Scott Joplin: The King Of Ragtime

Starting off with some background with Scott Joplin—Scott Joplin’s actual birthdate unknown, but is estimated to be sometime between 1867 and 1868. His family were formerly slaves and they lived in Texarkana. Joplin taught himself piano in a nearby home owned by white people. Eventually, he was taught by German music teacher, Julius Weiss, who noticed how talented Joplin was. Joplin has lived in many different parts of the United States and has lead would could be considered a successful life. His death date is known, though, as Scott Joplin died April 1, 1917, due to contracting syphilis earlier in his life.
At first, Joplin was a travelling musician, playing at various venues. Most of the time, he played in social clubs, where he gained most of his notoriety as a pianist. His style at the time was a new music form-Ragtime; Joplin was known as the “King of Ragtime” as his playing was the best liked. Even though Joplin was a master musician, he was
not proficient in music theory and notation, he had to take classes in later years and had others help him arrange his pieces. Joplin was also involved with writing opera, mainly due to his teacher, and made many operas such as “Rag Time Dance”. Though his operas overall had a negative impact on his career, as most were not popular or had many issues that lead to financial problems for Joplin.
Scott Joplin’s ragtime style is a blend of European and African American music, featuring a jagged rhythm.
The left hand mainly plays bass patterns, emphasizing the chords on the strong beats. The jagged rhythm comes from the syncopation style melody the right hand plays. This can be seen in almost all of Joplin’s rags. And among all of the ragtime artists from that time, Scott Joplin is the most prominent and has left a lasting impression. Scott Joplin can be considered as a Post-Romantic Impressionist, as his style of Ragtime lead into an era of Jazz and modern music.
In 1899, Joplin published his most famous ragtime: “Maple Leaf Rag”, it was known as one of the most iconic and famous ragtime’s ever made His other famous works are: “The Entertainer”, “Peachirine Rag”, and “The Easy Winners”. He has even published a ragtime manual named “School of Ragtime: 6 Exercises for the Piano” which are basic techniques of playing ragtime. At that time, Joplin was widely famous (early 1900’s) and his works were praised by
many. Throughout his life, Scott Joplin has seen musical success and failures with his rags and plays. After Joplin’s death, rags became unpopular as the “roaring twenties” in America began. The new form of music known as “Jazz” was sweeping the nation, and ragtime was quickly forgotten. It was not until a couple decades later when ragtime music was becoming popular again, appreciating how ragtime pioneered the start of jazz music. Today, almost every budding piano student learns one of Joplin’s rags, and is widely known across the country. The Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Missouri celebrates the ragtime style and the man who was the master of it—Scott Joplin.