" Weary Blues " is a 1915 tune by Artie Matthews .
71-498: Despite the name, the form is a multi-strain ragtime rather than a conventional blues . (At the time it was published, many hot or raggy numbers were published with the word "Blues" in the title). It is often known by the alternative title " Shake It and Break It ," especially when played by New Orleans jazz bands. The first jazz recording of the number was made by Yellow Nunez with the Louisiana Five in 1919. The tune
142-528: A jazz standard or composition written in the 1910s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ragtime Ragtime , also spelled rag-time or rag time , is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm . Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott Joplin , James Scott , and Joseph Lamb . Ragtime pieces (often called "rags") are typically composed for and performed on piano , though
213-626: A 1913 interview published in the black newspaper New York Age , Scott Joplin asserted that there had been "ragtime music in America ever since the Negro race has been here, but the white people took no notice of it until about twenty years ago [in the 1890s]." Ragtime quickly established itself as a distinctly American form of popular music . Ragtime became the first African American music to have an impact on mainstream popular culture. Piano "professors" such as Jelly Roll Morton played ragtime in
284-498: A child. While still a teenager, he began working with Sam T. Jack 's Creole Show during their first tour in 1890. That same year he married his wife Sadie, who also performed with the Creole Show. . The Creole Show broke with the old plantation show format and introduced new urban elements. In the show, Jones composed and sung his own songs and performed comic monologues. His song and dance numbers like Postman reflected
355-426: A comic. "My, who would not laugh at this human wit?" wrote Cary B Lewis in 1910. "He enjoys a unique method, which, aside from his ability as a comedian, he is a wit; his monologue is full of bright, characteristic philosophy, showing close study of the humorous Negro character and his delineations were clearly defined as a well-cut cameo. He was simply immense." Composer Will Marian Cook cited him in 1922 as one of
426-496: A compilation of some of Joplin's rags in period orchestrations edited by conservatory president Gunther Schuller . It won a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance of the year and was named Top Classical Album of 1974 by Billboard magazine. The film The Sting (1973) 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 ,
497-460: A dozen publishers, including "Give me back my clothes," "If They Fought the War with Razors", and "I'm Living Easy." In 1900, Jones signed on with the travelling Black Patti Troubadours and released "My Money Never Gives Out". He followed that up with another sale, "I'm a Ragtime Millionaire", which had one of the first lyric references to 'having the blues ' in any song. Also in 1900, he played
568-524: A drama in three acts, composed in the early 1900s in memory of his friend J. P. Contamine de Latour. In 1902 the American cakewalk was very popular in Paris and Satie two years later wrote two rags, La Diva de l'empire and Piccadilly . Despite the two Anglo-Saxon settings, the tracks appear American-inspired. La Diva de l'empire , a march for piano soloist, was written for Paulette Darty and initially bore
639-475: A fecund mind'. Corker admitted however that there were so few avenues available for Black performers to make money, that he was glad that Jones "had bagged some coin of the realm." Jones's songs were not just popular for their catchy tunes and 'swinging rhythms' which made them easy to learn, but also for his barbed social commentary as in "When a Coon Sits in the President's Chair" and "Saint Patrick's Day
710-552: A four bar intro, two bar vamp, followed by two or three verses and a sixteen bar chorus. Written and performed by both Black and White performers, often in Blackface , they used the derogatory term "coon" in their lyrics to refer to Black people. They relied on earlier Minstrel stereotypes of Black people as gaudy and ignorant, but added new stereotypes of violence and licentiousness . Watermelon, chicken and razors were often mentioned. For Black performers, said one historian, it
781-556: A great hit and demonstrated more depth and sophistication than earlier ragtime. Ragtime was one of the main influences on the early development of jazz (along with the blues ). Some artists, such as Jelly Roll Morton , were present and performed both ragtime and jazz styles during the period the two styles overlapped. He also incorporated the Spanish tinge in his performances, which gave a habanera or tango rhythm to his music. Jazz largely surpassed ragtime in mainstream popularity in
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#1732791983360852-503: A group organized by ragtime composer and pianist Lewis F. Muir who toured Europe. Immensely popular with British audiences, the ARO popularized several of Muir's rags (such as " Waiting for the Robert E. Lee " and " Hitchy-Koo ") which were credited by historian Ian Whitcomb as the first American popular songs to influence British culture and music. The ARO recorded some of Muir's rags with
