![]() More happily, however, his legacy as the “King of Ragtime” lived on through his music and that of the his students, which exerted a huge influence on the evolution of stride piano, jazz and swing. He was buried in a pauper’s grave which remained unmarked for 57 years. Through it all, Scott joplin and his seminal creations remained in the background.”Īfter his move to New York in 1907 Joplin’s health steadily deteriorated due to syphilis, the onset of dementia, and he was eventually admitted to a mental institution in January 1917, dying there three months later at the age of 49. Brahms had envisioned a ragtime project just before his death Debussy experimented in the medium with two piano pieces, Golliwogg’s Cakewalk and General Lavine Stravinsky followed not too long after with his Piano Rag Music. Beyond America, the European music world felt the captivating force of ragtime’s rhythm and the lilt and charm of its melody. “Scott Joplin was the central figure and prime creative spirit of ragtime, a composer from whom a large segment of twentieth-century American music derived its shape and spirit. As Rudi Blesh writes ( Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist): The first of these, Guest of Honor, was confiscated by creditors and is now presumed lost, while the second, Treemonisha was a flop when partially staged in 1915.ĭespite this apparent lack of success, Joplin’s impact was huge. During the course of his short career he composed just 53 piano pieces pieces, ten songs, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. Subsequently, however, Joplin failed to replicate this stunning success, and often had financial difficulties as a result. Joplin was publishing Ragtime music by 1895, but it was 1899’s Maple Leaf Rag which proved to be his most influential and biggest hit, bringing national fame and providing him a steady ongoing income thereafter. “…describes the joyful syncopated melodies in the right hand as they clash with the striking bass fundamentals on beats 1 and 3 in the left, together with agile chords on beats 2 and 4.” The word stems from “ragged time”, which according to Jean Kleeb: The start of Joplin’s “big break” was his appearance at the Chicago World Fair in 1893, which helped to establish Ragtime as a national craze. Weiss helped Joplin to discover and appreciate music as an “art” and not simply as an entertainment, and helped his mother acquire a used piano for practice.īefore long, Joplin was on the road to a career in music, although in young adulthood he too was briefly a railroad labourer, while also teaching mandolin and guitar and travelling the American South as an itinerate musician. Most of Joplin’s musical education came from a local tutor Eric Tauber, who recognised the boy’s talent, realised the family’s poverty, and gave him free lessons. The young Joplin was able to play piano while his mother cleaned, and showed an early interest in music. His father was an ex-slave turned railroad worker who played the violin, while his mother Florence worked as a cleaner, and was a singer and banjo player. While Scott Joplin’s ragtime piano solos The Entertainer and Maple Leaf Rag and known and enjoyed by music-lovers the world over, few perhaps are acquainted with the details of his relatively short life. ![]() In this review I will be looking at the recently published volume, Ragtime by Scott Joplin, by Jean Kleeb, appearing as part of Bärenreiter’s Ready to Play series.īut first, a few words about the importance of Joplin himself… In addition to this year marking the Debussy centenary, November 24th 2018 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Scott Joplin, composer of some of the most popular piano pieces ever written. Products featured on Pianodao are selected for review by ANDREW EALES. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |