Scott Joplin: Treemonisha

Scott Joplin’s (1867–1917) opera Treemonisha is the only opera in existence about the Reconstruction era African-American experience written by a black man who actually lived through it. This fact alone makes the opera a work of tremendous significance. Further, Joplin’s music is profoundly expressive and as stylistically unique as anything ever created in America. Through his score and libretto, Joplin vividly documented a culture that has left us few other artifacts: The echoes of the “field hollers,” spirituals, fiddle tunes, revival hymns, and ancient African dances of his rural childhood are all heard, along with the dialects of his people rising up from slavery. Yet for all of its obvious significance, Treemonisha has been a deeply misunderstood work. The opera was complex and virtually unprecedented, two reasons why 1910s America could not embrace it. And tragically, Joplin's original 1911 materials for the opera were almost entirely destroyed in the early 1960s. In the early 1970s several attempts were made to reconstruct it, but for the most part these were not concerned with the opera’s cultural origins or historic authenticity. But now, on the centennial of this extraordinary creation, comes this new recording of a completely authentic reconstruction of Treemonisha by Rick Benjamin, based on eighteen years of research.

Selective Formation of Diblock Copolymers Using Radical Trap-Assisted Atom Transfer Radical Coupling

Polystyrene (PSt) radicals and poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) radicals, derived from their monobrominated precursors prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), were formed in the presence of the radical trap 2-methyl-2-nitrosopropane (MNP), selectively forming PSt-PMA diblock copolymers with an alkoxyamine at the junction between the block segments. This radical trap-assisted, atom transfer radical coupling (RTA-ATRC) was performed in a single pot at low temperature (35 degrees C), while analogous traditional ATRC reactions at this temperature, which lacked the radical trap, resulted in no observed coupling and the PStBr and PMABr precursors were simply recovered. Selective formation of the diblock under RTA-ATRC conditions is consistent with the PStBr and PMABr having substantially different K-ATRP values, with PSt radicals initially being formed and trapped by the MNP and the PMA radicals being trapped by the in situ-formed nitroxide end-capped PSt. The midchain alkoxyamine functionality was confirmed by thermolysis of the diblock copolymer, resulting in recovery of the PSt segment and degradation of the PMA block at the relatively high temperatures (125 degrees C) required for thermal cleavage. A PSt-PMA diblock formed by chain extenstion ATRP using PStBr as the macroinitiator (thus lacking the alkoxyamine between the PSt-PMA segements) was inert to thermolysis. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 3619-3626