Bethena
Encyclopedia
"Bethena, A Concert Waltz" (March 6, 1905) is a composition by Scott Joplin
. It was the first Joplin work since his wife Freddie's death on September 10, 1904 of pneumonia
, ten weeks after their wedding. At the time the composer had significant financial problems; the work did not sell successfully at the time of publication and was soon neglected and forgotten. It was rediscovered as a result of the Joplin revival in the 1970s and has received acclaim from Joplin's biographers and other critics. The piece combines two different styles of music, the classical waltz and the rag, and has been seen as demonstrating Joplin's excellence as a classical
composer. The work has been described as "an enchantingly beautiful piece that is among the greatest of Ragtime Waltz
es", a "masterpiece", and "Joplin's finest waltz".
, which became a best-selling instrumental hit, and provided the composer with a steady income for the rest of his life from the royalties
. Despite this success early on in his career (he was named as the "King of Ragtime" by numerous contemporaries), he had continued financial problems and never repeated the success of the Maple Leaf Rag. In the fall of 1903, Joplin lost a large amount of money on the national tour of his first opera
, A Guest of Honor
, when the box office receipts were stolen by an unidentified associate. Joplin's belongings, including the score for the opera, were confiscated for non-payment of his boarding-house bills. The opera is now considered lost, as no copy was registered with the Copyright Office, and none has been found since. Subsequently, Joplin was short of money and is thought to have been actively seeking commissions.
After divorce from his first wife Belle—a "disastrous" relationship underscored by the loss of their infant daughter—Joplin married his 19-year old second wife Freddie in June 1904. He had dedicated to her his rag The Chrysanthemum which was published in that year. She died on 10 September 1904 of pneumonia
ten weeks after their wedding. Joplin's whereabouts are unknown from that point until early 1905, when he returned to St. Louis, Missouri
where some of Joplin's known associates, such as pianist Louis Chauvin
and musician Joe Jordan
, still lived. On 6 March, Joplin registered the copyright
of Bethena, A Concert Waltz, and dedicated the work to the otherwise little-known "Mr. and Mrs. Dan E. Davenport of St. Louis Mo". The copyright date is significant because not all Joplin works were registered for copyright purposes and there is a lack of detail about many aspects of Joplin's life, including when many of the pieces were composed.
Biographer Edward Berlin speculated that this dedication was unusual because the Davenports were not able to help Joplin professionally by showcasing his work or commissioning more, but was a recognition of the personal support that they had given him through the difficult time after Freddie's death. The origin of the name "Bethena" is a mystery, and the identity of the woman featured on the cover of the work's original publication is unknown. It has been claimed that the image is of Freddie from her wedding day, although positive identification is made more difficult because the photograph on the cover of the piece does not show the subject's race clearly.
The work was published by the "T. Bahnsen Piano Manufacturing Company, St. Louis", a firm which only published two other Joplin compositions. Berlin speculates that at this point in his career, despite the fame brought by the Maple Leaf Rag
, Joplin was unable to arrange favorable terms with publishers; for example Joplin announced in July 1905 the completion of the song "You Stand Good with Me, Babe" which was never published, and no copies of the song have ever been found. Bethena was released at a difficult time for Joplin, both emotionally and financially; most of the compositions released in the two and a half years since the death of Freddie had been by little-known and insignificant publishers, were largely unnoticed at the time of publication and, except for Bethena, were not "quality Joplin". Joplin's finances remained in an unsatisfactory state and he wrote several works for hire.
Bethena has five musical strains
in five different keys
; G major, B-flat major, F major, B minor, and in D major respectively. The sections are linked by "transitional passages" which enable the work to change key between the strains by means of a chromatic interlude or modulation
. Each of the themes is written with the instruction "Cantabile
", which means "songlike and flowing in style".
The piece is notated in 3/4 time with the main theme repeated three times in the work as well as in the introduction and the coda. The "sadly poignant", "graceful, wistful" and tenderly nostalgic mood is partly dictated by this main theme, which starts with the melody note A harmonised
against a G major chord thus creating a dissonance
. In the next measure the theme is set against a different harmony before Joplin creates variations. There are variants of the theme in the "haunting" B minor key of the D strain and in the E strain's D major key which "brightens the mood".
Joplin combines the waltz' "oom-pa-pah" rhythm and its conventionally accented three quarter notes in the bass, with a syncopated
melody in the treble. The main melody line used in the introduction and then repeated regularly throughout, with its alternate unaccented eighth notes and accented quarter notes, is the rhythm of the Cakewalk
minus the final note. The Cakewalk was a popular African-American dance which originated in plantation slave communities in nineteenth century America, and ultimately contributed to the musical style Ragtime. The simultaneous sounding of the two independent rhythms, he combination of the waltz in the bass and the syncopation of the main theme in the treble, is an example of a 4 against 3 polyrhythm. There are many subtle variations of this sequence which occur throughout the work.
