11/11/2023 0 Comments Scott joplin ragtime dance![]() Instead they played in saloons and restaurants outside of the fairgrounds. With his Texas Medley Quartette, Joplin played at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 – or rather, he would have played there, but few African-Americans were allowed to play inside the Fair. It’s important to remember Joplin was born just a few years after the end of the US Civil War, when, despite the official emancipation of the slaves, conservative forces were doing their best to reinstate the status quo that kept African-Americans at the very bottom of the social ladder. He later attended the George R Smith College in Sedalia, Missouri, making him quite well educated for an African-American of his time. The teenaged Joplin formed the Texas Medley Quartette and soon was performing at dances, events, meetings and weddings. The youngster’s musical abilities caught the attention of Julian Weiss, a German-born music teacher, who took him under his wing, tutoring him in basic musicianship and composition, and giving him an appreciation of opera and art. The family later moved to Texarkana, where Florence was employed as a domestic cleaner, and it’s thought Scott first played the piano at the home of one of her employers. Giles played violin and Florence the banjo. Life was not easy – ‘a hardscrabble existence on barren Texas scrubland’ in the words of one biographer – yet there was still joy to be had in the Joplin family’s music making. What is known is that his mother, Florence, hailed from Kentucky, while his father, Giles, a former slave, came from North Carolina. Recent biographers agree that Joplin was born near Marshall, Texas, probably in 1867, but certainly not on 24 November 1868, the usual date given. Tracing the life of the ‘King of Ragtime’ has challenged biographers – the paper trail, beyond newspaper accounts of his achievements and some official documents, is thin. The Entertainer is one of the most well-known ragtime pieces in history. Joplin, who died in 1916, would have been delighted by all the attention. In 1983, Joplin’s face appeared on a US postage stamp. Scott Joplin, a film about the composer’s life, came out in 1977, while choreographer Kenneth MacMillan used Joplin’s music as the score to his 1974 ballet Elite Syncopations (recently revived at the Birmingham Royal Ballet). Amateur and professional pianists alike discovered ragtime, adding such gems as The Entertainer and The Maple Leaf Rag to their repertoire. The Sting arrived on the wave of a major ragtime revival. Marvin Hamlisch won an Academy Award for his arranging efforts, however, the real credit must go to the composer, Scott Joplin – ‘The King of Ragtime’. Our impression of ragtime has also been shaped by the use of rags in the soundtrack of the hugely successful 1973 film, The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. 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.Think of ‘ragtime’ and your first mental image might be of a man with a twirly moustache, wearing a boater hat and a striped shirt with braces, who’s sitting at an upright piano and pounding out a jaunty rag.įrom our vantage point, more than 100 years later, ragtime seems like the innocent music of an almost comically innocent age. 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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