William Bolcom and his contemporaries felt their new rags were picking up a dropped thread of an emerging American tradition, internalizing ragtime in a way that profoundly changed their subsequent music.
Performer Biography
Marc-André Hamelin is an exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, with a discography of over seventy albums covering a wide range of solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoire.
Composer Biography
William Bolcom formed a close friendship and musical collaboration with James Hubert 'Eubie' Blake, a renowned practitioner of urbanized ragtime (stride piano), whom Bolcom considered his last great teacher.
Composer Biography
William Bolcom, the composer, began exploring Scott Joplin's rags after a chance encounter led him to a vocal score of Joplin's opera Treemonisha, which was thought to exist only in legend.
Performer Biography
Marc-André Hamelin, the pianist on this recording, is celebrated worldwide for his exceptional musicianship and brilliant technique, as well as his exploration of rare works from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Compositional Technique
The rag "Brass Knuckles," co-written by William Bolcom and William Albright, was conceived as an antidote to overly delicate rags, with its score featuring explicit markings like 'brutal!' and 'loutish!'.
Composition History
Beginning around 1968, William Bolcom and a group of young American composers, including Peter Winkler and William Albright, started writing new traditional-style rags, contributing to a ragtime revival.
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