Ragtime Jazz - 1900 - 1920 (with a revival in 1970)
Here is an example of Ragtime Jazz by Scott Joplin
We are not sure of the exact birth date of Scott Joplin, but we do that it was around 1867 or 1868. However, we do know that he died in April, April first to be exact, of 1917. Scott himself was a huge icon during the Ragtime period. In his early life he lived in Texas, Northeast Texas to be exact. Joplin’s father, Giles, was an ex-slave From North Carolina and his mother, Florence, was simply a free born African American. Young Joplin received musical teachings from his family. From age seven he was allowed to play piano when his mother cleaned. Joplin was very serious about his training. He was very ambitious and loved to study music and play the piano after school. This led to the abandonment of Joplin’s father who claimed that the music was taking up too much time and valuable employment potential that could be helping the family’s income, leaving Florence to take full responsibility of the family. Once Scott became very serious about his work a man by the name of Julius Weiss took over the teaching. Mr. Weiss was a German-Jew music professor who came to the U.S. from Germany. He knew of the financial issue so he taught Scott for free.
|
Scott Joplin was a highly successful pianist and composer. In his entire career (which was not very long) he published forty-four original pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of the first biggest ragtime hits came from Joplin, that song was called Maple Leaf Rag. Scott Joplin traveled all around the southern states playing his music. He traveled to Chicago for the World’s Fair of 1893 and it played an important part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897.
Fun Facts
|