Today performers have more chances of getting famous fast, unlike composers who are sort of left in the backstage and whose names are not as often heard around. You’ll rather hear the “oh, you heard that new song by *performer*?” rather than “have you heard the new work by *composer* sung by *performer*?” Cases when composers get the world fame and are recognized by masses of people worldwide are pretty rare. Especially when it comes to
a) recordings
b) conducting
Let’s take America. Such a large country… but the recording priority has been mostly spread between just… 5 names. Five great, talented, outstanding but... few composers: Ives, Barber, Bernstein, Gershwin, Copland. Of course, that’s a very rough distribution but it is basically so. Those are the names that appear on recordings most and whose works are most of all included in conductors’ repertoire.
On the other hand, there are others, slightly overlooked but no less important. But the tradition has been formed in such a way that their names are skipped somehow. And today, I’d like to mark one name – Scott Joplan. Yes, you’d say he’s a fairly well-known composer. But the fame he deserves should have been much bigger in fact – bigger AND embodied in manifold original recordings. Imho. “The King of Ragtime” wrote 44 ragtime pieces, a ballet and 2 operas. But just a few of them received a quality record for future generations. Here, below, is composer’s most influential piece “Maple Leaf Rag” performed by composer himself.
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