| Keep the Ragtime Playing!April 1, 1917) was an American musician and composer of ragtime music.Early years
2 Success
3 Joplin as a performer
4 Illness
5 Legacy and revival
6 Joplin's music
6.Florence Givins and Giles or Jiles Joplin.For many years, his birthdate was thought to be November 24, 1868; but research by ragtime historian Ed Berlin has revealed this is inaccurate.After 1871, the Joplin family moved to Texarkana, Texas, and Scott's mother cleaned homes so Scott could have a place to practice his music.By 1882 his mother had purchased a piano.At the 1893 World's Fair, in Chicago, Illinois, he heard the latest music, including the concert band of John Phillip Sousa, who played there daily.He would later further his musical education by attending George R.By the late 1880s, Scott Joplin had left home to start a life of his own.He may have joined or formed various quartets and other musical groups and traveled around the Midwest to sing.After organizing The Texas Medley Quartette, he helped them to sing their way to, and back from, Syracuse, New York.In 1895, Joplin was in Syracuse, selling two songs, "Please Say You Will" and "A Picture of Her Face".Of the six, only "Original Rags", a compilation of existing melodies that he wrote collaboratively, is a ragtime piece.Son, a Sedalia music publisher."Maple Leaf Rag" boosted Joplin to the top of the list of ragtime performers and moved ragtime into prominence as a musical form.Louis, Missouri, in early 1900 with his new wife, Belle.Joplin married several times.Joplin's first work copyrighted after Freddie's death, "Bethena" (1905), is a very sad, musically complex ragtime waltz.After months of faltering, Joplin continued writing and publishing.The score to an earlier ragtime opera by Joplin, A Guest of Honor, is lost.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Joplin's 'musicianly way' of playing ragtime.Arthur Marshall, a good friend and student of Joplin, said "he played slowly, but exceedingly good..Joe Jordan, another famous ragtime musician, said that although he never played anything other than his own pieces, he did play them well.Sam Patterson said Joplin "never played well" and Artie Matthews recalled the delight the Saint Louis players took in outplaying Joplin with his own music.Researcher Edward Berlin theorizes that by the time Joplin reached St Louis, he was already beginning to suffer the physical effects of syphilis, which would take his life in 1917.This may explain the differences in opinion of those observing Joplin's playing in the late 1890s and in the early 1910s.Ragtime Waltz" (all for Connorized).These are the only records of his playing we have, and are interesting for the embellishments added by Joplin to his Connorized performances, although studying other Connorized rolls of that era reveals they may well have been added during the production process by staff artists, rather than Joplin himself.The roll of "Pleasant Moments" was thought lost until August 2006, when a piano roll collector in New Zealand discovered a surviving copy.January 1917 Joplin was hospitalized at Manhattan State Hospital in New York City, and friends recounted that he would have bursts of lucidity in which he would jot down lines of music hurriedly before relapsing.Michael's Cemetery in the Astoria section of Queens.Joplin's musical papers, including unpublished manuscripts, were willed to Joplin's friend and the executor of his will, musician and composer Wilbur Sweatman.Sweatman took care of these papers and generously shared access to them to those who inquired.Almost all Joplin scholars agree that the piece is a genuine Joplin composition.However, a number of revivals of ragtime have occurred since.In 1974, Kenneth MacMillan created a ballet for the Royal Ballet, Elite Syncopations, based on tunes by Joplin, Max Morath and others.The same year saw the premiere by the Los Angeles Ballet of Red Back Book, choreographed by John Clifford to orchestrated Joplin rags from the collection of the same name, as well as to solo piano works of the composer.Scott Joplin was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his special contribution to American music.Motown Productions produced a Scott Joplin biographical film starring Billy Dee Williams as Joplin, which was released by Universal Pictures in 1977.In 1983, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp of the composer as part of its Black Heritage commemorative series.In 1987 Scott Joplin was inducted in the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.Scott Joplin festival takes place each spring in Sedalia.At the site of the Maple Leaf club, which is now a parking lot, everyone who would like to can sign up to take a turn playing.In 2002, Scott Joplin ragtime compositions on piano rolls (1900s), was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress, National Recording Registry.Joplin's music
Even at the time of publication, Joplin's publisher John Stark was claiming that the rags had obtained classical status, and "lifted ragtime from its low estate and lined it up with Beethoven and Bach".Midwestern Folk rag ideas as raw material for the creation of original strains.Thus, his rags are the most heavily pentatonic, with liberal use of blue notes and other outstanding features that characterize black folk music.In this creative synthesis, .Joplin left little doubt as to how his compositions should be performed: as a precaution against the prevailing tendency of the day to up the tempo, he explicitly wrote in many of his scores that "ragtime should never be played fast."Works by Scott Joplin
