Description
Rialto Ripples is a novelty ragtime piano piece by George Gershwin and collaborator Will Donaldson. Published in 1917 – the year that Scott Joplin (the ‘King of Ragtime’) died – it is Gershwin’s first surviving instrumental piece. It was a commercial success for the young composer.
Around that time both Gershwin and Donaldson were employed by Remick’s Publishing where George was a ‘song plugger’ – that is to play sheet music on the piano to demonstrate to potential customers how it sounded. During his time there he was exposed to a great number of popular songs, but after a year or two he tired of how predictable and harmonically uninteresting they often were. So, whilst he learnt a lot about what made a good song, he knew he could (and indeed did) do more!
Also available for wind quintet.
