S. Joplin Paragon & Magnetic Rags

[indianajo]

Does anybody know what Scott Joplin meant by the impossible half notes in Paragon Rag and Magnetic rag, where half notes are sustained while the hands go off to another octave and do other things? P2 rh of Paragon, p4 lh of Magnetic rag. He was living in New York by this late date, he might have had access to a pricey piano with some fancy kind of middle pedal.  I don't have a grand, I'm never going to have a grand, or access to a grand, the only middle pedals I am familiar with pick up some left half of the keyboard dampers.  That obviously is not correct for Paragon. 

[faulty_damper]

Think of a choir with the alti singing the half notes while the soprani sing the top flourish.

It just means to sustain the sound while the other voice plays.  Hold the pedal for the entire bar.  If you know music theory, then you would realize it's the same chord for the bar so it will not be dissonant if you do so.

Note that in music notation, the notes are taken literally as to what the hands should do; it is a representation of what the music should sound like.