It's interesting to read Joplin's "program" for this rag which is printed in the actual piano score.  There are four separate sections (as in most classical rags), each marked respectively:

1.  Panic in Wall Street, Brokers feeling melancholy.
2.  Good Times Coming
3.  Good times have come
4.  Listening to the strains of genuine negro ragtime, brokers forget their cares

Thus, this rag written in 1919, is a musical portrait of the classical stages of a bull stock market.  To enhance the excitement of the final phase of the bull market in section 4, I play the repeat in double time.  It is interesting to reflect that this was the start of the great post WWI bull market, which of course ultimately ended in the stock market crash of 1929, leading to the Great Depression. 

Wall Street Rag (Scott Joplin)

In memorial to Helen Hadley, my mother and fellow pianist. April 20, 1926 to June 21, 2014. Rest in peace. 

Helen Hadley playing "All I Do Is Dream Of You"

The second piece from a charming suite of four piano pieces written by Edward MacDowell in 1897 under the pseudonym of Edgar Thorn.

Of A Tailor And A Bear From Forgotten Fairy Tales, Op. 4

The first piece in a charming suite of four piano pieces written in 1897 by Edward MacDowell under the pseudonym of Edgar Thorn.

Sung Outside The Prince's Door From Forgotten Fairy Tales, Op. 4

Danny Boy

Prelude to a Kiss

Autumn in New York

A delightful Satie parody of ragtime piano.

Le Piccadilly (Erik Satie)

Minuet #4 In B - Flat, WoO 10 (Beethoven)

On the second anniversary of her death, this is a recording made in 1999 of my mother Helen Hadley playing an old American standard "Blue Moon" by Rodgers and Hart, as arranged by George Shearing.  My mother loved and played the Shearing interpretations for many years before her death in June, 2014.  Rest in peace.

Blue Moon (Rodgers and Hart, arr. Shearing)

A dreamy "More Than Slow" waltz by Claude Debussy.

La Plus Que Lente (Debussy)

This is Prelude #8 in A-flat minor, Op. 31 by Charles Valentin Alkan.

The Song of the Mad Woman on the Seashore

From Satie's "Sports et Divertissements".

The Perpetual Tango (Erik Satie)

Musica Callada IV

Musica Callada III

With all of the news about the Catalonia region in the news, I thought this was a good moment to share my recordings of the first four "Musica Callada" ("Music of Silence) by Frederico Mompou, one of the more prominent composers of te 20th century from Catalonia.

Musica Callada I

This is a wonderful arrangement by George Shearing of the standard hit "Over the Rainbow" from the 1938 classic movie "The Wizard of Oz."

Over The Rainbow

This is a medley of two George Shearing arrangements of Johnny Mercer's theme music from the Movie "Laura" from 1945 and the Duke Ellington standard "I've Got It Bad and That Ain't Good."

Laura I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good

The beautiful Ashokan Farewell by Jay Unger featured as the theme song in the Civil War series by Ken Burns.

Ashokan Farewell

One of Scott Joplin's best rags from 1907.

Searchlight Rag

I am a retired physician who has been a life long pianist and music lover.  Despite a busy professional career outside of music, I have managed to practice the piano daily, gradually learning new pieces, and expanding my piano repertory.  I began recording my piano repertory over thirty years ago.

My musical training started out on the accordion at age six.  Later in my early teens, I began to play the piano, developing an instant love for the great piano classics of Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart and Bach.  I took formal music lessons through undergraduate college, and have been self taught since then.  

At the age of 21, I moved to New York City to study medicine, and purchased the then just published "Complete Rags of Scott Joplin".  Thus began a lifelong love for American classic ragtime.  At the age of 40,  I discovered the tangos and waltzes of Ernesto Nazareth, instantly becoming another one of my true loves in the vast worldwide piano literature.    My current performance and recorded repertory includes music from the Baroque, Classic, Romantic and Modern periods.  At one time, I took a run at playing all of the Scarlatti keyboard sonatas - I am still on this run as it is a true marathon, not a sprint!   At the present time I am studying the Inventions and Sinfonias of J.S. Bach.   My most recent repertory includes "new tangos" by Astor Piazzolla, the Anniversary pieces of Leonard Bernstein, and the Etudes of Philip Glass.  I hope to present recording in the near future these and other composers with upcoming tracks on SoundCloud. 

In the 1980s, I began to do home recordings of my piano repertory.  My initial recordings were acoustic on tape, but were not terribly successful.  However in the 1990s, I began to record digitally using my electric piano and midi software.    Currently all of my recordings are done using my Technics Electric Piano using Apple Garage Band software.  I realize the sound using the virtual Ivory Grand Piano software.  Recording digitally has been a much more successful tool for me than recording acoustically. 

Over the years I have put together seven different privately issued CDs using recorded tracks from my "Piano Diaries".  These CDs have been shared with family and friends as Christmas gifts.  

in 2014 I I began sharing my music on SoundCloud with a wider audience, beginning with my "Twelve Classic American Rags" which I recorded in 2009.  I've been very gratified and pleased with the response that these rags elicited from the worldwide SoundCloud community.  I have also encountered, enjoyed and been in turn influenced by many other piano artists and composers that I follow through SoundCloud.  For a amateur piano artist, SoundCloud has allowed me to expand to an audience a d interact with other artists that I never dreamed possible when I began studying the piano fifty years ago.

Douglas Hadley

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