I have never understood why Scott Joplin’s instructional (1908) is conspicuously absent from most “complete” recorded anthologies of the composer’s piano music. School of Ragtime is an apt distillation of Ragtime’s basic elements—more so than the music of Brun Campbell or Ben Harney’s Rag Time Instructor—and contains the pep and poignancy characteristic of Joplin’s other work.
As with Joplin’s other New York self-published piece Magnetic Rag, the sheet music cover for School of Ragtime is simple and elegant. William Appling and Alessandro Simonetto have both made tasteful, sensitive recordings of the piece. Dick Hyman’s recently reissued recording contains narration by Eubie Blake. The score for School of Ragtime is available at imslp.org.
