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ONLY ONE OTHER COPY KNOWN
397
●
(MUSIC.) JOPLIN, SCOTT.
Please Say You Will by Scott Joplin of the
Texas Medley Quartette.
Printed sheet music. 3 separated folio leaves. Cover title-page
[1], words and music pp 2-5, p [6] blank; approximately 13 x 9
1
/
2
inches.
AN EXCEPTIONAL
COPY
.
Chicago, 1895
[3,500/5,000]
THE EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST PRINTING OF SCOTT JOPLIN
’
S FIRST PUBLISHED PIECE OF
MUSIC
,
first released on February 25, 1895. Scott Joplin and Otis Saunders were traveling together
when they arrived at the Chicago, Fair in 1894. Joplin moved into the Marshall house in Sedalia
and within a short time became Arthur Marshall’s tutor. Marshall himself would go on to become a
major Ragtime player and composer. It was around this time the Texas Medley Quartette was
formed. The band toured as far east as Syracuse in upstate New York. There, two businessmen of the
city took an interest in Joplin and published several songs by the group, the first of which was “Please
Say You Will,” copy-written February 20, 1895 (published by M. L. Mantell, a local jeweler) and
crediting Joplin as being a member of “The Texas Medley Quartette.” OCLC locates only a single
copy at the New York State Library. No copy has appeared at auction in 30 years of records.