Ragtime: Solace

Scott Joplin's last really significant work, an opera, never caught on. Other than successfully publishing Magnetic Rag in 1914, most of his time in his last few years was consumed with writing Treemonisha, an opera about a magic tree. He tried to get his opera staged in New York, and even attempted (disastrously) to stage it himself. It closed after one night and caused him severe financial difficulties. Scott Joplin was stricken with venereal disease in 1916, and died in relative poverty in Harlem, NY (of Cerebral Dementia Paralytica), April 1, 1917.
My last Scott Joplin piece is an excerpt from Solace, A Mexican Serenade, from 1909. It is an appropriate swan song. It was not terribly popular when published, but is a beautiful and haunting piece, and you'll probably recognize it. It was prominent in "The Sting," too.