One of the last rags Joplin wrote before becoming almost completely preoccupied with his ill-fated opera Treemonisha, Stoptime is the only piece the formerly prolific Joplin published in 1910. It's quite an innovation, though: Joplin requires the pianist to keep the rhythm with a heel stamp on each beat (as in part of The Ragtime Dance, but here Joplin writes "stamp" over every beat throughout the piece). This is no mere stunt; Joplin frees the left hand from rhythmic drudgery and gives it more interesting harmonic and melodic material. Joplin strings together a series of eight-bar segments of often intricate manipulations of syncopation (especially in the first couple of sections), and there are moments when the keyboard falls silent and only the pianist's heel is heard for two full beats (hence the "stoptime" title).

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