Inconsistencies exist between certain titles and subtitles, and their respective cover titles, possibly reflecting "an editorial casualness...In some instances, copyright notices were not registered.Scott Hayden
"Magnetic Rag" (1914)
"Pretty Pansy Rag" (c.Samples
Maple Leaf Rag first section, Ogg Vorbis format, 17 seconds, 148 KB (info...Stark ad, page 23, in Ragtime Review (Vol.Vera Brodsky Lawrence, Editor's Note pix, Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works, New York Public Library, 1981.Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works, New York Public Library, 1981.Brief biography of Scott Joplin
Joplin on Famous Texans site
Joplin at St.Maple Leaf Rag A site dedicated to 100 years of the Maple Leaf Rag.This page was last modified 02:45, 15 January 2008.See Copyrights for details.Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.Bibliographic Citation Format:
Author's last name, first name, middle initial.Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime" music, was born near Linden, Texas on November 24, 1868.He moved with his family to Texarkana at the age of about seven.Encouraged by his parents, he was already proficient on the banjo, and was beginning to play the piano.By age eleven and under the tutelage of Julius Weiss, he was learning the finer points of harmony and style.As a teenager, he worked as a dance musician.One of his first compositions, The Great Crush Collision, was inspired by a spectacular railroad locomotive crash staged near Waco, Texas in September of 1896 (see Crash at Crush).In the late 1890s, Joplin worked at the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, which provided the title for his best known composition, the Maple Leaf Rag, published in 1899.This was followed a few years later by The Entertainer, another well known Joplin composition.Over the next fifteen years, Joplin added to his already impressive repertoire, which eventually totaled some sixty compositions.In 1911, Joplin moved to New York City, where he devoted his energies to the production of his operatic work, Treemonisha, the first grand opera composed by an African American.At the time, however, this resulted unsuccessfully.After suffering deteriorating health due to syphilis that he contracted some years earlier, Joplin died on April 1, 1917 in Manhattan State Hospital.Although Joplin's music was popular and he received modest royalties during his lifetime, he did not receive recognition as a serious composer for more than fifty years after his death.Then, in 1973, his music was featured in the motion picture, The Sting, which won and Academy Award for its film score.African American composer and pianist, called the "King of Ragtime," son of Jiles and Florence (Givins) Joplin, was born on November 24, 1868, probably at Caves Springs, near Linden, Texas.Encouraged by family music making, Scott, at age seven, was proficient in banjo and began to experiment on a piano owned by a neighbor, attorney W.Cook, for whom Florence did domestic work.At about age eleven, young Joplin began free piano lessons with Julius Weiss (born Saxony, ca.Indeed each of the Rodgers family learned a musical instrument, and young Rollin Rodgers became a lifelong opera enthusiast (the same subject which would haunt Joplin in his later years) due to Weiss's encouragement.Jiles Joplin bought for Scott probably came from the Rodgers home when the family bought a new instrument during Weiss's residence there.After Colonel Rodgers died in April 1884 and following the subsequent departure of Weiss, Joplin may also have left Texarkana.September 1884 seems to be a seminal month in Joplin's life, signifying either his departure from the border town or the date when he became an assistant teacher in Texarkana's Negro school.Texas Medley Quartette as far east as Syracuse, New York, and in 1896, into Texas, where he possibly witnessed the staged collision of two M.The sheet music went on to sell over one million copies.John Stark, a publisher in Sedalia, but later in St.Unfortunately the orchestration scores for both the operas were lost."Treemonisha" was later published.Joplin had a strong conviction that the key to success for African Americans was education, and this was a common theme in his works.Louis, with a possible visit home to Texarkana, Joplin followed publisher Stark to New York in 1907, using the city as a base for his East Coast touring, until he settled down there permanently in 1911, to devote his serious energies to the production of "Treemonisha", mounted unsuccessfully early in 1915.Joplin had contracted syphilis some years earlier, and by 1916 his health had deteriorated considerably, as indicated by his inconsistent playing on the piano rolls he recorded.Michael's Cemetery in New York City.Joplin's works include the ballet and two operas, a manual, "The School of Ragtime" (1908), and many works for piano: rags, including "Maple Leaf", "The Entertainer", "Elite Syncopations", "Peacherine"; marches, including "Great Crush Collision", "March Majestic"; and waltzes, including "Harmony Club", "Bethena".Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century Scott Joplin's music has won more critical recognition.Theodore Albrecht, "Julius Weiss: Scott Joplin's First Piano Teacher," College Music Symposium 19 (Fall 1979).Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, They All Played Ragtime: The True Story of an American Music (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1958; 2d ed.New York: Oak Publications, 1966).James Haskins and Kathleen Benson, Scott Joplin (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1978).Vera Brodsky Lawrence, ed.The Collected Works of Scott Joplin (2 vols.SCOTT JOPLIN