923-426: A melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the accompaniment by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat ("a rhythmic base of metric affirmation, and a melody of metric denial" ). 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, the composer/pianist known as the "King of Ragtime", called
994-679: A million copies. Tom Fletcher , a vaudeville entertainer and the author of 100 Years of the Negro in Show Business , has stated that "Hogan was the first to put on paper the kind of rhythm that was being played by non-reading musicians." While the success of "All Coons Look Alike to Me" helped popularize the country to ragtime rhythms, its use of racial slurs created a number of derogatory imitation tunes, known as " coon songs " because of their use of racist and stereotypical images of black people. In Hogan's later years, he admitted shame and
1065-465: A note on the sheet music for the song "Leola" Joplin wrote, "Notice! Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play 'ragtime' fast." E. L. Doctorow used the quotation as the epigraph to his novel 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, and
1136-631: A parody of a popular ballroom dance, which he called The Possumala Dance. He performed the song during his comedy routine with the Creole Show. This was the first song he sold. The song was picked up by fellow performer Ernest Hogan and rewritten as Pa Ma La, which became wildly successful. With the introduction of published sheet music in the 1890s, the syncopated ragtime rhythms created by African-Americans went mainstream, and Jones' songs and lyrics were printed by Tin Pan Alley publishers and sold in multiple copies. Take Your Clothes and Go" and
1207-450: A prize/ But a knife and fork make em all one size/ You people say quails are chickens you see/ but they look like Lilliputian hens to me." Historian Paul Oliver notes that in this song, as in others, Jones uses Quail as a symbol for the good life. In another verse about living well, from Ragtime Millionaire , he sings: "Every tooth in my head is gold/ Make those boys look icy cold/ I brush my teeth with diamond dust/ And I don't care if
1278-407: A sense of "race betrayal" from the song, while also expressing pride in helping bring ragtime to a larger audience. The emergence of mature ragtime is usually dated to 1897, the year in which several important early rags were published. "Harlem Rag" by Tom Turpin and "Mississippi Rag" by William Krell were both release that year. In 1899, Scott Joplin's " Maple Leaf Rag " was published and became
1349-460: A song he had written earlier, "Under the Chicken Tree", was his last publication. By the early 20th century, both black and white audiences were beginning to reject the term 'coon songs', but Jones' comedy and songs continued to be popular into the 1920s. One critic said that white performers hated having to compete with him on the same bill. He had a 'chesty boisterous" onstage persona, but
1420-538: A visit to Harlem during his trip in 1922. Even the Swiss composer Honegger wrote works in which the influence of African American music is pretty obvious. Examples include Pacific 231 , Prélude et Blues and especially the Concertino for piano and orchestra. Igor Stravinsky wrote a solo piano work called Piano-Rag-Music in 1919 and also included a rag in his theater piece L'Histoire du soldat (1918). In
1491-476: Is Zez Confrey , whose "Kitten on the Keys" popularized the style in 1921. Ragtime also served as the roots for stride piano , a more improvisational piano style popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Elements of ragtime found their way into much of the American popular music of the early 20th century. It also played a central role in the development of the musical style later referred to as Piedmont blues ; indeed, much of
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#17327919833601562-482: Is a Bad Day for Coons." He also used comically veiled social commentary in his descriptions of Black life in Jim Crow America, with songs like "I Never Seen Such Hard Luck Before" , "Home Ain't Nothing Like This". He drew from African-American folklore in his ballads like Pa Me La and wrote in the authentic idioms of Black Americans of the time. Another Indianapolis Freeman writer gave him high praise as
1633-513: Is a perennial jazz standard , especially with Dixieland groups. Important recordings of the piece include those by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings , Louis Armstrong , Johnny Dodds , Sidney Bechet , George Lewis , Wooden Joe Nicholas , Bunk Johnson , Sweet Emma Barrett , and many others. The McGuire Sisters covered "Weary Blues" in 1956. Their version reached #32 on the U.S. Billboard chart. This article about
1704-422: The big band sounds that predominated in the 1920s and 1930s when they adopted smoother rhythmic styles. There have been numerous revivals since newer styles supplanted ragtime in the 1920s. First in the early 1940s, many jazz bands began to include ragtime in their repertoire and put out ragtime recordings on 78 rpm records . A more significant revival occurred in the 1950s as a wider variety of ragtime genres of
