Listening Activity: Scott Joplin "Maple Leaf Rag"

Although it was hardly the first rag written or published, "Maple Leaf Rag♫ " did become the first instrumental piece to sell over one million copies. The Charles K. Harris song "After The Ball" from 1888 was the first million-selling piece of sheet music, but "Maple Leaf" did it in a shorter amount of time, reportedly in less than a decade.

Joplin named the rag in honor of the venue in which it was allegedly first heard by publisher John Stark, the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri. However, it is more likely that Joplin demonstrated the piece in Stark's office, which was down the street from the short-lived club. There are many stories about how Joplin and Stark became associated as a result of this rag. One possible version suggested that when Joplin first played it for Stark, he had a little Black child with him who danced to the salacious syncopations, a move that may have helped sell it. However, according to Ed Berlin , a more likely story is that a young lawyer, a friend of Stark's son, offered to help Joplin present the piece to the firm. This young lawyer also drew up the contract paperwork, some of which was altered when signing as indicated on the original copy, which still exists.

Stark had already acquired a catalog of songs from the music store he had bought out but was printing little or nothing at that time. When he finally heard the piece, he was impressed enough not only to take on "Maple Leaf Rag," but to offer Joplin an unheard-of royalty agreement as well (.01¢ per copy). Sales of "Maple Leaf" and subsequent rags earned Joplin his "King of Ragtime" reputation and enabled Stark to open a music store and printing shop in St. Louis, then later New York.

First edition cover of the Maple Leaf Rag shows a line drawing of two African-American couples.

Note that the original cover, now extremely rare as there were only 400 printed, featured a rough mirror image rendition of a tinted picture commissioned by the American Tobacco Company. It shows the famous vaudeville team of Williams and Walker with two lady dancers, soon to become their wives, doing the cakewalk. This edition was printed in St. Louis but displayed the Sedalia address since Stark had not yet established his music store in the larger city. For the second printing, with the St. Louis address, he started issuing the piece with the better-known Leaf cover made explicitly for his best seller.

The original Maple Leaf Club was actually a social club that met in a saloon run by the Williams brothers of Sedalia. While the status of Black rights in Canada and their trek up there during the American Civil War has been suggested as the source of the name, it is more likely that they followed the trend of naming organizations after trees in the area, and Sedalia has no shortage of Maple trees along its streets. The run of the club was essentially from November of 1898 to January of 1900, when it was dissolved due to a number of legal disputes and alleged errant behavior during a couple of events. The building no longer stands, replaced in recent years by a picturesque concert pavilion backed up to the railroad tracks, but the musical memories created there certainly remain. Dick Zimmerman resurrected the name in 1967 when he helped to found the new Maple Leaf Club in the Los Angeles area, which still meets in the 21st Century. It's hard to try and reinterpret a piece that has been interpreted by pretty much every rag player that has existed, so I'm sure you will hear some familiar elements of other performances in here. I often perform this piece blindfolded just to add a measure of originality!" (Edwards n.d.).