Born: 1867 or 1868.New York, NY
In his own words...What is scurrilously called ragtime is an invention that is here to stay.That is now conceded by all classes of musicians...All publications masquerading under the name of ragtime are not the genuine article...Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music...Generally considered the most important and influential ragtime composer.In 1908, Scott Joplin published a short book of studies to teach the style of ragtime to amateur pianists.Joplin was the son of a former slave, and grew up in a musical family.One of the places he often played was the Maple Leaf Club (from which his most famous piece derived its name).By 1907 he settled in New York (it has been held that he traveled to Europe in the intervening years, but no evidence exists to confirm this).While continuing to publish his ragtime pieces, he also finished his major work, the opera Treemonisha.He published the work in 1911 (and the score received a favorable review), but he was never able to get more than portions of it performed.He was committed to an asylum and died a short time later.It reached an even larger audience as music for the popular film The Sting.In 1972, Treemonisha was successfully produced, and in 1976 he was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize.Berlin, King of Ragtime.Alfred Ernst, director of the St.Louis Choral Symphony Society, declared in 1901 that ragtime composer Scott Joplin was a genius.Joplin was then completing his first opera.Scott Joplin made his name as "The King of Ragtime Writers," but his success in writing popular, syncopated piano pieces did not satisfy him.He aspired for success as a composer for the serious, lyric stage.However, he realized that ragtime would never bring him the artistic respect that he desired.His musical interests were also considerably broader than what could be expressed in ragtime.He therefore composed two operas, a ballet, and two orchestral works (a symphonic poem and a piano concerto, both of which are lost).He never achieved, during his lifetime, the artistic recognition he sought.November 24, 1868 is incorrect.Both parents were reputed to have been musical, and two of Joplin's five siblings (Robert and Will) became musical performers.Early in Joplin's professional career he was a singer with vocal groups, a performer on several instruments (piano, cornet, violin), and a member of a minstrel troupe.We do not know when he began composing, but his first publications were parlor songs, issued in Syracuse, NY, while he was touring with his Texas Medley Quartette in 1895.He had just moved to Sedalia, Missouri, where soon afterward he attended the George R.Smith College, and worked as a musician.During the fair, Joplin worked with a band, playing cornet, outside the midway.Joplin's first rag publication was "Original Rags," issued in 1899 by Carl Hoffman, a Kansas City firm.The cover says the music was arranged by Chas.It also changed Stark's life, and he advertised his successful publishing business as "The House of Classic Rags."In 1901, Joplin and his new wife Belle moved to St.Louis Chauvin, whose sole ragtime publication was written in collaboration with Joplin, the hauntingly, beautiful "Heliotrope Bouquet."Theater bookings were made for September and October in towns in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, but most were not filled.Someone associated with the company stole the box office receipts early in September, and the company disbanded.The music was never published, and the score was lost, supposedly destroyed when Joplin could not pay the boarding house bill for his troupe.Joplin had lost most of his money on the aborted tour, and his marriage to Belle had also ended.Early in 1904 he returned to Arkansas to visit relatives.They were married in June 1904, and then journeyed to Sedalia.Along the way, Freddie became ill, and was bedridden when they arrived in July.Two months later, in September, she died of pneumonia.It is possible, though by no means certain, that his first publication in 1905, the syncopated waltz "Bethena," bears her wedding photograph on its cover.His opera "Treemonisha," completed six years later, is set in Arkansas in September 1884, the month of Freddie's birth.Joplin went to New York in 1907 in an effort to find a backer and publisher for the opera on which he was then working.In 1908, the owners of Seminary established another publishing firm, Ted Snyder Music, where a young Irving Berlin was hired as staff lyricist and occasional composer.Joplin claimed in 1911 that he brought the score of "Treemonisha" to Berlin in an attempt to have it published.Two months later, Joplin published "Treemonisha" at his own expense, after first altering the "stolen" theme of "A Real Slow Drag."For Joplin, this was an allegory for