Scott Joplin gave America the Maple Leaf Rag and the Entertainer. But in 1905, grieving the death of his wife of ten weeks, he wrote something entirely different. Bethena is a concert waltz, marked cantabile, wistful and searching in ways ragtime was never supposed to be. In this episode, I reflect on the backstory behind this neglected composition, a quiet parallel to Bach's Partita No. 2 in D Minor, and what Bethena reveals about who Joplin really was beyond the title of King of Ragtime.

The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.

Here’s a recording of Bethena: https://youtu.be/FzckSxYw7fg

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