Upbeat tunes such as "The Entertainer" made Scott Joplin an immortal name in ragtime music, and his engaging Mexican serenade and playful waltzes are equally compelling. Arranged for violin, viola, and cello, "Solace, a Mexican Serenade" and "Bethena, a Concert Waltz" offer a fresh perspective on Joplin's work, when arranged for string quartet, and let you hear the celebrated composer in an exciting new way.

(Excerpted from the Performance Notes)

Although much has been conjectured, little is known about the inspiration for "Solace, a Mexican Serenade," written in 1909. It may have been a tribute to Scott Joplin's wife, Lottie, who surely provided comfort in the composer's waning years.It stands out among his rags for many reasons.

First, technically "Solace, a Mexican Serenade" is not a "rag," a detail I recalled shortly after I had purchased a collection claiming to be Scott Joplin's Complete Piano Rags and found "Solace" noticeably absent. The original piano music appears in Solace and Other Short Works for Piano by Scott Joplin in a Dover edition. Most rags feature a syncopated right-hand melody played over driving left-hand accompaniment with clear accents on the first and third beats of each measure. "Solace," as its subtitle implies, is a serenade, played at a gentler pace.

The piece does follow the usual piano-rag format of repeated eight-bar phrases: AABBACCDD. The string-quartet arrangement also presents the same structure.

"Solace" employs a Latin-influenced rhythm that some scholars have described as a tango, others as a habanera. Bolero may be a more apt classification, as it is after all a "Mexican serenade," not an Argentine or Cuban one. In any case, it's the only known Latin-inflected Joplin composition.

Solace

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Although Scott Joplin is best known for his piano rags, he compressed many pieces in various tempos and styles, including "Bethena," the beautiful concert waltz presented here. Unlike the rags, (most of which adhere to the form AABBACCDD), this composition presents an opening theme that returns just once, partway through the piece, followed by a succession of additional themes before the opening theme returns once again at the end: ABACDEA. The various themes maintain the same unifying rhythmic shape: eighth note, quarter note, eighth note, quarter note; but the melodies wander into disparate keys, and each has a distinctive flavor.

Bethena

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—Elisa M. Welch