Gershwin & Donaldson: Rialto Ripples (wind quartet)

£13.00£15.00

‘Rialto Ripples’ is a 1917 novelty ragtime piano piece by Gershwin and Donaldson and an early hit for the pair. Arranged here for wind quartet.

  • Instruments : Fl. Ob. Cl.(in Bb) Bsn.
  • Difficulty : C – approx. ABRSM Grade 5
  • Duration : 2’45”
  • ISMN : 979-0-708218-22-7
  • Portus Press reference : PP4W61

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.

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