Scott Joplin - Magnetic Rag download song

One person doesn't like this.   The poor devil.  May he get well soon.

I first heard Joshua Rifkin's version of Magnetic Rag when I was about 16 years old. I dropped the trumpet like a hot potoato and began a lifelong study of the piano. It's worth noting, too, that this was the last piano rag that Scott Joplin composed. His health was deteriorating, and his beloved ragtime was losing its appeal to a younger generation of Americans who would eventually herald in the Jazz Age. The short, finely tuned coda at the end of the rag is also an epitaph to Joplin's life.

Scott Joplin owned a Steinway grand piano, so it makes sense that these rags sound so good on grand pianos.

This is just simply brilliant. Gives me the shivers.

"Do not play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast." -Scott Joplin

Most all performers play Joplin too fast. Rifkin offers the closest to the intentions of Joplin. "Ragtime shall never be played fast"  -Scott Joplin

The Afro-American and Jewish dialogue going on here makes this interpretation so deeply American.....

I'm crying. Scott Joplin - american Frederic Chopin. Bravo!

Finally someone posted the Rifkin version. Thank you! I feel that this is the reference version of Magnetic Rag -- the standard by which others should be judged. I've listened to a lot of people on YT play this and invariably something seemed missing -- tempo, phrasing, entire sections, improv, etc. Joshua Rifkin makes this piece come alive.

This isn't a rag, it's a journey!

I sort of see this piece as Joplin telling the story of his life. It starts off with him living in Texas, loving anything remotely related to piano playing, before him arriving in St. Louis and living such a hard life as a musician trying to make a living, before moving out of St. Louis and writing Maple Leaf Rag. The third part is him living the life, being the best ragtime pianist around, with more money and fame then what he knows what to do with, before creating his ragtime-infused opera, Treemonisha. But the 4th part is him trying so hard to get Treemonisha on stage, and it ending up being such a commercial failure, causing him to spiral down into his heavy depression with heavy drinking and sex with whores. The original phrase is him just sitting around, reminiscing about the time when ragtime was king. I cannot emphasize how strange it is to end on a coda like he did. Ragtime never has a coda. Never. But nevertheless, Scott Joplin ended with that short upward series of notes, almost as a way of saying goodbye to the world as he leaves it. Scott Joplin ends up dying at age 41 in a mental institution, not too long after this piece was written. It's a shame how musicians seem to die young more often than not. Rest in peace, Scott Joplin.

It used to be the main tune on virtual pool, about 1994 PC game. Fantastically appropriate music for 9 ball pool somehow:)

Such a masterpiece! It delights me very deeply.

In the coda Rifkin brings out such a mounful resignation. Brings me tears every time. Let the purists quibble but for me Rifkins rags are the touchstone for all of Joplin.

The change at 3:07 -- too good.

In few years from now these classic Scott Joplin recordings will have millions of views Scott Joplin is way underated Composer as Scott Joplin said in his school of Ragtime that his pieces are rather difficult to play I still think these Rifkin Recordings really show the beauty of the Joplin's Remarkable piano music Joplin also said his music is Higher Class Music Not Honky Tonk ditties

This has always been my favorite rendition of Magnetic Rag. Joshua Rifkin does the piece the justice it deserves. Plays with playfulness, restraint and dignity. Wonderfully done.

I first heard this song when I was 10. I'd been through a lot of personal tragedies at that time, and this song had a resilience to it that really helped me at the time, and it brought me a lot of joy.

Such classic grace...there is something to the music of Joplin (when played properly) that I think I can call a special "charm" that reminds me strongly of Mozart, more so than Chopin. It is almost as if they had the same soul or something. I would say it is the simplicity combined with elegance and sweetness that makes this, as well as the way the structure is clearly laid out. I wish Joplin would have somehow lived longer and written more complex works, explored more realms of music. It is said that he even intended to write a Piano Concerto.

I believe that this is Scott Joplin's autobiographic in musical notes.