Download The History of Ragtime

Ragtime
Ragtime is a distinctly American musical genre marked by syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Popular
between 1895 and 1918, it derived from a synthesis of African syncopation and European classical
music, especially the marches of John Philip Sousa. Ragtime has been cited as uniquely American as
waltzes are Viennese, or mazurkas are Polish. Ragtime influenced such classical composers as Erik Satie,
Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky.
The History of Ragtime
Ragtime first caught on among African American marching bands and in piano pieces called “jigs,” and
by the start of the 20th century it was widely popular throughout North America – listened and danced
to, performed, and written by people of many backgrounds and across all segments of society. The
heyday of ragtime occurred before sound recording was widely available, so it was primarily a written
tradition, distributed in sheet music rather than through recordings or by imitation of live performances.
Ragtime music was also distributed via piano rolls for player pianos. Some milestones in ragtime include:
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Ernest Hogan (1865–1909) was the first to compose ragtime into
sheet music. The composition was called "LA Pas Ma LA" and it was
released in 1895. Hogan has also been credited for coining the term
“ragtime,” supposedly in homage to his hometown "Shake Rag" in
Bowling Green, Kentucky. The sheet music for his piece “All Coons
Look Alike to Me” eventually sold a million copies and helped
introduce the country to ragtime rhythms. But it spurred a number
of derogatory imitation tunes known as "coon songs" that used racial
slurs and stereotypical images of blacks (example at right from
1911). Hogan, an African American, admitted in his later years a
deep regret for having put out the song.
Ben Harney (1872-1938), also a Kentucky native, has often been credited for introducing the
music to the mainstream public by putting it on the legitimate stage and in Vaudeville. He’s
often referred to as the “father of Ragtime.” His first ragtime composition, "You've Been a Good
Old Wagon but You Done Broke," was released in 1896.
• Ragtime composer Scott Joplin (ca. 1868–1917, at left) is perhaps
the most enduringly known, famous for the "Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) and
"The Entertainer" (1902). "Maple Leaf Rag" had more depth and
sophistication than earlier ragtime, and heavily influenced subsequent
ragtime composers with its melody, harmonic progressions, and metric
patterns. Joplin had ambitions of synthesizing ragtime and opera, but the
first performance of his opera “Treemonisha” was a poorly staged disaster,
and it was never to be fully performed again in his lifetime. The score was
lost for decades, then rediscovered in 1970. An earlier opera by Joplin, “A
Guest of Honor,” has been lost. He is often called the “King of Ragtime.”
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Irving Berlin was the most commercially successful composer of ragtime songs, and his
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911) was the single most widely performed and recorded piece
of this sort, even though it contains virtually no ragtime syncopation.
Ragtime fell out of favor as jazz claimed the public's imagination after 1917, but there have been
numerous rediscoveries and revivals, first in the jazz circles of the early 1940s, then in the
1950s as LPs became commonplace, and then more significantly in the 1970s.
o In 1971, Joshua Rifkin released a compilation of Joplin's work which was nominated for
a Grammy Award.
o The New England Ragtime Ensemble’s recordings of Joplin's rags in period
orchestrations won a Grammy in 1974 for Best Chamber Music Performance of the year
and was name Billboard’s Top Classical Album of 1974.
o In 1973, the motion picture “The Sting” brought ragtime to a wide audience with its
soundtrack of Joplin tunes. The film's rendering of "The Entertainer,” adapted and
orchestrated by Marvin Hamlisch, was a Top 5 hit in 1974.
In 1998, an adaption of E. L. Doctorow’s historical novel Ragtime was produced on Broadway.
With music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, the show featured several rags as
well as songs in other musical genres.
The Musical Technique of Ragtime
Ragtime pieces came in a number of different styles during the years of its popularity and appeared
under a number of different descriptive names. It is related to several earlier styles of music, has close
ties with later styles of music, including:
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Cakewalk – a pre-ragtime dance form popular until about 1904. The music is intended to be
representative of an African-American dance contest in which the prize is a cake. Many early
rags are cakewalks.
Characteristic march – a march incorporating idiomatic touches (such as syncopation)
supposedly characteristic of the race of their subject, which is usually African-Americans. Many
early rags are characteristic marches.
Two-step – a pre-ragtime dance form popular until about 1911. A large number of rags are twosteps.
Slow drag – another dance form associated with early ragtime. A modest number of rags are
slow drags.
Ragtime song – the vocal form of ragtime.
Folk ragtime – ragtime that originated from small towns or assembled from folk strains, or at
least sounded as if they did. Folk rags often have unusual chromatic features typical of
composers with non-standard training.
Classic rag – the Missouri-style ragtime popularized by Scott Joplin, James Scott, and others.
Fox-trot – a dance fad that began in 1913. Fox-trots contain a dotted-note rhythm different
from that of ragtime, but which nonetheless was incorporated into many late rags.