1775-452: The "ragged or syncopated rhythm" of the right hand. A rag written in 4 time is a "ragtime waltz". Ragtime is not a meter in the same way that marches are in duple meter and waltzes are in triple meter; it is rather a musical style that uses an effect that can be applied to any meter. The defining characteristic of ragtime music is a specific type of syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats. This results in
1846-406: The "sporting houses" ( bordellos ) of New Orleans. Polite society embraced ragtime as disseminated by brass bands and "society" dance bands. Bands led by W. C. Handy and James R. Europe were among the first to crash the color bar in American music. The new rhythms of ragtime changed the world of dance bands and led to new dance steps, popularized by the show-dancers Vernon and Irene Castle during
1917-601: The 1910s. The growth of dance orchestras in popular entertainment was an outgrowth of ragtime and continued into the 1920s. Ragtime also made its way to Europe. Shipboard orchestras on transatlantic lines included ragtime music in their repertoire. In 1912, the first public concerts of ragtime were performed in the United Kingdom by the American Ragtime Octette (ARO) at the Hippodrome, London ;
1988-558: The 1920s, ragtime has experienced several revivals, notably in the 1950s and 1970s (the latter renaissance due in large part to the use of "The Entertainer" in the film The Sting ). The music was distributed primarily through sheet music and piano rolls , with some compositions adapted for other instruments and ensembles. Ragtime music was developed long before it was printed as sheet music. It had its origins in African American communities of St. Louis , Missouri . Most of
2059-407: The 1950s. A wider variety of ragtime styles of the past were made available on records, and new rags were composed, published, and recorded. Much of the ragtime recorded in this period is presented in a light-hearted novelty style, looked to with nostalgia as the product of a supposedly more innocent time. A number of popular recordings featured " prepared pianos ", playing rags on pianos with tacks on
2130-548: The Black middle class. He frequently wrote about themes of money and of rejection, as in "You Don't Handle Nuff Money For Me", "You Ain't Landlord No More". Passing as white was another theme he tackled. He was well known for the sardonic humor in his songs. He made fun of Ernest Hogan's popular but often disparaged "All Coons Look Alike to Me", with "All Birds Look Like Chickens to Me." "All birds look like chicken to me/ Crows look like black hens to me/ Some birds are raised for
2201-529: The Black pioneers of ragtime music: "The public was tired of sing song samey mother sister father sentimental songs. Ragtime offered unique rhythms, curious groupings of words and melodies which gave the zest of unexpectedness." Paul Oliver in Songsters and Saints claimed Jones was probably the most popular of the ragtime songsters, adding "few other composers of such importance within a genre have been so neglected by historians of popular music". Despite
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2272-656: The British record label The Winner Records in 1912; the first ragtime recordings made in Europe. James R. Europe's 369th Regiment band generated great enthusiasm during its 1918 tour of France. Ragtime was an influence on early jazz ; the influence of Jelly Roll Morton continued in the Harlem stride piano style of players such as James P. Johnson and Fats Waller . Ragtime was also a major influence on Piedmont blues . Dance orchestras started evolving away from ragtime towards
2343-534: The US, that also educated and entertained audiences about ragtime. New ragtime composers soon followed, including Morath, Donald Ashwander , Trebor Jay Tichenor , John Arpin , William Bolcom , and William Albright . In 1971, Joshua Rifkin released a compilation of Joplin's work which was nominated for a Grammy Award . In 1973, The New England Ragtime Ensemble (then a student group called The New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble) recorded The Red Back Book ,
2414-404: The answer song, "Let Me Bring My Clothes Back Home", published in 1898, became hugely popular as they were picked up by other performers, black and white, on the minstrel show circuit. "Take Your Clothes and Go" sold 100,000 copies of sheet music in two years. In 1895-97 Jones joined Isham's Octaroons company. Coon songs were reaching the zenith of their popularity in the late 90s; Jones rode
2485-542: The bank would bust/ All you little people take your hats off to me/ Cause I'm a ragtime millionaire." He was praised by some critics as "the very best interpreter of modern ragtime ballad and one of the most accomplished composers of songs of that class". But I.McCorker of the Indianapolis Freeman said in 1902 that those who praised him were confusing 'talent' with capability' and 'fame' with 'notoriety.' Jones, he said, 'was grinding out coon conceits with
2556-426: The definition but include novelty piano and stride piano (a modern perspective), while Edward A. Berlin includes ragtime songs and excludes the later styles (which is closer to how ragtime was viewed originally). The terms below should not be considered exact, but merely an attempt to pin down the general meaning of the concept. European Classical composers were influenced by the form. The first contact with ragtime
