Talk:List of compositions by Scott Joplin

The lead
Nice to see this in a separate page. One thing that has bothered me for ages is the use of the long quote describing inconsistencies in the naming of the Rags. I've got to admit to writing it a while ago, and I think it should be re-written to remove the quotation and use of words like "inasmuch". If anyone feels the urge to do so, be my guest, I'll do it when I can. Major Bloodnok (talk) 22:48, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Lily Queen
Is there some good reason why Lily Queen was listed twice? I deleted the extra one. Although months aren't included in publication date, it looks like the intent to to list them in order, so I checked Brodsky's list in the complete works in order to maintain proper order. Iglew (talk) 22:36, 17 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for correcting the duplication, which I'm sure was unintended. - Stepheng3 (talk) 23:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Missing Tune
I didn't see 'Areal Slow Rag' from 1897 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.111.158.213 (talk) 07:28, 1 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I think your source may be confused with "A Real Slow Drag" from 1913. —Stepheng3 (talk) 17:30, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Sounds & possible changes
I've added the sound recordings we have on the Commons onto this list. I hope they display OK for everyone. If any more get added to the Commons they can be added too.

In addition I think the Lead needs to be re-done to discuss Joplin's life in brief and to explain the scope of the page. I think there may be other works mentioned in biographies etc which are not here - specifically the incomplete / lost ones. The lost pieces could perhaps go onto a separate table. Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 20:56, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Suggestions for other possible improvements can be found at WP:FL? Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 20:58, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, if ANYONE has a source for the pieces Joplin orchestrated (such as Maple Leaf and Scott's Frog's Legs) it'd be a very welcome addition. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 21:08, 7 November 2011 (UTC)


 * After a brief discussion with User talk:Hoops gza, I don't think it would be useful to have separate tables for lost compositions, especially as the table we have can now be sorted into any order.Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 00:04, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Notes section in the table
Would it be worthwhile to add brief information about each composition into the "Notes" column of the table? It is looking very Spartan at the moment; most of the compositions don't have anything there. A brief look elsewhere on WP seems no help at all. The List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach page shows a mixture of formatting with the "notes" column of the table section being very empty. I ask, because there is probably much we could add - a brief description of the piece for example (The Maple Leaf Rag: described as the archetypal rag & highly influential). Thoughts? Thanks in advance. Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 00:04, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Most of the time the notes section are for things that aren't standard info, like if there's revisions, or if it's lost/fragmented/sketches, if it's an arrangement of something, etc. It depends on the composer and how it's cataloged for how much is there. Adding "described as the archetypal rag" would be counterhelpful though. For Jopin I can't think of much of anything outside the lost compositions that could be there....maybe the collaborations info. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 01:52, 26 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Before I forget, I think the Lede needs to mention how the "arranged" attribution for some of these pieces may hide the fact that Joplin had more of an input than unwary readers of this page may think. Is there anything else that can be added / improved here? Edit It should also mention that Joplin was a writer for hire at certain points and some of the "arranged by" credits come from these periods, and that he wrote at the piano rather than through improvisation. I was wanting to put this in for a Peer Review at the very least, possibly even a "Good Article" Nomination, but I think this is the only obvious omission here. Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 20:41, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Plus putting in the publisher too on the table? Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 16:26, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Midi Sounds and Peer Review?
There are some recordings of some of these compositions here; would it be useful to have MIDI recordings of the rest (if available)? While at best a MIDI rendering can give an indication of how the work sounds in a very rough-and-ready sort of way, would a generic MIDI recording help the general reader work out what is going on? Or would it give a very false impression of what these compositions sound like when played by a human being rather than a machine? In addition, I was wondering whether I could put this article up for Peer Review to get some sort of feedback on it, perhaps with a view to getting it up to "good" status. Thanks. Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 13:42, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

