Review

Scott Joplin
Four Rags:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer

Trombone and piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2020
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Having achieved national fame and hailed as the “King of Ragtime” by the age of 31, Scott Joplin wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces for solo piano in his short life. Ralph Sauer has arranged four of them for trombone and piano: The Entertainer (1902), Reflection Rag (1917), Pleasant Moments (1909), and The Cascades (1904). While each of these stays true measure for measure to the form of the original piano pieces, the keys have been changed presumably to better accommodate the range of the trombone and facilitate passagework.

Spanning F-e-flat², these transcriptions will challenge most tenor trombonists—especially considering how much they hang in the upper register. Fortunately, there are abundant opportunities for rest as the main themes are traded back and forth with the piano. As anyone familiar with these ragtime melodies can attest, syncopation and angularity predominate. If for no other reason, any accomplished trombonist will discover the value of working on these pieces to achieve greater agility in mid to upper registers.

Scott Joplin’s ragtime pieces are elegant, lighthearted, and compelling. Ralph Sauer’s adaptations of these Four Rags will most definitely find their way onto many trombone recital programs.