Scott Joplin and Ragtime

Daveraj Khuti
12-16-14
I Pledge DK
History Paper

Scott Joplin

Ragtime began to emerge and gain popularity by the mid 1890's and the late 1900’s Ragtime had become the most popular music genre, but around the time World War I started in 1918 Ragtime was losing its momentum. Scott Joplin had an immense influence on the popularization and legacy of Ragtime, a genre which eventually helped to close gap between the lower and upper class about what types of music was considered respectable. The influences on Scott Joplin’s life combined with his decisions helped to immortalize Ragtime music, which would eventually lead to influence other genres. 

A Portrait of Scott Joplin 

Born on November 24, 1868 in Bowie Country, Texarkana (present day Texas) Scott Joplin was destined to a life of music. Joplin’s parents were Giles Joplin (father) and Florence Givens Joplin (mother), his father was a former slave who was freed when slavery was abolished in 1865, and his mother was a freeborn woman from Kentucky. Even though they were poor black family living during the Reconstruction years following the Civil War music was an important part of their lives. The presence of musicians in Joplin’s family played a role in exposing and hooking him to a life of music. His father was a violinist, his mother was a banjoist, his brother Will played the guitar and violin, and his brother Robert sang baritone. Young Joplin was exposed to waltzes, polkas, reels, and folk music; he heard these wonderful sounds while Giles played the violin for his former masters on the plantation. His mother worked as a servant for white families in Texarkana Joplin was able to play the piano. Living in a city like Texarkana, he was able to receive an education; although it was limited because of his skin color it separated him from the majority of African Americans who were literate. His education started the process of Joplin interacting with whites and blacks enabled him to feel comfortable when interacting with both races later on in his life during his musical career.
       By the age of seven Joplin began to show some interest in the piano, and by eleven he was composing and playing his own original songs. His talent on the piano was well known by the community he lived with, and that attracted several teachers who gave him free lessons; the most notable teacher Joplin attracted was a German music teacher. He taught Joplin technique, sight-reading, and harmony; it gave Joplin the opportunity to learn classical music and popular European music. The German teacher’s teachings helped to allow Joplin have the opportunity to play in an assortment of venues which furthered allowed him to diversify his music template. After the death of his mother teenager Joplin left Texarkana to make a living as a musician. He worked as an itinerant musician traveling from cities in Texas to the Mississippi River, working in brothels, saloons, gambling halls, and traveling shows. His wide assortment of jobs helped to expose him to a wide variety of music, including a syncopated “ragged” style of music which would later become Ragtime. While on his adventures to create a career as a successful musician he met a local saloon owner named John Turpin. His son Tom was also a piano player; Joplin and Tom spent much of their time in St. Louis at the Silver Dollar. Tom would eventually write and publish the first instrumental rag in 1897 called “Harlem rag”. Tom’s piece was the first published ragtime composition by an African American, but because of its small print run, his piece was only able to reach a few piano players outside of the St. Louis area. Joplin’s career is considered by some to have started when he finally moved from St. Louis to Sedalia.

The original cover of Scott Joplin's"Maple Leaf Rag"

       After moving to Sedalia, Joplin published two original non-ragtime pieces; “Please Say You Will” and “A Picture of Her Face” these early pieces did not contain the syncopation and melodic attractiveness that his later works would contain. By 1899, Joplin’s most popular and best appreciated pieces started to be published; a man named Carl Hoffman, a music publisher in Kansas City, bought the rights to the piece “Oriental Rags”, but his second published rag would be the one that would immortalize him in music history. Joplin’s piece the “Maple Leaf Rag” was published by John Stark, Stark agreed to publish Joplin’s piece and Joplin signed a five-year contract on August 10, 1900. He was also entitled to a royalty of one cent per each copy sold, by 1905 about 3,000 copies of the “Maple Leaf Rag” were being sold per month, and by 1909 Joplin was earning roughly $600 annually from the royalties of the “Maple Leaf Rag”. Three years after the publication of the “Maple Leaf Rag” Joplin had written a number of pieces such as “Elite Syncopations” and “The Entertainer, but none of them were able to reach the level of popularity the “Maple Leaf Rag” had.
          With the continual failure of creating a piece as popular as the “Maple Leaf Rag” Joplin decided to write a large-scale “Ragtime Opera” which he would title Treemonisha. In his “Ragtime Opera” he drew from his memoires growing up during the Reconstruction period in the South, he commented on African American society, superstitions, and the necessity of education to better ones’ life. Unfortunately Joplin became obsessed with the idea of perfecting his play, and when he finished writing it he was unable to find a publisher. So Joplin copyrighted and published the piece with his own money and even had to finance the rehearsal in front of a select audience in Harlem’s Lincoln Theater. Sadly his performance was a complete failure and the rejection of his beloved “Treemonisha” devastated him. 

The cover of the Treemonisha scorepublished in 1911

        After a very disappointing result from “Treemonisha” Joplin’s health began to decline, he contracted syphilis, which caused him to have mood swings and an inability to concentrated; he even had trouble playing the piano and speaking coherently. Joplin’s last work of Ragtime was “Magnetic Rag” printed around 1914, which was around the time America was beginning to create a style of music which would be referred to as blues music. He finally passed away on April 1, 1917, his death was near the time of the end of Ragtime’s decade of glory; a music genre that he had almost single-handedly created and defined. The result from Joplin’s music specifically the “Maple Leaf Rag” helped to popularize this type of music and was slightly maintained but eventually by the start of the First World War Ragtime had faded away. But even today we still see connections from Ragtime music which would eventually influence the creation of other music styles.
     Ragtime is considered by most as the first distinctive popular American music style, even though its popularity only from 1896 to 1917, it lead to influence and inspire music styles such as Blues, Jazz, and Tin Pan Alley. Ragtime came from African American music influences, plantation melodies and folk songs played on banjos and fiddles; the result was an exciting, upbeat, and catchy syncopations. But along the way to its popularization Ragtime music overcame social standards about what was considered respectable to play in one’s house, the white and black middle class and upper class did not take to Ragtime until it was popularized. It was initially given a disreputable appearance because musicians originally played it in saloons, bordellos, and sporting clubs. But eventually thanks to Scott Joplin’s pieces of music it gained popularity and was played by bands and orchestras in theaters, and on some pianos in respectable homes. Scott Joplin is to credit for shaping Ragtime music as well as influencing other composers with his sophisticated, classical, and catchy style. Scott Joplin may have lead to influence other artists and genres, but the early influences, like his parents, are to credit for his 66 published compositions and two operas.

Works Cited

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Chase, Gilbert. "The Rise of Ragtime." America's Music, from the Pilgrims to the Present. 3rd ed. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1987. 415-17. Print.

Curtis, Susan. "Dancing to a Black Man's Tune: A Life of Scott Joplin." The American Historical Review 101.4 (1996): 1287-88. JSTOR. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2169805>.

Gross, Klaus Dieter. "The Politics of Scott Joplin's 'Treemonisha.'" Amerikanstudien/American Studies 45.3 (2000): 387-404. JSTOR. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/41157951>.

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Reed, Addison. "Scott Joplin, Pioneer: Part 2." The Black Perspective in Music 3.3 (1975): 269-77. JSTOR. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1214012>.