The left hand follows the standard approach of classical waltz
es, with a bass note followed by two mid-range chords, and in addition there are some contrapuntal
passages where two melodies move independently but complement each other harmonically. For example the B and C themes are examples of Joplin employing counterpoint in octaves. The B theme in the key of B-flat major is closely related to the main theme presenting its counterpoint with the bass and the treble melody lines moving in opposite directions (in contrary motion
), to each other and then exchanging their melodies (bars 29-30 and 31-32). This pattern repeats itself during the theme. In the opening phrase (bars 77-81) of the "rag-like" C theme in the key of F major, counterpoint is evident with the harmony of the treble moving in contrary motion to the bass line in a similar way to that used in the B section. In the treble, the harmony falls from F to D, while the bass rises from F to G-sharp
and Treemonisha
indicate that he was trying to be taken seriously as a composer. Like many of his other works, Bethena was largely forgotten after Joplin's death from syphilis in 1917. The slow revival and re-discovery of Ragtime and Joplin started in the 1940s, although it concentrated on the rags such as the Maple Leaf Rag, rather than Bethena.
Joshua Rifkin
's 1970 LP Piano Rags by Scott Joplin
played a part in the Joplin revival of that decade, with sales of over 100,000 in the first year and subsequently becoming Nonesuch Records
' first disk to sell over 1 million copies. Bethena was one of the pieces performed on the 1972 follow-up, Volume 2. The Billboard
"Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for 28th September 1974 has the first record at number 5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at number 4, and a combined set of both volumes at number 3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks. In 1979 New York Magazine wrote that by giving artists like Rifkin the opportunity to put Joplin's music on disk Nonesuch Records
"created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival."
The composition was featured on the soundtrack to the 2008
Hollywood film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
. The performance of the composition by the pianist Randy Kerber
was described by one critic on National Public Radio as "letting the inherent wistfulness of the music emerge", with the piece "perfectly suited" to the movie as it was a "tender and heartfelt remembrance of a love lost".
Joplin biographer Edward A. Berlin believed that Bethena was "an enchantingly beautiful piece that is among the greatest of ragtime waltzes" because of the repeated main theme in G major, the contrapuntal passages, and the harmonies. Another biographer, Rudi Blesh
, wrote that the work was a "masterpiece", thanks to its rhythmic variations, the beauty of each strain's melodies and the richly scored harmony, especially when considered in comparison to the unsyncopated light salon style of Binks Waltz published in the same year. In another publication, Blesh described the work as "Joplin's finest waltz".
Other critics have praised the piece, with the author of a survey of American music noting that the rhythms of the waltz and ragtime combined to produce an "ingenious and delightful example of such a stylistic accommodation", showing that the composer was an "adventurous classicist par excellence" because he was able to combine tradition and innovation in a consistently inventive way. Another critic, the arranger of Joplin's music for solo Guitar, wrote that Bethena displayed Joplin's characteristic syncopated style in a "seductive" manner even in the waltz's 3/4 time signature.
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
. It was the first Joplin work since his wife Freddie's death on September 10, 1904 of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, ten weeks after their wedding. At the time the composer had significant financial problems; the work did not sell successfully at the time of publication and was soon neglected and forgotten. It was rediscovered as a result of the Joplin revival in the 1970s and has received acclaim from Joplin's biographers and other critics. The piece combines two different styles of music, the classical waltz and the rag, and has been seen as demonstrating Joplin's excellence as a classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
composer. The work has been described as "an enchantingly beautiful piece that is among the greatest of Ragtime Waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es", a "masterpiece", and "Joplin's finest waltz".
Background and composition
Joplin's principal claim to fame was the publication in 1899 of the Maple Leaf RagMaple Leaf Rag
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. As a result Joplin was called the "King...
, which became a best-selling instrumental hit, and provided the composer with a steady income for the rest of his life from the royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. Despite this success early on in his career (he was named as the "King of Ragtime" by numerous contemporaries), he had continued financial problems and never repeated the success of the Maple Leaf Rag. In the fall of 1903, Joplin lost a large amount of money on the national tour of his first opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, A Guest of Honor
A Guest of Honor
A Guest of Honor was the first opera created by Scott Joplin, the celebrated ragtime composer. The focus of the production was a 1901 White House dinner hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt for the civil rights leader and educator Booker T. Washington...
