PEACHERINE RAG

Scott Joplin (1867-1917) spent his vigorous youth playing piano in brothels and dance clubs of the southeast United States of America. Joplin, as well as many other talented traveling musicians of the time, introduced a new piano technique based on syncopated melodies over a rhythmically constant bass and contributed to the development of a new musical genre: ragtime. ''Maple Leaf Rag'' became Joplin's first successful ragtime with more than 75,000 copies sold in the first six months of its publication. Yet, ''Peacherine Rag'', in its piano and also ensemble versions, became the most performed piece at the World Fair of St. Louis in 1904. Nowadays, ''Peacherine Rag'' owes its fame partly to the fact that Ennio Morricone used it in the soundtrack of the movie ''The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean''.