Scott Joplin is celebrated as the United States? first well-known black composer, making his name as a writer of piano rags. His life was a constant struggle with adversity, and Joplin died relatively young in 1917, at the dawn of the recording age. Few remembered Joplin?s music until a revival in the 1970s brought The Entertainer and others to the world?s attention. Nowadays Scott Joplin has taken his rightful place in the gallery of great American composers.

The Rags included in this collection are, The Entertainer, The Maple Leaf Rag, The Easy Winners, The Elite Syncopations and The Favorite.

They have been arranged as solos for one Cello with piano accompaniment, and include all sections of the original compositions. You will download one pdf file that contains both 22 pages of piano score and the 10 page solo part. These pieces are suitable for players at an intermediate and advanced intermediate level. Musicians will find these Ragtime solos ideal for formal and informal performances, light and fun, yet still a serious and vitally important part of the American musical heritage. The overall performance time for all five is around 25 minutes.

Teachers will enjoy using these arrangements as a fun way to help with phrasing, syncopated rhythms and light articulation.

Click on the YouTube link to see and hear samples from the collection. There are many more top quality arrangements and compositions by David McKeown for you to browse at http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/david-mckeown/6203

The pop classic 'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen arranged for cello and piano. Written in 6/8 times. Verse and chorus repeated three times, each time differently. Duration: 00:03:15. Intermediate level, suitable for students as well as for performers.

The arrangement underlines all the different facets of the song, both verse and chorus being interpreted in various ways. Instead of the cello playing the melody and the piano accompanying throughout the whole piece, the melody switches between the two instruments and is complemented by a second voice in places.

Arranged here as a duet for cello and piano, "Salut d'Amour" is classic Elgar. His music conjures a mood of timeless grace and elegance, with its memorable melody that is luxurious, sweeping and transcendent of time. Also known as "Love's Greeting" and "Hello, Love," this music is recommended for weddings (as a prelude, unity candle music, a bridal march or bridesmaid processional) as well as recitals and concerts. 9 pages of music (that includes a separate two-page pullout cello part). Key: G major.

This arrangement was modified in its edition and violin indications. A very clean piano part was written. Very good edition of the entire score.

The Méditation is an instrumental entr'acte performed between the scenes of Act II in the opera Thaïs. In the first scene of Act II, Athanaël, a Cenobite monk, confronts Thaïs, a beautiful and hedonistic courtesan and devotée of Venus, and attempts to persuade her to leave her life of luxury and pleasure and find salvation through God. It is during a time of reflection following the encounter that the Méditation is played by the orchestra. In the second scene of Act II, following the Méditation, Thaïs tells Athanaël that she will follow him to the desert.

The piece is in D major and is approximately five minutes long (although there are a number of interpretations that stretch the piece to over six minutes). Massenet may also have written the piece with religious intentions; the tempo marking is Andante religioso, signifying his intention that it should be played religiously (which could mean either strictly in the tempo or literally with religiously-founded emotion) and at walking tempo, or around 60 BPM. The piece opens with a short introduction, with the solo violin quickly entering with the motif. After the violin plays the melody twice, the piece goes into a section marked animato, gradually becoming more and more passionate (Massenet wrote poco a poco appassionato). The climax is reached at a place marked poco piu appassionato (a little more passion) and is then followed by a short cadenza-like passage from the soloist and returns to the main theme. After the theme is played twice, the soloist joins the piano while playing harmonics on the upper register as the piano quietly play below the solo line.