William Bolcom

Graceful Ghost

I came to know of this piece when hearing famous Norwegian ragtime pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen playing it at a concert with the Norwegian Navy Band Bergen. I was struck by it's melancholic beauty and wanted to arrange it for band.

Rag times are rarely in a minor key (which this one is) and when you first hear it, you might think it was written around the time when Scott Joplin was the main ragtime composer.

But, if you listen more carefully, you notice that some of the harmonies are more advanced than one might expect in traditional ragtime, giving the piece a slightly more contemporary feel.

The composer William Bolcom wrote Graceful Ghost in 1970 to honour the memory of his father and it is one of his most popular pieces.'
Svein H. Giske