![]() Liberal example: ragtime’s syncopations reflected the exciting pace of modern industrial life.Conservative example: ragtime was performed on the piano, a white middle class symbol of nostalgia and status.Ragtime was enjoyed by both European and African Americans as it reflected the full gamut from conservative to liberal attitudes.The right hand's syncopated, “ragged” melodies, derived from complex polyrhythms (several different rhythms played simultaneously), have their roots in African music.Ragtime uses standard European notation (all the music was written).The chord progressions were rooted in European classical music.The left hand (steady march-like rhythm) was derived from European classical music and marches.Ragtime represents musics from both Europe and Africa.For an excellent example of ragtime, listen to Scott Joplin’s "Maple Leaf Rag" on the Instrumental History of Jazz and/or "The Entertainer" by clicking below.They added improvisation and, thus, jazz was born.Bands tried to imitate the ragtime style.However, it was the immediate precursor of jazz. Ragtime really isn't jazz since it rarely includes improvisation.The faster you pumped the pedals, the faster the tempo would be. By someone simply pumping two foot pedals back and forth at the bottom of the piano, the piano roll would spin through a mechanism that would mechanically press down the appropriate piano keys, making it play the song.When spun through a special type of mechanical piano (called a "player piano"), the instrument would mechanically play the notes indicated by the perforations different songs had different patterns of perforations. Piano rolls were long rolls of thick paper that had holes (i.e., perforations) punched in them.Since ragtime was conceived and developed before records were invented, it was "recorded" on piano rolls.One of ragtime’s inventors and most important pianists and composers was Scott Joplin.Ragtime is primarily an African American invention and was a source of pride to African American composers, musicians, and listeners.The right hand plays syncopated melodies in a "ragged" fashion (hence the name "ragtime").The left hand plays a steady, almost march-like succession of alternating bass notes and chords in a steady "oom-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah" fashion.It consists of each hand doing something different:.It originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Scott Joplin, the father of ragtime and one of the most influential composers of American popular song, died in New York City on April 4, 1919.Ragtime is primarily a solo piano style and was the immediate precursor to jazz. Other Joplin compositions include “Peacherine Rag” (1901), “Palm Leaf Rag-A Slow Drag” (1903), and “Euphonic Sounds” (1909) and a work that contains his explanation of ragtime style, “The School of Ragtime: Six Exercises for Piano”(1909). Joplin's music underwent a great revival after his rag “The Entertainer” was used in the 1973 film The Sting, after which Treemonisha was staged with great success in 1975 by the Houston Grand Opera. Staged in concert version in 1911, it failed with the audience, leaving the composer's spirit permanently broken. In 1911, at his own expense, he published his opera Treemonisha, a work intended to go beyond ragtime to create an indigenous black American opera. While in Missouri, he published “Original Rags” and “Maple Leaf Rag” (both in 1899) and opened a teaching studio. ![]() In 1893 he played at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and in 1894 he moved to Sedalia, Missouri. ![]() ![]() In his teens he became an itinerant pianist in the low-life districts that provided the chief employment for black musicians. Scott Joplin, American composer and pianist, was one of the most important developers of ragtime music.īorn in Texarkana, Texas on November 24, 1868, Joplin taught himself piano as a child, learning classical music from a German neighbor, Louis Chauvin. ![]()
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