HuffingtonPost.com: A Hollywood Ending to William Appling’s Scott Joplin Quest [On Centennial of His Death, 4 CDs "The Complete Rags, Waltzes & Marches" Are Released]

Cover design by “The Design Studio™ at

Disc Makers” A labor of love: William

Appling plays the complete solo piano 

music of Scott Joplin (available April 1

from CD Baby, iTunes, and all online

stores)

Scott Joplin (c.1867-1917) is profiled 
at AfriClassical.com, which features a 
Bibliography and comprehensive Works 
List by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, 
http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.

The Huffington Post

 

Albert Imperator, Contributor

Arts Promoter, Co-founded 21C Media Group

03/31/2017

Composer anniversaries are often a big deal in 

the world of classical music, but sadly, the 

centenary on April 1, 2017 of the death of Scott 

Joplin has mostly gone by, at least thus far, with 

very little notice. Except for a terrific feature by 

Stuart Isacoff in this week’s Wall Street Journal, 

I haven’t seen any other major-media tributes to 

“The King of Ragtime,” who, to quote Isacoff, 

“shepherded an American musical genre to new 

heights of sophistication.” 
 

My big Joplin moment came back in the early 1970s 

when, like millions of Americans, I left the premiere 

of the now classic Robert Redford/Paul Newman film  

The Sting humming Joplin’s “The Entertainer” 

(trying to master it on the piano became a near 

obsession in the months, if not years, afterwards). 

Here was music of irresistible charm and joie de vi·vre, 

with its trademark rhythms and lilting gait — an all-

American original! But I suspected there was more to 

this music than met the ear.

Fast forward nearly thirty years, when I received a call 

from an industry colleague, Toby Tumarkin, who was 

also a student of William Appling, a beloved choral 

conductor, pianist, arranger and educator. Knowing I 

was a music promoter, he asked me if I would do him 

a favor and meet with Bill, who was working on a big 

Joplin project that might be interesting to hear about. 

Soon after, I met Bill for lunch, and I immediately fell 

under his spell. He was wise, soft-spoken, gracious 

and brilliant, and he knew just about everything about 

Joplin, whose music he had discovered relatively recently. 

“I want to perform and record all of it,” he told me. “This 

is the music of a genius, and more Americans need to 

know about it.” There was nothing I could really do to 

help him at this point—there was nothing yet to promote—

but for a few subsequent years we would get together on 

occasion for another meal, another brainstorm, and another 

long talk. His insight into music, his gentle ways, his deeply 

spiritual aura, and so many other qualities, touched me 

greatly. But then, for a long while, I didn’t hear from him, 

and in 2008 I learned from Toby that Bill had passed away.

Fast forward again, this time to December 2016, when I 

received a note from Bill’s friend and colleague William 

McClelland, who told me the most extraordinary news: 

just before his death, William Appling had indeed finished 

recording of all the rags, waltzes and marches of Scott 

Joplin. McClelland—a composer and pianist himself, as well 

as the founder of Bag Snaggers, a company which 

manufactures the only patented tool ever designed to take 

plastic bags out of trees!—knew and worked with Appling 

for many years, producing four recordings by William 

Appling Singers & Orchestra on the Albany and New World 

record labels.

The new four-CD Joplin set will be released on April 1, 

exactly 100 years after the Texas-born composer’s death, 

at age 49, in New York City. In the Q & A below, McClelland 

 tells us more about William Appling and why his revelatory 

new recording might connect a new generation of listener’s 

to Joplin’s indisputable genius.