Ragtime

Ragtime is an American musical style built around syncopated melodies, especially prominent from the 1890s through the 1910s. Its best-known form is piano music with a steady bass beneath an offbeat melody.

Syncopation: A rhythmic pattern that emphasizes beats or subdivisions normally considered weak. Ragtime’s characteristic melodic accents displace emphasis from the steady underlying beat.
African American music: The diverse musical traditions created and developed by African Americans in the United States. Ragtime’s rhythms and performance traditions grew within this broader musical history.
James Scott: An African American ragtime composer and pianist known for carefully crafted piano rags. His compositions rank among the most enduring works of classic ragtime.
Maple Leaf Rag: A 1899 piano composition by Scott Joplin, among the best-known works of classic ragtime. Its commercial success established the piano rag as a national publishing sensation.
Jazz: A musical tradition originating in African American communities, characterized by improvisation, distinctive rhythms, and individual expression. Ragtime’s syncopation and piano repertoire fed into early jazz, though the styles are distinct.
Stride piano: A jazz piano style with a left hand alternating bass notes and chords beneath a syncopated right hand. Its alternating left-hand pulse echoes ragtime’s contrast between regular bass and lively melody.
Minstrel show: A nineteenth-century theatrical entertainment built around racist caricatures of Black people, performed by white and Black entertainers. Ragtime circulated through minstrel shows, whose stages both employed Black musicians and distorted Black culture.
Joseph Lamb: An American composer and pianist, one of the leading figures of classic ragtime. Lamb was the only major white composer in the circle of classic ragtime writers around Joplin.
The Entertainer: A 1902 piano rag by Scott Joplin, later widely revived through its use in the film The Sting. Its later revival introduced a classic rag to audiences far beyond its original era.
Tin Pan Alley: The New York music-publishing district and industry that produced popular songs from the late nineteenth century onward. Ragtime’s popularity made it a major commercial force in sheet-music publishing.

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