The Entertainer

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

“The Entertainer” in C major is unquestionably the most famous ragtime in the history of music. For the pianist, this work is an essential study in syncopation and rhythmic independence. The pedagogical challenge lies in the precision of the left hand, which must provide a “stride”-type accompaniment (alternating bass and chord) of metronomic regularity, while the right hand unfolds its syncopated melodies and double notes. It is an excellent resource for working on wrist suppleness in wide movements and mastery of a bouncing sound.

Composed in 1902, “The Entertainer” enjoyed a worldwide revival in the 1970s thanks to the film The Sting. Scott Joplin, nicknamed the “King of Ragtime”, wanted to raise this popular genre to the rank of classical music. The composer’s original tempo marking, “Not fast”, reminds us that ragtime gains in elegance and flavour when played with majestic restraint rather than excessive velocity. This piece remains the symbol of a successful marriage between learned structures and African-American rhythms.