2627-423: The early 1920s, although ragtime compositions continue to be written up to the present, and periodic revivals of popular interest in ragtime occurred in the 1950s and the 1970s. The heyday of ragtime occurred before sound recording was widely available. Like European classical music, classical ragtime has primarily been a written tradition distributed though sheet music. But sheet music sales ultimately depended on
2698-434: The early 1940s, many jazz bands began to include ragtime in their repertoire, and as early as 1936 78 rpm records of Joplin's compositions were produced. Old numbers written for piano were rescored for jazz instruments by jazz musicians, which gave the old style a new sound. The most famous recording of this period is Pee Wee Hunt 's version of Euday L. Bowman 's " Twelfth Street Rag ." A more significant revival occurred in
2769-462: The early ragtime pianists could not read or notate music, but instead played by ear and improvised . The instrument of choice by ragtime musicians was usually a banjo or a piano. It was performed in brothels, bars, saloons, and informal gatherings at house parties or juke joints . The first ragtime composition to be published was " La Pas Ma La " in 1895. It was written by minstrel comedian Ernest Hogan . Kentucky native Ben Harney composed
2840-457: 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...". The name swing later came to be applied to an early style of jazz that developed from ragtime. Converting a non-ragtime piece of music into ragtime by changing the time values of melody notes is known as "ragging" the piece. Original ragtime pieces usually contain several distinct themes, four being
2911-527: The first ragtime era, and its three most important composers, Joplin, Scott, and Lamb. The second major factor was the rise to prominence of Max Morath . Morath created two television series for National Educational Television (now PBS) in 1960 and 1962: The Ragtime Era , and The Turn of the Century . Morath turned the latter into a one-man-show in 1969, and toured the US with it for five years. Morath subsequently created different one-man-shows which also toured
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2982-420: The form of songs accompanied by skilled guitar work. Numerous records emanated from several labels, performed by Blind Blake , Blind Boy Fuller , Blind Lemon Jefferson , and others. Occasionally, ragtime was scored for ensembles (particularly dance bands and brass bands ) similar to those of James Reese Europe or as songs like those written by Irving Berlin . Joplin had long-standing ambitions of synthesizing
3053-694: The genre has been adapted for a variety of instruments and styles. Ragtime music originated within African American communities in the late 19th century and became a distinctly American form of popular music. It is closely related to marches . Ragtime pieces usually contain several distinct themes, often arranged in patterns of repeats and reprises. Scott Joplin, known as the "King of Ragtime", gained fame through compositions like " Maple Leaf Rag " and " The Entertainer ". Ragtime influenced early jazz , Harlem stride piano , Piedmont blues , and European classical composers such as Erik Satie , Claude Debussy , and Igor Stravinsky . Despite being overshadowed by jazz in
3124-480: The genre to add irony as well as political and social commentary, and black audiences understood some of the double meanings in the songs in a way that most whites didn't. Other Black critics and composers, however, lamented and lambasted the rise of the coon song genre and its use of derogatory language and negative stereotypes. Jones "wrote coon songs exclusively" and "rode the fad until its demise." He got his songwriting start in 1894, when he wrote and performed
3195-537: The hammers and the instrument deliberately somewhat out of tune, supposedly to simulate the sound of a piano in an old honky tonk . Four events brought forward a different kind of ragtime revival in the 1970s. First, pianist Joshua Rifkin released a compilation of Scott Joplin's work, Scott Joplin: Piano Rags , on Nonesuch Records , which was nominated in 1971 for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (without orchestra) category. This recording reintroduced Joplin's music to
3266-429: The jigs and march music played by African American bands, referred to as "jig piano" or "piano thumping". By the start of the 20th century, it became widely popular throughout North America and was listened and danced to, performed, and written by people of many different subcultures. A distinctly American musical style, ragtime may be considered a synthesis of African syncopation and European classical music, especially
3337-508: The late 19th and early 20th century. He sold close to 50 songs, many of which became enormously popular. A successful comic throughout his career, he has been hailed as a pioneer of ragtime music and both praised and criticized for his ability to take advantage of the popularity of the coon song genre, which often used stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans. Jones was born in New York City in 1873, and began his stage career as
3408-554: The leading role in a short-lived operetta called "Jus Lak White Fo'ks" by Will Marion Cook and Paul Laurence Dunbar . He also started his own Vaudeville Act, "Irving Jones and Charley Johnson, Two Cut-Ups" later adding his wife Sadie in "Jones, Grant and Jones." Jones sang "Home Ain't Nothing Like This" in New York in 1902. The song became another hit and was sung again by Ernest Hogan. Jones wrote his last song, called "I've Lost My Appetite for Chicken", in 1904. In 1908,