, when the box office receipts were stolen by an unidentified associate. Joplin's belongings, including the score for the opera, were confiscated for non-payment of his boarding-house bills. The opera is now considered lost, as no copy was registered with the Copyright Office, and none has been found since. Subsequently, Joplin was short of money and is thought to have been actively seeking commissions.
After divorce from his first wife Belle—a "disastrous" relationship underscored by the loss of their infant daughter—Joplin married his 19-year old second wife Freddie in June 1904. He had dedicated to her his rag The Chrysanthemum which was published in that year. She died on 10 September 1904 of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
ten weeks after their wedding. Joplin's whereabouts are unknown from that point until early 1905, when he returned to St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
where some of Joplin's known associates, such as pianist Louis Chauvin
Louis Chauvin
Louis Chauvin was an American ragtime musician.Born in St. Louis, Missouri of a Mexican Spanish-Indian father and an African American mother, he was widely considered the finest pianist in the St. Louis area at the turn of the century...
and musician Joe Jordan
Joe Jordan (musician)
Joe Jordan was an African American musician and composer. Jordan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, grew up in St...
, still lived. On 6 March, Joplin registered the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
of Bethena, A Concert Waltz, and dedicated the work to the otherwise little-known "Mr. and Mrs. Dan E. Davenport of St. Louis Mo". The copyright date is significant because not all Joplin works were registered for copyright purposes and there is a lack of detail about many aspects of Joplin's life, including when many of the pieces were composed.
Biographer Edward Berlin speculated that this dedication was unusual because the Davenports were not able to help Joplin professionally by showcasing his work or commissioning more, but was a recognition of the personal support that they had given him through the difficult time after Freddie's death. The origin of the name "Bethena" is a mystery, and the identity of the woman featured on the cover of the work's original publication is unknown. It has been claimed that the image is of Freddie from her wedding day, although positive identification is made more difficult because the photograph on the cover of the piece does not show the subject's race clearly.
The work was published by the "T. Bahnsen Piano Manufacturing Company, St. Louis", a firm which only published two other Joplin compositions. Berlin speculates that at this point in his career, despite the fame brought by the Maple Leaf Rag
Maple Leaf Rag
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. As a result Joplin was called the "King...
, Joplin was unable to arrange favorable terms with publishers; for example Joplin announced in July 1905 the completion of the song "You Stand Good with Me, Babe" which was never published, and no copies of the song have ever been found. Bethena was released at a difficult time for Joplin, both emotionally and financially; most of the compositions released in the two and a half years since the death of Freddie had been by little-known and insignificant publishers, were largely unnoticed at the time of publication and, except for Bethena, were not "quality Joplin". Joplin's finances remained in an unsatisfactory state and he wrote several works for hire.
Form
- IntroductionIntroduction (music)In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often abbreviated as intro...
A BB A CC DD EE A CodaCoda (music)Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
Bethena has five musical strains
Strain (music)
A strain is a series of musical phrases that create a distinct melody of a piece. A strain is often referred to as a "section" of a musical piece. Often, a strain is repeated for the sake of instilling the melody clearly. This is so in ragtime and marches....
in five different keys
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
; G major, B-flat major, F major, B minor, and in D major respectively. The sections are linked by "transitional passages" which enable the work to change key between the strains by means of a chromatic interlude or modulation
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
. Each of the themes is written with the instruction "Cantabile
Cantabile
Cantabile is a musical term meaning literally "singable" or "songlike" . It has several meanings in different contexts. In instrumental music, it indicates a particular style of playing designed to imitate the human voice. For 18th century composers, the term is often used synonymously with...
", which means "songlike and flowing in style".
The piece is notated in 3/4 time with the main theme repeated three times in the work as well as in the introduction and the coda. The "sadly poignant", "graceful, wistful" and tenderly nostalgic mood is partly dictated by this main theme, which starts with the melody note A harmonised
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
against a G major chord thus creating a dissonance
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
. In the next measure the theme is set against a different harmony before Joplin creates variations. There are variants of the theme in the "haunting" B minor key of the D strain and in the E strain's D major key which "brightens the mood".
Joplin combines the waltz' "oom-pa-pah" rhythm and its conventionally accented three quarter notes in the bass, with a syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
melody in the treble. The main melody line used in the introduction and then repeated regularly throughout, with its alternate unaccented eighth notes and accented quarter notes, is the rhythm of the Cakewalk
Cakewalk
The Cakewalk dance was developed from a "Prize Walk" done in the days of slavery, generally at get-togethers on plantations in the Southern United States. Alternative names for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the "walk-around"...
minus the final note. The Cakewalk was a popular African-American dance which originated in plantation slave communities in nineteenth century America, and ultimately contributed to the musical style Ragtime. The simultaneous sounding of the two independent rhythms, he combination of the waltz in the bass and the syncopation of the main theme in the treble, is an example of a 4 against 3 polyrhythm. There are many subtle variations of this sequence which occur throughout the work.
