They host radio shows, such as Ragtime with Joy on Columbia’s KOPN. They organize festivals, with one of the most popular ones in Sedalia. Ragtime still has its devoted, modern-day fans - a small community of performers, historians and enthusiasts spread across the world. Missouri is a crucial part of ragtime’s history. It’s the quintessential ragtime song, and Joplin wrote and published it in Sedalia. This “ragged” rhythm gave the genre its name, and it’s the same quality that made Joplin’s 1899 “Maple Leaf Rag” a nationwide success - its sheet music sold over half a million copies by 1909. He’s drawn by ragtime’s definitive feature: a syncopated, off-beat melody paired with a bouncy on-beat bass. When he’s not teaching visitors about ragtime music, he’s performing it on trumpet in early jazz bands. Müller works at the site, giving tours and preserving the home’s history. Now, the building is named the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site and serves as a museum and time capsule from another era, when streetcars ran the streets and people packed rows of houses in an increasingly segregated neighborhood. He composed more than 40 rags, including the popular song “The Entertainer,” which was likely written in the cramped quarters of this home. This is ragtime, the American musical phenomenon at the turn of the 20th century that has its roots in Missouri.įrom 1901 to 1903, this brick building was the home of Scott Joplin, who’s commonly dubbed the King of Ragtime. The piano sings to life with a catchy, tumbling melody set against the even one-two beat of the bass. Müller sets his feet on two large flat pedals and cycles at a quick and steady rate. The sheet is stamped with a label: “Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin. He places it in a compartment above the keys of a player piano and hooks the rolls into place. Müller pulls from a stack of slim boxes and unsheathes a paper roll punched with holes. In a weathered but restored brick building in St. The music is still toe-tapping today but the music was born out of an oppressive time.Įvan Musil wrote and Xcaret Nunez produced this story, which is a collaboration between KBIA and Vox Magazine. Missouri, known as the heartland of Ragtime, is a big part of the ragtime story. In 1976 Joplin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize.The music known as ragtime first swept the nation more than 100 years ago. Joplin's music returned to popularity in the early 1970s with the release of a million-selling album of Joplin's rags recorded by Joshua Rifkin followed by the Academy award-winning movie The Sting which featured several of his compositions, such as "The Entertainer". This was written, according to opera historian Elise Kirk, to be a "timeless story" about a young black "heroine of the spirit who leads her people from superstition and darkness to salvation and enlightenment." It was a failure in its first concert performance in 1915, but was rediscovered and premiered in 1972. Eventually, "the piano-playing public clamored for his music newspapers and magazines proclaimed his genius musicians examined his scores with open admiration." Ragtime historian Susan Curtis noted that "when Joplin syncopated his way into the hearts of millions of Americans at the turn of the century, he helped revolutionize American music and culture."īefore his early death at age 48, Joplin worked on his second opera Treemonisha. "He composed music unlike any ever before written," according to Joplin biographer Edward Berlin. As an adult, Joplin also studied at an all-black college in Sedalia, Missouri. He was taught music theory, keyboard technique, and an appreciation of various European music styles, such as folk and opera. After he studied music with several local teachers, his talent was noticed by a German immigrant music teacher, Julius Weiss, who chose to give the 11-year-old boy lessons free of charge. He was blessed with an amazing ability to improvise at the piano, and was able to enlarge his talents with the music he heard around him, which was rich with the sounds of gospel hymns and spirituals, dance music, plantation songs, syncopated rhythms, blues, and choruses. One of his first pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and remained so for a century. He achieved fame for his unique ragtime compositions, and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his brief career, he wrote forty-four original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. Scott Joplin (between July 1867 and January 1868 ? April 1, 1917) was an African-American composer and pianist, born near Texarkana, Texas, into the first post-slavery generation.
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