3479-413: The like. Ragtime was also distributed via piano rolls for mechanical player pianos . While the traditional rag was fading in popularity, a genre called novelty piano (or novelty ragtime) emerged that took advantage of new advances in piano roll technology and the phonograph record to permit a more complex, pyrotechnic, performance-oriented style of rag to be heard. Chief among the novelty rag composers
3550-491: The marches made popular by John Philip Sousa. Some early piano rags were classified as "jig", "rag", and "coon songs". These labels were sometimes used interchangeably in the mid-1890s, 1900s, and 1910s. Ragtime was also preceded by its close relative the cakewalk . In 1895, black entertainer Ernest Hogan released the earliest ragtime composition, called " La Pas Ma La ". The following year he released another composition called "All Coons Look Alike to Me", which eventually sold
3621-442: The most common number. These themes were typically 16 bars, each theme divided into periods of four four-bar phrases and arranged in patterns of repeats and reprises. Typical patterns were AABBACCC′, AABBCCDD and AABBCCA, with the first two strains in the tonic key and the following strains in the subdominant. Sometimes rags would include introductions of four bars or bridges, between themes, of anywhere between four and 24 bars. In
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#17327919833603692-418: The music played by such artists of the style as Reverend Gary Davis , Blind Boy Fuller , Elizabeth Cotten , and Etta Baker could be referred to as "ragtime guitar." Although most ragtime was composed for piano, transcriptions for other instruments and ensembles are common, notably including Gunther Schuller 's arrangements of Joplin's rags. Ragtime guitar continued to be popular into the 1930s, usually in
3763-433: The new cosmopolitan sensibility of African-American vaudeville performance . In his early years, he was known mostly as a comic and was described as "a charming hustler" who expertly took charge of the craps games on the Creole Show's railroad sleeping car. Shortly after Jones began his show business career, "coon songs" exploded in popularity. These songs, the first to be labeled ragtime, were written in 2/4 time, with
3834-431: The past were made available on records, and new rags were composed, published, and recorded. In the 1960s, two major factors brought about a greater public recognition of ragtime. The first was the publication of the book, They All Played Ragtime , in 1960, by Harriet Janis and Rudi Blesh. Some historians refer to this book as "The Ragtime Bible". Regardless, it was the first comprehensive and serious attempt to document
3905-632: The public in the manner the composer had intended, not as a nostalgic stereotype but as serious, respectable music. Second, the New York Public Library released a two-volume set of The Collected Works of Scott Joplin which renewed interest in Joplin among musicians and prompted new stagings of Joplin's opera Treemonisha . Next came the release and Grammy Award for The New England Ragtime Ensemble 's recording of The Red Back Book, Joplin tunes edited by Gunther Schuller . Finally, with
3976-446: The publication of the " Maple Leaf Rag " (1899) and a string of ragtime hits such as " The Entertainer " (1902), although he was later forgotten by all but a small, dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival in the early 1970s. For at least 12 years after its publication, "Maple Leaf Rag" heavily influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its melody lines, chord progressions or metric patterns . In
4047-572: The release of the film The Sting in 1973, which had a Marvin Hamlisch soundtrack of Joplin rags, ragtime was brought to a wide audience. Hamlisch's rendering of Joplin's 1902 rag "The Entertainer" won an Academy Award, and was an American Top 40 hit in 1974, reaching No. 3 on May 18. Ragtime news and reviews publications during this period included The Ragtime Review (1962–1966), The Rag Times (bimonthly/sporadic, fl. 1962–2003), and The Mississippi Rag (monthly, 1973–2009). In 1980, an adaption of E. L. Doctorow 's historical novel Ragtime
4118-417: The skill of amateur pianists, which limited classical ragtime's complexity and proliferation. A folk ragtime tradition also existed before and during the period of classical ragtime (a designation largely created by Scott Joplin's publisher John Stillwell Stark ), manifesting itself mostly through string bands, banjo and mandolin clubs (which experienced a burst of popularity during the early 20th century) and
4189-598: The song "You've Been a Good Old Wagon But You Done Broke Down" the following year in 1896. The composition was a hit and helped popularize the genre to the mainstream. Another early ragtime pioneer was comedian and songwriter Irving Jones . Ragtime was also a modification of the march style popularized by John Philip Sousa . Jazz critic Rudi Blesh thought its polyrhythm may be coming from African music, although no historian or musicologist has made any connection with any music from Africa. Ragtime composer Scott Joplin ( ca. 1868–1917) from Texas, became famous through
