Friday Performance Pick - 139 : Professor Carol

Bolcom, Three Ghost Rags

When you think of Ragtime, you probably think of Scott Joplin. Maybe you should think of William Bolcom (b. 1938) as well. Bolcom played a key role in reinvigorating interest in Ragtime and in Joplin back in the 1960s. And very shortly after that, Joplin’s music was popularized by the Robert Redford/Paul Newman movie The Sting (1973).

The Ragtime genre comes primarily from Missouri between 1890 and 1910. You can visit Scott Joplin’s house in St. Louis where he lived from 1901-1903. Professor Carol and I went there a few years ago and filmed a short episode on Joplin and the player piano.

Bolcom has produced a collection of 22 rags, including Three Ghost Rags. Of the three, The Graceful Ghost Rag (1970) is most widely known and has become a staple of the piano repertoire. Two other rags complete the “ghost” series: The Poltergeist and Dream Shadows (both dated 1971). These rags keep the ragtime style while mixing in 19th-century Romanticism and 20th-century techniques. And the ghost allusions keep coming, particularly in the mischievous Poltergeist.

Rags make up only a small part of Bolcom’s output. He has mounted similar efforts with American parlor songs, show tunes, and cabaret with the goal of revitalizing the American songbook. Professor Carol dubbed Bolcom a “genre hopper extraordinaire” and “unrepentant ecclectic” in a 2010 podcast for the Dallas Winds. To get a really good sense of Bolcom and his music, you really ought to revisit that podcast. I have reproduced it after the video.