of ragtime music by Scott Joplin, first published in 1902.
Julius Weiss was a German-born American Jewish music professor, best known for being the first piano teacher of Scott Joplin, who became known as "the king of ragtime".
Elite Syncopations is a one-act ballet created in 1974 by Kenneth MacMillan for The Royal Ballet.
