Scott Joplin: Treemonisha

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Scott Joplin's (1867-1917) opera Treemonisha is an astounding work of art, and one that resonates on many levels. It is the only opera in existence about the Reconstruction Era African-American experience written by a black man who actually lived through it. This fact alone makes it a work of tremendous significance. Further, Joplin's score is profoundly expressive and as stylistically unique as anything ever created in America. Through it, the composer vividly documents the echoes of the 'field hollers,' spirituals, fiddle tunes, revival hymns, and ancient African dances of his rural childhood, along with the spoken dialects of his people in their rising up from slavery. Treemonisha is Scott Joplin's statement of deep racial pride and an act of true artistic heroism his creation of beauty in the face of almost unbearable ignorance, racism, poverty, and physical and emotional pain. His original 1911 materials for the opera were almost entirely destroyed in the early 1960s. But here now is an authentic, historically correct orchestration of this 'Sleeping Beauty of American Music,' performed on this world-premiere recording. Listen now as Scott Joplin - The King of Ragtime Writers - sings the song he wanted America to hear.
This set is the culmination of two decades of research, social anthropology and painstaking forensic reconstruction. And I can't think of a more worthwhile task -- musical archaeology that needed doing -- than rescuing Joplin's sole surviving opera from obscurity and misunderstandings, some well-meaning, others inexplicably stupid and sloppy. Understanding Treemonisha is not just about hearing Joplin's achievements in the round; it's about gaining a proper understanding of black culture during that historically nebulous period when jazz was in its baroque infancy.... Benjamin's light-on-its-feet orchestration fits the music: genteel melodic lines swim like fish through pure water.... For a composer expert in 'closed form' -- harmonic ambiguity overrode ragtime's rigid 16-bar phrases to flat-pack the structure into itself -- the wonder of Treemonisha is Joplin's flair for dramatic trajectory, the intensity of thematic development making his writing spring eternal. This is the most important document about the history of American composed music to have appeared in a long, long time. --Gramophone Magazine

Having closely studied all available musical and historical sources related to the opera including Joplin's own instrumentation jottings in his personal copy of the piano score Mr. Benjamin aimed to create a new, historically correct performing edition of the opera that would reflect the original musical character intended by Joplin... The first thing listeners to this splendid new 'Treemonisha' will note is its intimacy. Instead of grandiose voices and opera-scale orchestrations, this recording features lighter voices accompanied by the lighter orchestral textures of authentic ragtime instrumentation, based on the so-called 'Eleven and Piano' ensemble. Consisting of flute (also doubling as piccolo), clarinet, two cornets, trombone, drums, piano, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass, with one instrument to a part, this nimble combination was the standard instrumental makeup of theater, minstrel-show and vaudeville orchestras from the 1870s to the 1920s. It was also the basis of early recording orchestras before the invention of the recording microphone. ... ''Treemonisha,'' says Mr. Benjamin, 'is truly a rare artifact of a vanished culture: an opera about African-Americans of the Reconstruction era created by a black man who actually lived through it. As a unique work of art, it doesn't fit the usual templates. It is the product of a great American genius, and we hope at least to help focus attention on what's truly wonderful about it.' --Barrymore Laurence Scherer - The Wall Street Journal

What the PRO offers is a restoration as opposed to a reconstruction. Rick Benjamin the conductor, composer and arranger of this recording has gained a great depth of knowledge on 19th and early 20th century African American musical theater. He was disappointed that all the new, finished versions of Treemonisha revised the music, dance and design with an eye towards evaluating the style to Grand Opera and not creating, with historical accuracy, the opera that Joplin composed. With this in mind Benjamin spent five years fact-checking for performance practice, deciding on the orchestral makeup and recreating the missing orchestrations with the help of his nine-thousand-title collection of historic theater orchestra arrangements. This recording is beautifully packaged with a book of over one hundred pages, filled with rare black and white historic photos of Joplin and the musical players of his day, in which Benjamin recounts both the lengthy history of Treemonisha in Joplin's hands and the process of Benjamin's restoration, including historical explanations for all the musical decisions therein.
All this talk about historical accuracy is well and good, but now it's time to get to the nitty gritty: how does it sound? Restoring historical pieces may be useful to the academics amongst us, but can one listen to this album just for pleasure?

The answer is a resounding, yes. The 19th century style small theater pit orchestra provides an interesting and infectious background to the strong singing of the performers, who expertly navigate the dialect lyrics as written by Joplin in a manner that does not patronize and sounds as natural as hearing Verdi in Italian. Joplin's story of the Reconstruction in the rural south and the battle between superstition and education is finally captured in a manner that pulls the listener in and that fully synthesizes African American folk and popular music with Western classical music. The syncopated accompaniment to the antiphonal vocals in We're Goin Around and Aunt Dinah Has Blowed De Horn call to mind the field holler, as was Joplin's intention, but also have the feel of ragtime and the grand presentation of an operatic showstopper. Perhaps most impressive, though not as catchy as the aforementioned pieces, is Good Advice, a church scene sung by the character Rev. Alltalk and a chorus by way of congregation. While a scene that captures a worship style native to African Americans may not seem that unique or challenging to 21st century listeners, when placed in the context provided by Benjamin it is both brave and admirable.

As a scholar who focuses on African American musical theater in the 1890s, I have found this recording to be a very precious thing, presenting music that is both historically accurate and a pleasure to listen to. I have played excerpts from the PROs recording of Treemonisha during presentations on theater music from this era and converted the staunchest modernists and experimentalists and believe me, if you give this recording a chance you will find yourself enchanted by the music and curious enough to read through all 106 pages of notes!