List of recordings
Would it make sense to have a list of significant recordings of Joplin's music? we have mentioned a number of them in his article, but i think a list would be nice.(mercurywoodrose)75.61.130.86 (talk) 06:49, 1 June 2012 (UTC)
 * A list of the few 'complete' recordings (Hyman, Nielsen, Albright, Zimmerman, Kirby, and Arpin....and maybe that one for guitar...off the top of my head) might be appropriate, but anything else that's worth mentioning should need a reason and thus be in prose. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 13:31, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

1904 Announcement Concerning Joplin
On July 29, 1904 {Friday} the "Sedalia Weekly Conservator" announced that Joplin would arranged a program of his own compositions at Liberty Park Hall {Tuesday} July 2, 1904 and that a report that his musicale was for whites only was a mistake-that "White friends, invited." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.83.72.154 (talk) 11:56, 24 August 2013 (UTC)

Spurious entries?
Although Joplin was ambitious enough to have possibly wanted to write a symphony and/or a piano concerto, there is no substantive evidence that he ever wrote either. Good intentions are insufficient to include what must be regarded as hypothetical or imaginary works in the table as "lost" -- they never existed to be lost. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.249 (talk) 00:43, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Welcome to Wikipedia; please do sign up and join in. Thanks too for your contribution and for finding the newspaper front page - be careful though and bear in mind that Wikipedia is not a place for original research (See WP:NOR for further information). In general I would agree with you. However, given that Berlin mentions them in his list and we should follow what the sources say, I think these two entries should be included. In addition, there is evidence that there were compositions that were lost and destroyed at some point after Joplin's death. It is known that Joplin was attempting to go past the form of Ragtime (his two operas are evidence enough of this), so it would not be too much of a stretch to think that he was intending to write a Symphony or Piano Concerto. The announcement in the newspaper cited by Berlin indicates perhaps that he or his circle were confident enough in his progress to get these works announced. In short - we don't know how far Joplin had got in the writing of these pieces; Berlin for one believes that they should be listed as "lost" rather than never existing in the first place. Therefore they should be included in this list, and I will revert your edit. Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 09:30, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

May need to add more lost compositions to list?
I recently found this link https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051573?read-now=1&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents, which leads to a journal article about “The Few Known Autographs of Scott Joplin”. On page three, it talks about how Rudi Blesh had interviewed Lottie Joplin (Joplin’s widow), and reportedly saw some of his unpublished manuscripts in his own handwriting. Some of them are found here, but there is a considerable amount that are not.

The ones listed that I found notable are: Confidence Rag, Magnetic Song, Pretty Pansy Rag (Orchestration), Search Light Rag (Orchestration), Stoptime Rag (Orchestration)

There is more listed, but are either already included or may be confused for another composition / already found.

Although I am very passionate for all info surrounding Scott Joplin, I am not sure if there is a reason or not that these weren’t included, as this information (to my knowledge) was not too difficult to find. As I have no reliable way to accurately confirm this information, perhaps another could help? If anyone needs a viewable image of the page, I can try to upload the pdf to Imgur and link the url here :). MrWide49 (talk) 05:56, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi there. Many thanks for finding the article. It looks like Blesh had clearly listed the compositions he had seen (I'd not seen that before); so could be added to the list here.
 * I think the Bio page for Joplin does discuss these missing / lost compositions, but the Intro for this page doesn't - this could certainly be added.
 * The existing page leans very heavily on Berlin, and the "lost" compositions are the ones he considers to be lost. This article you've found does list additional compositions (copied in for completeness): "Pretty Pansy Rag" incomplete song. "Confidence Rag" incomplete song. "Confidence Rag" piano arrangement from song. Treemonisha orchestrations. "For the Sake of All" incomplete ragtime song. "Magnetic Song" incomplete song. "Pretty Pansy Rag" incomplete song orchestration. "Search Light Rag" incomplete orchestration. "Recitative Rag" incomplete orchestration. "Morning Glory" incomplete song. "Stoptime Rag" incomplete orchestration.
 * Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 23:38, 1 January 2023 (UTC)