2663 MUS Listening Assignment #1
June 8, 2007
The CD I choose is The Complete Works of Scott Joplin, performed by Richard Zimmerman. Zimmerman is playing piano throughout the whole CD. This is volume 5 of the Complete Works of Scott Joplin that Richard Zimmerman did. The songs are ranged mainly from the years 1907 to 1917 and one from 1971. The song list includes the Highlights from "Treemonisha" (1911), "A Real Slow Drag" (1913), "Prelude to Act 3" (1911), "Frolic of the Bears" (1911), "Kismet Rag" (1913), "Magnetic Rag" (1914), "Reflection Rag" (1917), "Silver Swan Rag" (1971), "Lily Queen" (1907), and "Sensation" (1908). Richard Zimmerman recorded these tracks in 1993. Delta Music Inc. in Santa Monica, CA produced all volumes of The Complete Works of Scott Joplin. Many people have remastered Joplin's work granted and I have not listened to any other remastered tracks but Zimmerman did an excellent job performing and producing these tracks even through some songs I believe have a little bit of improvising. The sound quality the keyboard makes is remarkably excellent throughout the whole disc, granted it was produced in 1993 and not in the times that Joplin was performing them but from what the time period the music came from and for him to remaster them in such good quality is pretty impressive. I would give Zimmerman a round of applause. But on the other hand, to be completely honest towards the end the CD I got a little too relaxed, meaning I started to fall asleep in the sense, but then again it was close to bed time. The CD is worth listening to in my opinion. Joplin is a great inspiration and Zimmerman did an outstanding job imitating him, Joplin would have been proud of Zimmerman's interpretation.