the plight of African Americans and what he perceived as the solution.American opera from the Metropolitan Opera Company.He composed other music (rags, songs, and longer works), but few were published.Joplin was mostly forgotten by the time he died."The Maple Leaf Rag" was performed by following generations of jazz musicians, but few of Joplin's other pieces remained in the repertory.The revival began in 1941, with performances by the Yerba Buena Jass Band, a San Francisco group intent upon finding jazz's roots.The first article about him appeared in 1944, and in 1950 there was a biography in Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis's "They All Played Ragtime."The various trends in the revival coalesced in the early 1970s.Joplin's music, thereby giving the stamp of approval of one of the nation's great institutions of learning.Gunther Schuller, president of the New England Conservatory of Music, led a student ensemble in a performance of period orchestrations of Joplin's music.This was a music that could be appreciated by everyone, and Scott Joplin's faith in himself was vindicated.The Complete Scott Joplin, Vol.Many details in the life of America's first great black composer remain uncertain.However, regarding his ingenious piano works in the style known as Ragtime, it is undisputed that Scott Joplin created a place for himself among the great composers of piano music in Western culture.Joplin's syncopated musical style found expression in the popular idiom of piano Ragtime, a style that flourished along the Mississippi river in the closing decade of the Nineteenth Century and which endured as a prominent piano style until the end of World War I.To this improvisational genre Joplin brought great artistry, craftsmanship, and elegance.His piano works influenced such great composers as Claude Debussy, and Joplin is claimed as an important contributor in both serious music and as an innovator in the development of piano Jazz.However, it is clear that Joplin himself considered his music to be in the classical tradition of Western art music since this was the music of his background and education.He had few early educational opportunities, but his mother took an active interest in his education, and most members of his family played musical instruments.Julius Weiss, a German immigrant musician, taught the young Joplin and played a significant role in the formation of Joplin's artistic aspirations.He also worked as a traveling musician and became a close associate of Ragtime pioneer, Tom Turpin, in St Louis.Columbian Exposition and led a band, playing the cornet.American musicians), playing lead cornet, and formed his own dance band.He traveled with his Texas Medley Quartette, a vocal group, performing as far east as Syracuse, New York, where his first two publications were issued, the songs Please Say You Will and A Picture of Her Face.Joplin attended music classes at George R.Early in 1899, Joplin's first composition was issued, the piano Ragtime piece, Original Rags.Joplin then obtained the services of a lawyer before publishing again.This was a wise decision, for his next publication, Maple Leaf Rag, on which he had a royalty contract paying one cent per copy, was an extraordinary success.Its success was not immediate, however, since only 400 copies were sold in the first year, but it sold half a million copies by 1909, thereby providing Joplin with a steady, albeit small, income.Opera House in Sedalia, although it was not published until 1902.White House with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902.Early in the tour the receipts were stolen and the company disbanded.She died the following September and was the person to whom he dedicated his next opera, Treemonisha.In 1907, by which time he had published more than 40 works, mostly Rags, Joplin moved to New York with the intention of finding a publisher for his second opera, on which he was still working.He continued composing almost to the end of his life, including more stage works and orchestral music, but the manuscripts remained unpublished and were apparently destroyed in 1961.In his compositions, Scott Joplin strove for a "classical" excellence, and he longed for recognition as a composer of artistic merit, rather than one simply of popular acclaim.Although he lavished much of his creative efforts on extended works, it was with his piano Rags (miniatures rarely exceeding 68 bars of music) that he attained greatness.Both he and Stark referred to these pieces as "Classic Rags," comparing their artistic merit to that of European classics.The comparison is not unwarranted, for Joplin clearly sought to transcend the indifferent and commonplace quality of most Ragtime.Throughout his music, Joplin reveals himself as a composer of substance.Ragtime revival of the 1970s, when most of his works were reissued, performed, and analyzed.Public acclaim and official recognition came in the form of a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976 and a commemorative postage stamp in 1983.Piano Rags
Maple Leaf Rag (Sedalia, 1899)
Original Rags (arr.Hayden) (1901)
A Breeze from Alabama (1902)
Elite Syncopations (1902)
The Entertainer (1902)
The Strenuous Life (1902)
Palm Leaf (Chicago, 1903)
Something Doing (collab.Chauvin) (New York, 1907)
Lily Queen (collab.Jackson) (1901)
Little Black Baby (L.Spendthrift) (1907)
Pine Apple Rag (J. |