The left hand follows the standard approach of classical waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es, with a bass note followed by two mid-range chords, and in addition there are some contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
passages where two melodies move independently but complement each other harmonically. For example the B and C themes are examples of Joplin employing counterpoint in octaves. The B theme in the key of B-flat major is closely related to the main theme presenting its counterpoint with the bass and the treble melody lines moving in opposite directions (in contrary motion
Contrary motion
In music theory, contrapuntal motion is the general movement of two melodic lines with respect to each other. In traditional four-part harmony, it is important that lines maintain their independence, an effect which can be achieved by the judicious use of the four types of contrapuntal motion:...
), to each other and then exchanging their melodies (bars 29-30 and 31-32). This pattern repeats itself during the theme. In the opening phrase (bars 77-81) of the "rag-like" C theme in the key of F major, counterpoint is evident with the harmony of the treble moving in contrary motion to the bass line in a similar way to that used in the B section. In the treble, the harmony falls from F to D, while the bass rises from F to G-sharp
Critical reception
It is not clear what the composition's reception was at the time, and the piece's publication by a company which had little previous experience of this endeavour indicate that there was little positive impact on the composer's financial problems. Joplin wanted to be considered as a serious artist, and spoke of his preference for "classical music". Compositions such as Bethena, A Concert Waltz and his operas A Guest of HonorA Guest of Honor
A Guest of Honor was the first opera created by Scott Joplin, the celebrated ragtime composer. The focus of the production was a 1901 White House dinner hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt for the civil rights leader and educator Booker T. Washington...
and Treemonisha
Treemonisha
Treemonisha is an opera composed by the famed African-American ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin did not refer to it as such, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "ragtime opera"...
indicate that he was trying to be taken seriously as a composer. Like many of his other works, Bethena was largely forgotten after Joplin's death from syphilis in 1917. The slow revival and re-discovery of Ragtime and Joplin started in the 1940s, although it concentrated on the rags such as the Maple Leaf Rag, rather than Bethena.
Joshua Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin is an American conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist. He is best known by the general public for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records, and to classical musicians for his...
's 1970 LP Piano Rags by Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin: Piano Rags
Scott Joplin: Piano Rags is a 1970 ragtime piano album, consisting of compositions by Scott Joplin played by Joshua Rifkin, on the Nonesuch Records label. The album cover states the name as Piano Rags by Scott Joplin. The record is considered to have been the first to reintroduce the music of...
played a part in the Joplin revival of that decade, with sales of over 100,000 in the first year and subsequently becoming Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
' first disk to sell over 1 million copies. Bethena was one of the pieces performed on the 1972 follow-up, Volume 2. The Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
"Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for 28th September 1974 has the first record at number 5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at number 4, and a combined set of both volumes at number 3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks. In 1979 New York Magazine wrote that by giving artists like Rifkin the opportunity to put Joplin's music on disk Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
"created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival."
The composition was featured on the soundtrack to the 2008
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
Hollywood film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald...
. The performance of the composition by the pianist Randy Kerber
Randy Kerber
Randy Kerber is a composer, orchestrator, keyboard player, born September 25, 1958 in Encino, California, who has had a prolific career in the world of cinema...
was described by one critic on National Public Radio as "letting the inherent wistfulness of the music emerge", with the piece "perfectly suited" to the movie as it was a "tender and heartfelt remembrance of a love lost".
Joplin biographer Edward A. Berlin believed that Bethena was "an enchantingly beautiful piece that is among the greatest of ragtime waltzes" because of the repeated main theme in G major, the contrapuntal passages, and the harmonies. Another biographer, Rudi Blesh
Rudi Blesh
Rudi Blesh was an American jazz critic and enthusiast....
, wrote that the work was a "masterpiece", thanks to its rhythmic variations, the beauty of each strain's melodies and the richly scored harmony, especially when considered in comparison to the unsyncopated light salon style of Binks Waltz published in the same year. In another publication, Blesh described the work as "Joplin's finest waltz".
Other critics have praised the piece, with the author of a survey of American music noting that the rhythms of the waltz and ragtime combined to produce an "ingenious and delightful example of such a stylistic accommodation", showing that the composer was an "adventurous classicist par excellence" because he was able to combine tradition and innovation in a consistently inventive way. Another critic, the arranger of Joplin's music for solo Guitar, wrote that Bethena displayed Joplin's characteristic syncopated style in a "seductive" manner even in the waltz's 3/4 time signature.