4260-502: The style with two preludes for piano: Minstrels , (1910) and General Lavine-excentric (from his 1913 Préludes ), which was inspired by a Médrano circus clown. Erik Satie , Arthur Honegger , Darius Milhaud , and the other members of Les Six in Paris never made any secret of their sympathy for ragtime, which is sometimes evident in their works. Consider, in particular, the ballet of Satie, Parade (Ragtime du Paquebot), (1917) and La Mort de Monsieur Mouche , an overture for piano for
4331-524: The success of his songs, Jones never actually became 'the ragtime millionaire' that he wrote about. In 1922, the Kalamazoo Gazette published an interview with Jones that said that at that time the sale of one song with its royalties and recordings could set an entertainer up for life. But in Jones' day, songs sold for $ 50–100 each. Had he been born later, Jones would have made a lot more money,
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#17327919833604402-597: The title Stand-Walk Marche ; it was later subtitled Intermezzo Americain when Rouarts-Lerolle reprinted it in 1919. Piccadilly , another march, was initially titled The Transatlantique ; it presented a stereotypical wealthy American heir sailing on an ocean liner on the New York–Europe route, going to trade his fortune for an aristocratic title in Europe. There is a similar influence in Milhaud's ballets Le boeuf sur le toite and Creation du Monde , which he wrote after
4473-498: The wave., selling his songs for $ 50 to $ 100 each to different publishers. Despite the popularity of his songs, Jones could not read or write music and 'probably lost more songs than he sold' to white song publishers who frequented the clubs where Black songwriters were performing and stole their songs. In 1898, he was invited to perform for Gussie Davis 's Darkest America, where he introduced another hit song, Get Your Money's Worth. By 1899, he had sold about 20 songs to more than
4544-443: The worlds of ragtime and opera , to which end the opera Treemonisha was written. However, its first performance, poorly staged with Joplin accompanying on the piano, was "disastrous" and was never performed again in Joplin's lifetime. The score was lost for decades, then rediscovered in 1970, and a fully orchestrated and staged performance took place in 1972. An earlier opera by Joplin, A Guest of Honor , has been lost. The rag
4615-489: Was described as shy with self-deprecating humor in person. . He lived to see some of his songs not only get reproduced but become some of the most popular on the Race Records of the 1920s. Unfortunately, since he had sold his songs piecemeal, he never received any royalties for the recordings. He stayed active as a comedian until his death on March 11, 1932, in New York City. Jones' songs appealed to whites and to
4686-548: Was "the classic situation of blacks donning the white-defined mask of blackness, using the racial conventions of mainstream entertainment to gain public recognition." These songs were initially hugely popular among younger white audiences in Northern cities, though less so with older Southern whites. They also found favor with some African-Americans who appreciated their pointed humor and boisterous anger, compared to earlier more sentimental minstrel songs. Black songwriters used
4757-475: Was a Top 5 hit in 1975. Ragtime – with Joplin's work at the forefront – has been cited as an American equivalent of the minuets of Mozart , the mazurkas of Chopin , or the waltzes of Brahms . Ragtime also influenced classical composers including Erik Satie , Claude Debussy , and Igor Stravinsky . Ragtime originated in African American music in the late 19th century and descended from
4828-426: Was a modification of the march made popular by John Philip Sousa , with additional polyrhythms coming from African music. It was usually written in 4 or 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. According to some sources the name "ragtime" may come from
4899-498: Was associated with a few musical fads of the period such as the foxtrot . Many of the terms associated with ragtime have inexact definitions and are defined differently by different experts; the definitions are muddled further by the fact that publishers often labelled pieces for the fad of the moment rather than the true style of the composition. There is even disagreement about the term "ragtime" itself; experts such as David Jasen and Trebor Tichenor choose to exclude ragtime songs from
4970-581: Was probably at the Paris Exposition in 1900, one of the stages of the European tour of John Philip Sousa. The first notable classical composer to take a serious interest in ragtime was Antonín Dvořák . French composer Claude Debussy emulated ragtime in three pieces for piano. The best-known remains the Golliwog's Cake Walk (from the 1908 Piano Suite Children's Corner ). He later returned to
5041-465: Was released on screen. Randy Newman composed its music score, which was all original. In 1998, a stage version of 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 styles. Irving Jones Irving Jones (1874–1932) was an American comedian and songwriter who specialized in a ragtime musical genre known as coon songs during their heyday in
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