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St. Peter's Anglican Church
August 29, 2008
The 1936 movie The Petrified Forest is usually considered of interest by film historians as the movie which propelled Humphrey Bogart to stardom.
For music-lovers, though, the most interesting moment comes fairly early on, as the protagonists arrive in the Arizona diner which is the setting for the action. In the background a jukebox is playing and, by carefully ignoring the dialogue, it is possible to establish that it is playing Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag.
Conventional wisdom and popular musical history have it that Joplin was virtually ignored between his death in 1917 and the great Joplin revival of the early 1970s. Clearly this may have been the case in the major urban centres, but it would seem that, in out-of-the-way places, he may have been out of fashion; he was not forgotten.
Joplin's most famous rag - which he himself said, quite rightly, would make him the "King of Ragtime" - provided one of several highlights to Arne Sahlen's recital on Friday evening.
Although Joplin frequently made pains in his written instruction that his rags should not be played too quickly, what little recorded evidence there is of his own playing tends to indicate that he felt under no obligation to lead by example.
Neither, it would appear, did Sahlen, who played Maple Leaf at a cracking pace. And, although it cannot be denied that a more leisurely performance might have allowed the audience to savour the music's subtleties, neither can it be denied that Sahlen's performance had plenty of rhythmic vitality.
Friday's concert consisted of ragtime music by Joplin and Sahlen and pointed out what seems to be ragtime's major paradox: although the form is capable of great variety and - as became very clear during the course of the evening - virtually any thematic material can be used in a ragtime setting, somehow it always comes out sounding like Joplin - or something Joplin might well have written, had he been given a more normal lifespan.
The evening opened with "a perfect piece of music" (Sahlen again), Joplin's The Easy Winners. The temp was perfectly judged and Sahlen's playing full of light and shade.
The other piece by Joplin was Bethena: a ragtime waltz, thought by some to be in memory of Joplin's wife. This was simply gorgeous and played with evident affection.
The Joplin items were intermingled with a number of rags, new and old, by Sahlen himself. In his spoken introductions - Sahlen is an infectiously enthusiastic speaker - he was at pains to point out that his own ragtime compositions are done within the same harmonic and rhythmic limitations that Joplin and his contemporaries worked under.
The result is music which is both of and not of its own time; but analysis is fruitless and redundant; as the conductor Hermann Scherchen once remarked: "Music does not have to be understood, it has to be listened to" and listening to Sahlen playing his own rags is pure, unalloyed pleasure.
Time, alas, prevents my going into the details of each piece, although the standout solo piece for me was Bavarian Rag: it was extraordinary how the authentically Bavarian yodelling melody was suddenly transformed, merely with harmonies and rhythms, into something apparently from Sedalia, Miss.
Sahlen was joined by fellow pianist Allison Cortens for two wonderful duo pieces: From Sea to Sea: A Canadian Ragtime Rondo (or was that "From C to C"?) and Tribute Rag.
Much of the fun, for the listener, was spotting the myriad quotations littered throughout the music. The playing was full of verve and genuine panâche.
This was a thoroughly delightful evening.
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