1. Ragtime and Blues

2. A New Audience
Due to the advent of sound recordings, radio, and printed music, the spread of music increased and introduced a new audience to different types of music.
Marconi Radio circa 1938
Gramophone circa 1890 (invented by Edison)
First phonograph by Edison

3. Ragtime Claude Debussy – Clair de Lune Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag
Grew out of the largely unwritten tradition of African-American dance.
Rag – a piece of music in ragtime style.
Ragtime was met with resistance due to it’s “loose” or (syncopated) rhythms.
Syncopation – unexpected rhythms that make a tune or part of a tune sound off-beat.
White listeners saw ragtime as “irresistibly primitive”.
Spontaneous and genuine instead of clean and refined.
Compare and contrast:
Claude Debussy – Clair de Lune
Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag

4. Blending Classical and Ragtime
The American style of ragtime caught the attention of European composers, including Stravinsky and Debussy
Cakewalk – a strutting dance that was a source of ragtime style.
Claude Debussy – Golliwog’s Cakewalk
Igor Stravinksy – Ragtime for Eleven Instruments
Ragtime established an important and ongoing concept of 20th century music: unpredictability to nonpredictability.

5. Scott Joplin ( )
He was a self-taught musician and earned an early living playing piano in saloons and music halls.
His most famous piece, Maple Leaf Rag, was the first million-seller hit ever.
Joplin’s greatest dream was to integrate ragtime into opera.
His first opera, A Guest of Honor, was lost and his second opera, Treemonisha, was not well received an was note performed until 1972.
Joplin was a crossover artist (an artist who takes one musical style into unfamiliar territory and creates a new subgenere).
His lack of success could be attributed to racial issues.
Ragtime was no longer popular by the time Scott Joplin passed.

6. Scott Joplin (cont.)
1960 – Pianists began a revival of Joplin’s music.
Today Joplin is considered one of the best and most influential pianists and composers of all time.
Reason: Joplin’s music was able to capture the spirit of its music’s time and place.
The Entertainer – Scott Joplin