Listening Guide: "Maple Leaf Rag" Performed by Joshua Rifkin

Maple Leaf Rag"♫ Recorded and performed by Joshua Rifkin 2005
A	Opens with the sixteen-bar main theme A in the key of A-flat major	[00:00-00:21] 00:21
B	Opening sixteen-bar main theme A repeated	[00:21-00:44] 00:22
C	A New sixteen-bar theme B comes into play	[00:44-01:06] 00:20
D	Theme B repeated	[01:06-01:26] 00:20
E	Opening sixteen-bar main theme A comes back	[01:27-01-48] 00:21
F	Trio Section —New theme C in the Key of D-flat major. Now we have modulated to a new tonality.	[01:48-02:09] 00:21
G	Trio Section theme C repeated	[02:09-02:30] 00:21
H	New theme D comes into play in the original key of A-flat major	[02:30-02:50] 00:20
I	Theme D repeated to close out the work	[02:51-03:11] 00:20

James H. Dorman

[T]he coon song "was a manifestation of a peculiar form of the will to believe - to believe in the signified 'coon' as represented in the songs - as a necessary socio-psychological mechanism for justifying segregation and subordination."

Reese Europe

In my opinion, there never was any such music as "ragtime." "Ragtime" is merely a nickname, or rather a fun name given to Negro rhythm by our Caucasian brother musicians many years ago.