Ragtime Band.' Did he steal the melody from Joplin? According to one tradition, Satie, Igor Stravinsky, and Paul Hindemith. Of the rag.) Other modernists who will help themselves to ragged rhythms are Erik Writes his rag-inflected Golliwog's Cakewalk. Most ambitious work, the opera Treemonisha. He composes pieces such as Solace, Pineapple Rag, and Wall Street Rag, and his Of what will become known as 'classic ragtime' - as Stark's advertisements put In the midst of all this, Joplin will insist on the excellence and restraint One will feature crude stereotypes of African-Americans on the cover and forgettable Music publishers churn out hundreds of rags to capitalize on the trend. Sales are slow at first, but then it becomes a nationwide best-seller. (As with much of Joplin'sīiography, the real facts are hard to ascertain.) In one version, Stark is inĪ club having a beer when he first hears Joplin's music. In the 1890s, he settles in Sedalia and meets John Stark,Ī music-store owner who will become his publisher. The goal of creating popular music that would have the prestige and cultivatingįorce of 'art' music. His formal musical education seems to have been brief all the same, he forms Several other instruments and plays for dances and shows. Only in the musical world, but in literature, film, and theater. And 100 years later,Īs some of the following suggests, ragtime continues to revive and reappear, not But instead, Joplin's goal of creating works that would be both popularĪnd 'art' music seems to echo through American music: in the careers of Gershwin,Įllington, Bernstein, Mingus, Sondheim, and many others. Recalled by a member of the Marine BandĪnd ragtime could have been like other fads in popular culture: famous forġ5 minutes. Vanpoucke was conducting, and I'll wager they all know it without the music.' The band boys have played it for me time and again when Mr. It is not in our library.' 'Now, now, Mr. 'Indeed, Miss Roosevelt, I've never heard of such a composition, and I'm sure ' The Maple Leaf Rag?' he gasped in astonishment. Santelmann,ĭo play the Maple Leaf Rag for me. Miss Roosevelt came up and said, 'Oh, Mr. By 1905 even the President's daughter could be a New trend ('The counters of the music stores are loaded with this virulent poison').īut the tide turned quickly. With jazz, rock 'n' roll, and rap, there were those who fulminated against the One entrepreneur even openedĪ chain of ragtime instruction schools, including a branch in Honolulu. Hundreds and hundreds of rags were published. The phenomenal success of the Maple Leaf Rag sparked a nationwide ragtimeĬraze. And in the Maple Leaf Rag (named for a short-lived Sedalia socialĬlub), he gave the genre its iconic masterpiece. Louis and Chicago, with its World's Fair, were magnetsįor musicians experimenting with new styles.īut Joplin was the decisive ragtime composer, the one whose musical imaginationĮxpression. The new music, which blended march tempos, minstrel-show songs, and the 'ragged' or syncopated rhythms, was percolating throughout the Midwest wherever African-American Joplin wasn't the only composer of ragtime in the 1890s, or even the first one. The 100th anniversary of its most famous export: Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. Result that later this month, Sedalia, Missouri, will be throwing a party to celebrate It was in all ways an unlikely combination. Story has it that he liked the music he heard one day when he stopped off for The music publisher met Joplin only by chance one The composer, spent only a few years of his life in Sedalia before he moved on The club that inspired the song functioned for only a year and a half.

So many other seminal events in American history, was founded on fortuitous circumstance. THE EXPLOSIVE POPULARITY of the Maple Leaf Rag, like

Maple leaf rag