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Novelty rag – a piano composition emphasizing speed and complexity, which emerged after
World War I. It is almost exclusively the domain of white composers. This fad is epitomized by
Zez Confrey’s "Kitten on the Keys" from 1921.
Stride piano – a style of piano that emerged after World War I, developed by and dominated by
black East-coast pianists such as James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and Willie 'The Lion' Smith.
Together with novelty rag, it may be considered a successor to ragtime, but is not considered by
all to be "genuine" ragtime. Johnson composed the song that is arguably most associated with
the Roaring Twenties, the "Charleston."
Piedmont blues – Ragtime songs accompanied by skilled guitar work popular in the 1930s and
performed by such artists as Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Lemon Jefferson, and others.
Ragging – Converting a non-ragtime piece of music into ragtime by changing the time values of
melody notes is known as "ragging" the piece.
Ragtime was usually written in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a predominant left-hand pattern of bass notes on
strong beats (beats 1 and 3) and chords on weak beats (beat 2 and 4) accompanying a syncopated
melody in the right hand. This results in a melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the
accompaniment by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat. The ultimate (and
intended) effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing the listener to move
to the music. Scott Joplin called the effect "weird and intoxicating." He also used the term "swing" in
describing how to play ragtime music: "Play slowly until you catch the swing..." (Of course the term
“swing” later came to be applied to an early genre of jazz that developed from ragtime.)
The Social Impact of Ragtime
[Excerpted from The Library of Congress, A History of Ragtime]
Missouri, located in the center of America, was the heartland of ragtime. As noted by popular music
historians David Jasen and Gene Jones, "There were more rags--and more good rags--from Missouri than
anywhere else." (That American Rag, 1) Perhaps it was the robust pioneer spirit that thrived in Missouri
that created the environment for music like ragtime to flourish.
During the 1880s, black entrepreneurs prospered in the sporting district of St. Louis, known as Chestnut
Valley. John L. Turpin, a black businessman from Savannah, Georgia, made St. Louis his home in 1887
and opened a saloon called the Silver Dollar…By 1900 [his son] Tom Turpin had acquired sufficient
capital to open a new saloon and brothel, the Rosebud. His two young protégés, Joe Jordan and Louis
Chauvin, frequented the establishment. With the constant rollicking, buoyant sound of ragtime, Turpin,
Jordan, Chauvin, and many other enthusiastic proponents of the new music, made the Rosebud and St.
Louis the capital of ragtime.
The regular flow of traffic through St. Louis and the rest of the state created a demand for
accommodations and amenities for travelers. "As Missouri gentrified it became a state where a piano
player could make a good living." (TAR, 2) As their salaries usually were nominal, the nomadic pianists
made their best money from tips provided by the patrons of the many saloons and brothels that
employed them.
It should be noted that when their music was eventually published, however, their royalties, although
welcomed, were insignificant. About a dozen brave publishers risked putting some of this engaging, new
music on sale to the public.
Ragtime was everywhere by the early 1900s--in sheet music, piano rolls, phonograph records, and
ragtime piano playing contests, as well as in music boxes, vaudeville theaters, and bordellos. Publishing
houses churned out piano rags and ragtime songs at a furious pace. Ragtime also appeared in
arrangements for orchestras and wind bands. The majority of this music was the popular sort of ragtime
that was cranked out mostly by Tin Pan Alley hacks. As with all types of music, there is always a bigger
market for a less subtle, more digestible version of the original, more complicated, form.
The overabundance and popularity of ragtime was not always met with enthusiasm. For example, at the
1901 convention of the American Federation of Musicians in Denver, "Resolutions were adopted
characterizing 'ragtime' as 'unmusical rot.' Members were encouraged to 'make every effort to suppress
and [to] discourage the playing and the publishing of such musical trash." (Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
5/14/01, 1)
Similarly, at a 1902 meeting of the Lincoln Women's Relief Corps, a motion was made by the Grand
Army Encampment of Music chairman E. B. Hay, that the bands in the Corps' "great parade be allowed
to play 'Ragtime,' to break up the monotony of patriotic and martial airs..." The motion was met with
great indignation, noting it "sacrilege to require Civil War veterans to march along Pennsylvania Avenue
to 'ragtime' strains." (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8/11/02, 11)
The press overreacted about ragtime eroding mores. In January 1900 the music monthly The Etude, in a
piece entitled "Musical Impurity," noted: "The counters of the music stores are loaded with this virulent
poison which in the form of a malarious epidemic, is finding its way into the homes and brains of the
youth to such an extent as to arouse one's suspicions of their sanity." It went on to describe the melodic
rhythm of ragtime as "double-jointed jumping jack airs that fairly twist the ears of an educated musician
from their anchorage."
"Ragtime" as a catchall name for syncopated popular music remained popular through the 1910s.
Ragtime's popularity faded around 1917 with the rise of another catchall term--"jazz"--used to describe
peppy, noisy, popular music. Note that musicians active in New Orleans during the early 1900s who
were later recognized as "jazz musicians" frequently, if not always, referred to the hot music they played
as "ragtime."