Joplin, Scott 1868-1917

JOPLIN, SCOTT 1868-1917

Ragtime musician

Early Life

Scott Joplin, the child of a former slave and a free-born black woman, grew up in Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border. His mother took a special interest in her young son's education and cultivated his love of music. As a young man Joplin played music professionally, performing in the Texas Medley Quartette, a local group, and teaching piano, guitar, and mandolin with his brothers, Will and Robert.

Traveling and Touring

Joplin left Texarkana and traveled the country as a musician. He went to Chicago in 1893 to the World's Columbian Exposition, where he, along with other Americans, first heard the new syncopated sounds of ragtime. Ragtime was notable for its "ragged" rhythm. Since its beginnings in the 1880s, rag-time music was an African American musical form, with roots in slavery and complicated African rhythms. It was disseminated and mimicked in blackface minstrelsy and on the vaudeville stage throughout the 1900s and 1910s. Joplin arrived in Saint Louis in 1890, where he came in contact with ragtime pioneer Tom Turpin. In 1895 Joplin reunited with the Texas Medley Quartette in Syracuse, New York, where his waltz songs "Please Say You Will" and "A Picture of Her Face" were published.

Cradle of Classic Ragtime

In 1896 Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri, where he attended music classes at the George R. Smith College for Negroes, taught piano and composition to other ragtime composers, and played cornet with several local bands. He played piano at the Maple Leaf Club (after which he named his most famous composition). In Sedalia, Joplin met John Stark, who published many of his compositions.

King of Ragtime Writers

In 1899 Joplin published his first piano compositions, or "rags," "Original Rags" and "Maple Leaf Rag." "Maple Leaf Rag" proved to be popular, and thanks to an attorney friend Joplin obtained a royalty contract that yielded him one cent per copy, an unusual arrangement for the time. Ten years later, "Maple Leaf Rag" was America's most popular piano rag, and Joplin was known as the king of ragtime writers. Joplin's rags were distinctive and caught the attention of audiences with their melodically interesting voices and rich chromatic harmonies. In Joplin's hands, ragtime went from a haphazard and commonplace melody to something more akin to classical music. Joplin and Stark described his work as "classical ragtime" in an effort to distinguish it from other rags.

Operas and Musicals

Joplin wanted to be known not just as a popular songwriter but as a composer of artistic merit. He set out to translate ragtime into operas, musicals, and symphonies. His first attempt, The Ragtime Dance in 1899, was a musical production of an African American ball, complete with dancers and a singer-narrator. Joplin's second attempt was an opera, A Guest of Honor, staged in Saint Louis in 1903. Neither production met with much success. Joplin continued to move throughout the Midwest, never staying at one address for more than two years. In 1907 Joplin moved to New York City, where he met the ragtime composer Joseph Lamb. Joplin mentored Lamb by promoting his work and introducing him to his publisher, Stark. Encouraged to document his style, Joplin published School of Ragtime in 1908, a didactic manual of ragtime music and rhythm.

Later Life

In 1908 Joplin announced he was working on a second opera, Treemonisha, which he published himself in 1911. American Musician and Art Journal published a favorable review of the opera, but he could not find backers to finance a production. A determined Joplin decided to produce the opera himself at Lincoln Theater in Harlem, New York. With a shoestring budget, Joplin's opera went on without scenery, costumes, or orchestra. Joplin himself played the musical score on the piano. The production received little attention. In 1916 Joplin completed a musical comedy, If and was at work on a ragtime symphony when he died. Interest in Joplin's music in the 1940s and in the 1970s led to a reissue of his compositions and of Treemonisha. The public acclaim and official recognition of Joplin's art came in 1976 when he received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.

Source:

Susan Curtis, Dancing to a Black Mans Tune: A Life of Scott Joplin (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994).